Freelancing is very different to the majority of other businesses due to its innately personal involvement and attachment to every aspect of the business. Maintaining objectivity and a decisive decision process can be hard as your personal feelings begin to creep into the equation.

As freelancer’s its hard to remain objective. How do you maintain business standards?

Being a freelancer, you have to work hard at not letting your personal feelings and preferences cloud your judgement.  Even the worst type of client can be right, well.. they ARE right if you want to keep them as a client in the long-term. As a freelancer, you have to learn, when the time is right, to put feelings aside and just do what a client wants and what your business needs. Furthermore, this applies to not doing work that does not pay the fee it right deserves, no matter how much you want to be a nice person or help out a friend for free.

As a freelancer, you also cannot forget about the administrative aspects of your business. It can be somewhat difficult to move away in the same day from your preferred creative persona to the clerk and accountant. However, putting off doing your book keeping, your marketing and not accurately tracking your prospects and projects can lead to a whole host of problems such as running out of work! ; forgetting to bill; under billing; late tax returns etc etc

Finally, remember to never take any client for granted, as soon as you do, the relationship you have created begins to erode and all the wonderful little things like repeat business and referrals are lost.Everybody wants to be appreciated and feel like they are top priority. Thus, always return emails and calls as promptly as possible.

The longer we freelance, the easier it is to fall into potentially destructive personal habits! Why get dressed in the morning? Why go after new clients when you are so busy? Why be polite and not dismissive to cheap clients?  The longer we go the more vigilant we need to be to maintain our vigor, professionalism and personal customer service that is a huge part of any freelancer’s success!

Related Posts:

• November 19, 2009 -- Should You Find a Niche To Stand Out From The Pack? (3)
• December 2, 2009 -- Does a successful freelancer have to be a good sales person? (6)
• December 1, 2009 -- General Rules For Doing Free Freelance Work (6)
• November 28, 2009 -- Interview With Will Kay of OddKingdom – Becoming Your Brand (5)
• November 25, 2009 -- Factors To Consider When Pricing For A Project (6)
• November 18, 2009 -- Long Term Freelancing Success – Part 1 – Dedication (8)

Hi all, thought I would share a list of resources which help me along my way. From business to the theory of branding, there is a lot contained within these great resources by their respective authors. Take the time to have a good read through them and if you find the list useful make sure to share it on.

Related Posts:

• December 7, 2009 -- What Should You Include In A Design Project Proposal? (5)
• November 22, 2009 -- 5 Essential Books For Running A Successful Freelance Design Business (23)
• November 13, 2009 -- QuickGamma – Calibrate Your Monitor Free (0)
• November 11, 2009 -- 10 Ways To Score and Evaluate A Client (6)
• November 9, 2009 -- How To Deal with Non-Paying Clients (29)
• November 8, 2009 -- 20 Wonderful Photos of London Attractions (11)

When running your own business it is very easy to run yourself into the ground as it feels like there is always something that needs to be done…

How do you know how to control it and yourself?

I think it’s essential (For our sanity) that weall learn how to draw the imaginary line for ourselves because business has  a sneaky way of taking over every aspect of your life if you are not careful! Discipline…

Working in a dedicated area

Freelancing from home and staying productive is an artform in itself but learning  how to give yourself dedicated time and area to work in will help leaps and bounds. Find somewhere where you can clearly mark your need for privacy while you work and don’t come out until your done!

Show clients where the boundaries are

Make it clear from the outset with your clients how your working relationship will be structured. Calls after 5pm will not be answered! Emails will not be responded to on weekends and bank holidays! You must train your clients to work in the way you do, and not the other way round.

Learn to say no

As freelancers we tend to leap t any work with open arms just because it is paying and will inject nicely into our cash flow. Also, some of us are people pleasers and simply do not like letting people down. However, is this a profitable business strategy?

Taking on jobs which will eat into your resources (time) for the sake of it, might not allow you to complete other jobs to their highest standard so you may lose referrals (those beauties) . Look at saying no / look at outsourcing? / look at passing on jobs to other freelancers for commission?

