rookie freelance job guide

The Rookie Freelance Job Guide

“Never deal with a boss again”

***


By Johnny Spence

LEGAL NOTICE AND DISCLAIMER: The author and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents of The Rookie Freelance Job Guide. The information contained in this guide is strictly for educational purposes. The author and publisher disclaim any warranties (express or implied), merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. The author and publisher shall in no event be held liable to any party for any direct, indirect, punitive, special, incidental or other consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from any use of this material, which is provided “as is”, and without warranties. As always, the advice of a competent legal, tax, accounting or other professional should be sought.

The Rookie Freelance Job Guide is copyrighted by Johnny Spence. Under no circumstances shall any part of this guide be copied, shared, sold, transmitted in any form, changed in any format or used in any way other than what is outlined within it.

© 2008 John Spence – All Rights Reserved www.rookiefreelancejobguide.com


Table of Contents About the Author ………………………………………………………..……………...5 I. Introduction to Freelance ………………………………….…………………….….6 Doubts on Freelancing? ………..……………….…………………….………...7

Can I Do This In My Field? ……….…….……………….…............….……….8

What to Expect Out Of This Guide ……………….…….…............….……….9

II. Your Freelance Profile .....................................……….…………………...…....11 The Importance of Keywords ……............................……......…….……..…12

Step 1 – Creating Your Profile: Your Resume ……………………………. ..12

The Profile Resume ......…..…...…………………………………………….…13

Sample Resume Template …………………………………………………….15

Step 2 – Creating Your Profile: Your client/previous employer list ……….17

Step 3 – Creating Your Profile: Your portfolio .......................………...……19

III. Time to Go Online…………………………….........…………………..........…... 22 The Freelance Work Exchange ………..………………..………….……...... 22

The Job Board and Freelance Job Board ……………………………..……..23

Well Then... Where Do I Start? ……...………..………………….…....…...…24

Tips For Creating Your Online Profile ………..………….……..................…24

Recommended Freelance Work Exchanges ………..……………....…....…25

Recommended Job Boards ………..………………………............…..…..…27

Your Profile Is Not Just For the Internet ……………..…………….......….…27

III. Creating Winning Bids……..………………………….…………………….........29 The Bid: Subject line ...........................………..…………………….……..…30

The Bid: Introduction ..................................................................…………..31

The Bid: Your skills, experience and benefits of hiring you ........................31

The Bid: Plan of action...............……...……….....……………………….......32



III. Creating Winning Bids (Continued)

The Bid: Questions to the employer...................………..………….……..…32

The Bid: Cost estimate...............………..………………….........….….….....33

The Bid: Time estimate...............………..………………….........….....….....34

The Bid: Closing ......................……………..…………………………..…..…35

The Bid: Attachments ......................……………..………………………...…35

Bid Samples.............................……………..…………………………..…..…36

Important advice for bidding in FWEs and Job Boards .……………..…..…43

IV. You’ve Won a Bid, Now What?……..…...…………….….....…………….…....44 Create A Project Agreement ...............................………..………………..…44

Communicate With Your Employer.....................………..…………..........…45

Develop a Productive Working Schedule.........……………..……………..…45

Develop a Service Minded Attitude.............................……....…..............…46

Work Work Work.........……....………………………..…............................…48

Track Income and Expenses.........…………………..…............................…48

Track Your Hours Worked..........................….….....………………….......…49

V. Strategies for Earning More Money …...................….........…………............ 50 Always Ask For Referrals....................................…....…..………………..…50

Package Deals ………….................................…………......……………..…50

Upsell Your Clients..........................................................………...….......…52

The Vicious Cycle of Failure..........……………............................................52

Contracted Positions .......................…………….....……………………....…53

Know the Hierarchy of Project Earnings................……....…….....…..…..…53

Periodically Raise Your Rates......................…………….........……..…....…54

V. Foreseeing and Handling Common Challenges …….....……………............55 Screening Employers..........................................………..……………......…55

The Impossible Employer................................……………..……………......56



V. Foreseeing and Handling Common Challenges (Continued) Not Getting Enough Bids.............................................…………...…...........58

In Over Your Head on a Project..........………..........…................................58

Unexpected Delays .........................…………….....…………………..…..…59

The Slow Times...............................…………….....…………………..…......60

Waiting For Payments......................…………….....…………………..…..…61

VII. Final Word............................................................................…………….…... 62 Appendix A. Rate Calculator, Other Resources & Links ................................ 63 Appendix B. Sample Cover Letters …....…………………….............................. 68



About the Author

Johnny Spence Johnny is a web programmer with six years experience on his own in freelance. After eight years of undergraduate studies (which he did finish, by the way) wondering what to do, he started working for a software company known for their tax and accounting software. He, however, grew tired of the corporate “climbing the ladder” mentality and quit, never to return to working for a boss again. Then began his journey into the freelance world where he went from practically begging for work to being a success in his field after a year of learning the ropes. Now, he shares the wealth of knowledge he has gained in a guide designed to help “rookie” freelancers get off on the right foot and succeed while minimizing the challenges that new freelancers will come to expect. Johnny can be reached at [email protected] and would love to hear from you if you have any questions (complaints, too).


mailto:[email protected]


I. Introduction to Freelance If you are just entering the job market, looking for part-time extra income, starting a new career or are sick of having a boss, read on. You, too, can join the few of us out there who work whenever we feel like it… welcome to the world of freelancing. Working in freelance can be one of the most rewarding career decisions you will ever make in your life. Personally, I entered the freelance market due to the fact that I could not stand to work with someone looking over my shoulder all the time. Maybe you can relate. Fast forward six years as a freelancer and I still have never regretted that decision. Not even for a second. Not only this but I, like most other freelancers, honed in important skills in my field of expertise AND gained other valuable intangible skills not always picked up in a job position. A few of them are:

• Business management • Communication skills • Time management

• Self motivation

Think about these for a second. Does the job you have (or had) allow you to develop these skills? Most people would tell me one or two of them. Well, wouldn’t developing ALL these skills make you a better worker? And a harder worker? And a worker who earns more money? (Isn’t this the point?) Now, this guide won’t teach you how to develop these skills. They will come to you with your own experience and hard work. I can show you, however, how to get started off in freelance and get you familiar with some of the expectations that are to come. It is not always easy in freelance, but once you learn the fundamentals you can get the ball rolling on your new career.



