12 things I learned in 12 years working in freelancing
It turns out that Cogeian Systems will be 12 years old this month. So I decided to share my experience gained during this time. I hope he will help someone.
I believe that freelancing and consulting are like sunshine . Enough for everyone. But sometimes it is not obvious. Sometimes the mortgage is tight, but there is no income. At such moments, a “hellish client” always appears, sensing your weakness and despair, luring you with a large check - if only you can cope with its arrogance, idiocy and inclination towards micromanagement.
I would not advise skipping mortgage payments, but I would recommend the following: if you didn’t immediately like the client, ask yourself how much do you really need this job? Sometimes she is not so critical that she suffers. Of course, it is easy to say that if you have a large customer base - and I hope that you will have it.
Failure to profit? Yep Some customers are not worth the profit. If your client fails you, you need to listen to yourself, look at the business and decide what it costs for you.
')
Losing sleep? Constantly tense? Are experiencing constant attacks from the client? Bad pays? Constantly digging down to the smallest detail? Ask yourself - what productive could you do instead of digging through this garbage? Every minute you spend on a bad or unprofitable customer will never return to you.
Do not waste time on terrible customers. Get together and break up with him.
This is more advice not on freelancing, but on maintaining the health needed to freelance. Many body systems depend on a good night’s rest .
If you are 25 years old and after a sleepless night you are alert - do not flatter yourself. In 25 years, so can anyone. But after each such night, you add a "run" to your brain, which will respond to you at the age of 40. Make it a habit to work well and sleep well.
This advice is contrary to "distribute the work of deputies and go sip cocktails on the beach."
Counseling is a difficult thing in the sense of working with all sorts of new and interesting toys. Companies spend time and money on employee training. If you are a busy freelancer or consultant, you do not do this. But you need to plan time for learning new technologies in the same way you plan your working time.
You train your brain by learning new things. You maintain a good professional level. If you are a programmer - learning new, you do not lose interest. Of course, we should not forget about the other skills that are required for your work - just do not forget to improve technically.
The fact that you maintain your technical level does not mean that you should be the only one working on projects for clients. Get help as early as possible and as much as possible. If you wait too long, then alone you can dig in the work so that you will not have time to train assistants in the future. But if you start hiring assistants too early, you may not have enough money to do this.
There is a middle ground for everyone. If I knew all this before, I would have started looking for help much earlier than I did in my work. Usually everyone waits too long. Do not wait - go to oDesk, eLance, other sites, and look for helpers there. Work with personal networks on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.
In business it is useful to save (but not to be cheap). At some point, you will feel your necessary level of spending, lowering below which will be meaningless and inefficient.
Having the choice between saving costs and searching for income, look for income. The essence of the process in generating revenue. You can go broke, introducing savings, but you can hardly go bankrupt, having received too many large payments.
Many freelancers are reluctant to ask for a normal price for their work. Partly due to the fact that it is considered as if you have to compete with others for the price. Partly because of self-disbelief, a typical geeky problem. Partially - because of the feeling that our work is easy enough to ask for a lot of money for it.
It's buulshit.
It is easy for you or not very valuable - but you don’t hire people. You are not afraid of simple things like SquareSpace, Twitter or FTP. Do not you suffer from the implementation of projects due to lack of technical skills.
On the contrary, it causes you to solve these problems. Your client receives income from investments in your work, receives psychological satisfaction from the fact that the work is done by you, and saves your time. And all this is worth something for the client. Recognize this value, and request it.
Yes Yes. Do not jump on every phone call and email, do not give up everything if the client requires you to do something DIRECT! Does your workflow improve with constant interruptions?
Try not to be too accessible, it will help you to focus on the work process and strengthen the limits of your professionalism (see # 10)
Professionals sometimes say no. The client hired you because you know more than him.
In the world of freelancers full of goats. Everyone hates them - customers, manufacturers, the press, other freelancers.
Try to work politely in all situations. Do not lose peace of mind. The relationships that you build, build a business for you - those that you break, break it. Kindness costs you free, and being rude can cost you the opportunity.
