Getting Through Freelance Rejection
The new year is always a good time to reflect upon your business practices of the previous year. Did you perform as well as you’d hoped as a freelancer? Or did you get rejected more often than you were expecting?
When you’re turned down for a freelance gig, how does it make you feel? It stings, right? Even when you have a few years of experience. It’s tough enough being a lonely freelancer, tougher still being rejected for a gig you were hoping for – or worse, counting on.
But this is purely a default reaction you’ve allowed yourself to have. If you detach yourself personally from the outcome, then it allows you to move on and try for another gig. The fact is, most of the time, being rejected has nothing to do with you personally.
Some Questions to Ask Yourself
To make it easier to deal with rejection in the future, ask yourself some questions about recent rejections.
- Was this really a slight against me? Don’t take it personally. There are many reasons a freelancer does not get the job, and it’s not always about you. When you realize this, then it’s easier to be detached.
- Did I deliver? Maybe it was about you. Was this an existing client? It’s been said that existing clients are your best source of work. The effort of getting additional work from them is typically less than for finding a new client and an active project. Check back with clients after a project has completed, to be sure that they received what they were expecting.
- Was I qualified? Maybe someone was more qualified. Clients are going to be more conservative during a recession. Improve your skills for the next opportunity.
- Were my rates confusing or just wrong? Were my rates too high for the client? Too low? Believe it or not, the latter might lead some potential clients to believe that you’re not offering very much. Or maybe you are way outside the range of your market without clearly explaining what you offer to justify your rates.
- Did I make clear what I could do for them? If you don’t tell them that you can do “X”, don’t assume they know.
- Did I communicate properly to the client? Don’t assume that a busy client understood everything. Communications in the digital age get rushed. Long emails or chat sessions might not get absorbed. Ask direct questions that solicit a response, instead of just stating something. Repeat unanswered questions in followup communications.
- Was there a personal crisis? Personal situations sometimes come up, and a rejection is sometimes due to that or simply an oversight. By checking back with them or staying in touch, you might gain other work.
Does detachment make you insensitive? Not at all. Consider for a moment the philosophy that many creative people subscribe to: a single, feasible, great idea is the result of having dozens or even hundreds of infeasible ideas.
So photographers take dozens of pictures to get one good one. Inventors try thousands of ways to produce a functioning prototype. As they achieve efficiency of style and work flow, later efforts become easier. Likewise, as a freelancer, you might have to apply for/ bid on several gigs before landing one. This gives you the opportunity to learn skills for applying and/or bidding, and to become efficient at it.
Got the hang of it? Ready to face rejection head on? Check out The Golden Pencil’s Rejection Letter Oympics, where blogger Jenny Cromie challenges readers to go out and get as many rejection letters as possible. The more opportunities you try out for, the better your chances of getting a “yes” at some point. Not trying might save you from rejection, but it limits your opportunities.
Have you been rejected for a project lately? What did you do to get through it?
Hi, Raj! Much of my freelance gigs in the past were accidental–that is, I didn’t go looking for them, but when I did and started bidding for projects in freelance sites, I wasn’t getting any replies and it started to be depressing that I told myself that I wouldn’t expect too much out of it. I think I’ve managed to desensitize myself to rejection that finally when I heard that a project proposal got approved on Christmas Day (which made a wonderful Christmas gift!), the news still didn’t sink until three or four days later. But it was a lovely surprise nonetheless.
So far I’ve been lucky in getting the jobs that I did – I sort of stumbled onto them and am feeling very grateful for that. I have however set goals for myself for 2009, including how many client projects I would like to finish which by itself implies that I need to land those clients.
Setting goals are a good way of improving ones skills as they set challenging yet clearly definited goalposts that allow one to measure success. If you fail, adjust the goal – one of more aspects and try again. if you succeed, make a new goal.
It’s funny. Usually this sort of thing would get to me, but with freelancing it doesn’t. If I’m well prepared and put together a good quote, usually I feel I don’t get the gig for reasons that are out of my control (i.e skill set, price under-cutting, etc.). I do need to be more goal-oriented though if I want to build a larger client base in the new year.
I live in a very small community where I’m not the only designer in town. So exposure is critical!