Doubts on Freelancing? To start off, you may have heard several doubts surrounding freelance work. Some of which may include:

• Looking for work in a “bad” economy • Inconsistent income

• Lower pay than a job position

I’ll tell you right now that believing these doubts will almost certainly guarantee you from ever succeeding in the freelance market. These doubts are the reason why ninety-nine percent of the working population have the “job” to keep afloat. Let’s touch on these doubts one by one: Looking for work in a bad economy Surely you hear about all the layoffs, fears of a recession and, of course, the currently poor state of the economy. The fact is that, regardless of any of these, there has been and will always be jobs available. Not only this, but the internet has opened the door for us to the world economy. Companies big and small layoff employees as a cost cutting measure. Did you know, though, that many of these companies that layoff employees turn to outsourcing to perform what their laid off employees did before? Guess where the outsourcing is going to? That’s right... freelancers! Don’t let the “bad economy” bollocks deter you from doing the work you want to do. Inconsistent income With freelancing, you will have your good times and you will have your slow times. This applies more to when you are just starting out rather than when you become a seasoned veteran. If you play your cards right, you will have a consistent income and more business than you can handle. It’s all about working hard and working smart. I’ll go over some tips in this guide on how to keep a steady income flowing as a freelancer.



Lower pay than a job position I won’t lie to you. This will likely be true, too, as you are starting out in freelance. The reason is that there are so many aspects of freelancing that have to be done besides doing your actual job in your field. Some of these include looking for clients, invoicing and managing clients which do not earn an income. This list goes on and on, too. The reality is that if you stick with freelancing, learn the ropes and make it a point to learn and grow as a freelancer, then you will eventually earn more than what you would in a salaried position. This isn’t easy as it sounds, though, and freelancing will test your will. Therefore, it is up to you whether you want it to happen or not. Can I Do This in My Career Field? Now that we have this relatively new invention called the internet, the concept of freelancing has changed forever. Freelancers use to be a rare breed, mostly writers. These days, however, a computer is used in the majority of jobs out there. Not only this but telecommuting, or working away from the site of your employment, has also gained steam as of late. Small to even large companies are even looking to outsource to freelancers as a way cutting costs. This saves huge costs from training and providing benefits to new employees and, not to mention, saves the costs of keeping employees around the office. Some of those layoffs you constantly hear about in the news don’t actually mean those jobs are gone. Many of them just change forms from company hired to company outsourced. There are a wide range of career fields within the freelance industry. The following are some of the major fields in freelancing, but by no means an exhaustive list:

• Administrative

• Architecture

• Consulting

• Engineering

• Finance/Accounting

• Graphic Design

• Legal

• Marketing



• Multimedia

• Programming & Technology

• Web Design/Development

• Writing/Translation

What to Expect Out of This Guide This guide will give you an introduction to using the internet to freelance and show you how to quickly establish yourself in what is a fast-growing sector of our workforce. This is regardless of whatever your career field may be or even wherever you are located in the world. Now, if you are thinking of quitting your job and jumping into freelancing, it may be to your best advantage to start off freelancing part-time while keeping your job. This always guarantees you’ll have something to fall back on, but more importantly, let’s you get used to freelancing at a much more comfortable pace. Then as you gain more experience in freelancing you can decide when to take it on in a more full-time role. Also, keep in mind that I will not guarantee that you will find work as a freelancer nor will I guarantee the level of income earned. For starters, this will depend on the skills you have in your field and the work ethic you put forth. These are things only you have control of. I can guarantee that if you do follow my guide and DO put forth the effort and you DO have or develop the skills to do your job, then you will be a success as a freelancer. I even personally answer any questions you may have on freelancing and offer any personal support so you can succeed. On this note, there should be no reason for you to fail as a rookie freelancer. If that motivates you enough to read on, then you will soon discover the following:

• Creating a rock solid profile to attract employers/clients • The best places to find freelance projects and jobs online

• How to create a winning bid and start working right away

• Essential tips on earning more money

• Insider advice for freelance rookies



• Foreseeing and handling challenges as a rookie freelancer Ready to be a freelancer? Great! Let’s get to it.



II. Your Freelance Profile The internet makes possible what we were never able to do before. That is, we have the ability to work for anybody from anywhere in the world. In the process, however, we often are not able to meet prospective employers face to face and you can understand that employers face the same dilemma when selecting freelancers through the internet. For this reason, it is essential that we create a rock-solid profile of ourselves to “sell” to prospective employers online. A profile contains a thorough explanation of our skills and experience presented in an organized manner where employers can easily see if you are a right candidate for a project. I know what you’re thinking... this sounds like a resume. It essentially is, but takes the resume a step further. The profile we will create will be an organized compilation of your skills and work experience. You’ll then see how to use it to quickly find freelance jobs online. I cannot stress the importance of your profile in searching for freelance jobs. Therefore, I will go over step by step with you on how to create it, plus, maximize it’s effectiveness against all the others you’ll be competing against. We’ll break down creating your profile into three parts:

1. Resume

2. List of previous clients/employers

3. Work experience portfolio How your profile should be saved

As you are creating your profile, you will need to store the information in a Word document (.doc) or any other similar document file. Also, all information should be saved into a single file since this can be used later to send to potential employers or as a reference.



Importance of Keywords The secret to creating a project-getting profile is to use keywords throughout. Keywords are words that are specific to your job field but are used for the purpose of coming up in a search query. For example, if you are a graphic designer with a specialty in logos then you may want to mention “corporate logos” or “logo creation” a few of times in your profile. One thing to remember is to not overdo keywords by being overly repetitive. This will make your profile unreadable. An example is having a sentence like: Photoshop was used to create the Photoshop logo for this business. I use Photoshop on a day to day basis... bla bla bla. Keywords can be repeated but they must flow naturally within the context of your profile. Your profile is also destined to be transferred to an online profile which, ideally, will be found through search queries made by employers. Therefore it is important to keep in mind what a prospective employer would type in a search box in order to find you. Step 1 - Creating Your Profile: Your resume This may sound fairly straightforward but what we need to do here is to create a resume that highlights your talents and skills instead of just listing skills and old jobs. Most resumes out there (and many of the ones you’ll be competing against) will have the following format to them:

1. Name, address, contact info

2. Education

3. Career goal(s)

4. List of past employers

5. References

6. Hobbies Do you have a resume available? Take a look at it. Does it have a format similar to the above? Well, I can tell you this format does not work this day and age. The resume format above only tells a potential employer who you are which, to be honest, they don’t really care about. What they really want to know is what can you do?



The following format will tell them what you can do: The Profile Resume

1. Title of the resume – Essentially what your job title is in a few words. The use of keywords here is important so try to make this title with all important words. Note, you will not use the word “freelance” here. It will seem redundant and is unnecessary.

2. Description of service – Here, you briefly describe what you do using a few

keywords. This should be one short paragraph of 3 – 4 sentences.

3. Education – List any college or post high school education. What you need to list are the institution name, location, type of degree or certificate received, and date graduated (month, year). Also, if you received any special awards or honors, mention those as well.

4. Certificates and licenses – If you have any type of certifications or licenses, note for each one:

• Name of the organization or company • Name of the certification received • Date certification was received • Certificate number (if possible)

The certificate number is not necessary, but helps to verify the certificate in case someone decides to check it.

5. Skills and Expertise - This is a list of skills, special expertise and technologies you know. This is important for keywording, so make this a thorough list.