Polite does not mean helpful. Do not give in to pressure from customers, employees, partners.
Keep boundaries - for example, always take money to increase the amount of work, or never work on weekends, or do not tolerate unacceptable customer behavior. It forms a respectful attitude towards you.
Contradiction? Here is what I mean:
- your actions are driven by the need to rush
- the results of the work must be expected patiently
You can hurry, performing daily business tasks, but even if you do everything correctly, there are no guarantees that you will get the result as quickly as you want.
The universe laughs at your plans. Manage your business - but remember that in this business you need to pump a pump for a very long time before oil goes.
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" (a saying that recommends not only work, but also rest). Do not forget to rest from work. Do not hammer work all your time in life. Such work is hard and brings a lot of stress, forcing you to ride an emotional rollercoaster.
Keep your peace of mind and make you live a full life, not a life full of work.
Bonus Tip:
Call it marketing or self-introduction to the community, or making friends. No matter what you call it, it’s important to do it.
Other things being equal, people will hire a person they know, someone they like, someone they trust. You should know, you should like and inspire confidence.
You can go to visit customers just to keep in touch. You can try to hold seminars, appear at charity events, engage in charity. Invite a client to dinner and ask him to call a friend. Post articles in different editions.
All this makes you a member of the business community and gives you advantages over other competitors. And it helps you too.
* * *
This is not all that I learned in 12 years. But if you drop the ego, pride, fear and other emotions - these are the things that stand out from the rest.
5 years ago I would write nonsense like "the largest order always wins," "I did not win if you did not lose" and "the best way to work is to outstrip the other." Bue
For 12 years, it is quite possible to get rid of all this garbage surrounding the work of a freelancer / consultant. Some things that I considered vital, ceased to be so, and some that I did not think about came to the fore (sleep).
You never know what it is until you try. I sincerely hope that my 12 years of experience will help you somehow.
1) Sometimes it is useful to refuse to work.
I believe that freelancing and consulting are like sunshine . Enough for everyone. But sometimes it is not obvious. Sometimes the mortgage is tight, but there is no income. At such moments, a “hellish client” always appears, sensing your weakness and despair, luring you with a large check - if only you can cope with its arrogance, idiocy and inclination towards micromanagement.
I would not advise skipping mortgage payments, but I would recommend the following: if you didn’t immediately like the client, ask yourself how much do you really need this job? Sometimes she is not so critical that she suffers. Of course, it is easy to say that if you have a large customer base - and I hope that you will have it.
2) Sometimes it is useful to part with the client.
Failure to profit? Yep Some customers are not worth the profit. If your client fails you, you need to listen to yourself, look at the business and decide what it costs for you.
')
Losing sleep? Constantly tense? Are experiencing constant attacks from the client? Bad pays? Constantly digging down to the smallest detail? Ask yourself - what productive could you do instead of digging through this garbage? Every minute you spend on a bad or unprofitable customer will never return to you.
Do not waste time on terrible customers. Get together and break up with him.
3) Sleep more, no matter how much you sleep
This is more advice not on freelancing, but on maintaining the health needed to freelance. Many body systems depend on a good night’s rest .
If you are 25 years old and after a sleepless night you are alert - do not flatter yourself. In 25 years, so can anyone. But after each such night, you add a "run" to your brain, which will respond to you at the age of 40. Make it a habit to work well and sleep well.
4) Stay on topic
This advice is contrary to "distribute the work of deputies and go sip cocktails on the beach."
Counseling is a difficult thing in the sense of working with all sorts of new and interesting toys. Companies spend time and money on employee training. If you are a busy freelancer or consultant, you do not do this. But you need to plan time for learning new technologies in the same way you plan your working time.
You train your brain by learning new things. You maintain a good professional level. If you are a programmer - learning new, you do not lose interest. Of course, we should not forget about the other skills that are required for your work - just do not forget to improve technically.
5) Get help as early as possible
The fact that you maintain your technical level does not mean that you should be the only one working on projects for clients. Get help as early as possible and as much as possible. If you wait too long, then alone you can dig in the work so that you will not have time to train assistants in the future. But if you start hiring assistants too early, you may not have enough money to do this.