Organise and track your time

One of your most valuable resources is your time. Thus, it makes sense to organise and optimise its usage to avoid its waste. Find a system to prioritise each day / week /month the tasks that you need to complete. There will inevitably be things that pop up and eat into your time but at least you have a point of reference to go back to once you have dealt with such an eventuality.

Related Posts:

• July 26, 2010 -- 14 Great Design, Marketing and Freelancing Blogs (4)
• July 25, 2010 -- Maintaining Business Standards As A Freelancer (2)
• May 9, 2010 -- Designers – Maximising The Value Of Your Work (4)
• January 6, 2010 -- A Monitor for Every Budget – What Monitor for Photography and Design? (5)
• January 4, 2010 -- Referrals – Freelancing Dreams (3)
• December 31, 2009 -- Factors To Consider When Pricing A Project – Part 2 (4)

We here have been looking at developing a CRM system here, and as such we got talking about customer service and its relation to our business. Importantly, our pricing.

The more we talked, the more we realised there is no principal value to our work. To explain, the value we place on our work is based on perception. What we consider the value of our work is defined primarily by our positioning our services in a certain way in marketing and sales.

Part of your charging process should be evaluating what your clients will find the most value in. They may care most about how well a project is executed; they mare care most that you meet stringent deadlines or they mare care most that you get the job done with out them guiding your hand the whole way.

Value = service

Value instrinsicly comes from service, not from design.. Design has long become a commidity, in that your clients can get it anywhere. They can even claim to do it themselves. Your competitors are at varying positions within what it is these days a vast pricing spectrum. there will always be somebody who charges lower than you and can design to the same level of quality as you – you need to evaluate what value you add and use that to position your services.

Customer service, as well as being ‘young and fresh’ are what at this point in time we believe stand us apart from our competitors.

What stands you apart?

You can add value by anticipating your clients needs, by under-promising and over-delivering. Find ways to add value!

Related Posts:

• May 11, 2010 -- How to Avoid Over Working Yourself As A Freelancer (4)
• December 29, 2009 -- Freelancing From Home and Staying Productive (14)
• August 7, 2009 -- Designing With Distractions (9)
• April 29, 2009 -- 7 Things To Consider When Starting As A Freelance Designer (4)
• October 6, 2008 -- How Do You Organise Yourself As A Freelance Designer? (9)
• August 31, 2008 -- A Good Work Environment (1)

Non disclosure Agreements are something that comes up at some point in time. Especially, say you are outsourcing a part of a project to another freelancer or design agency. Over time – I have compiled the following samples that helped me create my own tailored NDA. Thanks to their authors.

If an download errors pop-up, please right-click and ‘save-as’

NDA Template 1

NDA Template 2

NDA Template 3

NDA Template 4

NDA Template 5

Related Posts:

• January 6, 2010 -- 5 Free Web Design Proposal Contracts (17)
• April 8, 2009 -- Free Business Plan, Projected Balances and Expenses Templates (3)
• September 17, 2008 -- Using Humour Effectively in Design (5)
• July 25, 2010 -- Maintaining Business Standards As A Freelancer (2)
• March 15, 2010 -- 50 Freely Available Professional Fonts For Your Designs (29)
• December 13, 2009 -- Long Term Freelancing Success – Part 2 – Marketing (10)

Hi all, this is a follow up to a post I made not long ago about factors that we often forget to factor in when we price projects. See that post here: Factors To Consider When Pricing For A Project

Excerpt:

We all remember to bill for the design work we do and the skills required and for any obvious special purchases, i.e CMS or E-Commerce softwares. Even as freelancers we should have a premium (allbeit alot smaller than an agency premium) top of this that accounts for us being a business. However there are some factors you shouldn’t forget to account for

I decided to talk about other factors that go into our pricing on a project and I compiled some more factors I mention below… As well as calendar time, minute time and expenses which I mentioned in my previous post..

Ensure I am Competitive
Whenever pricing a project it’s important to consider what everybody else is charging. Competing against agencies and your fellow freelancers; ensures that you at least have a ball park figure to maybe act as the starting block for your prices and it will help you gauge the impact of factors such as expertise have on the fee.

