Fearless Freelancing

My friend and colleague Ian Griffin has written a first class article on the factors to consider when hiring a freelance Annual Report writer.

It can be found here.

February 28th, 2013
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One of the more dispiriting aspects of being a freelancer is waiting for our marketing efforts to pay off in the form of paid work. But there is a secret to not going off the deep end if no one seems to be returning your phone calls, answering your emails, or responding to your blog.

The rule is this. Simply don’t be attached to the outcome of your marketing efforts.

Now you probably have heard this one before, but perhaps not in the context of drumming up new work. Don’t Be Attached to the Outcome is a favourite of life coaches, new age gurus, and other conveyors of truth, beauty and wisdom.

At its essence it suggests that whatever you engage in life, enjoy the process, and don’t be so fixated on the end game. Go for a run, not to win the race, but to enjoy the exercise. Eat well. Be nice. Hold hands. Practice the golden rule. Do all these things not because of an expectation of a particular outcome, but because they are worthy in and of themselves.

The same applies for networking. I know it sounds almost like a contradiction in terms. You network with the expected outcome of getting work. You chat up others at “an event”, you send out scads of brochures (well you shouldn’t do that, but let’s say you do), you put an ad in the paper, and do all those other things that you are told to do to make yourself, your business, and your availability known. And you sit back and wait for the phone to ring. Up to that last bit, you were doing fine. But the minute you sit back in anxious anticipation, that’s getting attached to the outcome, and that’s where you make your big mistake. It’s bound to lead to disappointment, fear, loathing, depression, and needless anxiety.

I can hear you sputtering already – it is impossible to send out a resumé, and undergo the torture of an interview and not be attached to the outcome. And why network if you don’t have an expectation of a successful outcome in the form of work? The fact is networking is a process, not an end in and of itself. It is about forming relationships. It is not about landing a sale.

There is a way out of the difficulty. It’s called the Rule of Twelve. It gets us around the need to be directly attached to the outcome of any one networking effort.

The Rule of Twelve suggests that for any 12 proactive networking/marketing efforts you have out in the cosmos, one of them will pay off, usually indirectly. The two key words here are proactive, and indirectly. Let me explain.

Passive efforts don’t count. Handing out your business card at an IABC event doesn’t. Sending out unsolicited resumes doesn’t. Putting an advertisement in the paper doesn’t. Nor does Internet or newspaper research count. It is not that these aren’t things you shouldn’t do. You should make that part of your daily, weekly, or monthly marketing efforts. But I classify them all as passive because they require no response from a third party.

Proactive efforts include cold calls, following up on a contact you made at a networking event, writing an article for a business magazine, volunteering to work for your local IABC/STC/PRSA chapter, mentoring a colleague, taking a former client to lunch, and so on. The point is, all these efforts are much more likely to elicit a response and perhaps prompt a dialogue with some of the the recipients of your efforts.

The second key to the rule is that the payoff for those efforts may well come indirectly. Think of it as six degrees of separation. The potential client you take to lunch may not have any work for you. But he suggests that you contact his colleague down the street, who in turn has nothing for you, but knows that his boss down the hall needs some help with a communications plan. You of course jump at the opportunity, and they are so pleased with your efforts, that they give you a contract to produce all their communication documents for the next two years.

Another example. You volunteer to write a monthly column for a networking newsletter. It’s a job that no one wants to do. But you agree to do it. The neat thing about this sort of effort is that you just never know who might be reading that newsletter, who might like your ideas, and think they might have some applicability for their enterprise.

With consistent application of the Rule of 12 you can’t help but get work. You have to have 12 active networking/marketing efforts out there in the universe at the same time. When one turns out to be a dead end, then you must put another one out there immediately. And of course, the more you exceed the minimum twelve, the more likely you are to find more work.

You may be asking how long you would have to wait before you get any hits. Well, that’s “an attached to the outcome” sort of question. But I will answer it anyway. Anywhere from six weeks to six months. If you aren’t getting inquiries for your services within six months then you will have to take a serious look at whether your efforts are truly proactive, and whether you have a minimum of 12 initiatives out there working for you.

This is not rocket surgery. It works. It’s just a matter of how busy you really want to be.

February 28th, 2013
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May 23rd, 2012
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Throughout your freelance career, from time to time, you will be asked to work for free. Trust me on this. You will. Before you consider any such requests, you have to set up some ground rules for yourself. This is my take on the subject.

First, if you undervalue your work, you are telling the world that it has little worth. And if you give it away, you are giving it zero value. In the first instance, you will attract only those who want the cheapest bargain, not the best one. In the second, you will attract those who would take advantage. If you are professional, then act accordingly. If your plumber or your lawyer doesn’t give it away, neither should you. But I am always amazed at the number of writers who do exactly that. Magazine writers and web writers, please take note.

You might infer from that little diatribe that I would never “give it away.” Not so. I have, and I do. Under circumstances of my own choosing.

As citizens of good standing in our community and in our country, we undertake a social contract. A contract to give back to our collective family. At home. Next door. Down the street. Around the world. Some citizens fulfill their contractual obligations through volunteer work for nonprofit organizations. Others through coaching Little League. Still others with financial means choose the philanthropic route by donating to their favorite charity or cause.

As writers and communicators, we have a skill much in demand by those who are willing to pay for it and much in need by those who can’t. Think of all the non-profit agencies that don’t have extensive PR budgets but are in desperate need of some communications help. The newly elected board member who needs to make a speech but has never done so before. The countless newsletters that must be written with the sweat equity of volunteers. Pick up the phone and inquire. My bet is that they will welcome you with open arms.

