It's finally June! That means school is out and the weather turns hot and humid within a matter of minutes. Kids can take a break from classes and turn off their brains for a few short weeks. How I miss those days when summer break was all I ever wanted after the last holiday break. Sadly those days are gone and I now find myself in the classroom more than ever before.
Freelancing means much more than working your own hours, in any location you'd like, and wearing your bath robe till noon while you work. It also means constantly learning. Non-stop learning. As much as you can get, any chance you get, you must always find new things to learn. With a more flexible schedule, I finally have a chance to attend all those meet-ups, learning lunches, seminars, visiting experts, and other events that will enrich my career.
Just this morning my local AIGA chapter posted an event for beginning freelancing. Of course I'm going to go! Even though I've been doing this for a while now I have still so many things I could learn from people who have been at it longer. Freelancing has made me more humble. The creative community is pretty tight and a bad reputation can get around quickly. It's better to be humble among your peers than a pompous ass that no one wants to work with or help out. I know I don't know everything and I could always use more advice. It's not so much a step backwards but a chance to see another perspective. An opportunity to see how others have approached the same thing I have and what their successes and failures were.
So even after twelve years of grade school and a total of seven years of college, I'm running back into a classroom mentality. Willingly. In high school I never wanted to go back to any type of school environment. Then college happened... twice. I was in my late 20's when I was done will all the schooling I could afford and realized I knew nothing. Experience is a great teacher too but it isn't always enough. Networking events and seminars given by others in the field are now my new classrooms. And I'm glad to get back to it.
There is nothing quite like a project that fully engrosses you. The campaign, Be a Part of Something Mammoth, has done just that to me for the last few months. I knew very little about the park, only a few mouthfuls about the non-profit group running the campaign, but I have learned a great deal in a short amount of time. The IndieGogo campaign was launched last Wednesday the 15th, and so far I think the reception has been positive. While it hasn't quite hit our first $1,000 mark, we're very close and not even a week into it. Granted the final goal is $70,000, but any amount is amazing. It gets them just that much closer to their goal.
While I'm not a member of the non-profit group running the show, Friends of Big Bone, being so close to the action and neck deep in it has made me passionate about their cause. They made me care! That's one of the great perks to being a freelancer and getting to work so close with my clients; their passion for their projects can rub off on me and make me want them to succeed just as much as they do. If not more so since my work is the face of their project. When I worked for a large company, I may have never met the clients or even just their liaison for a project. I heard names of the decision makers, but never saw their face or had a reason to meet with them. I was in the background, making graphics according to a sheet of must-haves or avoid-this items. I had no reason to be emotionally invested or even excited for what they were doing. I was so far removed that I couldn't care. Now, after breaking out solo, I WANT to care about each client and project.
I meet new clients in the flesh, in a relaxed environment, chit-chat with them and get an opportunity to understand why they do what is it they're doing. I get to see the people behind the brands/products/services/causes and that makes it worth while for me. Who wouldn't want to work with people like that? Granted there are some clients I've never met in person due to the distance between us. But I still treat every client the same; like a person.
If you want to see the glorious final product that is the Be a Part of Something Mammoth campaign, you can check it out here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/be-a-part-of-something-mammoth/x/9991215.
Feel free to donate and/or share the campaign with everyone you think would want to help out or would enjoy the perks being offered. The
Friends of Big Bone made me care, and I want everyone to care too!
The campaign runs till May 15th, so get to it! And thanks!
There is something to be said about this line of creative work: the opportunity to work on stranger things is far greater. For me, it's mammoths and sloths. One current client has a tremendously in depth project for which the end result is for a great cause. I've spent entire ten hour work days doing nothing but this project. Agonizing about every minute detail and trying to find ways to push it even further. Sleep has taken something of a backseat to my daily routine. And I couldn't be happier right now.
My client is the non-profit Friends of Big Bone. I've worked with the organization before on much smaller projects over the years until recently. Last November, they asked me if I would help them create a fundraising campaign for Big Bone Lick State Historic Site. I'll be honest, I've never done something on this scale solo but I was up for the challenge. It has since become something much larger than any of us closely involved could have imagined it to be. What makes it all worth it is the people I get to work with and for on this. Their passion for this campaign has been relentless and they're all volunteering their skills and resources to help out. I have much more time to dedicate to the project, so more often I'm building everything while the blocks I can't create are given to me when available from others. It can be frustrating, but I can no longer see myself where I was just a few months ago.
