Freelancers Are Not Pieces of Meat - Don't Act Like One

https://grouptalent.com/blog/freelancers-are-not-pieces-of-meat

by whather • 13 years ago

33 27 13 years ago

josh2600• 13 years ago

I like this series of blog posts, and I really dig original artwork.

That being said, I find the formatting of this post a bit offputting. To my mind, the header usage clashes with the topic sentence accent (bolding) and I feel like I have trouble focusing on the sentiments.

Good content though; these points apply to all consulting positions, not just developers, although that's certainly the target audience on HN. I note that this piece also doesn't mention what GroupTalent does, which I think is a subtle but effective way of being "above the fray".

Good work again guys.

sherm8n7• 13 years ago

From a content marketing perspective, I don't think they should sell their own product on their own blog too much. Constantly providing valuable content in the freelancing domain will help build more trust with potential customers in the long run.

They do have a small pitch at the end of the blog post about GroupTalent. There's also more call-to-actions on the right column. It's about the right amount mentions.

steverb3• 13 years ago

Wait. There are people who don't bill for meetings?

I understand not charging for the initial meeting where we figure out if we're going to be able to work together, but after that if I'm in a meeting with the customer then it's billable.

That's part of the reason for charging by the hour. An hour of my time is worth X dollars, if the customer wants to pay that so that I can listen to he and his business partner argue about spending money to get more whiteboards in the meeting room (true story) then that's their choice.

jacquesm2• 13 years ago

I don't charge every billable hour. This costs me a couple of hours every now and then but it gets me tons of goodwill back because I'm not the guy that bills for every little tidbit. This translates into customers not being shy about calling me, which in turn translates (more often than not) into business, either direct or by referral. I've made the conscious choice to let the longer term be more important than the shorter term. The near term cost is << 5%, the long term gains have been immense.

Typical things I don't count as billable:

- short phone calls

- meetings that can lead to substantial business

- referrals

- introductions / finding employees

Not always, not with everybody, but more often than not those come at 0 charge and it cements the relationship. If all someone wants from me is an introduction or a referral then they will most likely find a closed door, but for existing customers I really could not justify putting a price on every interaction. Note that this works for me, it could very well not work for you.

orangethirty3• 13 years ago

I do the same and the goodwill generated more than pays for any money made on billing for everything. I also go as far as sending new business towards my client's way. They see me as a part of their team, rather than an outsider. Plus I enjoy helping others succeed.

steverb3• 13 years ago

I don't charge every billable hour simply because I'm not willing to take on the cognitive overhead to keep track of everything.

I do however charge for any phone stuff that takes more than 15 minutes, which is the amount of time it usually takes me to think to myself "I should be billing this", or anything that requires me to be onsite.

I do however put in the occasional discount for things that I feel took me way longer to do than they should have.

sherm8n7• 13 years ago

Charging by the hour caps your income at the number of hours you can physically work. The amount of money they're paying for your service is minimal compared to the amount of money their business will make from it.

steverb3• 13 years ago

Yes, which is why I bill the hourly rate I do and the customer is happy to pay it.

I realize that some people bill by spec, but I personally don't like the overhead that gives to me and I'm quite happy with what billing by the hour brings in.

ghc2• 13 years ago

As someone who has, at one time or another, failed at some or all of these points, I wish I'd seen this before I started out.

It's tempting to devalue yourself when you're new to freelancing or consulting in order to get business. But I'd take it all back and do it the right way after what I've seen.

The first time you make a serious mistake or don't get paid because you didn't ask for payment up front, you learn the hard way that business is, in fact, brutal and you don't get anywhere by being accommodating or nice; you can only go far by being professional and proactive.

sherm8n7• 13 years ago

I made all those mistakes too. And I learned from them quickly. You can not be nice as a freelancer. People will try to treat you like a piece of meat.

yen223• 13 years ago

I'd like to know: without selling yourself cheap, what's the way to get that first client?

danielweber• 13 years ago

Hell, I'd like to know how to get that first client even if you are selling yourself cheap.

Patio11 has a good answer here: offer to lower the rate in exchange for permission to write up a case study on their situation.

ghc2• 13 years ago

It's not easy, even if you sell yourself cheap. It can be done, however. I never asked for references or kept a portfolio of my past work.

To get that first client:

1. Advertise and be picky about where. There are lists of freelancers who are specialized in certain kinds of work. Put yourself on them. You will get desperate people who can't find anyone to take on their job. Some of these jobs will be pretty bad. DO NOT take them, even as a way to build your portfolio. I learned this the hard way. You may think you are superhuman, but burnout is your enemy. Forget oDesk or similar. For example, if you know Django, put yourself into Django people. I got lots of clients that way when I first started out.

2. Use your connections, and build more connections. While I would never sell to friends and family, you can find clients through them. When I was a teenager I started a successful custom PC business this way. You never know who your acquaintances might know and what problems they might have that you can solve.

3. Deny everything. Do not act like you are new. You have to have confidence in being enough of an expert to do the job for anyone to take you seriously. Be the kind of person who doesn't need to give references to get a client. References have only rarely come up for me because I would always demonstrate a firm grasp of what the problem that needed to be solved was and I could offer a careful plan of attack.