But there’s another way of fulfilling your end of the social contract bargain and that is taking your professional expertise and passing it on to others.

Put it under the heading of what goes around should come around. On your way up the freelance ladder, as you’ve networked and relied on others for advice, you were building up a debt of sorts. When people freely gave you the wisdom of their experience, they were also giving you another precious commodity – their time. There comes a moment in your career when you can – and should – reciprocate.

So when people – most often young people – come knocking on my door to pick my brain for advice and whatever wisdom I have picked up over the years – I am usually inclined to give it to them.

That said, I listen very carefully how they ask for advice and whether they are respectful of my time. Although I am predisposed to give just about anyone the benefit of the doubt, I must advise you that what is very annoying is to have people ask you for advice and then give a whole slate of reasons why they might not be able to follow it.

Then there are those who want you to do the work for them. They say things like, “You probably have more clients than you can use. Can you pass your overflow on to me?” They don’t want to do any of the marketing work. Rather, they just want to grab the clients you may have spent months or even years cultivating.

In fairness, those who take this route are rare. Most people are genuinely looking for advice and encouragement. I believe it is incumbent upon all of us who have been around for a while to freely dispense both.

There’s another instance when you might want to give your expertise away and that is when doing so becomes a good marketing tool. For example, I write articles like this from time to time. I never know who might be reading them. If the email I get in response to them is any indication, quite a few people are. Most of the emails I get are – to be frank – from people looking for free advice. Which I am happy to give for reasons already noted.

But I also get comments from other professionals who might need my services, and we enter into the arena of dialogue. A cautionary note here. One of my mantras is that for any marketing activity you undertake, you should never be attached to the outcome of any single interaction. Rather, you should have enough marketing efforts out there in the ozone that you never count on any single effort paying off at any particular time or in any particular way.

For essays like this, I write it and forget about it. If it generates a response that leads to other things, that’s fine. If it leads to nothing, that’s okay too. Because at the very least, I have a track record of writing articles that might be recycled for other purposes. And writing them helps me to focus my thinking about the subject at hand. I simply enjoy what I do, and that is its own reward.

From a “good business practice” perspective, there’s another concern about “giving it away.” As a speechwriter, I am very happy to talk to potential clients about particular challenges and concerns they might have about writing or giving a speech. I am pleased to answer questions that will lead them to conclusions they might reach on how next to proceed. And I am not at all perturbed if they should decide to do the work in-house rather than use me.

On the other hand, I won’t write their drafts, do their research, or tell their stories. And I never write on spec. The bottom line is I don’t do their writing for them. That’s what I get paid for. The initial advice is free. The work is not.

In the end, it’s all a judgment call, of course. That’s how I do it. You might find other ways to meet your social contract. “Giving It Away” is just one aspect of your professional and personal life you need to think about and act on. One thing for sure. The subject will come up. Forewarned is forearmed.

August 3rd, 2011
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In no particular order here are 12 strategies that can lead to more money in your pocket from more clients.

1.  Don’t fight your client on process, but push back on product. It is counter-productive to fight your client on their process.  If they want to micro-manage every word, or if they are so hands off that you are spending a lot of extra effort tracking down information, remember it is their dime. And it is all billable time.  Do push back on product.  If you think they are going in the wrong direction on what the final product should look like, you do them a great service by extending the value of your experience.  That is what they are paying you for.

2.  Lighten your client’s load. Most freelance projects involve working with a company’s or government agency’s communications division.  These days, almost by definition, if you work in a communications job, you are on overload.  To the extent that you can be a confidant and adviser to your client, over and above delivering the goods on a specific project, the more they may turn to you when other issues come up.  I have had numerous clients turn to me with extra work to take some of the pressure off them when they are on overload and need some fast help.

3.  Get your best return on marketing efforts. Figure out what sort of marketing gets you the best return on your time and effort.  The traditional cold calling?  Networking?  Social media?  Informational interviews?  Examine your marketing methods and ask yourself if you couldn’t be getting a better bang for your buck.

4.  Subcontract your work but only if it doesn’t require a lot of rewrites on your part.

5.  Go outside your comfort zone. Whether you are talking marketing or the type of work you pursue, there is the human tendency to stick to what you are comfortable with.  That means you may be ignoring clients and money that may be at your finger tips, but you haven’t considered through fear or laziness.

6.  Specialize. Or be a multiple specialist.  But above all be seen to be an expert.  And experts command more money.

7.  Fish where the fish are. This is an expression used by a colleague of mine, meaning of course, refining your product and service selling to clients who might actually bite.  Study your markets!

8.  Become invaluable and your clients’ path of least resistance. Nothing begets repeat business with a new client than being utterly reliable and useful.

9.  Deliver excellence. But don’t get hung up on being perfect. At some stage you have to figure out when good is good enough and send the product along.

10.  Market when you are busy. The biggest mistake freelance writers make, including yours truly, is that we tend to ignore marketing when we are busy with current work.  And when we are in famine mode we tend to panic and scramble with our marketing.  That’s backwards.  Remember the marketing you do today may take 3-6 months to pay off.  Better do it now and consistently.

11. Answer your phone! And follow up on potential leads quickly.  You may never get a second chance to land that first time client.

12.  Write faster.

September 19th, 2009
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September 11th, 2008
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