Pricing Your Freelance Services In A Down Economy

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The economy has officially slumped and creative industries are feeling the downward pull just like everyone else. More than a few in-house art departments have seen budget cuts and layoffs. On the plus side, some freelancers may benefit because a creative department with a reduced staff is more likely to hire freelancers to help bear the load. On the minus side, a surge in out-of-work creatives means more competition for freelance work.

Either way, everyone at every level is feeling the pressure to lower their prices to compete. Clients have smaller budgets which means design firms bid lower to land the clients which means they have less money to pass on to the freelancers. In the short term you may feel like you have no other choice but to lower your prices. It might even seem like the smart thing to do. Let me challenge you to think twice before doing so. Once you lower your rates for a client, good luck raising them up again.

The folks at HOW Magazine have recently published an article full of tips and strategies for navigating the down economy and surviving the price wars.  It’s primarily aimed at design firms and agencies, but there’s plenty of good advice for freelancers as well. Highly recommended.

Shameless Plug: Recommended Resources

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It’s been a while so I thought I’d take a minute to shamelessly plug my website store. I plug a lot of stuff so there should be something of interest to everyone.

First, you can download The Best of Head Hunting, a PDF containing over 100 of the best portrait and cartoon sketches from my two previously published sketchbooks. Includes a bonus screen saver made from the art.

Second, I’ve linked to a few of the books and products I’ve illustrated that are now available on Amazon.com.

Third—and this is the biggie—I’ve linked to an Amazon.com store called “Cedric Hohnstadt Recommends”. Dozens and dozens of carfeully-selected books, dvd’s, and other resources for artists, sorted by category. I’ve only included products that I think are really great. You don’t pay any extra by ordering them through my store, but in full disclosure Amazon.com tosses a few coins my way with each order for the referral.

Check out the Cedric Hohnstadt Illustration store here.

24 Creatives Share Their Best Career Advice

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Sorry for the slowdown in posts. This has been a crazy month. Our second daughter was born (which means as parents of a newborn we snatch sleep whenever we can grab it), I packed up and moved my studio, and the other day my computer died and had to be replaced. In addition I’m currently loaded down with seven freelance projects and two more (hopefully) on the way.

Still, I want to keep this blog rolling so here’s a quick link I found on Twitter:

24 Creatives Share Their Best Career Advice

I haven’t had a chance to read any of the articles but judging by the titles they look fascinating.

Pros and Cons of Sending Christmas Gifts to Clients

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For the last two years I’ve sent Christmas packages to many of the clients I’ve worked with during that year. Now I’m debating whether or not to send anything this year.

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Two years ago I sent out a fairly elaborate package (pictured). I bought giant-sized Hershey’s Symphony chocolate bars, removed the labels and replaced them with labels illustrated by me. I then put each candy bar in a cardboard box filled with green-and-red shredded paper, along with a couple of candy canes, a Christmas card also illustrated by me, and everything sealed up with a sticker also illustrated by me.

Last year I bought fancy tins filled with Life Savers (didn’t replace the label), reused the last year’s Christmas card, and left out the sticker.

This year I’m illustrating a new card and that’s probably all I’ll send. (Provided I can get them printed in time.)

Whether or not to send gifts to clients is an important question. Based on my own experience and after reading a few blog posts on the subject, here’s some of the thinking behind why you should or shouldn’t send Christmas gifts to your clients:

WHY YOU SHOULD

1. It lets the client know how grateful you are for their business.

2. It sends a personal message that you appreciate them as a person and not just as a way to get a paycheck.

3. It’s a great way to self-promote. In theory, the receiver of the gift will be more likely to think of you for their next project.

4. It’s also a fun opportunity to show off your creative skills (i.e. designing a Christmas card, or a candy label, or the wrapping paper, etc.)

WHY YOU SHOULDN’T

1. Everyone else is doing it, making it harder for you to stand out. Some clients may even start to resent all the gifts. “Oh great, more Chirstmas junk food. That will help my diet!” Same goes for cheezy gifts, cheap gifts, and unoriginal gifts. (“Oh goody, another mug.”)