4. Sell yourself. I don't mean by blogging or having a website. When you talk to client over the phone or meet them in person, you need to sell yourself as a competent worker. If you've worked on projects that have something to do with the project a client is proposing, say so. You don't need to add qualifiers about it being a hobby project or open source contribution. If you can solve your client's problem your job is to make sure you make them believe that you're the person to do it. Everything else is just details.

5. Avoid LinkedIn. This was easier when I started...it might be harder now. Connecting with potential clients on LinkedIn could expose you as inexperienced (or help if you have lots of corporate experience). Take on small enough projects to start that this doesn't come up. This almost always means your first clients will be small businesses.

6. Repeat to yourself before meeting with a client: "This person will judge me based on our interaction. They will only know my experience level based on this. I am only inexperienced if I lead them to believe it."

bluetidepro2• 13 years ago

I do like this is a great post, don't get me wrong, but does anyone else feel that the points "Stop caring about only the money." and "Don't let clients pay you later." directly contradict themselves? How is it possible to "* Demand payment before you begin any work*" without seeming like you only care about the money?

And while I already know the answers to my questions, because they are meant to be more rhetorical, they may try rephrasing those points for that seemingly direct contradiction.

alanctgardner2• 13 years ago

> Stop caring about ONLY the money

It doesn't say you can't like money, or consider it. They just mean take pride in your work, and love what you do.

If you already know the answer, is it worth writing a comment about? They phrased the headings fine, you read them wrong.

bluetidepro2• 13 years ago

> They phrased the headings fine, you read them wrong.

Fair enough, that may have been the case. I guess I just took it differently.

sherm8n7• 13 years ago

Demanding to get paid before doing any work is beneficial to both parties. It shows that you're both serious about executing on the project. And it doesn't contradict anything because now you care about the success of the engagement. Not the money since you already got the payment over with.

tptacek• 13 years ago

Don't compromise on price

Yes & no. Yes, if there's one thing you learn about pricing in consulting, it's "never ever cut rate" (you will never get a rate cut back). But the point in this article goes on to suggest that you should never back down from your assessment of what a project should cost, and that's going too far. Clients have budgets; sometimes those budgets are indeed too small for you to be productive, but other times they aren't and you should cut project scope to fit. Telling a client to spend more than they're comfortable spending is usually not a good strategy.

Don't do things for free.

No. When what a client needs is cheap and non-disruptive (and, one way to make it non-disruptive is to push the "free" back onto your schedule, which is coincidentally also a clean way to turn "free" into "paid" when the client balks at how long they'll have to wait), you should go ahead and do it to maintain the relationship. Doing favors for clients is, I promise you, cheaper than hiring salespeople. If you have a client that can't be trusted not to abuse favors, fire the client.

Lesson in human nature: there are few things you can do in a business relationship that are more offensive than charging for something that your counterparty doesn't expect to be charged for. So, one thing never to do: take an inbound request from a client, do the work with no contract, and then send an invoice.

Don't let clients pay you later

No, at least, not when you're working with companies of 100 or more people. You can negotiate payment terms, but you should learn how to sniff out payment processes that are nonnegotiable. Trying to convince a Fortune 500 company to pay you in installments or, worse, withholding work based on those installments is a recipe for disaster. It doesn't even help you; it just creates an opportunity for the client to continually second-guess whether they're getting value from the engagement. I expect 30 web developers to chime in here with client horror stories. My response to all of them will be the same: don't work as a web developer for small businesses. Also: some of your best clients will be the worst at handling payments. Build your business so that it can thrive even on slow payments.

Don't work for clients who can't be trusted to pay you. Real clients wouldn't dream of skipping out on a payment; what possible upside could there be to that? "Woopity-doo, we saved $30,000 and trashed our reputation and I got fired! Look how smart I am!"

Don't be at their beck and call

Sounds good to me. Set clear expectations. If you answer your emails at 9:00PM, clients will expect you to keep doing that. The flip side of this is that clients are usually entitled to set the terms on which you communicate, and if the client wants 10:00AM meetings, be prepared to roll out of bed 3 hours early to get on the call.

Don't part take in useless meetings

You should stay out of internal meetings; you shouldn't be a part of the weekly staff all-hands. But be aware that some "useless" internal meetings are resolving communications problems between stakeholders in your project. You don't get value out of those meetings, but your clients get value out of having you there. When skip out of the meeting, you become a shadowy figure or a weird black box that people resent and blame for communications issues. You can blame the client for being irrational about this (and subsequently lose the client), or, just get on the phone for the meeting.

Don't write lengthy proposals

And lose engagements to the consultancies that will.

Don't wait until client asks for an update

Yep. Daily status mail. I wish I could make myself do this reliably, because it's helped every time I've done it.

Stop caring about only the money

I didn't understand this point.

Don't do everything clients asks

This strikes me as a dumb reason to get fired by a client.

maratd• 13 years ago

> Doing favors for clients is, I promise you, cheaper than hiring salespeople. If you have a client that can't be trusted not to abuse favors, fire the client.

You're absolutely right, but I want to put it another way. I actively price in "one extra thing" for every project. This way, when a client asks for an extra tweak there or a small extra feature there, I don't feel bad because I already priced that in and the client feels good because they think they're getting a bonus freebie.

Virtually ever client asks for a little extra and since I already priced it in, I have no qualms with providing it. Everybody walks away happy.

Freelancers Are Not Pieces of Meat - Don't Act Like One

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