6. Experience and Qualifications – This is where you’ll go into depth about your work

experience. This is not where you will list your previous employers and what you did. Instead, you’ll be giving direct reasons why you should be hired here. This should be two to three paragraphs containing the following:



• A summary of your career path up until now

• A summary of the skills you’ve learned while working up until now

• A list of your specialties and/or accomplishments in your field

• Keywords, keywords, keywords

7. References – You will need at least three references. Former employers and

clients are always the best, but also old teachers and professors. For these, make sure you put the following:

• Name • Company/organization including title of his/her position • Location • Phone number

• Email address

Here is a sample of what the completed resume should look like. I included comments in red for important items to take note of:



Joe Example 123 S. Anywhere Ave Salt Lake City, UT 84103 (801) 555 - 9876 [email protected] [ Title ] Web/Graphic Designer and Flash Developer [ Description of service ] As a freelance web designer and developer for two years, I have not only become proficient in the aspects of web page development, but also offer a vast range of skills including PHP and JavaScript programming and web marketing which most designers do not possess. I deliver on time and on budget and have especially adapted to solving the unusual or “tough” tasks asked of me since I have worked with clients from a wide array of industries. Note that we don’t just list your skills or accomplishments, but we briefly explain what makes you unique in what you do. This paragraph should answer the question: Why should I hire you? EDUCATION Southern New Mexico State University Las Cruces, NM Bachelor of Arts in Sociology Graduated May 2005 Dean’ List: Fall 2004, Spring 2005 [ Don’t forget to list awards and/or special achievements ] CERTIFICATIONS [ EXAMPLE ONLY ] Adobe Systems Inc Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) Received August 2005 Certificate Number: ACE1234567 Adobe Systems Inc Adobe Certified Professional (ACP) Received February 2006 Certificate Number: ACP1234567 [ Skills and expertise (If there is long list, categorize them as shown below) ] TECHNICAL SKILLS Development Languages: HTML, ActionScript, DHTML, CSS3 Additional Languages: PHP, JavaScript (AJAX)



Design Applications: Adobe Flash, Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS After receiving my degree in Sociology and developing my career with the design company S4 Design in Las Cruces, NM, I decided I wanted to control my own design and development and switched to freelancing. As a result, I quickly developed the skills to meet the multitude of demands of my clients. I have worked on everything from simple web page development to developing programmer friendly templates for large team projects. Also, since nearly all of my projects involve collaborations with other web specialists and programmers, I have developed my knowledge in additional aspects of web development. Some of which include server side programming, Flash development, website marketing and web server maintenance. As a result, I have become well-rounded in my career as a web designer. The following are typical projects I have taken on: - Web page design and production - Flash banners, splash pages, navigation and movies - Web graphics design - Custom logo design - Server side programming in PHP - JavaScript programming, including AJAX - Search engine optimization REFERENCES [ EXAMPLE ONLY ] Jerry Wilson S4 Design – Founder Las Cruces, NM (555) 555-1234 [email protected] Ellen Smith New Mexico State University – Professor Tempe, AZ (555) 555-5678 [email protected] Chris Bird Blissful Media – Founder Houston, TX (555) 555-2468 [email protected]



Step 2 - Creating Your Profile: Your client/previous employer list This one is pretty straightforward. At some point in the past, you’ve had to fill out a job application and that part with your work history. Here, it is somewhat the same but attention needs to be placed on listing those that relate to your career. Here is what should be done for this section:

• If you have no previous clients then make a previous employer list

• If you have five or more past clients of your own, then make a client list

• If you have fewer than five past clients, then make both a client and previous employer list. Keep the employer list to the most recent relevant employment.

In your profile document add a page break (Insert>>Break in Word) after your resume so you are at a blank page. Title this page “PREVIOUS EMPLOYERS” or “CLIENT LIST” on the top of this blank page. Then you will create this list in order from the most recent employment to further back.

If you are creating a client and employer list, start with the

client list first then follow it with the employer list (using the titles above).

For your client list, you will write down for each one:

• Business name of your client • Phone number, email address and website url (if available)

• Your project(s) and a brief one or two sentence description of each one

For you employee list, you will write down for each employer:

• Name of company worked for • Location of the company (city, state)

• Your job title



• Dates worked (month/year to month/year)

• A brief job description

Here is an example for a previous client: Acasa Holiday Apartments (555) 555-5555 [email protected] www.acasaapartments.com Designed and developed the Acasa website and graphics. And one for a previous employer: JR Martin & Co, New York, NY August 2005 to June 2007 Small Business Advisor Assisted in marketing for small businesses in niche, or unique, markets. Here are some things to remember when writing this part:

1) The job description does not have to be elaborate but should briefly explain your duties in one or two sentences.

2) If any of your past employment or work for a previous client does not relate to your current career field then, in the job description for these, focus on the tasks you did that can relate to your career field.

3) You do not have to list every previous employer you’ve had like that first job with McDonalds. Keep the list to employers that have relevance to what you do now.

4) Once you have a few projects under your belt, however, then it is important to create and/or update the client list.

5) Be careful if listing clients from a company you were once employed with since they may not like you calling them “your” clients. It’s always best to only list the clients you’ve made on your own and list the employer as a previous employer.

Let’s go ahead and start your previous employer document and then we’ll move on to creating your portfolio.



Step 3 - Creating Your Profile: Your portfolio It should be no surprise that experience is key in helping you land freelance projects. In fact, employers do not prioritize your skills and knowledge as much as how you have applied those skills and knowledge to your occupation. It is important to convince prospective employers we can do a given task by what we have done previously. First we have to brainstorm work experience for your portfolio. Keep in mind that your work experience isn’t a list of any particular job positions you may have had, but instead evidence of challenging projects or tasks you faced while at a particular job, at college or wherever. The following are types of experience that can be used:

• Direct work experience, especially difficult or challenging projects or assignments

• Projects you have done on your own time, not necessarily for money

• Particularly difficult projects from classes or group projects

• Past internships

If you get the idea here, anything constructively done that is related to your career field can count as your work experience and it does not necessarily have to be from a paying job. Just remember, though, it has to prove you can do the tasks required on a given project. Still believe you have done nothing to count as experience? Then go out and create it yourself! How? Here are some suggestions to get started:

• Volunteer to intern for a local business • Volunteer to local charity or non-profit organization and offer your services

• Create projects (i.e. website, essay article, short movie, etc.) for family members.

They will always be your best “employers” even if they may not always pay you.

• If certifications are available for your field, work to obtain them



In addition, check out this article on building a portfolio without professional experience. Let’s now take a moment to brainstorm and write down a list of any relevant experience using the points listed above. We don’t have to get into them in great detail just yet but remember to write down challenging tasks. Make a list of everything that comes to mind. You just may dig up something long forgotten from the back of your head.

