Next week the Freelancers Union will mark an important milestone: we will run the big 3-0.
It is clear that the world is much different than 30 years ago, and also the company of Freelancen by expansion. Freelancers are naturally agile, and just like the last three decades of freelancers have forced to navigate through a constantly changing media, technology and economic landscape, the Freelancers Union has also grown and changed.
In the spirit of navigating through change and coming back, even after you have been brought down, we asked freelancers to share some of the “mistakes” they made in the course of their freelance career.
Our members kindly shared their stories, as can be seen below, which will give you both things of things to consider in your own freelance career, as well as a reminder that lessons learned do not break a career, but help build one.
“I made the mistake several times of works before a contract or deal memo was published. Every time, surprise, the company wanted to pay much less than what I quoted.” – Khalil
“I continued to take on a customer for a few months after invoices had not been paid, all the time with the customer thanked me and praised, tells me things like” you are good! “And kidding about going to Vegas with my paycheck (no joke) insisted that I stop working.
Once I had done that and did not hear from the client after repeated attempts to contact her, I took her to a small claim shof, but had to travel to the state in which the client lived to do this. The moment my husband was lucky to pay our travel costs and to accompany myself in court, and I won, but if I had done that completely alone, I would have had to eat those travel costs (other than to specify them as business costs), and lose money with time lost from work, as well as tackling the entire Ordale, without moral support. And there was a second mistake together with this: I accidentally converted some of the figures into the amount I asked to be compensated, so that I received $ 2,580 versus $ 2,850 – certainly a large brain cramp there! I realized my mistake after the arbitration, but before I left the courtroom, so I asked the judge if I could turn that number into the correct amount, but he thought that, unfortunately, a no-go. Being a bit embarrassing in a profession in which accuracy is of the utmost importance. So, learned there too! ” – T.
“An error that I made more than once was only at the end of the payment at the end. If the author or the company decided to revise something after my work had been done, unless I was paid for extra, and so on. ‘ – Peggy
“The only mistake I continue to make is to determine a fee that is too low. I have made progress over the years, and lately I have charged myself more and felt good about it. An error of years ago that stays with me that I was pushed around by a few art directors with a financial magazine. I am happy to work together.
“Where do I start? I have just retired for about 35 years of freelancing, writing and consulting in convincing communication, especially for architects. That gave me a lot of time and many opportunities for errors. But let me offer one that can be useful for other freelancers, whatever their specialty is.
A number of times I made the mistake of hiring the wrong customer, the result of not asking the right questions. This was a special problem when I was recruited to help an architect with an entry for Fellowship to the AIA College of Fellows. It is an exceptionally complicated and long -term process and I have worked on more than 40.
Error #1: Occasionally I was approached by an architect who is simply not a good candidate. I should refuse to hire them, but it is difficult to tell someone “that you don’t have the goods.” Working with someone who is not a good candidate is a miserable job. If they also refuse to understand what the AIA is looking for, it is a head-banging time.
Error #2: Early I was not clear enough about the tasks that I do not take.
Error #2A: Sometimes I have not asked any detailed questions about who the customer uses for graphic design. I should never have hired an assignment with the wrong designer – but occasionally I did.
Error #2B: There is a lot of nit picking, annoying, often nonsensical rules in a fellowship entry. I should always have been clear that I not only do this, but also that the candidate has to point out to someone in his own house who understands all this, especially all electronic things.
Error 3: I should have been emphatically about the need for a team and the absolute requirement that the candidate is directly involved. Some candidates seem to think that after they have retained me, they can outline a super -healing building. It is important to let a customer understand that they do not buy furniture to be delivered.
And finally, a suggestion: although the type of work I have usually done has a clear goal, it can be really useful for other types of projects to ask for an assignment: “How do I know when you think I have passed?” If you are in the public relations and the customer’s answer is’ when I am on the coverage of [choose the publication]”Run away.” – Erika
“I was dealing with a woman who delayed my (and a colleague) invoices and delayed to the point that I had problems paying my bills on time. It did not cause sadness to end. I should have crossed her head to whom her supervisor was after it was twice. – Anonymous
“Here is a list of the errors on top of the head:
- Has not saved $ for quarterly taxes.
- Has not signed a friend a contract for a job.
- I worked for and with people I suspect. Never again. ” – Anonymously
“I am relatively new in freelancing, but I have discovered that I gave away too much information at the beginning – so much even that they did not have to hire me. I had to charge for the first consultation, but instead I would tell if I was aware of the project, I would add that time.” – Anonymously
“I discovered that I had not charged my customers enough for my work. I started to make incremental additions to my costs and my customers did not complain.” – Anonymously
“Soft, the worst mistake I made was leaving freelance/fractional work and it at a company at a company. I made more as a freelancer, but I needed health care, and the idea of ​​benefits was attractive. I also tended to compare my route with the titles of my friends. Great forgissions. Great forgissions. Great forgissions. Great forgions. Great mistake.
My second mistake that I work to develop into a power was trying to follow the market. When technology became all anger, I migrated to UX research. Although the Pivots were valuable, the market is flooded with researchers with a limited Bootcamp training that believe they know more than they do.
My third mistake was interrogating myself. As a freelancer you often miss access to information that can be crucial for your recommendations. Because I was sensitive to this, I surrendered to self -protection. I felt that flying under the radar was safer than going against each other if necessary. ” – Anonymously
“I did a lot of work for people who never paid me what had been agreed as a final payment. I just expected my customer to be honest and responsible enough to finally pay me my normal earnings. I had to learn about keeping track of better sales and transactional payment history.
Research into the execution of a more organized company is the following on my to do list. ” – Siregar
“Earlier in my career I was not diligent about following up customers on earlier invoices. Many editorial customers had a net 60-day term, but everyone was still too late. To increase this, I didn’t want desperate or difficult, so I would give a fool of a grace period. Runaround for 6 months, I never received a bankruptcy and received.
Now my invoices have a net period of 30 days and I often receive payments within 20 days. I ask customers to ‘confirm that the invoice has been received and stands in line for processing’. I follow when I don’t hear it and I mark the expiry date on a calendar. I do not only assume that my contact will send the invoice to the right department. I kindly ask them to confirm it when the invoice is sent. – Jay
“As soon as you start spending or earning money in your company, you have a good accountant in line and also a good accountant. At least pay attention to the basic rules and you can now find all easily with AI – but you still need a professional.
Get written agreements for everything for which you have been accepted. A contract is the best, but even an e -mail that gives up overtime, for example, has stored my ass with customers who wanted to change the conditions after the work was done.
Do not fall into the fall of obsessed with equipment, because what is important is what you do with it, not with the latest tools.
I tell myself all the time that ‘nothing good happened to me when I was sitting alone on the couch, “so it’s good to meet people there. A consequence of that first explanation is: “The good that once happened to me in my career came with another person.”
Related to that last explanation is something that I have told many sound boys that I have trained earlier in their career: at least be competent in your trade, show up on time and don’t be a bastard and you are 80% of the way to success. ” – Ed
“I did not pay my quarterly taxes and it was the worst snowball effect.” – Anonymously
“My mistake was not to stay in my lane. Coming from a company background, I started focusing on LinkedIn -connections and marketing. I also looked for local companies in the industry that I was most famous with. But when I started working with (very) small business owner friends whose customers were local companies, my ADHD -Restensen Waarde appeared.
It only came up with me years later that I could have had a level of prices based on the type and size of the business community (or individual) that I focused on. This would have enabled me to market both B2B and B2C. ” – Roxanne
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