Freelancefolder

Pros and Cons of a Public Price List

Posted March 16, 2010 in Managing Clients, Marketing 41 Rockin' Comments »

As freelancers, we can be very flexible on pricing. We can charge by the project, charge by the hour, increase our rates for rush jobs, decrease them for charities or work completely for free for our friends and family if we choose.

However, some freelancers instead choose to publicly disclose their prices on their website or brochures, eliminating some of the flexibility they may have on pricing. There are pros and cons to this issue. In this post, we’ll discuss some of the issues so that you can think about them before putting your prices up where everyone can see them.

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Ten Plus Ways to Help You Get Paid

Posted March 12, 2010 in Managing Clients 34 Rockin' Comments »

It’s the one thing that every freelancer dreads–collecting a payment from a delinquent clients. No freelancer ever wants to have to pick up the phone and call a client to ask about a late payment.

Yet, sooner or later, many of us are faced with a client who doesn’t pay us on time. It’s normal, I think, to procrastinate in such circumstances. You tell yourself that the check will be in tomorrow’s mail, but in your heart, you know it’s not really coming.

Getting paid is vital to a freelancer. In fact, the money we receive for our services is what enables us to keep doing what we love. It’s how we support our families and ourselves.

Fortunately, there are some steps a freelancer can take to prevent payment problems from occurring in the first place as well as some steps to follow when a payment is late. In this post, we’ll discuss ten of those steps.

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The Slippery Slope of Creeping Scope

Posted March 9, 2010 in Managing Clients, Productivity 26 Rockin' Comments »

Uncontrolled scope creep costs you money.

When a client asks you to do something that wasn’t part of the original agreement it’s called scope creep.

Some scope creep is relatively minor and doesn’t really make much difference to your freelancing business. Doing a little bit of extra work for a client can be a good way to build up some good will.

In other instances, however, scope creep can drastically increase your workload and negatively impact your bottom line. These are the cases of scope creep that can really damage your freelancing business if they are not addressed.

In this post, we’ll explore some options that a freelancer has for dealing with scope creep.

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Turning Around Your Freelance Business with Lead Nurturing

Posted March 7, 2010 in Managing Clients, Marketing 25 Rockin' Comments »

Before I was a freelancer, I sold software for a living.

Unfortunately, my employer didn’t have much of a marketing team. So, it was up to me to find my own prospects.

That was a lot of work. But, it’s also what led me to eventually quit my sales job to become a successful freelance copywriter.

You see, by having to write my own marketing and sales materials, I learned a lot about what it takes to generate a steady stream of leads. For instance, I noticed that only about 10 percent of the leads I was generating were actually ready or willing to talk with me about my product.

That was no surprise. But, what shocked me was how many of the other 90 percent (the ones who weren’t ready when they first contacted me) bought from me 3, 6, or 12 months later—as long as I stayed in touch!

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Uh-oh! Seven Steps to Deal with an Unhappy Client

Posted March 4, 2010 in Managing Clients, Marketing 39 Rockin' Comments »

It can happen to the best of us: a client is disappointed with the work we turned it. Perhaps we completely missed what they said they wanted. Or, maybe we’ve been tired and didn’t produce stellar work. Maybe said client was having a bad day.

Whatever the reason, the bottom line is, your client is unhappy with your work. You’re at the brink of losing this client and everybody else he would have referred to you.

All is not lost. In fact, if you handle the situation correctly, you could end up with a client who respects and admires you even more.

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Bad First Impressions That Can Drive Potential Clients Away

Posted March 3, 2010 in Business, Managing Clients 43 Rockin' Comments »

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. Those initial defining moments can be the determining factor for whether or not a client hires you, so it is critical to make them count.

When a potential client makes first contact–by email, phone, IM, social media or in person–everything you do and say will have a lasting impact on their perception of who you are, how you operate, and more. It is important to ensure that this impact is positive, and not the opposite. This post will point out some of the worst first impression mistakes a freelancer can make and give some direction for ways to avoid them.

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Seven Reasons Not to Meet with Prospective Clients

Posted March 1, 2010 in Managing Clients, Marketing 53 Rockin' Comments »

Should you meet a prospective client face-to-face?

There’s an ongoing debate about whether or not having a face-to-face meeting with a client is beneficial. Many freelancers believe that a face-to-face meeting is crucial to landing new clients. Other freelancers choose to work virtually, never meeting their clients in person.

Which is better?

From my perspective, the answer is: it depends. While there are definitely some instances when a meeting may be what clinches the deal with a prospect, there are other times when a face-to-face meeting is not wise.

Here are some instances when a personal meeting with the client just isn’t worth it.

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Why You Are Losing Clients (How to Stop)

Posted February 17, 2010 in Managing Clients 37 Rockin' Comments »

We spend a lot of time on Freelance Folder talking about marketing. That is because good marketing is very important to a freelancer’s success. It is important to get those clients in the door and signed up for your products or services if you are going to earn enough to really support yourself as a freelancer.

For some freelancers, though, that “in” door is actually a revolving door. If this is you, it may seem that no sooner do you get a client signed up for your products or services than they leave. You have no idea why you are losing clients, but you know that it has to stop.

This post should take some of the mystery out of why freelancers lose clients. It will also provide some tips for how to hang on to the clients that you do have.

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Get Your Clients to Stop Comparing Rates

Posted February 15, 2010 in Managing Clients, Marketing 49 Rockin' Comments »

You are the best at what you do. No other freelancer can do what you do as well as you do it.

The problem, however, lies in getting clients to understand this. This is particularly hard if you’re still in the start-up stage, where you’re having to find the clients, instead of them coming to you.

In certain industries, like design, it’s easier to get the client to understand the difference in quality and rates (although designers still get rate-comparing clients), but if you’re a developer or writer, it’s tougher to get the client to understand the difference.

So how do you convince the client that your $100 an hour services are better than the other guy’s $30 an hour services?

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