399 Days of Freelancing
Wise words from a wise man
Treat freelancing as your business
Last time I wrote about freelancing, 356 days ago, it was mostly learning about freelancing and transitioning from a full-time gig to self-employment. In that post, I mentioned freelancing is not just a fun side gig, but it’s more of a responsibility. Well guess what? Almost a year later, it still is a big fucking responsibility. Business development, meeting clients, communicating with clients, keeping track of your hours, expenses, purchases, taxes, and on top of this you have to actually do what you’re getting paid for, be creative, and solve problems with your knowledge of paradigms. Make no mistake, these are not easy tasks, especially if you deal with them daily. But the good news is it gets better. And here’s how. I will tell you guys certain things that have made my last 356 days a lot better than the first 43 days.
Pick your clients carefully
You are not representing a company now, you don’t get to wear your fancy branded swag, walk in a giant group of team members to grab lunch, and you’re not part of a team. You are representing yourself now, you are your own team, no pressure. I’ve always seen running your freelance business as playing chess. You make your moves in your head, weigh the possibilities, eliminate risks as much as possible and finally make your move. But there’s always the luck factor. This is not something you can control. Some clients will pass your initial red-flag detector, but end up not being the right fit for you. Nothing is personal, you say? Well it is personal because you’re now representing your name. One bad word about you can change your future clients’ minds. So be careful picking your clients, understand the problems they’re trying to solve, know how you can help them and question yourself how you can help your client to make their lives easier and better.
Client is always right
But no, my client thinks white space is bullshit, they want to stick to 1998 web standards and they go with the print “fold” in web design. Guess what? Your client is right, you know why? Because you did a shitty job explaining them what white space is, you didn’t take the time to define the newer web standards, and you didn’t do a good job understanding your client. Wake up. People are not born with technological knowledge. They learn. Or they hire you. No one is supposed to know what white space is, and if they did, they wouldn’t need to hire you. Also try to put yourself in your client’s shoes. They are paying someone to help them with their website, mobile app, etc. They give the keys to them, they also pay them, but yet they have no idea what they’re going to get in return. That’s a lot of control they are giving to someone they’ve never worked with. So understand that your next client is handing you their baby. So be gentle, be understanding, be patient, and more importantly remind them why they decided to hire you. Do this by not only designing pretty pixels, but explaining why you designed the pretty pixels and also by articulating why you made certain decisions. Don’t forget you’re teaching them a new language, be patient.
Your time = $$, manage it
Unless you went ahead and hired a PM for yourself, which would be pretty impressive if you did, instead you have to be your own PM. Manage your time efficiently. I’ve been my worst enemy with this especially when I first started freelancing. I simply overbooked the f out of myself, and ended up working 100+ hours a week. It’s very possible that you will go through something like this yourself when you first start freelancing. I solved this problem by creating a work calendar. I sit down every Sunday morning with a cup of coffee and distribute my hours to what I will be working on that week. I try to over-estimate the amount of time a task will take me, so if I get done quicker, it’s always a pleasant surprise and I can then have free time to go out to the beach with my pup. I like to weigh my tasks with two different factors in mind: how long it will take me, and how much influence it will have in the bigger picture. Yes, I’m the biggest advocate of pixel-perfection, but don’t be stuck to pixel-perfection where you still don’t have the bigger chunks designed or thought out.
Deliver what you promised
I often question why I went to school for what I do. Here’s something school taught me well. Delivery. Because you don’t deliver a project, you don’t get graded. Simple. It’s good to be able to articulate what you’re doing, it’s fantastic that you’re also teaching your client what you’re doing. You manage your time good as well? Great job. But guess what, if you can’t deliver what you promised, what you’ve read in this article means nothing. The word delivery reminds me of a binary variable. It’s either true or false. You either deliver, or you don’t. If you delivered, it’s a “1”. [Everything you’ve done up until this point] * 1 = Everything you’ve done up until this point, simple and easy. But if you haven’t delivered what you promised, then [Everything you’ve done up until this point] * 0 = 0, nothing, nada, zilch.
Repeat
So far the process I’ve just described has worked well for me. But it absolutely doesn’t mean this is a secret formula to success. Truth be told, almost every month I am continually re-working how I run my business, and learning new tricks. I’m sure you’ve all had different cases and solved them much differently. Well, tell me about it. No, literally, scroll down a little bit and tell me what works for you? One thing I know for sure is that you can’t stop improving. Once you think you’ve reached that point where you can’t improve a method, that’s actually when you’ve reached your first block. Keep pushing and overcome that block, it’s sunny on the other side.