I decided to pitch my work to the municipal town hall, which would have been a sweet contract. After coming home from the meeting feeling quite confident, I realized that my very first portfolio piece in my presentation had the word “professional” spelled incorrectly. (of all words!) What were the chances “they” missed seeing that error! My answer came when they never called back. JUSTIFIABLY.
MY NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTION: Spell Check! Spell Check! Spell Check! (which I’m doing right now!)
Rejections are a natural part of freelance writing. They’re not fun and can really damper your writing spirit. But rejections can also be a tremendous opportunity. First they give you a chance to reflect and ask yourself many of the same questions that Raj presented in the article.
Think of rejections as an opportunity to create future touch points with someone you want to do business with. A rejection might mean “no” right now. Or it could mean “not for me”. In either case you can go with the opportunity to make adjustments to your original query or proposal and resubmit. Or resubmit to another market or customer prospect—either as-is or after you’ve made revisions.
If you’d like some examples on how you can turn rejections into paid writing assignment and where to find potential markets, read “Take that to the bank! Make money from rejections at http://www.freelancewritermarketingcenter.com/2008/10/take-that-to-bank-make-money-from.html
All best and GREAT fortune,
Sonya Carmichael Jones, Marketing, Direct Response, SEO Copywriter
Of course rejections are a natural part of freelancing, however much we dislike them. I think the key is to keep pitching and get used to rejection, so on the occasion it happens it doesn’t get to you as much!
Yes, it’s a numbers game for sure. There cannot be yeses without nos!
I just got “fired” from a logo design contract, after putting together mock after mock trying to recreate her vision. It turns out she was a very difficult client, and unpleasable, and I am HONESTLY relieved that she doesn’t want to work with me any more. I knew it wasn’t a right contract when we were discussing terms, but I didn’t listen to myself. So, rejection is a great thing sometimes because it means you weren’t meant for the job
This has cost me over 10 hours of my time, and I’ve decided to forgo payment as punishment to myself for not knowing it was wrong to begin with. Lesson learned: some clients don’t want you, but there’s times too when you definitely don’t want the client.
Hey, i have a really crazy question, its not related to your post but i just wanted to give it a try, im a designer, still currently a student of that course and in thesis writing right now. I still havent been approved of any topic so far. its been too long and i still havent thought of a topic that would really be a gist in this course of mine. what topic would you guys suggest?
Having been on both sides of the fence (I worked full-time in publishing before going freelance), I know better than to take rejection personally. Editors are busy, received trillions of query letters a day, have to adhere to an editorial calendar, have to present story ideas to an editorial board, etc. And my story may be the wrong angle, may be too similar to something that’s already been assigned, may have come at the wrong time, etc. The best thing to do is have a list of or spreadsheet of possible homes for your story (or service, or whatever) so that, if you happen to receive a rejection, you can turn around and immediately repitch, instead of wasting time with self-doubt.
I am a freelance recruiting professional, and several months ago, joined forces with a firm that provides RPO services across the nation. I’ve learned the hard way to listen to my common sense, and look at the client closely, before agreeing to terms.
Months into our projects, I realized that nearly all of the clients of this firm were looking for, what we in the recruiting industry refer to as a “Purple Squirrel”, candidate qualifications that are so rigid, we couldn’t find a match out of literally over 400 presented. One client for example, a large large uniform provider, wanted only recent college grads, who were D-1 athletes, who were highly attractive, who had 3-5 years of business-to-business sales experience. Luckily, we were able to present over 10 candidates fitting their criteria. Once accepted, these candidates were subjected to an unbelievable four months process including a total of 11 in-person interviews, 4 phone interviews, 3 full days of “ride-alongs” with the hiring manager, personality testing, proficiency testing, drug testing, background investigation, and after all of that, 3 or so MORE interviews. 5 candidates took other positions, because they could not pin all their hopes on this one job, 2 fell off the planet, and three were eventually rejected by the client as “not a fit”. No further explanation, no commuication. This client then refused to pay their bill, stting they were dissatisfied with our service. We’ve since been made aware they’ve done this to a large number of recruiting firms.
I always keep this in mind when dealing with clients:
Not everybody in the world can say ‘yes’, just like everybody in the can’t say ‘no’; Keep on looking and take nothing personally; Business isn’t a personal attack.