How do you know what other freelancers are charging? – Ask. Whether this is within our community itself on forums / twitter etc – we are lucky in that our field is blessed with a helpful sentiment. No avail? In the beginning, I may have pretended to be a client and emailed freelancers and agencies for quotes for dummy jobs! Now your wondering if the jobs that seem to disappear after you have quoted are just designers checking your prices? lol

Any other factors you think would fit in here as things we think about when pricing a project?

Related Posts:

• May 11, 2010 -- How to Avoid Over Working Yourself As A Freelancer (4)
• December 13, 2009 -- Long Term Freelancing Success – Part 2 – Marketing (10)
• November 3, 2009 -- Your Quote is too high! – Charging/Negotiating for design work (6)
• June 8, 2009 -- Freelance Contracts (35)
• April 29, 2009 -- 7 Things To Consider When Starting As A Freelance Designer (4)
• April 12, 2009 -- Do you need a design degree to freelance? (15)

If you have chosen to work from and not from an office, then you are probably faced with the same problems that I am, most notable is the problem of staying productive! More experienced freelancers have probably long tamed the beasts that tempt us when working from home…

Working from home, is a slight paradox in the beginning. In that, well, we have spent most of our lives up to that point associating home as a world away from work, where you can kick back and relax. This notion, combined with all the other stuff that is happening in the home, makes concentrating a bit of a struggle for the best of us. As such in all my efforts to stay productive, I have realised one of the biggest things you can do is give yourself a dedicated working area.

A Dedicated Area

I have moved myself from the dining room table and set up a dedicated ‘office’ work space in a spare bedroom. It’s working out so much better, I have eliminated much of the distractions I have downstairs i.e TV and the Playstation! Working on the kitchen table, is a great way to kill any real ‘business’. Giving myself this full on work-area feels like a real positive step towards taking everything more seriously – less interruptions, background noise and temptation!

Psychologically, giving myself this separate space to work in has done wonders. Then, spending the time, to set it all up according to how I exactly want things. I have a noticeboard; postik notes and my organiser – so I immediately sit down and can see everything I have done, need to do and want to get done!

Related Posts:

• February 3, 2010 -- How do your organise yourself as a freelance designer? – Part 2 (2)
• December 1, 2009 -- General Rules For Doing Free Freelance Work (6)
• November 19, 2009 -- Should You Find a Niche To Stand Out From The Pack? (3)
• November 11, 2009 -- 10 Ways To Score and Evaluate A Client (6)
• October 6, 2008 -- How Do You Organise Yourself As A Freelance Designer? (9)
• August 31, 2008 -- A Good Work Environment (1)

Welcome to the second installment of this series – Marketing. You can view the other parts here: Long Term Freelancing Success.

Marketing is one of the key elements of any business and as a freelancer it should be a huge part of your strategy towards growth and success. So in this post I’m going to talk about some of the different marketing tools you can use as a freelancer!

Jump to:
The Premise
Business Cards
Networking
E-mail Campaigns and PDF Portfolio
Website
Direct Mail
Cold Calling

The Premise

Marketing is not something that can be handled in periodic phases it has to be a concerted continual effort to actively seek business and promote your services. This is a notion that is easier to accept and act upon effectively when one stops thinking themselves of a freelancer and leans towards thinking of themselves as the CEO of a small business.

‘Work is out there. You have to find it. Or you’ll stagnate into the heap of people who seem to think that its impossible to find work. It’s just a hard struggle that demands discipline. That sounds a lot colder and ruthless than I mean it!’ – Mel Ndiweni, June 2009

Business Cards

Importance

Business cards are an often overlooked / underestimated tool in your marketing arsenal. You should spend a large amount of time thinking about your business cards before embarking upon creating them. You should also bare in mind as a creative your cards are going to be under more scrutiny than most.

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Networking

Along with any marketing strategy – it’s imperative to go out there (offline) and get out there (online) meeting people and networking.

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E-mail Campaigns and PDF Portfolio

A PDF Portfolio is something that most of us as designers have already sitting on our hard drives. Our digital CV’s are our party piece – a chance to show off a few of our best case studies. Now that your a freelancer, your PDF portfolio is a valuable resource that you should be mailing to any potential clients before they ask. PDF Portfolio’s work well as they are visually impacting and often convince a client they need something that they don’t. Surely the mantra of all great sales orientated business.

