Work for Free!

When starting out as a freelancer it is difficult to decide on what rate to charge. Very often you will not have references to prove your bona fides, repeat clients to rely on or an established name. In that case the only way to compete is on price. You can work for free, but should you?

The video below has been doing the rounds for a while and is intended to dissuade people from doing "spec work". In case you aren't familiar with the term, spec is short for speculative. A business may ask someone to do work for free on the understanding that this is a "foot in the door" and could result in more work in future or gain you exposure.

Spec work generally crops up in creative fields, although I have been asked for spec work and no one has ever described me as a creative! Watch the video and we'll talk more afterwards.

This topic came to me as a result of my new favourite podcast, Hello Internet. As an aside, if you have never heard of it I recommend listening, the two guys on there discuss some really interesting topics. On the most recent episode they had a fascinating discussion about this video and spec work in general. You can listen to it starting at 1:12 on episode 61.

Listening to their discussion helped clarify some thoughts that I have had on the subject. I wrote a post at the start of this blog about how to compete with low cost countries. In that post I said that you should "demonstrate your quality and the right clients at the right rates will come." I still believe that and my career is proving it as my rates continue to climb. However, while I never had to work for free at the start of my career I did work for much, much lower rates than I do now or ever had since my paper round when I was 12 years old. You can see how my hourly rate changed during 2015 in this chart:

When you are starting out as a freelancer you will need to think tactically. You need to honestly and critically assess your skills; what gives you a competitive advantage over others in your field? As a fledgling writer you might come up with the following list:

• Experience in the legal industry
• Internship with a magazine
• Punctual & reliable
• Poem published on a well known website

Those are all great but one thing that will almost certainly be missing from this list is an established brand name or reputation. If you do have one of those then start celebrating; the world is your mollusc and you can feel free to charge whatever you like. If not, then you might add to the list:

• Will work for free

I don't want to sound very cynical but I don't believe the people who made that video did it out of a sense of civic duty. I think they are established professionals who do not want young upstarts to work for free and drive down the value in the market.

I'm not saying that you should do it. I have friends who have done it and had nothing come of it. I also know people who have gained a benefit. If nothing else you should carefully consider it but be aware that it is a gamble. It's up to you whether you choose to roll the dice.

Get in touch if you would like to discuss this more.

Infusionsoft for Freelancers

This week an article I wrote is featured on the Upwork Hiring Headquarters. As you probably know, Upwork is one of the largest online freelancing sites and the site that Agi and I use most. I'm really happy to be featured on Upwork as it has been my "home" for quite a while! The Hiring Headquarters is part of the Upwork blog with information for freelancers and clients. You can see a short excerpt below, head on over to the site to read the full article:

I was first introduced to Infusionsoft about 13 months ago through a client. Over the past year, I’ve learned the basics of this amazing tool and am now about to complete my Infusionsoft Certified Partner exam.

In this article, I’ll cover a little bit about what this powerful software is and what it can do for both small businesses and freelancers.

https://www.upwork.com/hiring/marketing/an-introduction-to-infusionsoft/

My General Resolutions

I have been doing a lot of thinking recently about what it takes to be a successful freelancer. This sort of coincides with the new year but that is more coincidental than intentional. The following are some ideas about how to achieve more as a freelancer which may, from a distance, bear a resemblance to new year’s resolutions.

Continue Your Professional Development

I worked for 3 major international business prior to becoming a freelancer. All 3 of those companies invested a large amount of money in ongoing professional development. I had courses covering a wide range of topics from effective communication to project management to being a good leader. Some of these courses were great, some were good and some felt like a waste of time. However, most courses taught me something that I could use in my life.

Since becoming a freelancer I have not done a single minute of training. All of my time has been focussed on earning money, finding new clients or having fun. Those are all very important but it has been clear to me recently that I need to continue developing my skills. Clients’ needs change and I need to be able to meet them if I want to continue earning money, finding new clients and having fun.