Breaking the final ties to an office environment was the hardest, but the greatest, choice I've made in my career. It removed the close fitting walls of what I was allowed to work on and has launched me into the deep space of possibilities. This project has been the driving force to keep up my optimism about my decision. I'm doing much more than designing a logo or a few print pieces, I'm doing just about everything that will be face-forward when the Indiegogo campaign launches on April 15th. I've learned just how demanding and time consuming doing social media really is. There was no class that prepared me for something quite so... OK I'll just say it... mammoth! Especially when working solo for about 90% of the time. Obviously I'm not working alone, but once content is handed to me, I have to weave it all together.
There are steps that I've commonly done that here I've bypassed completely for the sake of time. It's best to recognize what I'm skipping so I can look back where, more like if, things start to get shaky. School can only teach you different approaches and practices to start and generate the end products. Real life is quite different. The sleepless nights, extended meetings, massive pitfalls, all are still present but the consequences are much more dire with real world clients.
For now, I'm ecstatic that Friends of Big Bone gave me this opportunity to do something great with them. I want them to succeed just as much as they do with this campaign. Their drive and enthusiasm for their cause is something to admire and be seen as an example. Now it's back to work for me!
Just a quick post about Harlan G. Sloth today. I was recently interviewed by the Community Press in Kentucky about Harlan and the Big Bone Lick project. We talked about the changes that are being lined up for the park and Harlan as the park ambassador. I never imagined this project would get even this big, but I can't help but beam with pride about how far we've gotten with this.
On April 15th we'll be launching our Indiegogo campaign to raise additional funds needed for Phase II of the project. Harlan will be promoting that like crazy before the big day arrives.
Here is the article picked up by Cincinnati.com.
And don't forget to check out Harlan's Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram!
Breaking up, ending relationships, severing ties, no matter how you say it, ending something can be both a burden and a blessing. Freelancers just starting out might not want to stop working for a bad or difficult client. The money might be OK enough to keep going, but is that really what matters? Being your own boss means you're in control. The times you work, what you work on, and who you work with. When a client becomes too much, it's time to break up.
Before you fire, or dump, your client, try to address your issues with them first. Are they emailing you too often or during your off-work hours? Are they asking more than what agreed upon in the creative brief? Are their demands simply too much for you to handle? Before you send the final email, talk to them about your concerns. Most clients aren't aware of how disrespectful they are being and need to be informed of it. A misunderstanding can be addressed and you can continue to work together. Blowing up at them won't help either of you and makes you look unprofessional. If you have exhausted all these options, here's a break down of your break up:
When you've been pushed to your limit by a client, it's time to let them know you just can't do it anymore. Either have a meeting face to face with them or a voice conference. It won't be easy, but it's the best way to do it. Have examples of when you tried to communicate your frustrations with them, print outs of emails or other exchanges, and explain to them you cannot continue to work this way with them. Stay professional and never point fingers. You want to break up with the project, and possibly the client, for good. But you still have to represent your business in the best possible light.
There are clients that were difficult to work with in the past, but at least their assignments were quick in regards to time. They come back with a new project but want you to work for less than what you quoted them. They might mention they have another designer willing to work for less, but they would rather work with you. If you stand firm on your price, they might try to phish for assistance. This is when they want you to tell them what, and possibly how, you would complete their project. All speculation of course, but who is to say they won't take your information and pass it on to their cheaper designer? Never accuse your client of anything, but do mention it feels uncomfortable sharing that information without a contract in place. If you charge for consulting services, this is the best time to bring it up and remind them you will consult but not for free. The best practice is to say it FEELS wrong for you to share that information. This isn't accusing them of phishing and might enlighten them to how their actions are being read. It might not be their intent at all. You don't know for sure, but it's better to just not go there.
Once you've made your stance on your professional relationship with your client, next is paperwork. Whatever contract you had with them needs to be terminated properly. Send an email with the termination section highlighted and state that this is your formal termination of your contract with them and list the reasons. Mention the meeting you had and with whom, and include those people in the email. Invoice whatever they owe you for work done to that point, deliver whatever was promised with work already completed, and get clarification on everything. This is the tedious part as ending a contract half way makes for messy clean up. It is your job to make sure everyone is clear on what has been done, what is being delivered, and what is still owed in regards to payment.