Example PDF Portfolios – click image to download

Crow Creative – site

Jay Montgomery – site

Many are skeptical about whether e-mail campaigns are worth the time of setting up but can it hurt to send out mass e-mails to potential clients? no. As long as you do not spam, and ensure the body of your e-mails have substance to them and not sales dribble – its surely a win win situation. As worst comes to worst you have simple reminded somebody that you existed.

People you don’t know
E-mailing people you do not know is a skill that requires much thought. So for instance you could be sending a mail shot to local small businesses, graphic design agencies or a business list purchased from a broker. There many thoughts you have to consider such as how are you going to deliver the e-mails? how are you going to track who has opened and acted upon the email? will you be using an online service? html or plain text e-mail? Are you going to write the e-mail yourself or hire a copywriter?

An example short and sweet mail shot could be:

Hello there,

I am a freelance (DISCIPLINE). Based in (local, country), I have over (3million) years experience and have a wealth of experience in (LIST OF SKILLS). I can take a brief from concept to print adhering to client budgets and consistently meeting the strictest of deadlines. Please find attached, a PDF portfolio with a few case studies which I feel show some of the skills I possess and my execution on a broad range of projects. A little more information about myself and a larger portfolio can be seen at my online presence: www.youramazingwebsite.com I am currently available to work on projects from my studio or your offices dependent on location.

Thank you in advance for your consideration,

Kind regards
(signature)

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Website

A website – if you do not have one…. why? you are crazy. Although, for many of us it is the unthinkable, many of our fellow kin do not have a website. Their is almost nil downfalls to having a website promoting your services. Furthermore, in our profession many clients expect to be able to see your previous work before deciding to work with you. A website / online portfolio is a conventional means of doing this. Having a website allows you to promote your services to everybody in the world: 356 days a year, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week – tirelessly.

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Direct Mail

Direct Mail is something one should approach applying many of the same principes that we discussed for E-mail Marketing. Direct mail is a form of advertising which, when done correctly, is a highly cost effective way of gaining new business or paying much needed attention to the clients that you already have. Much the same as an e-mail it can be used as a selling tool, to find new clients, to distribute portfolio samples, a periodic newslettersand to encourage repeat business from existing clients.

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Cold Calling

Cold calling is a marketing technique may of us hate and have no inclination to use – however, that does not change the fact that it works! No matter how convinced you are that every person who gets a cold call responds with the usual ‘never call me again’ speech that you so often shout down the phone.

A large reason many are scared of adding cold calling to heir repertoire is a fear of rejection and often unrealistic expectations from the process. It is naive to expect whoever you talk to turn around and say: ‘I am soooo glad you called – thank you. Your the freelancer we need. Here is a million pound deposit. Go nuts’ . Ok, thats obviously an exaggeration but you get the idea.

What is realistic to expect is the slightest hint of interest in your services and to end your call with an e-mail address or contact name. The potential of a cold call is tat it gives you a way in; and from this point you have somebody to speak to and e-mail in relation to a design project. It is at this junction you can send over a design proposal ; schedule an appointment or win an advertised project you were after.

Resources

Tips for successful cold calling
Making A Cold Call
Cold Calling Advice For Small Business

Some tips for best practice

- Be prepared and be confident
- Do not try and push for a commitment from your client to a huge project over the phone
- Do not ring at typically busy times of the day
- If you got to voicemail – leave a short and sweet message – let them know you will call again
- Get hold of real names for the people you actually need to speak to.

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Related Posts:

• November 18, 2009 -- Long Term Freelancing Success – Part 1 – Dedication (8)
• November 13, 2009 -- Competing Against The Agency – The Freelancer’s Epic Battle (19)
• July 25, 2010 -- Maintaining Business Standards As A Freelancer (2)
• May 11, 2010 -- How to Avoid Over Working Yourself As A Freelancer (4)
• February 21, 2010 -- Don’t be another washed up freelancer – The Freelance Lifecycle (1)
• January 30, 2010 -- 5 Free Non-Disclosure Agreements (4)

When starting out, when your down in the trenches fighting against the colossal agencies and your fellow freelancing kin, do you have to be a good sales person in order to secure projects?

