It’s a hot topic: Should freelancers use a contract? And if so, how do you go about creating one?

By now, you have probably gotten the idea that if you want to be in serious business as a freelancer, you’ve got to get things in writing. So, where do you start? How do you face the legalese demons? Relax and read on—I promise it’s not that hard if you keep an open mind. Remember, half the things we do in our businesses (for me, accounting and marketing) aren’t things we necessarily like. This is probably one of them for you. But it’s also a vital step in ensuring a professional business that runs smoothly.

First, decide what you need out of a contract. The basic contract includes information on your pay rate, payment timeline and a deadline for the project to be submitted. If you look at my contract, I have a clause in there about being able to use work on my Web portfolio because that was important to me. Whatever else you want to stipulate, it’s good to make a list highlighting the points you need covered.

Now it’s time to create the document. This will not be enjoyable or easy in most cases, but it’s a must. My contract is a good place to start, but you may want to scour the Internet and look at other freelancers’ sites to get an idea of what common agreements say. It’s okay if the copy–paster in you wants to come out here, but don’t solely rely on that to originate a document. You want the agreement to be customized to suit the specific needs of your business.
Continue Reading

Ok, confession time — I like to write. I guess that can be a good thing, but often it can also be bad. Why? Because I tend to write too much when something short would have worked just as well.

At one time, I became known for the length of my emails. I was sort of proud of it at the time, thinking my rhetoric and wit were appreciated by all. But then I realized I was pretty much just wasting everyone’s time.

Being wordy can waste your valuable time and it can also frustrate your readers and clients by wasting their time as well. So, if you tend toward wordiness like I do, why not challenge yourself to streamline your communications, or your proposals, or whatever else you’re writing.

I know it’s hard. After all, I’ve got a lot of brilliant thoughts in my head right now that I’d like to add to this article. But, I think the point has been made.

‘Nuff said.

There’s nothing worse than having to admit that you’re wrong. Even when you’ve made the tiniest of errors. But I’ve found that being a freelancer makes the smallest mistake blow into huge proportions. Because when you show vulnerability—in my case, not carefully proofreading—you wonder if that will get you canned. Because, let’s face it: Sometimes it is easy for client to let you go when you’re “just a contractor.”

Case in point, I have a client that expects me to be a perfectionist. With tight deadlines and a full-time load of work, I keep this client around simply because I make good money with them. Lately, though, I’ve found that they can’t accept I’m human. I make an occasional mistake—they rub my face in it. In this case, I’m a good writer, but I don’t always proofread well. Plus, I could do a better job if the deadlines weren’t so tight, but that’s also the nature of this particular job.
Continue Reading

By Kristen Fischer

I got to thinking this week about a client that has been hanging on by a thread. Dangling, if you will.

This client seems to dangle because, as one of my steady jobs, my hours have steadily decreased over the past six months. Still, they insist there will be more hours. They also admit they’ve changed some internal processes and don’t need me to put in as many hours.

On many occasions, I have thought about dropping the client. Sometimes to beg for hours is a drag, and I can spend more time submitting an invoice than I do on actual work for them. Still, I’ve hung on–just like they have to me.
Continue Reading

By Ivan Brezak Brkan

For one reason or another, a lot of freelancers use Macs. It may be the raw power, the stability or they may just look rather – cool? Well, both of us know why that really is. It’s the apps! The software that makes the hardware bling, and it’s not necessarily thanks to Apple. Aperture and iCal may be nice, but often we rely on the smaller, even more useful applications. Here’s a list of great little applications that the Mac-powered freelancer should consider.

1. Text Expander

is a great little application for all those little snippets of text you need all the time. Writer? Typos can trigger Text Expande. Developers? No more code library needed. Designers? Well, we can always add signatures to email, right?

2. Quicksilver

is a world of its own. Unlike most launchers, the best thing about Quicksilver is that it’s not only a launcher. As probably the best productivity application on the Mac, it’s something you need to learn how to use in order to master it.

3. Backdrop

is very simple. Just fill in a color or image and hide the desktop clutter. Need minimalistic? Now you have it…

4. Shoo Apps

does what the long forgotten (or so it seems) Spirited Away did. it hides inactive applications.

5. Hazel

is a maid for your Mac. Have a lot of files just sitting waiting to be organized? Well, Hazel can move those files based on the criteria you set up. Be it name, date, location or what site or e-mail the file came from, this little application takes care of it.

6. Sticky Windows

is an application I personally can’t live without anymore. Say hello to tabs. Drag a window to the top, left or right edge of the screen and a tab will appear. To remove a tab, you just drag it away. It’s that simple.

