The Seven Laws of the Jedi Freelancer

Among freelancers there are those before whom I want to take my hat off and say “Thank you”. They strive to fulfill the order qualitatively and leave a favorable impression of themselves. Such freelancers are in demand and successful. They took the bright side. But there is also a dark side of creativity - the freelancer who occupied it leaves a black loop in the client’s memory, spoils his karma and sits without orders. It is important that the contractor may inadvertently damage the project and relations with an expensive client. This may occur due to lack of experience.

Over the past ten years I have had the opportunity to deal with more than a hundred freelancers. I regularly attract narrow specialists of creative professions to solve various problems within the framework of the projects being created - designers, illustrators, programmers, system administrators, copywriters, artists, web designers, 3D designers and photographers.

If we analyze the cases of successful and unsuccessful cooperation and summarize the reasons that prompted me to contact the same people for years and with pleasure, we can derive a number of simple recommendations. In my opinion, following these recommendations will allow the freelancer to form a positive reputation in the market, to have the opportunity to work on interesting projects and constantly experience a feeling of deep satisfaction from their activities.

I give recommendations in descending order of their importance.

1. Soberly assess your strength . Analyze the task, check the spaces at the customer. Calculate the cost of time. Do not rush to respond. Look at your current list of promises. Remember the next birthday mom. Make a schedule that will be based on your real employment and based on your actual experience. Drink a glass of tea and then make a weighted offer to the customer. Remember: it is easy to fit into an adventure, it is much more difficult to finish a complicated business.
2. Work on a Gantt chart . To begin work on a project one day before the deadline and even manage to complete it — this does not mean being a virtuoso, rather, it is an unjustified recklessness. The work must be carried out in accordance with the schedule agreed with the client. It may not be obvious to the contractor, but the client may have his own tasks tied to individual results - internal testing, demonstration to partners, launching an advertising campaign, etc. Work according to the Gant schedule and open access to it to the client. The pleasure delivered by a kind of cell of a day-to-day cell of a diagram can be compared with nothing.
3. Call the real prices . Real - does not mean like others, medium or low. Real means corresponding to your intellectual / time costs for a particular project. Some freelancers, mostly for beginners, estimate the cost of a project by eye. This method of assessment makes it difficult for the customer to financially plan joint work with you and indirectly indicates your inexperience. Call the customer the price of an hour or give a calculation based on the experience of performing similar projects. If the customer currently cannot afford your services, he may contact you another time, having a clear idea of ​​the cost of your services.
4. Use technology . Using the latest technology in everyday work makes it more comfortable. Remove from your client the burden of the boring secretary, who is constantly clarifying your current state of work (it becomes so thanks to you). A good start to the project will be to create a document in Google.Drive, which will list all the tasks. Access this document for the client. You remove concern about deadlines from your client, he will also have the opportunity to inform you in due time about the shortcomings found and make your work more concise in terms and productive. Use the megaplan and keep your client informed about your progress on the project, set up notifications about important points.
5. Do not fade after doing . Be in touch with the time agreed with the client - it can be a week, a month or more. It is important for the client to make sure that you have done your job in good faith - instill in him this confidence. Often after launch, there are nuances that require your participation - put these moral-volitional efforts in the initial cost of their services. Do not send the client back home with the words: “it was not included in the price”, in which case he will feel deceived. If immediately after the launch of the project you have been assigned a vacation, it is better to warn a potential client about this before he chooses you as a contractor.
6. Discuss financial terms before you begin . Check with the client before starting work the cost of your services, the stages of payment, the method of transferring funds, specify who pays the transfer commission. Discuss possible bonuses for the early completion of the task and the conditions under which the cost of your services may increase. If you do not do this, you can put the client in an awkward position on a limited budget or find yourself in an awkward position.
7. Ask the customer to write a review . Testimonials from your former clients are of great value and are often a key factor when choosing an artist. Some customers do not consider the possibility of cooperation with the performer, whose profile contains at least one negative review. Try to resolve conflicts peacefully. Let the client know that you are ready to make all reasonable efforts to resolve a conflict situation.

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And by the way, it’s never too late to switch to the bright side.