I’m under the gun with some projects, so no time to write a blog post. But don’t go away empty handed! Here’s three blogs loaded with great info on freelancing:
In some cases their content is geared towards other types of freelancing besides illustration (i.e. freelance writing, freelance web design, etc.) but much if it can still apply to other types of freelancing as well.
Seems I’ve been doing a lot of posts on freelancing lately. I’ll try to shake things up a bit with my next few posts.
After reading my recent two-part post entitled “How To Bid Out A Project” (Part 1 and Part 2), artist Mike Dashow emailed me with a question. He writes:
I really enjoyed your blog post on bidding out a project….Once you have spoken with a client about needs, time-line, rights for image reuse, etcetera, you generally have a good idea of what you think the value of a job it. Do you then tell them that’s what the job will cost and hold firm on that? Or do you inflate the price more, leaving yourself room to negotiate down when they make a counter-offer? Or does it depend on the client?
A great question. Here’s my response:
My personal approach is to just give a straight-up, reasonable cost of what I really think a project is worth. I don’t think it’s fair or respectful for me to “jack up” a price estimate unnecessarily with the expectation that the client will try to talk me down. In fact, if a client wants to haggle it often indicates that they don’t have much respect for my time, effort, and skills—they just want to find a bargain. That’s not the type of client I want to work with.
A funny thing about human nature is that the more we pay for something, the more we value it. When I was starting out as a freelancer I was surprised to find that the clients with the lowest budgets were sometimes the most difficult to deal with (slow to give feedback, asking for endless revisions, etc.). From my perspective I was doing them a favor by cutting my rate, but from their perspective they weren’t paying much for the artwork anyway, why not tinker around with it?
Of course not every low-budget client is difficult—I’ve worked with some terrific ones who were absolutely wonderful. But in general my experience has been that the lower the budget, the less likely it is that the project will be smooth sailing. So I’ve taken the attitude that a fair price is a fair price, and either they can afford it or they can’t.
However, I want to point out that there is a huge difference between the haggling client and a respectful client who just happens to have a smaller budget. The respectful client’s attitude is not “how much artwork can I get for cheap”, but rather, “how much quality artwork can I afford?”. There’s a world of difference between the two. For such clients I will try to find a pleasing compromise that will fit their budget without slashing my rates.
For instance, if a magazine wants a spot illustration and a half-page illustration for only X amount of dollars, I might suggest doing two quarter-page illustrations instead. Other ways you can negotiate working for a lower fee might include extending the deadline, simplifying the artwork, cutting the number of illustrations, keeping more rights to the art, or requesting a higher royalty. Never lower your price just to satisfy a client’s desire to land a bargain. There should always be a fair trade-off.
Yesterday I listed some of the “Con’s” of freelancing. Please read that first if you haven’t already.
Now that that’s out of the way I want to focus on some of the “Pro’s”, the terrific and exciting aspects of freelancing which, in my opinion, far outweigh the negatives and make the whole adventure worthwhile. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t have stuck at it for ten years and counting:
Pro #1: You are your own boss. You decide when to work and when to take a break. You decide which projects you will work on. You negotiate the deadlines. There are no superiors to report to (just make sure your clients are happy). No boring meetings. No annoying co-workers. You enjoy a great deal of freedom compared to your cubicle-bound counterparts. You can buy groceries at 10 am when there is no traffic and no lines at the checkout. You run your own show! I can’t think of a career choice that offers you more personal freedom.
Recently I wrote a two-part post entitled “How To Bid Out A Project” (Part 1 and Part 2). One of the first things I mentioned was that, to cover expenses, a freelancer needs to charge much more per hour than he/she would normally make as a salaried employee. There has been some discussion of my article on another website, and someone apparently misunderstood my comments to mean that freelancing is a great way to get rich quick.
I can assure you, it is not.
That got me thinking, there are probably a lot of misconceptions about freelancing out there. So I’ve decided to list a few of the pro’s and con’s of freelancing, straight from the horses mouth. I’ve been freelancing for over ten years, so I know of what I speak.
I don’t want to start positive and then end on a negative note, so I’ll cover the “con’s” first. Tomorrow I’ll touch on some of the “pro’s”. If this post is a bit of a downer to read, I don’t mean it to be. I enjoy freelancing very much! In my view the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. But I want to paint a fair and honest picture for anyone who may be considering freelancing as a career.
Continuing yesterday’s post on tips for pricing your freelance services….
7. Talk about money at the very beginning. You may be tempted to put off talking about money, perhaps with hopes that the client will eventually bring it up or that you can just figure out a price when the project is over. This is a huge mistake, and very unprofessional. The sooner you can negotiate a price, the better. The worst thing you can do is keep a client guessing about what the project will cost them. Discussing the price up front will help you to appear more confident and professional, it will keep you from potentially wasting valuable time on a dead-end project, and it will help you weed out clients who have tiny budgets or who simply want to take advantage of you.
Under no circumstances should you begin doing work without having first negotiated a price.Read More
Recently I was approached by a potential client to illustrate a coloring book. The artist she had originally chosen had backed out, so the deadline was now very tight. Since I was already committed to several projects I wasn’t available to help, but I gave her the name of a talented, up-and-coming illustrator whom I happened to know was in-between jobs.
A few days later, I received an email from the illustrator asking for advice. He had started writing up ideas for each page of the coloring book, and even did a few thumbnail sketches. The client liked his work and decided to hire him, but said she could only pay $10 per page! (A laughable sum, considering it would take the artist several hours to illustrate each page. She was essentially asking a skilled professional to work on a rush job for a fraction of minimum wage.) The artist was understandably upset and asked me what he should do.
I felt awful for having handed him a lemon, but decided the whole experience would make a nice springboard for a blog post. It’s an extreme example, but it illustrates the difficulty many artists have (especially those just starting out) when negotiating a freelance project.
