Work for Free!

When starting out as a freelancer it is difficult to decide on what rate to charge. Very often you will not have references to prove your bona fides, repeat clients to rely on or an established name. In that case the only way to compete is on price. You can work for free, but should you?

The video below has been doing the rounds for a while and is intended to dissuade people from doing "spec work". In case you aren't familiar with the term, spec is short for speculative. A business may ask someone to do work for free on the understanding that this is a "foot in the door" and could result in more work in future or gain you exposure.

Spec work generally crops up in creative fields, although I have been asked for spec work and no one has ever described me as a creative! Watch the video and we'll talk more afterwards.

This topic came to me as a result of my new favourite podcast, Hello Internet. As an aside, if you have never heard of it I recommend listening, the two guys on there discuss some really interesting topics. On the most recent episode they had a fascinating discussion about this video and spec work in general. You can listen to it starting at 1:12 on episode 61.

Listening to their discussion helped clarify some thoughts that I have had on the subject. I wrote a post at the start of this blog about how to compete with low cost countries. In that post I said that you should "demonstrate your quality and the right clients at the right rates will come." I still believe that and my career is proving it as my rates continue to climb. However, while I never had to work for free at the start of my career I did work for much, much lower rates than I do now or ever had since my paper round when I was 12 years old. You can see how my hourly rate changed during 2015 in this chart:

When you are starting out as a freelancer you will need to think tactically. You need to honestly and critically assess your skills; what gives you a competitive advantage over others in your field? As a fledgling writer you might come up with the following list:

• Experience in the legal industry
• Internship with a magazine
• Punctual & reliable
• Poem published on a well known website

Those are all great but one thing that will almost certainly be missing from this list is an established brand name or reputation. If you do have one of those then start celebrating; the world is your mollusc and you can feel free to charge whatever you like. If not, then you might add to the list:

• Will work for free

I don't want to sound very cynical but I don't believe the people who made that video did it out of a sense of civic duty. I think they are established professionals who do not want young upstarts to work for free and drive down the value in the market.

I'm not saying that you should do it. I have friends who have done it and had nothing come of it. I also know people who have gained a benefit. If nothing else you should carefully consider it but be aware that it is a gamble. It's up to you whether you choose to roll the dice.

Get in touch if you would like to discuss this more.

Unexpected Pros & Cons of Freelancing

On this site I have talked a lot about how great freelancing is. I also try to be honest and present the downsides. Everybody knows that being able to work from anywhere is fantastic. Everybody also knows that not having a regular, steady paycheque can be problematic. Today I thought I'd talk about some of the lesser known pros and cons of working remotely; the things that have taken me by surprise.

Cons

Last week I mentioned a tool that helps me navigate time differences between me and my clients. The downside of having international clients is that sometimes when they want to talk the time difference goes against you. I recently had a conference call with Sydney, Australia and Salt Lake City, USA. Saying that makes me feel pretty cool (see the pros below) but in order to make it work for everybody the meeting happened at 5am my time. I got an early start on my work that day!

Pro or Con? You Decide

I've read a lot of articles about how to be productive as a freelancer / remote worker. I agree with a lot of the things they say: separate your living and working spaces; maintain a routine etc. One that I totally don't get down with is to dress as if you were going to work. I have never been a clothes horse and I don't like dressing smart. One of the best things for me is that I can work in shorts and t-shirt all the time.

The downside? Recently, 2 of my best friends got married. When the weddings approached I looked in my wardrobe to find - a fine selection of shorts and t-shirts... and little else. As I don't need smart clothes for work I had gradually, largely unintentionally but very thoroughly eliminated all smart clothes from my wardrobe. Cue a quick dash to the department store to find some smart trousers!

Pros

My clients live in quite different parts of the world. Some of them work remotely and move around too. I personally get a kick out of talking to people in other countries and hearing what they are up to. It also makes me feel like a boss player when I say, "I have to run, I've got to speak to Washington." Plus, as documented in this post one of my Australian clients invited me over to visit. Hard to imagine how that would have happened when I had a normal job.

In one of my first posts on this site I talked about how freelancing had got me back into music in a big way. Working by myself lets me listen to whatever I want. I invested in a Spotify subscription and I haven't looked back. I also discovered Noon Pacific, a weekly playlist of funky tunes that I always look forward to. All of this has led to me discovering new artists that I love, rediscovering old favourites and generally spending a lot more of my time listening to music. A definite win!

Most of the jobs in my adult life have involved a whole lot of time indoors. I'm not constantly outdoors now but the flexibility of freelancing means I get to see a lot more sunshine. I even get to work from much nicer locations. Currently I am sitting in my local coworking space which has cool decor, comfy chairs and serves great coffee. A big improvement on some of the factory offices I used to work in!

I'd love to hear about any unexpected things you discovered when working remotely. Alternatively, I'd be glad to tell you more about what I discovered. Drop me a line and let's chat.

My General Resolutions

I have been doing a lot of thinking recently about what it takes to be a successful freelancer. This sort of coincides with the new year but that is more coincidental than intentional. The following are some ideas about how to achieve more as a freelancer which may, from a distance, bear a resemblance to new year’s resolutions.

Continue Your Professional Development

I worked for 3 major international business prior to becoming a freelancer. All 3 of those companies invested a large amount of money in ongoing professional development. I had courses covering a wide range of topics from effective communication to project management to being a good leader. Some of these courses were great, some were good and some felt like a waste of time. However, most courses taught me something that I could use in my life.

Since becoming a freelancer I have not done a single minute of training. All of my time has been focussed on earning money, finding new clients or having fun. Those are all very important but it has been clear to me recently that I need to continue developing my skills. Clients’ needs change and I need to be able to meet them if I want to continue earning money, finding new clients and having fun.

Professional development doesn’t have to be expensive or arduous. The internet is literally overflowing with free courses to learn web development, graphic design, ancient Sumerian agricultural practices... you name it. I have invested time recently in studying HTML & CSS, something that my clients need. I did this using the Odin Project, a free resource to learn all aspects of web development. I am also going to become an Infusionsoft Certified Partner. Infusionsoft is something I have been getting more involved in over the past year and want to do more of. The certification is not cheap but it is something I enjoy and should enable me to get more business at higher rates of pay in 2016.

Invest in Yourself

Long before becoming a freelancer I have been a frugal man. I hate spending money frivolously. I even hate spending money non-frivolously. Show me something that I want to have, is a good investment and useful for work and I will hem and haw about spending the money for months. If there is a cheaper option then I will almost always choose that.

Another thought I have had recently is that my frugal nature has been counterproductive to my work. I needed a new computer last year and I set myself a low budget. I found a laptop that was good, not great and bought it. Since then it has consistently disappointed me; boot time is painful, there are frequent lags and it just isn’t really what I need.

Part of being a freelancer is knowing what you need to do a good job. If you worked in an office that consistently bought sub standard computers and equipment you would complain that the company was hampering your ability to do a good job. Being a freelancer is no different except that you are the one in control of the budget! If you scrimp on your equipment then you are harming no-one but yourself.

I recently bit the bullet and bought myself a new MacBook Pro. It has been like a breath of fresh air. It boots up in under 30 seconds, it never hangs on a screen and I can have as many applications open as I want. I often comment that one of the best things about being a freelancer is that I can work anywhere I have my laptop and an internet connection. Therefore the most important piece of equipment for me is my laptop and I should invest in a good one. I’m not advising you to spend money you don’t have but make sure you give yourself the best chance to do the work you want to do.

A few thoughts for the new year. As I mentioned, these aren’t new year’s resolutions exactly but more like lifetime resolutions. What lifetime resolutions have you made? Let me know here.