Top 5 Freelance Mistakes To Avoid
The road of freelance writing is fraught with pot-holes, sharp bends, and hidden horizons, so it pays to know a few of the mistakes in advance to help make the journey go that little bit smoother.
It’s easy to make mistakes when working as a self-employed person, and even the smallest error may have a mis-proportionally negative affect on your business. Here we look at the costliest top 5 mistakes most often made by freelancers - monetary and business - and the easy ways to prevent them from harming your business.
Accepting The Lowest Offer
It’s very easy, especially when first starting out on the freelance road, to accept lower paying assignments just to get a foot in the door. It’s part of the bottom-up learning curve, and something everyone has to work through to get to the top.
However, many writers are willing to settle far too easily, both for cheap writing gigs, and for poor standards of work. You get what you pay for in this business like any other, so not only will your reputation go down the drain, but you will end up working every hour that God sends for a pittance.
Knowing when to move on from a market is an important part of freelancing, but it must be conquered it you are to grow to higher paying markets, higher levels of professionalism, and a better standard of living. Always strive to push yourself outside of your comfort zone, and if that means thanking the editor of a reliable but poorly paid source of work, while ending your agreement with him, then that’s what must be done.
As you do move up the ranks, use your experience and confidence to ask for more money. Create a rate card and stick to it no matter what. This is hard to do initially because you will be afraid potential clients will walk, but when was the last time you challenged a plumber or electrician about their prices? Yes, they are expensive, but they are also the experts. Remind clients they get what they pay for, that you are the expert, and show them the benefits you provide.
Not Doing The Research
Don’t let ignorance of a subject put you off writing about it. Clients appreciate a willingness to learn and grow with them, and it opens you up to more market opportunities in the future.
When you do take on an assignment for a subject you know little about, always makes sure to do your research properly. Don’t assume because you have read the relevant page on Wikipedia you are suddenly an expert. A good freelance writer will check all sources, read up and study from various portals, talk to the people who do have the knowledge, and cross-check everything. Submitting an assignment with one or two errors in a new subject is forgivable, but handing in work that is riddled with inaccuracies and falsehoods will lose you a client, and your good reputation.
Finally, when querying an editor, don’t wait for him to call you or respond with a ‘yes’ before you begin your research, as you will look foolish when you can’t answer his questions. Do your research before you send your query, that way when the editor gets in touch, you will look professional because you are professional.
How To Keep Mistakes From Ruining Your Freelance Career
Believe me, those are the very last words that any freelancer ever wants to hear. After all, mistakes mean rework and rework cuts into your profit (to say nothing of the effect on customer satisfaction). However, sooner or later, every freelancer does hear those words. How you respond to them could determine the future course of your freelancing career.I remember finishing a particularly challenging project a few months ago. I don’t normally ask family members to read my freelance writing. (They find it boring, imagine that!) This time, because I had worked so hard on the project, I persuaded a family member to read through my project after I had already turned it in.
As they read, I reread the piece over their shoulder. To my horror, as I read I saw two typos that had escaped my earlier rounds of proofreading.
Now, I could have easily pretended that I didn’t know about those typos. After all, I had already turned the project in. Odds were that the client wouldn’t notice them either.
That’s the exact wrong attitude to have about a mistake. Since I had spotted the typos, I notified the client of the mistake and apologized for my errors.
When You Make A Mistake, Are You Defensive Or Responsive?
- A defensive freelancer takes the stance: “what, a mistake in my work? Impossible!”
- A responsive freelancer takes the stance: “how can I fix it for you?”
If you want to stay in business, then it’s much better to be responsive than defensive. In fact, a defensive stance can totally ruin your freelancing business. The defensive posture is also unrealistic because we all do make mistakes, no matter how carefully we work.
How then should a freelancer respond when they find that they have made a mistake? I think that the first question to ask is: what caused this mistake?
Source and Contributors
- Top 5 Freelance Mistakes to Avoid by Daily Writing Tips http://www.dailywritingtips.com/top-5-freelance-mistakes-to-avoid/
- How To Keep Mistakes From Ruining Your Freelance Career
- http://freelancefolder.com/how-to-keep-mistakes-from-ruining-your-freelance-career/
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