Good advice and practical tips for freelancers, from freelancers
Photo by John Schnobrich on Unsplash
Contributor: Sophie Livingston writes website copy for freelancers. She’s been working with Steve for two years to help bring the podcast to life each week, and she’s now contributing articles to help the Being Freelance community find the stories they’re looking for.
When the world went into lockdown, I raided the archives of the Being Freelance podcast, looking for little nuggets of wisdom and good advice. I’ve collected a few solid things to hold onto at any time, really, but especially now.
If the Being Freelance podcast has taught us anything, it’s that no story is ever straight-forward. Over 200 freelancers and no two tell the same tale. Most of them are full of twists and turns and few of us ever end up where we expected.
At least we’re all in this one together. The sense of community is as strong as we’ve seen it and that is reason enough to feel full of hope.
Change is rarely easy but we’re in a good position, as freelancers. We’re flexible and we can adapt easily. If you’re not freelance yet but you’d like to be, maybe this is the big change you’ve been waiting for.
Something to hold onto, I think, is the idea that even now, it’s the same good advice that’s ringing true.
Below, some of the best tips for freelancers, from guests on the Being Freelance podcast.
I hope you find something here that sticks with you.
PRACTICAL TIPS FOR FREELANCERS, FROM FREELANCERS
Illustrator Ben O’Brien (Ben The Illustrator)
Ben The Illustrator’s always been self-employed. He graduated in 1999 after studying animation and he’s been freelance ever since.
“Financially it's not always easy. There can be ups and downs and I still go through periods now where I get very worried about the volume of work coming in. But I just keep on working. I do a lot of side projects which, more often than not, will bring about client work. If I've got a week and I've got no work booked in, I'll do something to put out there. Very often, this can then lead to someone seeing it and wanting to commission something similar or an old client wanting to get back in touch.”
Ben adds:
“I love doing self-promo. If you have a creative job, self-promotion isn’t just about showing your work, it's about showing how you can promote yourself. If I can sell myself then maybe I can help sell a client.
“It pays to have some original ideas now and again, or even just getting yourself out there to the point that you're sort of unavoidable, that everyone will stumble across your work in some way.”
Melinda Livsey has a similar approach to keeping busy outside of client work.
“Learn how to market yourself. When you don't have client work, don't just sit around. Be working on your business and put the majority of your time into working on your business. Learn how to work on your business, learn marketing, learn business development, learn business to help you.”
Listen to Melinda's episode: Putting in the non-billable hours
Life Coach Holly June Smith
Holly June Smith is a life coach, celebrant and speaker, plus a mum to two young kids. She joined Steve in the community for a Live Q&A on intentions, goals and productivity.
When you need to get in the right mindset to send a pitch, remember her advice:
“Pitching is about selling yourself. It’s understandably a vulnerable thing. Sit down, spend 10, 15 minutes looking back at what’s been really good this year. Make some notes about pieces of work that went really well. See if there were some testimonials or some client feedback you got that made you feel really great. Also, have a think about any big challenges you’ve faced this year and how you’ve overcome them… we often forget to look back and see how far we’ve come. Get yourself energised about the successes that you have had and take that energy out when you’re getting in touch with people.”
Listen to the highlights from Steve’s Live Q&A with Holly (8m 01s)
Copywriter Kelly Dunning
Kelly Dunning’s been travelling the world as a location independent freelancer since 2011. She started on Upwork, built a substantial portfolio and grew her business from there.
“I've found clients through LinkedIn, I've found them through connecting in Facebook groups, and a lot of them come through referrals or word of mouth. I've got a lot of really great clients that way. It's good to have a lot of leads coming into your business in a whole bunch of different ways.”
Kelly thinks that freelancing is more stable than having a full-time job.
“Having a full-time income is like having a river that only flows from one source. If the source dries up, your whole river dries up. Freelancing is like having an income that flows from 10 different little streams. It is the equivalent of a river, but if one stream dries up, you still have nine other little streams. You still have 90% of the water that you did before.”
It’s easier to replace 10% than it is the whole thing.
Writer Paul Jarvis
Paul Jarvis also sees and appreciates the flexiblity of a freelace career.
“You're in charge. You can make the rules of how you want your business to look and obviously it needs to be profitable, it needs to be valuable, it needs to be helpful, but you don't have to run or start a business that looks like somebody else's business to make it legitimate.”
Listen to Paul's episode: Better, not bigger
Related: Highlights from the book club - Company of One, by Paul Jarvis
Art Director Kirsten Murray
Kirsten Murray set herself a goal to be able to travel while working. If you’re working towards something at the moment, try this:
“I highly recommend writing down your goals. It's something that's been really effective for me, and not just writing the goal down, but writing what I will do tomorrow to work towards it, and then in a week's time, a month's time, and six months’. Suddenly it becomes a lot more real and tangible.”
Illustrator Ben O’Brien (Ben The Illustrator)
Ben doesn’t set financial goals but he does set creative ones.
“I nearly always start the year with some kind of a plan, a bit of a refresh. I might go through and sort out my portfolio a little bit, take off projects that I don't want to be out there anymore and look ahead to what I really want to be doing each year, and then find a way to go about achieving those things.”
It might not be the start of the year but you can start fresh whenever you want.
Writer Paul Jarvis
Paul Jarvis has worked for himself for twenty years and he wants to keep going for another twenty.
“That's not gonna happen if I'm burning the candle at both ends or trying to do 16 hour days. I wanna do three or four hours of creative work and then maybe an hour or two of admin work and be done. And that's perfect for me.”
Paul doesn’t want busy to be his default state.
“I can weather the busyness and the stress and the overwhelm if it's sometimes. If it's all of the time, if it's my default state, then I don't feel like that's good for my physical health, my mental health, my social health. I don't think that's good for anything.”
Life Coach Holly June Smith
Holly thinks acceptance can help. Knowing that there will always be more to do and being okay with that.
“I think part of it is being realistic about the fact that there is always going to be more to do. We get stuck in this pursuit of I must get everything done, I must get everything ticked off, and I don’t know a single small business owner out there who finishes the day or the week or the month feeling like everything has been accomplished.”
Holly goes on to share plenty of practical tips and examples here. (Go to 15 minutes 21 seconds on the audio clip to hear more.)
Brand Strategist and Educator Melinda Livsey
Whatever your version of balance looks like, Melinda says that community is essential.
“I can't stress the idea of having a community enough. It is so important to have that. Whether that is just one friend, it'd be great to have more - a small group of friends that you just bounce ideas off of, that you ask questions, that you learn with, is huge. I have a mastermind group that I run, I call them my inner circle. And they are my inner circle. We all share what we're going through, the goals that we're trying to achieve. We support one another.”
Listen to Melinda's episode: Putting in the non-billable hours