. . . A good list should contain a minimum of six examples of experience in your career field. Hopefully you have at least six, but don’t worry if you don’t. You can always continue brainstorming later or add on future experience as it happens. Now that we a list to start with, it is time to find a sample that documents every example of our experience. It needs to be in or is able to convert into a digital form for us to use here such as document, text, image or excel files. It is also very important that your samples reflect the level of difficulty of your experience. A sample can be any of the following:

• Writing samples • Code samples

• Research papers • Images and graphics • Scanned photographs, brochures and other documents

• Plans, reports and drawings

• Websites (create a thumbnail image of them)

For each experience sample, do the following:

1. Open a new Word document and save it with a descriptive name for the sample.

2. Create a cover page which contains a title for the sample

(e.g. “Logo Graphic for XYZ Company”), a brief description


http://www.allfreelancework.com/articleportfolio2.php


and briefly explain any particular challenges that were solved in the process.

If your sample is a website, include the url and stick on the thumbnail image. You can skip the next step, too.

3. Insert the sample into the document, if it fits on the

page. Otherwise add a line break then add your sample to the following page(s).

The point of creating separate documents for each sample is that you will not submit them all to a potential employer. You will submit only the relevant ones for the project you will bid on.

Let’s go ahead and compile your work experience summaries for your portfolio. Then we’ll be ready to take it to the next step... looking for jobs and making some money!



III. Time to Go Online Thanks to the internet and the increasing popularity of working over the internet, you do not have to look far to start out in freelance. In fact, there are many websites that cater to bringing together employers looking for help and freelancers looking for work. The result is that time spent searching for freelance projects is minimized and your options are wider in terms of the projects and clients available. Also, this makes working freelance all the more attractive and eliminates the primary worry of where to find work. On the internet there are several types of freelance job sites that cater to job and project searches:

• Freelance work exchanges: These are subscription based websites where employers post projects and freelancers pay a fee for the ability to bid on and win them.

• Job boards: These are the major job sites that cater all types of employment, not

just freelancers, usually free of charge. They do have freelancing jobs available. You have to do a little digging, though.

• Freelance job boards: Similar to the above but cater specifically to freelancers and employers looking for freelancers. Some are free and some are fee based sites.

The Freelance Work Exchange (FWE) These are the most reliable in terms of finding work right away. Plus, they offer the advantage of providing a decent number of projects to bid and mechanisms to insure you get paid for your work. They do, however, charge a subscription fee to use their websites and usually a fee per project you win. Even with their subscription fees and project fees you still can earn very well with them. While you may see the fees as a hit on the wallet, they are actually an advantage to you. They encourage employers (who usually do not have to pay) to post projects and, therefore, there are quite a bit more projects to pick and bid on. For the freelancer,



though, having to pay a subscription fee encourages fewer bidders which results in the freelancer having a better chance of landing projects. Another huge advantage is FWEs have mechanisms in place to protect freelancers. For instance, nearly all have an escrow payment system to prevent employers who cheat out of paying or are late on payments. Plus, most have an employer/freelancer ratings system so you can “preview” who you work for. These make FWEs a safer option as well. Most FWEs allow you to create your profile and test out their bidding process for free (though with a lot of restrictions) so it’s best to take advantage of this and try more than one to see which might suit you better. The Job Board and Freelance Job Board (FJB) These work something like the job classifieds of a newspaper. Employers are usually the ones that have to pay to post their jobs and projects. Freelancers usually do not have to pay to use them but there are some that do require a fee. The fees are usually less than the subscription fees of FWEs though and there usually no fees per project. There are the regular job boards like Yahoo HotJobs which have thousands upon thousands of jobs available. A tiny portion of them are freelance projects and positions. Then there are the FJBs that cater specifically to freelance jobs and projects. One major disadvantage with job boards is that there are relatively fewer projects compared to the number of freelancers competing for them. A good rule of thumb is that if the job board is free then expect plenty of competition and if you have to pay to use a job board, then you will encounter less. When I started in freelance, I tried the job boards first and primarily stuck with the free ones because spending money to look for jobs didn’t seem reasonable to me. I was pretty much broke too. I even took the time to perfect my profile and applied for many, many projects. I was baffled, however, that I couldn’t get a response from even one employer. What I eventually found out was that I was rather unprepared to apply for job board projects. There is fierce competition for these projects plus you really need to know exactly how to bid and exactly when to bid on these projects. Knowing how to sell yourself and the timing your bid right are absolutely essential. This is not to say that you will not find a project using job boards. It is very likely, though, that you will spend a lot more time searching for work compared to a FWE. You have to decide if that extra time is worth it or not. Remember that you are not being paid while you



are looking for work so the goal is to minimize time looking for work and maximize your time working. Well Then… Where Do I Start? Here’s the truth: There’s a million websites to find freelance projects, but if you want to find them right away, you want to start out with a freelance work exchange. To save yourself the least amount of time and give yourself the best opportunity to find projects immediately, I highly recommend you start with a freelance work exchange. This is not to say that freelance job boards do not work. It is guaranteed, however, that you will spend WAY more time searching for work if you are new to this process. This is simply because the number of projects and jobs available are far less on job boards than the number of freelancers looking to fill them. I know this from first hand experience and can tell you that the money you invest in subscription fees is far less of a hit on the wallet than what you will lose in wasted time searching for and bidding on projects on job boards. Once you have a couple projects underway THEN it is a good time to hit the job boards. Only when you have projects and are working should you really be looking on the job boards at all. Once you get used to the bidding process of an FWE, then it makes it easier to move the job boards and look for projects. Don’t worry. In the next chapter we’ll go over how to bid and win projects. Here are some tips for creating your online profile with FWEs and job boards:

• Nearly all of the information that will be asked of you is already in the profile you

created. Therefore, you can just copy and paste most items directly from it. Some FWEs and FJBs may even allow you to upload a resume in which you can upload your entire profile.

• It is important that you fill out all options available in creating your profile in any job board or FWE. Many of them are optional to enter in but do not leave any blank if possible. The more detail you add to your profile, the more keyword exposure you have.

If you apply for projects and contract positions on job boards and FJBs, you will need to create a cover letter if you are applying for a position or a bid if you are



applying for a project. It is important to use a cover letter or bid to personalize your profile to your prospective employer.

See Appendix B for samples of a cover letter and a bid “cover letter”. In addition, bids will be covered in the next chapter which can apply to the cover letter too.

• Nearly all FWEs require you to choose a category and, possibly, subcategories for where your career specialty is. Make sure you look through all the options and choose the most proper fit to your career field. Some FWEs charge a separate membership fee per category selected and do not allow you to switch from one to another without paying for an additional category.

• Sometimes you may be allowed to upload a logo for your profile. Take advantage of this and have one created for yours. The reasons are that 1) These images will brand you and catch better attention and 2) Employers will initially judge those profiles with images as more professional before even looking at your profile.

• If you decide to use a logo, you should have two different logo images made for your profile. One should be your main logo with a length to width ratio of 3:1 and have your name or the name of your business on it. The other should be a square image without a name or words on it, but an emblem or symbol for your business instead.

