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You are here: Home / Archives for best practices

18 years of freelancing, 18 business lessons

August 31, 2017 by Jake Poinier

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business lessons on the 18th birthday of freelancingI used to know the exact date I walked out of the corporate world with The Box and started my freelance business. Today, I only remember that it was in August 1999. Yep, as of this birthday my business is old enough to vote, buy a lottery ticket, join the army, or drink in Canada and much of Europe. Here, in no particular order, are 18 business lessons from 18 years in business: [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Manage Your Freelance Business Tagged With: best practices, learning from experience, lessons, self-employment, surviving difficult times

Stop worrying about freelancers who undercharge

August 22, 2017 by Jake Poinier

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freelancers-underpricing“Freelancers who undercharge are ruining the business!” “Freelancers who work for free are undermining my prices!”

Nonsense.

[Read more…]

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Filed Under: Make More Money Freelancing Tagged With: best practices, Freelance Pricing, prospective clients, rants, rates too low

Freelance project deposits aren’t just about the money

August 1, 2017 by Jake Poinier

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freelance project depositsDr. Freelance: Like you, I prefer to give prospective clients a range estimate. But once they accept it, what number do I use to determine the amount for freelance project deposits? I’ve heard anywhere from 30-50%—I’m feeling comfortable with 35%, personally—but 35% of what? The low end? The mean? Probably *not* the high end.—Rachel [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Make More Money Freelancing Tagged With: best practices, estimating projects, Freelance Pricing, freelance project deposits, prospective clients, red flags

Value-based pricing: How can it boost your freelance business?

April 25, 2017 by Jake Poinier

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value-based pricingValuing your services on the basis of your skills, knowledge, and experience—as opposed to hourly rates for a task—gives your freelance business a lot more income potential than blindly following rate sheets. It’s not a calculation you can make in isolation, however. A value-based pricing approach requires looking at the situation from the client’s perspective: What can they expect from their investment if they hire you? [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Make More Money Freelancing Tagged With: best practices, client perspectives, Freelance Pricing, freelance rates, return on investment

Stop wasting time on the cutting room floor

April 12, 2017 by Jake Poinier

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cutting room floorSelf-inflicted scope creep often results from perfectionism gone awry. Sometimes, however, it’s caused by the slightly more-noble impulse to convert all of our hard-earned research and interviews into usable text. When I catch myself wasting time that way, I remind myself that readers or freelance clients see the final product. I’m the only one who knows what lands on the cutting room floor. [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Manage Your Freelance Business Tagged With: best practices, freelance writing, scope creep

When heavy editing weighs you down

August 11, 2016 by Jake Poinier

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heavy editingDr. Freelance: I recently acquired a new client who hired me to edit her blog posts, which she writes herself. Let’s just say she’s not the world’s greatest writer, and I did some heavy editing to the first few posts. It was obvious her feelings were hurt, and she chose to return a lot of the copy to the original (including the lead, which was terrible). I saw your post “There’s no crying in freelance editing” and was hoping you could provide some thoughts on how to address my situation. I really want to help her make her blog posts better, but I’m going to lose her as a client if we can’t agree on what “better” is or how we get there.—Better You Bet [Read more…]

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Filed Under: Manage Your Freelance Business Tagged With: best practices, client perspectives, client relationships, Editing, empathy, freelance editing

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