7. Pzizz

is quite neat. It creates custom nap and sleep melodies for you to help you relax. Need a power nap – take one. It really may help, or it may just work as placebo. But hey, why not try it?

8. Scrivener

is a great tool for writers. From brainstorming, to outlining to writing in fullscreen mode, this application supports all the creative phases that a writer encounters. Say goodbye to Word and just… Write!

9. Writeroom

is a simple, yet very powerful application and full screen writing is the name of the game. Not more, but less. If the complexity of modern word processors isn’t inspiring, work it all out with Writeroom.

10. Avenir

is a writing application specialized for fiction. Characters, locations, scenes. If you’re a fiction writer, Avenir will give you even more flexibility in writing your next bestseller.
Continue Reading

By Steve Spatucci

When you work in a creative field, certain assumptions are made about you. It’s assumed that you listen to bands that no one has ever heard of (guilty), people are predisposed to believe that you’ll eat strange foods (uh oh), and you’re generally expected to look and behave like an “artiste” – dressing like you’re from the future, not paying attention to schedules, being unresponsive to e-mails – that sort of thing. The image of the turn-of-the-last-century Parisian impressionist – complete with beret – is not wholly invalid here. I’ve seen it happen.

It didn’t take me long to learn that even the slightest professional behavior – wearing an ironed shirt, preparing detailed outlines – even speaking clearly on the phone – has earned me points with clients. These things aren’t exactly huge efforts – in fact, I once believed they were necessary to running a business – but apparently, not so.
Continue Reading

By Kristen Fischer

I proudly finished up the manuscript for my second book this week. Of course to do it, I need a few days off. So I asked my beloved employers for some time away, and was met with resistance.

Let me start off my saying that there were no deadlines or commitments involved that I asked to have pushed back…just rotating projects I had my pick of taking, and appointments to set. So when I got emails asking me to “just do this one” when it came to projects, and to “just squeeze me in” when it came to setting consultation appointments, I was shocked.

Do my clients think I’m a pushover? Is that why they wouldn’t let me take a break when I needed it?

I have to say, I think I forged their behavior. I’m always the one picking up a last-minute assignment and tending to clients’ every wish when it comes to work. Naturally when I put up some resistance, they did, too. This isn’t the Kristen I know, they must have said.

But they learned to deal. Assignments got done and client calls got scheduled. Maybe not when my customers wanted it all done, but all that matters is that it got completed.

Have you encountered this? Here are some tips to help you set boundaries with clients so it’s not a bombshell the next time you need off when something comes up.
Continue Reading

By Brett Derricott. Brett is the founder and CEO of Agency Fusion, a web development company built especially for agencies and designers. Brett blogs about technology as it relates to design and advertising at agencybyte.com.

They say that all is fair in love and war. I’m confident there are also some who would add that all is fair in business too. Defining what is “ethical” in business is difficult at best, especially such that everyone else will agree, but creating a code of ethics to define what you will and will not do in the name of business is a more manageable task.

Establishing your own code of ethics and adhering to it strictly has at least 5 benefits.

1. Customers Will Respect You
If you plan on being a freelancer for the long haul, establishing long-term relationships with key customers is critical to your success and happiness. Fostering these relationships requires that you make decisions with a long-term perspective rather than a project-specific or short-run perspective.

Being honest and upfront with your customers is an absolute requirement in establishing these types of relationships. There are at least three common subjects that are easier to avoid than to discuss upfront:
Continue Reading

By Mathias Meyer

Image from iStockPhoto

Client relations aren’t easy, just as personal relationships can be challenging. But are they that different? When looked at closely they actually seem pretty similar:

The Friendship

The Good: You’re best buds, you’re both pretty sure you can talk about anything, tell each other everything. Problems are there to be talked about, so that’s what you do, usually over a beer. You seal deals with a handshake, since friends don’t need any contracts, quotes, or other written documents.

The Bad: Money is a weird issue for you. It feels uncomfortable to charge a friend, right? So you avoid it, postpone charging till the last possible opportunity, and even then it doesn’t feel right. Smaller jobs are not worth charging for anyway, so you do some of the work as a favour for them, because that’s what friends do. Over time the work adds up, and you realise that you really could have used the money you haven’t charged but are afraid to bring it up – because that might lead to:

The Ugly: After you realise you have money problems, you want to talk about it, but your friend points out the obvious: You are friends and friends don’t charge each other money. Plus, you don’t have anything signed to prove it. You charge him anyway, since you need the money. Things get messy, and you have to go to court. You go separate ways afterwards and never call each other again.
Continue Reading

By Robert Janelle

Image from iStockPhoto

Many of us tend to keep our clients at an arms length; they tell us what to do, we do it, they give us monies, everyone is happy.