• You also may be allowed to upload files such as images, video or document files

as a part of your profile. Take advantage of these since they offer a potential employer another way to evaluate you and can make you stand out from other freelancers competing with you.

Recommended Freelance Work Exchanges (FWEs): Guru The original and one of biggest FWEs plus is one of the most reputable and safe websites to search for projects to bid on. Also, they allow you to build a very detailed profile and portfolio for prospective clients. As of this writing, Guru charges a registration fee from $30 - $130 for every 3 months (quarterly) to $60 - $260 a year for annual membership. The fee is based upon you choice of field for freelancing. On top of that, a project fee of 5% is charged for each project you win.


http://www.guru.com/


Elance This is another of the larger freelance work exchanges with an extensive database of projects to bid on in a variety of fields. They are very similar to Guru in that they allow you to create your own custom profile and offer similar support. One major difference, though, is that they publish the bids created by freelancers whereas Guru does not. Similar to Guru, Elance charges a registration fee from $9.95 - $39.95 per month based the type of registration selected, plus they charge a project fee of 8.75% of the bid price on every project you win. Go Freelance They are not quite as extensive in their job database as Guru and Elance nor do they allow you to create and post a highly detailed profile. They do, however, provide you with valuable tools and guides and email support to help you in your budding freelancing career. One benefit, though, is they do not charge per project fees. As of this writing their fee is a $2.95 trial membership offered for the first seven days, then after the seven day period, charge a monthly $29.95 fee. It is well worth it to shell out the $2.95 to see what they have. Don’t forget to cancel within seven days if it is not for you. oDesk.com An FWE with an extensive database of projects like Guru and Elance but does not charge a membership fee for freelancers to bid on projects. They do, however, charge you a rather hefty 10% flat fee from your bid price if you win it. Still, they offer guaranteed payment to the freelancer (though with rather confusing rules) and is a good place to start if you prefer not to pay anything at the start. SoloGig.com This is a site similar to Guru and Elance in that they have a large number of projects to bid on and a wide range of categories. They will, however, allow you to register an account and bid on projects for free with fewer limitations. As of this writing, they charge a membership fee of $39.99/month to $259.99 for a yearly membership, depending on your payment preference, which will allow you to upload a portfolio, access to bid on all projects and priority placement in searches.


http://www.elance.com/subscription?rid=129BQ

http://www.gofreelance.com/

http://www.odesk.com/

http://www.sologig.com/


Recommended Job Boards: Yahoo HotJobs Believe it or not, they do have freelance positions listed and they number quite a bit. Just go to their site and do a search for “freelance.” You’ll see. You may know, too, this site has very high traffic so don’t be thinking you’ll be the first to apply for any of these. Don’t ignore them, either. You never know what you may find. Monster.com Similar to the above. Massive job database. Aquent They cater specifically to freelancers with the added bonus that they actively match up freelancers to employers seeking their services. Register a profile but don’t sit and wait for this to happen, though. They do have quite a large database of jobs and projects available which you can apply for yourself instead. Workaholics4hire.com OK, this isn’t quite a job board nor is it an FWE but it is worth checking out at least one time. What they do is act as an agency between freelancers and employers but market their services to businesses looking for contracted solutions. They have you apply and send them your resume (that’s where your profile comes in handy) and if they feel you’re qualified, they will look for and match you up with projects. This is without you having to look for the projects yourself. The Monster List of Freelancing Job Sites Here is a large and frequently updated list of freelance job search websites. Many of these are job boards but they include FWEs and job sites worldwide. Your Profile Is Not Just For the Internet Now that your profile is complete, don’t just stop at submitting them to the FWEs and job boards online. Turn your profile into a physical packet by formatting and printing out your profile document. Better yet, take your formatted document files to a copy/print shop and have it professionally printed and bound into your own business brochure.


http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/

http://www.monster.com/

http://www.aquent.com/

http://www.workaholics4hire.com/

http://freelanceswitch.com/finding/the-monster-list-of-freelancing-job-sites/


Always keep a copy of your profile packet on you since you never know who may need your services. Have several copies available, too, to give out or mail on short notice. Every city will have some sort of need for your services, whatever it may be. Cold call and/or visit businesses directly that are good prospects for your services. Introduce yourself and services and leave a business packet with them. I can guarantee that they will look to you to do business with first rather than go online and look for a freelancer. Cold calling is always difficult and not everyone will need or want your services, but there are always those that will. You just have to have the courage to go out and find them.

Next we’ll move on to creating a bid and winning your first project.



IV. Creating Winning Bids For some job boards and nearly all freelance work exchanges, you will need to learn and understand the bidding process. For those unfamiliar with it, a bid is simply a written proposal sent to a prospective employer that briefly details yourself, how you will handle the employer’s project requirements, cost estimate and estimated time of completion. The bid itself is actually the most important part of the bidding process and we’ll go into it in great detail in this chapter. An employer’s first impression of a provider lies in the bid, and sometimes they will decide on a provider just on the bid alone instead of your profile. Therefore it is important to have this done correctly. Freelance work exchanges (FWE) make it simple to create and submit bids on projects. They put in measures, however, to prevent freelancers from “spamming” employers with bids. One of which is to limit the number of bids you can send per month so it’s important to make every single one count. One major advantage you’ll have over other freelancers in any FWE is knowing that most do not take the time to write a really good personalized bid to a prospective employer. They pay relatively little attention to writing the bid thinking the price they submit is the only deciding factor. This couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, read the following excerpt from Mitchell Harper of the company Interspire:

As an employer with over 30 staff at Interspire, most of the time when I need something done I can call on a staff member in the office and they will take care of it for me. However, sometimes I need the skills of an experienced freelancer for one-off jobs, such as writing a user guide or putting together a product overview video in Flash. In these situations I turn to freelancers on eLance, oDesk or Guru.com.

After posting a job ad, the responses start to come in within a few hours. 95% of the time the candidates have no idea how to reply to the job ad and will either send over:

• The same old copy-paste reply which they use for every job ad • A vague reply in which they don’t sell themselves to me

(How to Win Any Job on eLance, oDesk or Guru.com by Mitchell Harper, FreelanceSwitch.com, 12/16/2008)

You see, by knowing this you are already ahead of 95% of ALL freelancers out there, not just the rookies. That’s why we will go into detail on creating a winning bid. Writing a


http://freelanceswitch.com/finding/how-to-win-any-job-on-elance-odesk-or-gurucom/


winning bid will take you some time at first but, with experience, will be no problem later on down the road. First of all, a successful bid contains the following parts:

• Subject line • Introduction

• Your skills and experience related to the project plus benefits of hiring you

• A plan of action, or how you will handle the project on hand

• Questions to the employer if any project specifications are unclear

• A cost estimate

• A time estimate for completion

• Closing with your contact info

• Attachments

We’ll go over each part individually and I’ll provide sample bids to illustrate how they are used. The Bid: Subject line Some FWEs and job boards allow you add a subject line to your bid. Normally these default to “RE: Project Title” where the project title was already provided by the employer. Not all allow for a subject line, but here’s how to take advantage of those that do. You can imagine that an employer will see a list of fifty or so bids with the same “RE: Project Title” subject when he is looking through them. If you make yours different, you can instantly stand out before he even reads you bid. Don’t just put anything for this line though. Make it catch the employer’s attention. So instead of putting “Interested in your project” or “Reliable graphic designer” as a subject line, use something more on the lines of:



“5 Year Expert Graphic Designer. Results 100% Guaranteed.” “You can finally stop looking at these other bids. Read on for why…” This way you catch the curiosity of an employer and encourage him to read on or possibly read your bid first. The Bid: Introduction This is simply a short paragraph that states the project title and/or project ID, thanks the employer for the opportunity to apply for the project and briefly outlines the rest of the bid. The Bid: Your skills, experience and benefits of hiring you Usually in this part freelancers make the mistake of listing everything they know and places they’ve worked. Take this example: SKILLS Adobe Photoshop Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel EXPERIENCE The Daily News – May 2005 to December 2007 Graphic Designer Created and graphics for their website. Unfortunately this doesn’t jump out to a potential employer. An employer needs to be sold to the fact that you can handle a project. Not only this, it needs to be done in a matter of seconds as he is reading your bid since he virtually scan dozens of bids when hiring for a project. Therefore, you need to list specific instances where you handled similar requirements and promote yourself in the process. Also, we have to give the employer the benefits of hiring ourselves. Now, take the following:

• Expert graphic designer for The Daily News, a major New Mexico newspaper

• I work fast and deliver on budget. My references would love to tell you the same.



• 100% Money Back Guarantee

That sounds much better, doesn’t it? Notice that these are also in a bulleted list. They attract the attention of the employer and force him to read them through. The Bid: Plan of action You will need a paragraph or two explaining to the prospective employer how exactly you will handle the given project. You want the employer to know you can handle the project and you will essentially be proving it here. Explain the design process, what technologies will be used, research methods, your own methods … whatever it takes to inspire confidence that you can handle what is offered. If there were any challenges while working on similar projects, mention those challenges (if you already haven’t in the examples from above) and how you will handle those. It is extremely important you are clear and use a language that the employer understands here. Otherwise they may become confused and move on to the next bid. The goal is to leave the prospective employer without any doubt in your ability to handle the project. He needs to be crystal clear on your methods, though. The Bid: Questions to the employer These aren’t always needed but more often than not, you will encounter project details that are somewhat vague, or the employer might leave out details necessary to give them a cost or a time estimate. If this is the case, you will have to list these questions of uncertainty to the employer. Again, asking questions can give the potential employer the impression that you are knowledgeable and may inform them of issues they haven’t thought of so do not be afraid to ask them. Note that questions are not always necessary and do not have to appear on the bid. It is important to ask them, though, if it will help clarify a project. Keep the questions to a maximum of two or three, though. If there are more, wait until they contact you to ask them.



One additional tip is that some FWEs, such as Guru, have a project message board (one for each project) which acts as a tool to for freelancers to post questions or comments. They are visible to everyone too. My recommendation is that you read them, but not post to them. Reading them may give you some new insight on a project, but posting to them may give other competing freelancers some insight instead. Save the questions for your own bid. The Bid: Cost estimate Though the simplest items to put on the bid, these can also be the most time consuming especially for rookie freelancers, not to mention, at times stressful. Now comes the important question to ask yourself: How much do I charge? It is almost useless to search the internet for freelance billing rates by profession since they vary wildly. If you can find or know other freelancers in a similar field, consult them to obtain a rough estimate of what they charge. I know that this is usually a long shot, though. It is good to start out with determining the hourly rate you should be charging then you can base your project fees on this rate. Using the Rate Calculator should give you a good estimate which applies to all fields of employment. See Appendix A for the Rate Calculator So now that you have your hourly rate we are left with the next piece of the puzzle: what to charge for an entire project. This can also be a bit complex to a new freelancer who may not have enough projects under their belt to be able to determine this. It is normal for a new freelancer to take longer completing a certain project than a more experienced freelancer tackling the same project. It will not be fair, however, if the new freelancer charges more because he will have to work more hours than the more experienced one. The project bid price has to be a competitive and fair price. Here are some ways you can create a competitive bid price:

• In some FWEs, you can browse similar projects and view the bids and bid prices that others place (Elance is one of them). You may notice a wide variation in bid prices, so also take note of what they offer in relation to the price. From there, you may be able to generate a rough estimate for your bid price.

• Look for the relatively simple projects where you can easily determine the number of hours necessary and apply your hourly rate. It should be no surprise, too, that the easier projects are also the easiest projects to win.



• Keep track of the first fifteen bids you make. A general rule is if a high percentage

of them accept (eight of them or higher) then you are likely bidding too low. Conversely, if two or less accepts, you are likely bidding too high. If 3 - 5 accept, you have the pricing at an optimal level. The quality of your bid also can be a factor here, too, so it’s important to stick with the methods outlined in this chapter.

What happens many times is that the project description is too vague to give an accurate estimate. In this situation, it is always best to just estimate anyway and state that it is just an estimated amount. Employers most often like to see a price on a bid whether estimated or not. The Bid: Time estimate Though it is easy to say you can finish a project in a few days or a week or two weeks, some serious consideration needs to be taken when determining the estimated time for completion. Rookie freelancers usually never take into account ALL aspects of a project that can consume time and make it progress longer than planned. Here are the steps in determining the time estimate of a project:

• Break the project down into the smallest tasks individual tasks required and write them down. Then determine the time estimate for each individual task and add them all up to get the total project time.

• Add 20% of the total time from above to the time estimate for completion or one extra day for every five days of a calculated estimate. This will be your overhead for revisions and unexpected occurrences that happen during the project phase. There is almost always some type of revision or “surprise” on every project. It’s better to expect them and take them into account.

• Now you will have to schedule that calculated time into your working schedule. Go

ahead and determine the number of days it will take given that schedule. Again, the project description may be too vague for a time estimate so it is best to give a range for the time of completion or state “roughly 3 weeks for completion.”



