Title: Make Freelancing REALLY Pay: Communication and
Negotiation Strategies That Take You to the Top
Genre: Nonfiction/Business/Entrepreneurship
Author: Daisy McCarty
Publisher: Daisy McCarty
Pages: 114
Language: English
Genre: Nonfiction/Business/Entrepreneurship
Author: Daisy McCarty
Publisher: Daisy McCarty
Pages: 114
Language: English
Purchase at AMAZON
"Make Freelancing REALLY Pay" helps new and struggling
freelancers dramatically improve their business with expert
communication and negotiation strategies. This book is a collection
of real-life guidelines, tips, and tactics for overcoming common
challenges. Readers learn how to select the best clients, expand
their business, raise their rates, stabilize their income, and much
more.First Chapter:
Chapter
1: Choose the Most Profitable Clients
The
earning potential of your freelance career is directly tied to the
quality of your client base. Be selective.
If
you are new to freelancing, it can be quite a shock to find out how
little some clients expect to pay for professional services. The next
big disappointment is discovering that so many freelancers are eager
to agree to this arrangement and offer their services for such low
prices.
There
will always be people who participate in this cycle of exploitation.
However, you shouldn’t let this fact discourage you. Because a
substantial percentage of these low-paying projects are highly
visible in the online marketplace, it’s easy to think that this is
how most of the freelance world works. This isn’t the case. There’s
an entirely different dynamic playing out behind the scenes.
If
you’ve ever pursued a traditional career in the corporate world,
you know that the best jobs aren’t necessarily advertised on the
online job boards, such as CareerBuilder.com or Monster.com. Instead,
many of these open positions are filled through networking,
referrals, and headhunting. This is because there will never be a
replacement for word-of-mouth advertising. In the same way, a high
percentage of your most lucrative client relationships will be formed
because your clients tell others about the quality of your services.
How
Do You Get to That Point?
You
need to find a way into the network. There are many ways to do this,
depending on your area of expertise. I chose the freelance bidding
platforms as my starting point. As a result, a few of the strategies
I provide in this book are particularly helpful for freelancers
looking to find work through online project postings.
I
know there are freelancing experts who claim it is not possible to
source well-paying clients on bidding sites. Or, they say it is a
waste of your time to even look because you have to sort through
low-paying jobs to find good projects. I disagree. I have
figured out how to use these sites efficiently to identify
high-paying clients who serve as entry points into the world of
referral-based work. I want to offer practical and factual advice
about how to use these sites appropriately instead of categorically
warning freelancers away.
However,
I do not
suggest that you try to earn your entire income on bidding sites.
They are simply a source of potential clients who already know they
want to hire a freelancer. You can and should find additional ways to
get noticed for your skills if you want to build your business income
quickly.
Here
are a few of the ways that other successful freelancers do this:
-
Networking face-to-face or virtually in circles where they can meet
and pitch potential clients
-
Engaging in professional networking online with other freelancers on
sites such as LinkedIn that attract the attention of prospective
clients
-
Directly soliciting new clients via email, phone, or other types of
communication
-
Reaching out to contacts from their previous careers in traditional
employment
-
Marketing through their own freelancing websites and social media
(this approach may require more skill and experience than the other
methods, depending on the level of competition in your field)
I
invite and encourage you to explore all of these avenues for finding
work. As you experiment, you may discover more ways to get your
portfolio in front of the right people. The basic principles of
client selection still hold true no matter where you find your
clients.
Why
Is It Important to Be Choosy about Your Clients?
The
quality of the clients you work with now may determine the quality of
clients who are referred to you in the future. People with the same
standards, ethics, and level of professionalism tend to run in the
same circles (this is no different in business than it is in other
areas of life). If you work for clients who take advantage of you,
they are telling all of their friends, “Hey! I found this great
freelancer with cheap prices. You should hire him too.” Every time
you do a job for a client with that mindset, you aren’t just losing
income by doing one low-paying project. The entire line of referrals
that spring from that project may be tainted.
If
you do a small and appropriately priced project for an excellent
client, you are tapping into the potential for more work with clients
of the same caliber. You can earn the same amount for a small project
with a client who does
value your work as you do for a larger project with a client who does
not
value your work. You then have extra time to develop your skills and
look for additional projects with high quality clients.
I
know there are times when it seems necessary to do a poorly paid
project so you can put food on the table or pay the bills. I’m not
judging—I’ve done the same thing. I am
encouraging you not to make this an ongoing pattern.
The
bottom line is this: if you are doing so much cheap work that you
don’t have the time you need to seek out more profitable clients,
success will never arrive.
One
of the goals of this book is to help you figure things out faster so
you aren’t desperate for work. This puts you in a much stronger
negotiating position and makes it easier to charge what your services
are worth.
My
Top Three Client Categories
Over
the years, I’ve noticed that certain types of clients tend to be
well-paying and professional. My suggestions regarding which clients
you should work with are not hard-and-fast rules. They are guidelines
that allow you to focus your marketing and networking efforts on
those clients who are most likely to help your freelance business
grow.