Professional development doesn’t have to be expensive or arduous. The internet is literally overflowing with free courses to learn web development, graphic design, ancient Sumerian agricultural practices... you name it. I have invested time recently in studying HTML & CSS, something that my clients need. I did this using the Odin Project, a free resource to learn all aspects of web development. I am also going to become an Infusionsoft Certified Partner. Infusionsoft is something I have been getting more involved in over the past year and want to do more of. The certification is not cheap but it is something I enjoy and should enable me to get more business at higher rates of pay in 2016.

Invest in Yourself

Long before becoming a freelancer I have been a frugal man. I hate spending money frivolously. I even hate spending money non-frivolously. Show me something that I want to have, is a good investment and useful for work and I will hem and haw about spending the money for months. If there is a cheaper option then I will almost always choose that.

Another thought I have had recently is that my frugal nature has been counterproductive to my work. I needed a new computer last year and I set myself a low budget. I found a laptop that was good, not great and bought it. Since then it has consistently disappointed me; boot time is painful, there are frequent lags and it just isn’t really what I need.

Part of being a freelancer is knowing what you need to do a good job. If you worked in an office that consistently bought sub standard computers and equipment you would complain that the company was hampering your ability to do a good job. Being a freelancer is no different except that you are the one in control of the budget! If you scrimp on your equipment then you are harming no-one but yourself.

I recently bit the bullet and bought myself a new MacBook Pro. It has been like a breath of fresh air. It boots up in under 30 seconds, it never hangs on a screen and I can have as many applications open as I want. I often comment that one of the best things about being a freelancer is that I can work anywhere I have my laptop and an internet connection. Therefore the most important piece of equipment for me is my laptop and I should invest in a good one. I’m not advising you to spend money you don’t have but make sure you give yourself the best chance to do the work you want to do.

A few thoughts for the new year. As I mentioned, these aren’t new year’s resolutions exactly but more like lifetime resolutions. What lifetime resolutions have you made? Let me know here.

Working Remotely: Can I Compete Online with Low Cost Countries?

Working Remotely: Can I Compete Online with Low Cost Countries?

This is a question I asked myself when I first entered the world of working remotely. When I saw the number of people applying for jobs at incredibly low rates of pay I wondered if there was actually any money to made. To illustrate this point I just jumped onto my Upwork account and clicked on the job at the top of my feed.

The majority of the people in this list and others are from the Philippines. India, Bangladesh and Indonesia are close behind. In this example, the advertised hourly rates ranged between $3.33 and $6 per hour. According to this article in Forbes there are 1.3 million Filipinos on Upwork and Elance. How can you compete online with these low prices?

Price vs Quality

There is an old adage that you get what you pay for. Never has this been more true than when working remotely. I will begin this section with the caveat that I have worked with great freelancers from the Philippines and other countries mentioned. However, I have had more than a few bad encounters and so have people I know. While you may find a web developer that only charges $5 per hour there are hidden costs. English skill, cultural differences and quality of training are 3 things that stand out.

• Copywritten articles with bizarre grammar and spellings
• Long delays with no communication
• A 10 bullet point specification and a product that only covers 7 of them

These are all problems that I and others have had to deal with. How do you deal with them? By spending your own time and money to reiterate requirements, correct work or hire someone else to do it better. With this in mind, clients are starting to realise that spending more at the beginning saves time and money in the long run. As you can see in this Fortune article, there is an upward trend in freelancer rates as a result. Employer tend to bypass the lower end of the pay scale and choose someone in the middle of pack.

How to Compete Online

People will pay for quality. I have picked up clients over the past year who came to me specifically because they wanted a native English speaker, with great feedback and solid experience.

Once bitten, twice shy

In general they had been burned before by using cheap labour. Although they could hire someone else for a quarter of my price they knew that it is better to pay more and get things right first time. In a virtuous circle, clients recommended me to others and provided glowing feedback. This in turn led to me getting more work at higher rates. 

Offering a quality, professional service yields benefits. While some clients may want to get things done for the absolute cheapest price possible; these are not the kind of clients you want to build a long term relationship with. Demonstrate your quality and the right clients at the right rates will come.

This is one of the reasons that we created no9to5. We have developed our online presence and learned how to compete with low cost countries. Get in contact and we'd love to help you get started.