2. Some say you shouldn’t need to send out gifts to get business. Your doctor, your accountant, and your plumber don’t send you gifts and yet you still do business with them. And you are just as much a professional as they are.

3. Some clients (especially those with whom you have a close working relationship) may feel obligated to send something back in return. No one likes to be put in the position of thinking “Gee, I didn’t get you anything”.

4. Sending Christmas gifts is expensive and takes a great deal of effort. There may be easier and more effective ways to invest your advertising dollars.

What do you think? Do you send Christmas gifts to clients? Why or why not? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Creative Freelancer Conference Audio Now Available

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If you missed the 2008 Creative Freelancer Conference in Chicago, you missed some terrific info about how to manage your freelance career and build your business.

Have no fear. You can now purchase and download the audio and materials from all the presentations, whether you attended the conference or not. You’ll get MP3 audio recordings, session handouts, and each speaker’s PowerPoint presentation files. Each session can be purchased separately at $24 each, or you can get the entire package for $147.00 (which is almost like getting two of the sessions for free).

Topics include:

  • Secrets of a Successful Solopreneur (Ilise Benun and Peleg Top)
  • Creative Collaboration Workshop (Dyana Valentine)
  • How to Get Clients to Fall in Love With You (Joan Gladstone)
  • Building a Well-Oiled Marketing Machine (Ilise Benun and Colleen Wainwright)
  • How to Talk to Your Clients About Fees (Peleg Top)
  • A Quick and Dirty Look at Proposals and Contracts (Lloyd Dangle)
  • How to Find Time to Build Your Freelance Business (Lee Silber)
  • Reaping the Rewards of Creative Independence (Jeff Fisher)

The website even offers a 365-day money back guarantee: “If you don’t see an amazing improvement in your business within a year from the date you order, simply contact us for a full refund. The audio materials, handouts, and presentations will still be yours to keep as our thanks for giving the Complete Conference On Demand a try.”

Of course that means you have to wait a year to get your money back, but I’m guessing you won’t need to. I found most of the presentations to be very helpful. The talks on “Creative Collaboration” and “Reaping the Rewards” didn’t particularly hit me where I was at, but if you buy the whole package you basically get those two for free anyway. “How To Talk To Your Clients About Fees” was my favorite seminar and pretty much anything from Ilise Benun or Peleg Top was terrific. The rest of the presenatations were also very good.

Finally, next year’s conference will be Aug. 26-28 in San Diego. Mark your calendars!

To Tweet Or Not To Tweet?

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Lately I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz about Twitter, the popular “social networking” tool that allows you to write brief one- or two-sentence updates about your life (called “tweets”) and then instantly broadcast them to your friends and colleagues. Some praise Twitter as a cutting-edge networking and marketing tool, while critics brush it off as a narcissistic time-waster. This article from BusinessWeek.com sums up both perspectives. Like most things, I suppose it all depends on how you use it.

One thing is for sure: Lots of people are growing addicted to Twitter.

I consider myself pretty tech-saavy and I don’t like the feeling that I’m missing out. So I decided to do a little research into Twitter. I downloaded a Twitter app for my iPhone and I was surprised to discover that I’ve been tweeting for months without even realizing it. Apparantly I somehow set up my blog to automatically “tweet” each new blog post, and then I completely forgot about it. (Here’s my Twitter page.)

I confess I’m unclear as to what makes Twitter so great and why I should use it. I find it hard to believe that most people would have that much interest in my day-to-day activities. To me Twitter seems like just an interesting novelty, but I don’t want to shrug it off prematurely. Maybe I’m missing something. So I’m appealing to you, my readers, to help me broaden my understanding.

Do you tweet? Why or why not? If so, do you use it primarily for business or to connect with friends? How has it helped you? Are there any rules for using (or abusing) Twitter? Please post a comment and share your thoughts. You can even post a link to your Twitter page if you’d like.