After all that is done, you can walk away knowing you ended a toxic partnership and can now focus on other work. Standing up to a client is never easy, but it gets easier to recognize the difficult ones as time goes on. Being a freelancer means you hold power in who you work with. Don't be afraid of wielding that power when necessary.
There are many reasons people haggle prices. Large ticket items, such as cars, don't have a fixed price. The end price is decided upon by the seller and the buyer based on available information about the item. Such as how old it is, what kind of condition it is in, what visible pitfalls does it have that need to be addressed, etc. If you've never had to haggle before, you might get taken advantage of.
Clients that haggle the price of a freelance project are aiming to lower the overall cost, but still have all the work completed. It's basic math: you will do X thing for Y price that you estimated. The client wants X thing for sure, but Y price is too high for their budget or their comfort level. They will give you the job if you do all of X but for Z price, which is notably less than Y. Why is this a big deal? Well, aside from the time involved to complete the project in a straightforward manner, you also have to consider other time spending costs. Have you worked with this client before? If yes, how many times did they email you about changes? Did they stay on top of emails, did they keep with their own deadline, were they easy to work with? If you haven't worked for them, are they an established business that will need additional work in the future? If they're an individual and not a business, have they worked with other freelancers? How long ago? How many times per year? All these questions need to be asked before you start the haggling process. You'll have a more solid understanding of your client's history and expectations, which can give you better footing when you pitch back your counter offer for the work.
Going back to the equation we have set up, price Y is too high according to your client. If you feel Y is fair, defend your reasons why. If you have examples of past work that is similar to work X, show it to your client if they haven't seen it yet. This will show your value immediately and reflect you're more than capable of taking on their project. If your client still pushes for price Z, you can either walk away or come back with a counter offer. It is your choice where to go if they're steadfast on price Z. Is the work worth the time for less than what you think it's worth? Is the client someone you'd like to work with in the future? At this point, it's all down to you. If you decide to come back with a haggle, here are some tips:
If price Z is too low, and price Y is too high, aim for a price that isn't at Z but below Y. Don't cave right down to Z if they don't budge from it. For a monetary example: Y = $500 and Z = $350. In this instance, counter offer between $475 and $425. It's still less than your asking rate but is notably higher than their price.
If they still won't budge from Z, go a little lower but don't end on their rate. Obviously if you wanted the project you would agree to their price and get to it. In our money example, come back with $400. It's $100 less than your price but only $50 above theirs. This might influence them to think you're giving them a bargain and bite the bullet on the final cost.
If they still don't agree to your price after two offers, stop. Continuous back and forth might come across as bad business practices. You show you value your skills and work by standing by your higher offers.
Freelancers aren't used cars but sometimes we get treated like our abilities are abundant and the market is saturated. In a way it is, but not with good designers. Unlike products and objects, designers aren't all alike in practices and methods. Some great designers work for cheap, but most do not because they know they are worth more. Cheap designers could be new to the freelance environment and don't know how to haggle properly. Other cheap designers are con artists that rip off other people's work and make a profit by doing very little.
Stand by your skills and value. If you don't, no one will.
Internet trolls. With the option of anonymity on the internet, so many take it as an opportunity to spew hatred and ignorance. Thoughtful discussions are derailed by one comment that brings down the intelligence of everyone involved in the thread. Even when you're off the clock, you must resist taking the bait of trolls.
For the uninitiated: internet trolls are people that post comments that are meant specifically to anger another person or are the strong opinions of someone that disagrees with the topic being discussed. More often than not they are the former. They are people that use the anonymity of the internet to the extreme and spew whatever they feel like, as they feel safe that they will suffer no consequences. This is clearly not the case any more. Hackers that are determined can track the ISP of a commenter and identify them quickly. It is highly unlikely that a comment on a public forum will garner much backlash outside of angry comments in response, but the layer of being anonymous isn't secure.
Freelancing carries heavy risks that you might not consider when first starting out. Every blog post you respond to has your named tied to it. Being as professional as possible is the only safe way to post anything when your name is associated with your comment. If your business is your name, you have to be on high alert at all times. Unless you post using an alias, every word you enter is directly tied to your business. Even when you post on your off-time from your job.
As a professional that lives alongside the internet, I normally lean towards the choice of not commenting. Most articles I would comment on are within my field of expertise and don't generate huge threads of debate. They are either comments of agreement or disagreement. How someone thinks or does something doesn't make their way the only way, and sometimes they need to know there are other options and methods. These types of comments are useful and constructive. Others articles or things I could comment on fall into my "not about work" category. These can be teeming with unseen trolls. Comments are normally destructive, highly opinionated, and come across as very close-minded. Not worth the mental anguish of arguing back and forth with an idiot (idiot being my opinion of them, not essentially an accurate representation).
