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One year today yay!
"VCs" in the bay are truly a dime a dozen
Wordle 395 3/6
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$$$$ to Booth or $$ to Wharton
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Don't do free or "get your foot in the door work" no matter what level you are at. It sets a bad precedent and most of the time you won't get the account. Now your prospective client has a bunch of work they can utilize however they see fit.
Manage expectations, always.
Clients can choose two of these three: Good, Cheap and Fast. If it's good and cheap, it probably won't be very fast. If it's cheap and fast, it won't be very good. And, if it's good and fast, it's not going to be cheap.
Don't be too eager, you don't need to respond to everything and everyone immediately. You are busy (even if you aren't).
If someone needs something urgently, charge a rush fee.
Have a day rate, an hourly rate and a project -based rate and learn when each is appropriate.
When charging hourly and estimating your time always double your estimate or triple it (depending on the client).
Two rounds of revisions are included, any more is billed by the hour. No exceptions.
Watch out for scope creep. Clients and agencies try to sneak in extras all the time without paying for them.
Always, always, always have a contract.
Say no to work that you really don't want to do. Chasing the money is so tempting at the beginning but if it's work you don't like you will hate your life.
Always be prospecting. Keep that pipeline full.
Mentor
Also a place like BBDO isn’t going to sign some random freelancer’s contract. If anything they’ll make you sign theirs. I do use them for small companies and with individual people though, for peace of mind.
To save 30% for taxes, 20% for retirement, and live off the rest.
Thanks for this!
Subject Expert
charge appropriately
avoid third party recruiters
Coach
That it would take a good 2 years to get cranking to the point of turning down work. Marketing yourself is everything and having been cocooned in an agency for 17 years didn’t help.
Cut recruiters out. Find your own clients.
Knowing your worth. Don’t work with clients trying to lowball you. No “trial runs” before signing a contract.
Never go back full time. Even if you don’t find work for half of the year, you’ll still make more money than any of the highest paying jobs in your field
I wish I knew the difference between marketing and sales earlier. Especially what pipeline meant and what I needed to do to build it consistently. Once I learned about this, I understood that I was just another “lead” for a recruiter’s Pipeline 🤪
In parallel I can now build my own pipeline of leads and work them in my own CRM to engineer predictability in my business.
Not to mention having the ability to say no to jobs That aren’t going to strengthen my portfolio.
Love this thread. Definitely to save when it’s good because the ups and downs can be big.
I had a great career. And at 76, I think my current project, my climate initiative will my greatest success ever.
That being said. I made one HUGE error. For the last 6-8 years I tried to get freelance work at $50-75 an hour. I way underpriced myself and immediately identified my age.
Consequently I got little or no work.
Network, network, network. Save, save, save.
- Start an S-Corp
- Open a SEP IRA (max out every year)
- Pay yourself through payroll
Curious about why you are suggesting the S-corp and payroll
Coach
Save 90% of my checks after bills are paid. Make friends with every ECD you work for.
I wish I knew if a role would actually be converted to full-time or not. You don’t get all the perks when you’re a freelancer. I look at it as being half an employee. So, since your treated like half an employee, employer’s get half ass performance. Companies that hire freelancers choose not to fully invest in you so why should you choose to fully invested in them
Well we make a ton more an hour than an employee, so I think we get more and invest fully in the company to get a long term relationship built.
Great thread.
I’d just add:
Clients pay better than agencies.
Don’t get into long-term contracts without a break clause.
If you can produce good work fast, charge a premium for it.
You only need a handful of regular clients. If you’re helpful and add value folks will keep coming back.
If the work isn’t exciting you, use some of that free time and money to do something that does.
Good luck.
Two things: 1) setting the timeline upfront, clients can take it or leave it and 2) making my own template for proposals / SOWs (and for fixed price projects, offering 2-3 options for clients to choose from)
Have an absolute maximum discount you can offer ready in your own mind, and never break that rule.
💯
Better share that eureka moment with Colin Corcoran 😆