Category
#1: Small- to Mid-Sized Business Owners
I
love doing business with successful
small- to mid-sized business owners. These are clients who have
established a record of excellence and simply need help moving to the
next level. Smaller businesses also tend to have lots of connections
with other clients who are looking for reliable, professional
freelancers. Many of these clients don’t have in-house talent or an
established network of service providers. Often they are first-time
buyers who have never hired a freelancer. That’s a good thing. They
haven’t learned bad habits and aren’t jaded by unpleasant or
disappointing experiences.
Negotiation
with these clients is usually not complex. You are dealing directly
with a decision maker who has a vested interest in obtaining high
quality services to improve the profitability of their company. If
you are willing to spend time communicating with a small- or
mid-sized business owner and show them the ropes, this can pay off.
You
can start educating this type of client in your proposal. I may do
this by asking questions that help them clarify their business
objectives or by offering one or two pieces of advice that they will
find helpful regardless of whether they hire me or someone else. The
quality of my communication sticks in their mind. I have had
prospective clients decline my proposal, then make contact months or
years later to ask me to do a project for them. If you are planning
to freelance for a long time, be patient. Each time you make a
stellar first impression, the seeds you plant may bear fruit later.
Category
#2: Business-to-Business Firms
In
my experience, the highest-paying clients with the longest contracts
tend to be business-to-business (B2B) companies rather than
business-to-customer (B2C) companies. B2Bs stand to make a lot of
money every time your services help win them a new customer. Instead
of each new customer being worth $50 or maybe $500, a new business
relationship might mean $5,000 or $50,000 or more over the long term.
Obviously, these B2B clients are happy to pay premium rates for
valuable services. They understand the business benefits clearly, so
you just need to demonstrate that you know how to deliver the results
they want.
Who
are these clients? They may be small- to mid-sized businesses or
enterprises in any number of markets. However, many of the B2B
clients I’ve come across are consulting or professional services
firms, including many sole proprietorships and partnerships. These
clients are ideal for freelancers to target because they have a
healthy budget without too many people involved in the decision
making. Consulting firms in particular know what professional
freelancers should be paid and don’t suffer from sticker shock when
they see your pricing. They are also fairly ‘hands-off’,
respecting the fact that you know what you are doing. They understand
the difference between an employee and a freelancer, and they treat
you appropriately.
If
you want to land these clients, you need to know what type of
services they are looking for right now. We’ll talk more about how
to do that in Chapter 3.
Category
#3: Larger Firms That Need Extra Talent
Subcontracting
your services to a larger company is a bit of a touchy subject in
freelancing circles. There are plenty of outsourcing firms that like
to hire freelancers for cheap labor. However, there are also many
firms that have a core of internal talent and simply need to
supplement it with experienced freelancers who bring in additional
skills. For example, I have done freelance subcontract work writing
for online media marketing, web design, web development, and SEO
firms (you’ll notice the overlap here with the B2B category). These
companies can provide consistent work and lots of opportunities for
referrals.
The
strategy for making things work with these clients is to resist the
pressure to mark down your prices too far in exchange for the promise
of bulk work. Don’t buy into the idea that they are hurting for
cash. Trust me; they are marking your work way up when they pass it
on to clients.
If
you have a proven track record of landing your own clients without
help, you can stick to your guns during negotiations. These companies
should be hiring you because you help make them look good—not
because you are cheap. If you are delivering exceptional services,
you are helping them grow their business. This increase in overall
profitability is worth the price you charge.
What
about Big Businesses?
I
do provide services to some enterprise-class organizations. These are
great projects, and they pay very well. You can certainly try to land
a ‘big fish’ at any time—especially if you have some fantastic
portfolio samples in relevant industries. However, getting in touch
with the decision makers can be tough. They are usually located
deeper within the referral network where you might not have easy
access.
If
you do get a chance to work with a big client, negotiate the right to
display a sample from the project in your portfolio. If this is not
permitted because the project includes a nondisclosure agreement, ask
for a short testimonial instead. You can display these testimonials
on your website or reference them in future proposals. Having a few
Fortune 500 clients who support your marketing efforts definitely
increases the perceived value of your services.
Note:
Don’t view landing a couple of big clients as a way to end your
search for new clients. Relying on a handful of clients for all your
income places you in a poor negotiating position and puts your
business at risk.
Daisy McCarty is a
self-educated writer and co-founder of Freelance Text, a professional
services firm that specializes in web content creation. Since
transitioning out of a seven year career in Corporate Procurement in
2008, Daisy has been using her negotiating skills to navigate to the
higher levels of the online writing industry. Today, she mentors
informally at Professional Freelancers Network, and offers formal
one-on-one consulting services to freelancers who are ready to
increase their income.
Her latest book is MakeFreelancing REALLY Pay: Communication and Negotiation Strategies ThatTake You to the Top.
You can read Daisy’s blog and get more great freelancing advice at http://makefreelancingpay.com.
Pump Up Your Book and Daisy McCarty are teaming up to give you a chance to win one of (5) $25 Amazon Gift Cards & one of (5) 1 hour sessions of consulting services!
Terms & Conditions:
- By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old
- Ten winners will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive one of five $25 Amazon Gift Cards or one of five one hour sessions of consulting services
- This giveaway begins December 2 and ends December 27.
- Winners will be announced on this page and contacted via email on Monday, December 30, 2013.
- Winner has 48 hours to reply.
Good luck everyone!
0 comments:
Post a Comment