Having strong opinions about things shouldn't prevent you from commenting on topics if you so choose to. Things you say outside of your professional environment will reflect back on you as a professional, even if you didn't mean it as such. Just be mindful that everything you say lives forever on the internet. And don't feed the trolls. They already ate.
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No one enjoys paying bills. Even worse is paying overdue bills. Late fees pile up and until you make a payment the final figure continues to climb until it's completely paid off. It's a vicious cycle that will perpetuate itself unless it is taken care of earlier rather than later. Money owed to freelancers is no different than any other bill, but they are sometimes treated as something less than the digital newspaper bill.
Freelancers are people. Let's just start there. They have bills just like everyone else; rent or a mortgage, maybe a car payment, student loans, utilities, credit cards, sounds like any other person out there. But when you work for yourself, you have to wear the accounts receivable and accounts payable hats of your business. That means sending out reminders to clients with open accounts that their bill is overdue. It also means they have to pick which bills they need to pay get paid first or how much to send as a partial payment. Again, a vicious cycle.
No one enjoys sending out overdue or late payment reminders to clients. I detest this part of my job. There is no way to convey frustration, or worry, or panic in an email and know you'll get paid. Some clients simply forget, which is understandable, and pay right away when they get a reminder. They apologize and send the check. Everyone is happy. Some clients insist they already paid in full. Proving this is pretty simple, check with your bank. Then there are other clients that just never respond. No matter how many emails you send they just hit the delete button on their inbox and pretend they never got it. Luckily, I have yet to encounter a client that went this route. I'll come back to that kind of client another time.
In a perfect world freelancers would get paid at the moment they send over the final work. Sadly, it is not a perfect world. I give a grace period of 30 days for every invoice unless another arrangement was made. Out of all my clients, 99% of them work for an established business. That means they, as individuals, get a regular paycheck. They show up, do their job, collect money. I work for myself so I rely on the paychecks from projects I complete. Nothing steady about my process: get project, complete project, send invoice, wait. The wait could be a few days or beyond the allotted 30. Either way, I still have to wait. It's stressful and takes a lot of gusto to hold back screaming at my computer with my own bills piling up on my desk while my open accounts run over their time limit. My bill collectors have no qualms sending additional overdue reminders and making me hate their establishment for not being more understanding.
Bottom line: your freelancer has bills too. If you can pay your bill to them quickly, you should do so. Your freelancer will thank you and will want to work with you again. It builds trust and better business relations between you both. In the future, they will be more understanding if you can't pay right away, since they already know you're good for it. That's something no big business will do for a customer.
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There is one thing worse than making a mistake: making everything precious. Mistakes are a part of life, every aspect of it. If you work hard and make mistakes, you learn a better method of doing things. You learn how to recognize potential pitfalls and how to avoid them. Mistakes are to be expected, mainly because they are unavoidable. But when you make everything precious, mistakes are no longer potential learning experiences. They are devastating bombs that can derail everything you've done and cut deeper than you have ever felt before.
When I was in art college, I was still weaning myself off of treating every art piece as precious. Each interaction of my pencil to paper was supposed to be a masterpiece, and when it failed I took it hard. Really hard. Prior to college, I was one of a handful of kids in my high school that were labeled "artsy" by my peers and teachers. It was a badge of honor more than a label to identify where my loyalties were. It was a very sports oriented school, so the artists were brushed aside for the letter jackets. But it gave me an identity that I was happy with. When I entered college, I was one of hundreds of other teens that bore the same label of artist. It was overwhelming but also irritating. I wasn't nearly as good as most of the students, and it was a huge blow to my ego. Every assignment I did, I thought it had to be perfect the first time around. No preliminary studies, no brainstorming sketches, just perfection. When the turn-in day came around and it was absolute shit on paper, I was devastated. I was taught to make mistakes but I didn't have the patience to go through the motions of actually making them. I thought I was some kind of artistic prodigy and everything I did would be amazing. I wanted the fame without the work. It was the best four years of my life, but it was a hard pill to swallow.
