Freelancing

Hey there everyone!

How is everyone doing today? I personally am not doing so bad, just picked up some freelance work and I am trying to meet a deadline. Today's title says it all, we will be talking all about freelance work. I as a freelance graphic/web designer, inker, letterer and writer put in roughly fourteen to seventeen hours of work each day. This includes the weekends, working seven days a week without a break.

It's difficult, but it can be very rewarding. However, something I have realized over the years is that when freelancing, a lot of companies think that you don't really do anything at all. This is because you work within your home. So it blinds them to think that you are really just messing around the whole time when that is not the case at all.

Something that I have found useful is to constantly keep in contact with the employer. Keeping in contact with the employer, sending one or two emails a day updating them on where you are working on will give them reassurance. This is very important, and as an employer myself, when a freelancer cuts all forms of communication with me I assume one of two things. One, they don't want the job or two they weren't serious with it to begin with. This is actually another reason why I either do milestone, back end or royalty pay. I will never pay someone upfront ever again seeing how I have experienced some very terrible situations where they took off with the money I had given them and cut all contacts.

This not only brings a bad name to freelancers, but to any community within that specific industry as a whole. My experience as a freelancer personally has not been the best, seeing how this can go both ways. From either the employer doing that or the freelancer. In a reality form of work, it comes down to trust if anything plans on getting done.

Something that a lot of freelancers don't consider is that they do expect the employer to immediately put trust into them, when this will never be the case. They are the ones paying you, and they can clearly decide who they wish to work with. Sure you have the choice too as a freelancer, but as the freelancer you have the disadvantage because you are the one being paid for a service.

Again, as being a freelancer I have to say there is a lot of ridiculous competition out there, you have to make sure your work is the best of the best. If you don't, that is one flaw that will be seen immediately by the employer. Another thing that freelancers don't take into consideration is the business side of things. If you as a freelancer do not have any business classes under your belt, or do not have anything set up in a professional business manner, you will not be taken seriously. This is where I will recommend either getting a form of business operating certificate or hire on an agent to work with you.

Agents are extremely important when it comes to writing or art of any kind. If you are the type of freelancer that can't do your own type of business work with professionally made cover letters, presentations and meetings then I will suggest this even more so than I am now. I am mainly suggesting this, because if not, you will constantly land those $30.00 jobs that are asking you to write fifty articles with 5,000 words each. Or even worse, those jobs asking you to do a full fledged thirty page website with graphics and coding for $50.00 , or my absolute favorite, that $20.00 logo that is going into branding.

Those are not fun and are definitely not worth the pay. I've done these in the past due to inexperience. I can say now that with experience I was very foolish for taking on those types of projects. Knowing now that I can produce grade A work, I shouldn't settle for less. The statement then comes up, " Yeah Sean, but if I charge to much, then no one will want my work." At first, this is slow and can take many months before you land a decent project. Which is why a lot of freelancers work two or three jobs a lot of the time. I myself have five or six. This is something employers also don't take into consideration. As freelancers we know this. As both a freelancer and employer I can safely say I am very well rounded when it comes to both sides of the game.

Also as a tip to some employers, if you are only willing to spend $30.00 for a professionally done logo, $20.00 on web content articles and updates, and $100.00 for a web design , this shows the freelancer that you aren't taking this seriously nor are you a decent company. For all they know you are fraudulent. Sure everyone needs a start, but in order to actually be taken seriously, you also need to pay the serious prices. Other wise, you will get what you pay for. Unless of course you do all the work on your own, then you deserve a high level of respect.

Wrapping this up, both sides need to see their own faults and fix them so things may actually work out for the better. Freelancers, if someone says they plan to pay you, expect pay. If nothing is paid do something about it. Employers, if the freelancer doesn't ask for milestone pay, don't hire them. It's plain and simple, and this truly is how things should work. Collaborations now are a whole different story, as well as royalties. I will cover these two topics in other articles in the future.

Until next time, this is me signing off!

- Sean