Tag: Freelancers

The 3 Most Common Mistakes Freelancers Make (& How to Remedy Them)

Recently, I attended a conference given at my local Chamber of Commerce. It was entitled, How to Bring Your Business to the Next Level. The reason I mention it is that the speaker covered several points that tie in with the 3 most common mistakes freelancers make, outlined below.

1. Not Targeting a Market: I call this lack of freelancer focus. Do you drive without a destination? Probably not. Most of us know where we’re going when we get in our cars, on the train, on the bus. We have a specific destination in mind.

Because editorial and creative freelancing encompass such broad categories, it can be difficult to focus. Eg, writing. Huh? For what – magazines, e-zines, newspapers, websites, newsletters, brochures, direct mail, etc., etc., etc.

What type of writing for what sector? Legal, medical, technical, scientific, real estate, financial, general (what does that mean?), etc., etc., etc.

What type of client? B2B, B2C.

As you can see, your choices are endless. And, you may be talented enough to write in many sectors. However, you will have a hard time selling this to potential clients, and you will almost always be beaten out for assignments by those who specialize and have the body of work to prove it.

I know this first-hand. I owned Inkwell Editorial, an editorial staffing agency in New York City, from 1996-2004. When I was recruiting for clients, I ALWAYS chose freelancers who had a background in the discipline for the assignment. Why? Because clients demanded it and they made me look good. I mean, when you think about it, why would I choose someone who was a generalist when I had 15 or 20 just as qualified candidates who had years of experience in what I was looking for? It was a no brainer.

That’s why I’m adamant that freelancers should specialize. It’s not that you can’t go outside your speciality, but if you target a specific market, you build your client list that much faster and can service them better. Once you have your bread and butter clients, you can choose a secondary market – if you feel it necessary.

So, choose a niche market and focus all of your marketing dollars on it. Feel free to take other things as they fall in your lap, but give your chosen market your “laser focus,” eg, ad dollars, promotional efforts, etc.

2. Not Creating a Business Plan: Don’t shut down! Come back. Focus. Pay attention. This is not more corporate mumbo jumbo – I promise. I’m not saying spend 6 months to a year writing a 30-page document that has to be presented to a venture capitalist.

BUT, I am saying that you need the bones of a business plan in front of you. Eg, who’s your target market; how will you reach them; via which advertising medium; what servies will you offer; how much will you charge; how much will it cost you to provide the service (remember, as an editorial/creative worker, your “product” is time); what is your ad budget; how much will you need to reach your goals (eg, quit your job, bring in an extra $x/month)? All of these questions – and some more – should be answered.

Many freelancers fail at freelancing because they don’t do this type of detailed thinking before starting out. You can take one weekend and flesh all of this out and be done with it. Just be sure to write it down and REFER TO IT OFTEN.

3. Not creating a marketing plan. If you are building your business on the cheap, as many do just starting out, it will take much more time than you realize.

So, you will need to map out a plan of what you’re going to do on a daily, weekly, monthly basis to reach your financial goals. Trust, trust, trust me that if you don’t, you will make less money and become frustrated with what could be a wonderful career. It ALWAYS takes longer than what you think.

Doing even a scractch marketing plan will make you feel accomplished – especially if you are doing something every day to market your business. It could be as simple as writing one article a day, pitching 10 potential clients whose info you found on the web, submitting one press release a week.

Imagine if you did just the above, that would be five new articles, 50 client pitches and one press release – all in one week. Now, multiply this by four (a month); 12 (a quarter); 52 (yearly) and you can see how just garnering even a 2% response rate would net you 52 new clients a year (50 client pitches/week x 52 weeks x 2%).

I could go on and on on this topic because it can’t be repeated enough. Many freelancers think that they can just get a website, put in a marginal effort and things will happen. And sure, it will, but it will be in trickles, dribs and drabs.

If you want to make a real go of freelancing, treat it like a real business from the get-go, and you exponentially increase your chance of success.

Efficient Invoicing Strategies for Freelancers and Web Designers to Get Payment on Time

When it comes to managing the finances of a business, it is certainly not a very exciting task. It can prove to be quite cumbersome and boring. Moreover, if one is not from accounting background, managing finances will seem like a herculean task. And the fact is that most of the designers do not prefer to take care of finances even if it is an integral part of a business.

In order to run a designing company successfully, mere designing skills are not sufficient. You need capital to run your business successfully. And for that you need to send an invoice to your clients so that they can send you your fee. Mentioned below are some great freelancing tips for freelancers and designers who are about to start their own company.

First and foremost, you need to find a powerful and a robust invoicing solution. Although there are plethora of online invoicing apps available. These online invoicing apps are designed keeping in mind the requirements of freelancers. Some of these apps are available for free, while others come with a price tag. The paid invoicing apps are available in different price range. The price of an app depends on the features provided by it. The more features an app has to offer, the higher will be the price.

Other than generating the invoices, an online invoicing app also helps a lot in saving a good amount of time and allows you to manage an archive of invoices in an efficient manner. An effective professional invoicing application helps you in searching previous bills, figuring out received funds. It also makes other such tasks a lot easier. Therefore, you should select an invoicing application carefully based on your basic requirements. Some apps are available with just one time fee, while others are available with a monthly subscription fee.

Secondly, you need to keep your clients well informed. Whatever policies you have set for your business, for instance- payment terms, hourly rates, pending amounts etc should be conveyed to the clients very clearly. If a client finds something irrelevant in the invoice, they may want to clarify it and this will result in a delay in your payment. Therefore, it is imperative that when you send your invoice, you should make sure that the client is aware of everything that you have mentioned in the invoice.

Thirdly, you should define all your policies well. Good clients always pay on time. But sometimes due to certain reasons there could be a delay in the payment. Here is what you should do if a client does not pay on time.

1.Determine how many days you want to give to clients for late payments.

2. Decide the amount of late fee that would be levied.

Once you set up the policies, you should also be flexible enough to accommodate some exceptions. For instance- if a client has a genuine reason for the delay in the payment, you should waive the late fee.

Fourthly, you should include your contact details in the invoice. Your contact details should be there stated clearly. Also, you can include some basic information about your business. You can include information like you name, company name, address, contact number and the email id. Including your contact details makes sure that the process gets accelerated and the client knows whom to contact if the need arises.

You should also include client’s information in the invoice. This is very important. It helps in establishing the fact that you are expecting payment from them. And if there is a non payment issue, you can always use the invoice as an evidence.

Another important thing to be mentioned is the due date of the invoice. State clearly by when the client should make the payment. If you do not mention the due date, you will not be able to implement your late fee policies. After designing the policies for non payment, you can include them as a note in the invoice.

Lastly, and importantly, you must mention the mode of payment which you accept. This will help clients in knowing how to transfer your fee to you. Also mention the details of the recipient. If you miss out on any important information, it may delay your payment.

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