Do you feel freelancers need to be sales orientated? Are you a good sales person?

The internet has given clients information at their fingertips, many are more informed about the process / more business savvy – often seeking multiple quotes from here there and everywhere. As such, if they have not selected you alone because of your immense talent that no other mere mortal possesses – what is the deciding factor? I concur… it is you!

Pitching and selling yourself, brand or service is not something that comes easily to many and as such, are they at a disadvantage? Yes! Few are we that can sit back and clients are banging down our doors to work with us under any conditions – as such there are many key things you can look at in order to convert your enquiries into sales and as such clinch that all important deal!

Furthermore, may freelancer’s survive by recruiting much of their business from referrals and as such they don’t develop a method, technique or familiarity with having to sell themselves to a client. In the beginning, for myself this lead to accomplished clients spotting a novice and almost convincing me to charge less, pushing the feeling that they were doing me a favour…

For growth, for a freelancer to be successful, they must over time become a formidable sales force – pushing themeselves and their services to the top of the pack so that they stand out in the crowd.

Do you feel freelancers need to be sales orientated? Are you a good sales person?

Related Posts:

• July 25, 2010 -- Maintaining Business Standards As A Freelancer (2)
• February 21, 2010 -- Don’t be another washed up freelancer – The Freelance Lifecycle (1)
• November 25, 2009 -- Factors To Consider When Pricing For A Project (6)
• November 19, 2009 -- Should You Find a Niche To Stand Out From The Pack? (3)
• November 13, 2009 -- Competing Against The Agency – The Freelancer’s Epic Battle (19)
• November 6, 2009 -- When Your Client Wants To Become The Designer (14)

Every now and then, hopefully not too often something may come along whether it is for family / friends / a charitable cause / a non-profit organisation etc where you make the decision to waive your normal fee for your services.

I have been in a few of these situations and I have learnt some hard and fast lessons. Despite the logic of it, your are not doing the work for free. You might be doing it to return a favour, to support something you believe in, to promote your name or for a inner warm nurturing feeling to put a smile on your face and help you sleep better. Either way, their is an incentive, there is a return – just in this case it is not currency.

Unfortunately, bumbling into these situations for whatever the return, we often ,or at least I did – switch off. Every sensibility, eye for opportunities and method of practice we have built up and put to norm gets thrown out the window. For example:

- Project specifics don’t get detailed
- We do not complete any paperwork
- Normal working hours seem to have no limits for this project and calls can come as and when pleased
- Ideas go stale and work is slap dash

What Should One Be Doing?

Written Agreements – Stipulating what you would normally go through. If you do not say that your only prepared to do 5 revisions – why should you be angry when whoever it is wants 10? You need to set boundaries as to what it you are actually prepared to do.

Room to Express – Many projects that you may do for free, should be taken advantage of, for lack of a better phrase. Use them to explore ideas and bolster up your portfolio with new concepts.. However….

Correct Research – Simple things, don’t spend 4 weeks creating a brilliant innovative folding brochure for a charity of they can’t afford to print them in the number they require.

Your commitment – When agreeing to do work in these cases, it is important that your prepared to put as much relevant time into the project as you would normally. If not, the entire thing will feel like a headache or unwanted chore. For whatever reason, you should want to be doing it.

Looking for opportunities – For instance, if doing work for a charity, insist on liasing with someone high up in the food chain. Networking! Maybe ask for credit on the finished product, with a website link and name

Do you have any advice for freelancer’s doing free work?

Related Posts:

• November 19, 2009 -- Should You Find a Niche To Stand Out From The Pack? (3)
• November 11, 2009 -- 10 Ways To Score and Evaluate A Client (6)
• July 25, 2010 -- Maintaining Business Standards As A Freelancer (2)
• February 3, 2010 -- How do your organise yourself as a freelance designer? – Part 2 (2)
• December 29, 2009 -- Freelancing From Home and Staying Productive (14)
• November 28, 2009 -- Interview With Will Kay of OddKingdom – Becoming Your Brand (5)