Personally, though, I’ve had more success and enjoy my work a lot more by moving beyond the “strictly business relationship.”

Getting to know clients on somewhat of a more personal level helps them see you as more than a voice on the phone that makes articles, graphics, websites, etc appear and can make repeat business more likely, or it could increase the likelihood that they’ll be more willing to help you in other ways later.

As an example, a few months back, an editor asked me to drop by his office to pick up some documents he wanted me to use for an article. While there, we start talking about politics and before I know it, we’re looking for an angle on the issue we’re discussing for his publication and I walk out with a second assignment I wouldn’t have gotten had we stuck to business.

It could often involve just an extra 10 minutes of small talk, but that 10 minutes can go a long way to getting referrals and repeat business.

Get to know them

You can learn a surprising amount people with that extra few minutes of small talk, but you can also get to know clients simply by doing a bit of homework. As a writer, I always study a client’s publication – what kind of articles do they editors write themselves? What positions do they take in their editorials? With other industries, it can simply be a matter of checking their website or blog if they have one. There you can learn about their hobbies, sense of humour and political inclinations, all of which can be great fodder for discussion at meetings.
Continue Reading

By Kristen Fischer

Image from iStockPhoto

It was just the other day when I submitted a writing assignment. After saving my final draft and sending it off to my boss, I took a deep breath. It was another success for a regular gig, and I had managed to get it done before deadline—as always.

But just when I thought everything was fine, a return email from my boss with a replied subject line appeared in my inbox. Expecting him to confirm he received the project, I unknowingly opened up the email to find a statement that set me off. After telling me there was an error in the title, he wrote, “Come on!”

Now, I know what “Come on!” feels like when you’re being cheered on or motivated. This was not that kind of two-word phrase. It was a snap. A sarcastic brush off that shocked me. First, I had made a mistake, which is always frustrating to cope with because I want every client to be satisfied with my work. But more so, it was how my boss said it that upset me most. It was like he was spitting out nasty comments to someone who didn’t matter, and he could say it because we weren’t face to face.

Who does he think he is, I asked myself. What’s so hard about saying, “There’s an error on the title. Please fix it and return.”
Continue Reading

Here at FreelanceSwitch, we love to talk about clients and on occasion some of their failings and characteristics, but let’s face it, most freelancers aren’t that perfect themselves. So today we’ve put together 13 Breeds of Freelancer, see if you recognize a bit of yourself in there…

Freelancer Breed #1

The Artiste Freelancer

Is This You?
You are a master of what you do, or at least you think so. Criticism from a client is often met with disbelief or anger and if a client asks for a small change you lament that the whole project is ‘ruined’.
Fulfilling your clients needs isn’t as nearly as important as making it ‘really cool’ and when you talk about your clients, somehow phrases like ‘stifling my creativity’, ‘pleb’, and ‘uneducated buffoon’ keep popping up.

The Highs:
If you’re fiery enough many clients will become too scared to critique you leading to very few revisions. Even if they do ask you for revisions you can always make up reasons why you don’t need to listen anyway. Your portfolio looks exactly the way you want it to.

The Lows:
Your adverse reactions to various client requests mean that often your clients don’t actually get the work they wanted. Plus thanks to your high maintenance you are beginning to develop a reputation – unfortunately it’s probably not the one you were after. If you push them far enough, your clients may refuse to pay you. And because you are unwilling to accept that you may be wrong on things you miss out on opportunities to improve your work.

All of this pales however compared to those horrible situations when after you have finally succumbed to your client’s wishes, the project actually turns out better than it would have if you were left to your own devices!

Picking Up Your Game:
Being an Artiste doesn’t usually mix well with the business of freelancing since most clients want the project to fulfil their needs not yours. When you put a lot of yourself into your work, it’s hard to separate criticism for the work and criticism of you. Unfortunately this is the day-to-day reality of freelancing and you need to grow a thick skin to protect your fragile ego. Try not to expect a first draft or concept to be greeted with congratulations and you won’t feel quite so devastated when you need to revise.

What often works is to think of client requests and revisions as constraints in an elaborate game that you are trying to conquer. Look at them in a positive light and do your best work within those constraints and your clients will be happier, your work will often wind up better and you’ll be a more successful freelancer.

Freelancer Breed #2

The Payin’-The- Bills Freelancer

Is This You?
Although there was a time when you loved what you do, recently it feels like nothing more than a way to support yourself. You don’t really feel any interest in improving your skills and ‘passionate’ or ‘committed’ aren’t adjectives your clients would use to describe you.

The Highs:
Continue Reading