Now, as a free agent, I still catch myself treating everything as precious to some degree. I want to produce the best work, and I'm much more willing to accept mistakes and learn from them rather than push back. But when I do treat something as precious, the sting is even more pronounced than it was back in college. I should know by now what the hell I'm doing. But I don't. Designers that make it look effortless never delve into the weeks and weeks of stress and revisions to get something just right. Maybe not even perfect, but close enough. I know if the project is for someone else, I'm less attached to the notion of it being perfect. If it's perfect to them, that's all that matters to me. If it's a project for me... well, let's just say I've created my own grey hairs for that kind of fun.
Things that are seen as precious will consume you in one way or another. They are seen as infallible and perfect, when really nothing can or will be. There is nothing in existence that could ever be perfect. It's a matter of accepting things as they are or finding a way to improve them (things not people). If what you make isn't perfect, it's a moment you need to examine and not let the feeling of failure consume your mind. Sure you didn't get it right this time, but you'll get it the next one. In this line of creative work, ego is one of the biggest obstacles to overcome. Don't let your work control you. Hell, you're the one that made it.
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Freelancers are the adrenaline junkies of the working world. They constantly have to put themselves out into the eye of their potential clients, pitch what they do in a memorable and efficient way, and then hope someone will hire them. It's the same jump each time but no promise the parachute will open before they hit the bottom. The big difference is, the risk of death isn't present for the freelancer when they jump. Regardless of that fact, everything freelancers do carries a huge risk.
Every project you work on, every character and image on your Twitter or Facebook account, everything you do both online and offline will be judged. Some days, it's very difficult to hold back bad-mouthing a client that drove you up a wall. But you have to watch your step everywhere. Once you post it online, it's there forever. Even if you delete it, it's on a server somewhere. Google can find it, trust me. Everything you do carries a risk. And that's a lot of pressure to put on someone who now wears all the hats of their career. It is both terrifying and exciting at the same time.
I recently completed several small projects this past month. With those clients, I have the possibility of additional work later down the line, but I can't rely on that currently. I need to put myself out there and look for more work. What does that entail? Cold calls, or in the current era cold emails. Sending an unsolicited email can seem just as invasive as walking into someone's place of business and pitching your services like an old fashioned door-to-door sales rep. The big mystery is who ends up reading your email. If you send a message through a company's website, it could be read by the office intern or even the CEO, depending on the size of the company. It might never get to whom it needs to be sent to. The entire process is a huge risk and you might never get a response. But nothing will happen if you fail to try in the first place.
Another route for cold emails is doing some research and trying to target your email to a specific person. For my line of work, I target an Art Director or a Creative Director. Some companies have multiple directors, so there's a risk my email is going to the lowest one on the power totem pole. Which might not be a bad thing. They may see my work and forward my message to the person whom makes the big decisions. But if they are busy or simply forget, then I hit another dead end. It's not a fun way to go but emails are free, unlike other options.
I've never been a fan of junk mail. Like actual post office style mail. But if you want to get your name out there, it might be a good way to go. Granted, it's a more expensive route but you can make a longer lasting impression. Several years ago, I made a short story book and sent out limited copies of it in hand made paper boxes. The story was about my socks and as an added feature, I included a single sock with the book. I only yielded two emails from the list of twenty or so recipients, and even those didn't lead to any new work. It was costly and a labor of love, and in the end didn't get me anything. The process made me much wiser though. Eventually, I forgot about it.
A few years later after I sent out my mailer, I was hanging out with a college friend at a new dive bar. There was a gentleman sitting next the wall near us who had probably had one too many. He decided to join the conversation, which we were cool with. He and I started chatting and I told him I was a designer. One thing I loved to do was tell stories and I told him about my sock story. His eyes lit up and he said that HE was one of the people I sent my mailer to. He happened to be the, soon to be ex, executive creative director of a huge agency in town. He told me that he would bring MY book into creative meetings and brainstorming sessions as an example of how to engage your audience. It was a glorious moment for me that I almost started crying. I was able to keep my composure, thankfully, and we exchanged business cards. Even though he still hasn't responded to my emails I sent just one week after our chance encounter, that evening gave me hope.
The wise words of Yoda ring true for freelancers. If you don't put forth the effort to be known for your craft, no one will know you exist. That involves putting your neck out there, repeatedly, and hoping someone will hire you for what you love to do. The courage, or insanity, to keep doing it is the real challenge. Much like putting your head into the guillotine willingly and hoping your words resonate with someone in the audience that you're worth it. And even if you lose your head, there's always tomorrow to put your neck out and try again. It's all about risks.
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