Freelance Writers Manifesto

Except for a small percentage at the top, freelance writers are known for not charging full whack for their services. Let’s take a tongue-in-cheek peek at what the results mean for the average writer:

10. You’re beginning to resent the work you used to love–your home office is starting to feel like that cubicle you gave up in order to achieve your freedom.

9. A job stocking shelves at the local supermarket is starting to feel like easy money right now.

8. Your laptop has several keys missing and hangs in a heartbeat; you really need a new one but you keep thinking to yourself ‘just one more project…’

7. Your clients keep giving you a million ’small’ projects that take up so much of your time you can’t take the thirty minutes-or-so it would take to scout round for some better paid work.

6. Your idea of weekend fun is scrambling to finish a project so you can get paid.

5. The only kind of raise you’ve seen lately was when you took your laptop up to the roof to get some sun.

4. When you get a new client they ask how much you’ll charge for their project and you answer. After that they want you to start as soon as possible–there is no intermediate discussion.

3. Your standard of living is going down–not up. You justify not replacing your car because you work at home and don’t drive that much, and your wardrobe because hey, you work in your sweats.

2. You lay awake at night sweating with worry in case you get ill, since you can’t even think about health insurance right now.

1. You suggest an increase in a client’s bill and they start talking about their other freelancers who aren’t suggesting any such thing.

What can you do?

1. Add up all your bills for the year, including rent, food—this should be good food that will nourish your body and your mind, utility payments, Internet connection. Don’t forget to include sufficient health coverage as well as an estimate of what your taxes might be. These are basic necessities for a freelance worker.

2. Add up how much it will cost you to replace essential items (like a new laptop, a new car and a new wardrobe). Include the cost of a week’s holiday and a handful of weekend breaks throughout the year.

3. Divide the resulting figure by 12.

4. Add up the number of hours in a day you can be comfortably productive. This isn’t likely to be more than about six–writing is emotionally draining, being a creative activity.

5. Divide the amount you need in a month by the number of hours you can work. That’s the amount of money you need to charge per hour in order to achieve the kind of lifestyle you deserve. You should even add a percentage (say 5 percent) to cover any emergency, such as an illness which will leave you unable to work for a while.

6. Resolutely bill your clients at the new rate.

7. If you get any clients querying your new rates, point out to them that they’ve enjoyed your excellent services at a discount rate thus far, but that you need to make some changes in order to continue to operate.

8. Start looking around for some new clients.

9. Prepare yourself emotionally for a new and exciting phase in your career.

10. Realize that stepping outside your comfort zone (sorry, hugely overused phrase) can have hugely positive results.

Anyone who works on a freelance basis is going to come up against deadbeat clients at some time or another. Sometimes it seems that we hit a run of bad clients though, and everyone is either dragging their feet when it comes to paying up, or they don’t want to pay at all.

This is the very reason why so many freelancers demand a proportion of their fee upfront. Problem there is that in a dog-eat-dog world, clients are understandably reluctant to part with their money to a freelancer they’re never worked with previously, before they see any work, and before they know what kind of work they’re going to get.

It can be a serious problem and this has wrecked more freelance work relationships than anything else.

I’ve just discovered a solution. It may not be for everyone, but I think it’s a really great idea.

Escrow.com is now offering a solution. Get an account with them, and you can have your client pay your fee into the account for release once work is completed. You can also use it to buy goods and services, which puts you in a safer place when you want to purchase anything online.

Leave me some feedback if you think this is a good application, and if you think it would help you run your business.