There is a middle ground for everyone. If I knew all this before, I would have started looking for help much earlier than I did in my work. Usually everyone waits too long. Do not wait - go to oDesk, eLance, other sites, and look for helpers there. Work with personal networks on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.
6) Run to income instead of running from expenses
In business it is useful to save (but not to be cheap). At some point, you will feel your necessary level of spending, lowering below which will be meaningless and inefficient.
Having the choice between saving costs and searching for income, look for income. The essence of the process in generating revenue. You can go broke, introducing savings, but you can hardly go bankrupt, having received too many large payments.
7) Ask for more
Many freelancers are reluctant to ask for a normal price for their work. Partly due to the fact that it is considered as if you have to compete with others for the price. Partly because of self-disbelief, a typical geeky problem. Partially - because of the feeling that our work is easy enough to ask for a lot of money for it.
It's buulshit.
It is easy for you or not very valuable - but you don’t hire people. You are not afraid of simple things like SquareSpace, Twitter or FTP. Do not you suffer from the implementation of projects due to lack of technical skills.
On the contrary, it causes you to solve these problems. Your client receives income from investments in your work, receives psychological satisfaction from the fact that the work is done by you, and saves your time. And all this is worth something for the client. Recognize this value, and request it.
8) Do not be too accessible
Yes Yes. Do not jump on every phone call and email, do not give up everything if the client requires you to do something DIRECT! Does your workflow improve with constant interruptions?
Try not to be too accessible, it will help you to focus on the work process and strengthen the limits of your professionalism (see # 10)
Professionals sometimes say no. The client hired you because you know more than him.
9) Be polite
In the world of freelancers full of goats. Everyone hates them - customers, manufacturers, the press, other freelancers.
Try to work politely in all situations. Do not lose peace of mind. The relationships that you build, build a business for you - those that you break, break it. Kindness costs you free, and being rude can cost you the opportunity.
10) But keep to professional boundaries.
Polite does not mean helpful. Do not give in to pressure from customers, employees, partners.
Keep boundaries - for example, always take money to increase the amount of work, or never work on weekends, or do not tolerate unacceptable customer behavior. It forms a respectful attitude towards you.
11) Be patient, but do not brake.
Contradiction? Here is what I mean:
- your actions are driven by the need to rush
- the results of the work must be expected patiently
You can hurry, performing daily business tasks, but even if you do everything correctly, there are no guarantees that you will get the result as quickly as you want.
The universe laughs at your plans. Manage your business - but remember that in this business you need to pump a pump for a very long time before oil goes.
12) Do not forget to play
"All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" (a saying that recommends not only work, but also rest). Do not forget to rest from work. Do not hammer work all your time in life. Such work is hard and brings a lot of stress, forcing you to ride an emotional rollercoaster.
Keep your peace of mind and make you live a full life, not a life full of work.
Bonus Tip:
13) Get out of the office and meet with clients.
Call it marketing or self-introduction to the community, or making friends. No matter what you call it, it’s important to do it.
Other things being equal, people will hire a person they know, someone they like, someone they trust. You should know, you should like and inspire confidence.
You can go to visit customers just to keep in touch. You can try to hold seminars, appear at charity events, engage in charity. Invite a client to dinner and ask him to call a friend. Post articles in different editions.
All this makes you a member of the business community and gives you advantages over other competitors. And it helps you too.
* * *
This is not all that I learned in 12 years. But if you drop the ego, pride, fear and other emotions - these are the things that stand out from the rest.
5 years ago I would write nonsense like "the largest order always wins," "I did not win if you did not lose" and "the best way to work is to outstrip the other." Bue
For 12 years, it is quite possible to get rid of all this garbage surrounding the work of a freelancer / consultant. Some things that I considered vital, ceased to be so, and some that I did not think about came to the fore (sleep).
You never know what it is until you try. I sincerely hope that my 12 years of experience will help you somehow.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/286842/
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