The Bid: Closing This is a short paragraph that gives tells how to get a hold of you. Always give an email address AND the instant messenger you use plus your screen name AND your phone number AND your location. Though most communication is done by email or instant messenger these days, you want to leave an impression that you are accessible and are a living person with an address. Sometimes in a project description, an employer will have questions listed for the potential freelancer. It should go without saying that you need to list these and provide a clear answer to each one in the bid before the paragraph with your contact information. Another tip which doesn’t always have to be done is to include a sentence “breaking the ice.” This is just a simple statement personalized to the employer that will flatter, humor or make them smile. I would only recommend this if you are familiar with the area which the employer is or have something in common with the employer. This tiny bit of personalization can go a long way. Be sure to make it subtle and harmless and not as if you were joking around or talking to your best friend. Otherwise, it could backfire on you. The Bid: Attachments Most FWEs and job boards allow you to attach files to your bid which you should take advantage of. Your bid acts more or less as a cover letter for you profile so including attachments make it complete. Attachments should include your profile and selected samples of your work you made in the previous chapter. Remember to include only work samples related to the project itself. In the event that you do not have the option to upload files, then provide links to your profile and samples of your work where they can be found online. These are best placed right after your skills and experience summary mentioned above. Using attachments or links may seem redundant given that you already have a profile right there with the same information contained in the attachments. It’s not always obvious to a potential employer though so give them every opportunity to access your information quickly right then and there.



Bid Samples: The following pages will contain project descriptions similar to what you will likely to see in FWE listings and suitable bids that correspond to those descriptions. I’ll include comments in red for items to note in the bids.



Sample 1 Project Description: I need a talented, creative, efficient, organized, self-starting ghost-writer who can help me create web and published content for a variety of different topics. I will provide the outline and ideas to which I’ll basically need website copy review, tweaks, and edits. Also, I will be needing a feature article for my next newsletter. I need someone that is marketing minded not just a great writer. Someone that knows how to sell, write good ad copy, etc. I'm looking to outsource a few projects in order to find the right long-term relationship. Bid for this project: [ Subject line ] What luck! Now you have an expert ghost-writer published in successful websites! Greetings, [or if you know name Dear Xxxx,] [ Opening ] Thank you for the opportunity to bid on your project seeking a ghost-writer to create web content. I’ll be more than excited to take on the challenge and you will find all information relating to my skills and experience as well as my cost and time estimates contained in this project bid. [ Skills and experience ] I have ghost-written several ebooks including the sales copy on the websites used to promote them. A few of which are, “Search Engine Secrets You Never Learned,” “The New Atkins is Here,” and “Million Dollar Jobs From Your Home.” Here is what you can expect as your new ghost-writer:

• Expert in writing content for ANY subject

• Will meet all deadlines. Guaranteed or no charge.

• Will accommodate urgent requests

[ Attachments (the following is the alternative if you are unable to upload files) ] For more information of my skills and work samples please view here: Resume: http://www.myname.com/resume Work Sample (New Atkins is Here): http://www.myname.com/newatkins Work Sample (Million Dollar Jobs From Your Home): http://www.myname.com/million



[ Cost and time estimate ] I have a quick turnaround time for completion of sales copy which is three days for each 500 words of copy. Not to mention, the sales copy is keyword optimized for the search engines. Turnaround for newsletter articles is roughly one day for every 500 words of text. My rates are $0.50/word for search engine optimized sales copy and $0.10/word for articles. [ Closing (breaking the ice in last sentence) ] I am located in New York City and am able to begin working on this project right away. Feel free to contact me anytime at [email protected], in MSN Messenger under screen name example or by phone at (555) 555-5555. I look forward to working with you and turning your ideas into dollar signs like I did for my previous clients. Best regards and I look forward to working with you soon. John Doe Comments: Notice that this bid is short and to the point. That’s how all bids need to be. This bid also doesn’t contain a plan of action since the requirements are straightforward for this type of project. This will happen for some, but not all projects. Lastly, in the closing, notice the first sentence says they are able to begin right away. That’s great to put on to show your eagerness to take on the project. Note, too, that the subject line is only used if the FWE or job board allows it. Do not use it in the bid itself.



Sample 2 Project Description: My payment processing was working fine and now it will not process. The processing from the Paypal works fine, it's in the script I believe on the site. It worked fine for a short time but now it no longer process payments. Project Bid: PayPal issues? That’s why they call me! Greetings, [or if you know name Dear Xxxx,] Thank you for the opportunity to bid on your project seeking a fix for the PayPal payment system on your website. Those PayPal bugs can be pretty annoying and I’ll be more than excited to take care of these for you. You will find all information relating to my skills and experience as well as my cost and time estimates contained in this project bid. I have three years of experience integrating PayPal and other payment systems into websites and, not to mention, am able to troubleshoot problems with ease. I have spent many hours having to read through their user manuals and taking care of issues that occur with PayPal in other websites, so this would be nothing new to me. In fact, here is what you can expect from my services:

• Quickly find, fix and test the solution to the issue you are having

• 100% Satisfaction guarantee or no charge to you

• 30 Day warranty period for fixes provided.

For more information of my skills and work samples please view here: Resume: http://www.myname.com/resume Sites where I have integrated and maintained PayPal checkout http://www.example1.com/paypal http://www. example2.com/paypal [ Plan of action ] It seems to me like there is just a slight problem with the code in the webpage of your site which transfers the customer to the PayPal website for payment. All that I would need to do is take a quick peek at the web pages involved, check the code used to transfer the user to the PayPal website and then make any necessary adjustments from there.



[ Questions to the employer ] Since your project description did not mention how PayPal was used in your site, I need to know the following in order to give you an accurate bid price: Do you use the PayPal shopping cart and advanced payment method? Or do you use the standard merchant payment system? Since I do not know all the details I need to give you an estimate, I’ll give you a rough quote of $250 to complete this and a rough estimate of two days. I’ll be more than happy to give you an exact quote once I have the answers to the above questions. I am located in Chicago and am able to begin working on this project right away. Feel free to contact me anytime at [email protected], in MSN Messenger under screen name example or by phone at (555) 555-5555. Best regards and I look forward to working with you soon. John Doe Comments: Notice the plan of action is just two sentences here and explains what will be done simply but effectively. On bigger, more complex project you may need a few paragraphs but keep to a simple explanation. Also notice the similarity of this bid to the previous one. Both personalize to the employer and follow the same format... short, sweet and effective. Sticking to a format speeds up creating a bid.



Sample 3 Project Description: We are test marketing our services in other countries outside of the United States and are looking for companies who can assist us in the following ways: 1. Allow us to place their office address on OUR website as a partner location (we will use our international toll-free number) 2. Take occasional inbound phone calls and redirect to us. 3. Place a partner logo on your website. In return we will also give you exposure on our US sales portal as a partner. Questions: 1. Are you available to answer calls Monday through Friday between 9AM - 5PM EST? 2. Do you have a website to place the partner logo? Thank you for your consideration. Project Bid: Look no further for help with your international testing! Greetings, [or if you know name Dear Xxxx,] Thank you for the opportunity to bid on your project seeking an international partner for your company. I am currently an independent proprietor based out of London, England and I’ll be more than excited to take this on. You will find all information relating to my skills and experience as well as my cost and time estimates contained below in this project bid. Though your project description was unclear about how calls should be handled, I have previously worked as technical support rep for AT&T. Therefore I will be well equipped to handle customer service calls should any kind of assistance over the phone be required of this project. In fact, here is what you can expect from me:

• Friendly and courteous call answering and transferring

• 100% Satisfaction guarantee or no charge to you

• Periodic checkups by phone or email to see if you are getting the

results desired



If selected for this project, I would like to have a meeting to discuss the arrangements of the inbound calls and perhaps discuss other possibilities concerning exposure of your company in other websites. [ Answering employer questions ] In answer to your questions: Are you available to answer calls Monday through Friday between 12PM - 8PM EST? Yes Do you have a website to place the partner logo? Yes I will go ahead and place a per-call estimate of $1.50 per call, if only a transfer of the call to your offices is required and a $400 fee to place your logo on my website. The per-call charge may be higher if any other assistance is required over the phone. Again, I am located in London and am able to begin working on this project right away. Feel free to contact me anytime at [email protected], in MSN Messenger under screen name example or by phone at +44 (0) 845 555 5555. I look forward to working with you from all the way out here. Best regards, John Doe Comments: This project is rather unique but the bid format still applies the same here. Notice the use of the line “... perhaps discuss other possibilities concerning exposure of your company in other websites.” Any suggestions you have add value to your services and increase the possibility you’ll be hired. So casually mention them without going into detail. Give them a reason to contact you to find out more.



Important advice for bidding in Freelance Work Exchanges and job boards When you finally start bidding, one of the most important things you can do is login to your FWE or job board and keep track throughout the day on new projects posted in your category. Once you see any project that fits your capability, then do not hesitate to make a bid right then and there. The reason is that employers are often in a hurry to look for providers and you want to be near the top of that list of bidders. If the first one who bids on a project happens to submit a reasonable bid and has the right qualifications, then they stand a great chance of being selected right away. Given this, I cannot stress the timing of your bid enough and this is an excellent way to reduce the competition from other bids. Also most FWEs allow a limited number of bids per month, so this also optimizes your use of them. Also remember that the longer a project has been listed the less likely you are to win it. The truth is your odds of winning a project drop dramatically just after the first day it has been posted. With that in mind, only bid on projects over a day old if it happens to be really ideal for you or if there are no other brand new projects to bid on. Otherwise, only bid on same-day project postings, and keep an eye out for new ones periodically throughout the day. Be patient and they will come. Also, don’t limit yourself to just checking one job board. Check up on other listings as well. I don’t recommend paying to use multiple FWEs (it can get costly). If you do use an FWE, then periodically check other free job boards since you never know when or where a good project that suits you perfectly will show up.



IV. You’ve Won a Project, Now What? Winning your first project will be an exciting time for you. Now you will have officially started your career as a freelancer and all your work putting together your profile and writing bids will have paid off. It is very important after winning the bid to now concentrate on the project at hand and deliver the employer your best work possible within the time period you specified. Create a Project Agreement Before starting any project, you must get into the habit of drawing up a project agreement. A project agreement outlines the exact project requirements, your completion schedule and terms pf payment. Most important, though, this will legally bind you and your employer to a project and will be of use in case a dispute arises with your employer. There are three parts to a project agreement: Buyer/Provider Agreement This part is a contract that outlines the basic project requirements, terms of payment and project milestones. A project milestone is a date (or multiple dates) of completion of each stage of a project. For instance, if you obtain a project to ghost write an autobiography, you may want to set a completion date of eight months. Then a milestone of 25% completion could be set for every two months after you start. You also set the payment requirement upon completion of each milestone, too. Statement of Work Here, you get down to the nitty gritty and detail the project exactly. This is where you document all requirements the employer has and your methods of completing each one. I cannot stress enough that you take your time to understand every last detail of a project then make note of each one in the statement of work. The statement of work is not necessary for shorter, simpler projects where all details can be mentioned in the buyer/provider agreement. Most freelance work exchanges (FWEs) have a tool for you to upload a project agreement which must be agreed upon (online) by the employer before the start of a project. If not,



you will have to make sure the employer signs and emails/faxes you the entire agreement. Either way, make sure you have this so you don’t get burned! Change Order This will not be a part of the initial project agreement between you and your employer but is necessary if any part of a project requires a change from the original agreement. The change(s) necessary are detailed including any additional costs. Most projects will require some change or another due to things that were forgotten by the employer or a change of taste. The change order ensures the change is fair for both parties. A useful project agreement template can be found here. And a change order template can be found here. Communicate With Your Employer It is important to stay in contact with your employer, either by phone or more commonly by email. You should at least send an email to your employer once a day (once every few days for longer projects) giving him the status and any updates you have made. Employers are especially weary of new freelancers they hire and some may have had bad experiences with other previous freelancers they hired in the past. The better you communicate with your employer, the more you reassure him and put his trust in you. Develop a Productive Working Schedule Working freelance gives you the ultimate freedom of letting you choose the hours you want to work. This will not be the same as a job where you will be paid even if you are surfing the internet all day. You need to maximize your time working if you want to be successful and enjoy the benefits of freelancing. Everybody has a certain time of the day when they are most productive, so time your schedule around those hours. It doesn’t make sense to start working at 8:00 am drowsy and grouchy when you are normally an afternoon person and most alert around 3:00 pm. Schedule a set number of hours to work each day and keep track of your time working during the day until you reach that limit you set. It is somewhat difficult to establish a


http://www.elance.com/p/corporate/community/resource-center/contract-sow.html

http://www.elance.com/p/corporate/community/resource-center/contract-change-order.html


working schedule in freelance simply because you are “allowed” to goof-off. Choosing your hours and sticking to them is the first step in developing that habit. Be sure to take breaks during your work day. Some of you may remember that one 15 minute break you were allowed during your work shift. HA! No more! Don’t take too many breaks, though, or it will affect your concentration and production. A break once every two hours of work is about optimal. Develop a Service Minded Attitude Yes, you are your own boss but your employers are eventually the ones forking over the cash. Meet their needs and treat them with the highest respect and the following advantages to your young freelance career will happen:

• You being rehired for future projects • Good referrals to other employers

• Good recommendations in your online profiles

• Development of a client base

A service-minded attitude is absolutely essential to achieving the above. In fact, if you develop this attitude and live by it right away, you will surprise yourself in how fast your freelance business will grow and the amount of projects that will be lined up for you. The opposite is true, too. Leave an employer unfulfilled and disappointed in your work and you will be left digging yourself out of a hole due to bad reputation. I shouldn’t have to explain this further but remember that bad reputation spreads faster than good reputation. Your freelance career depends very highly on your reputation as well. Here are suggestions to developing a service-minded attitude:

• Keep in constant communication with your employer and make sure that they know AND understand how you will take on a project. Make sure they know if they have any questions or are unsure about anything, to let you know about it.

• More often than not employers will ask you for small changes or “favors” during a project. It’s OK to give in once in a while and do a freebee, but don’t make a habit out of it, especially with the same employer. Your time is valuable and you need to



charge for it. If you made a mistake with the employer, however, quickly fix it and consider adding on little “extras” to the project to ease them over.

• If your employer seems to ask too many favors or you get the sense that the

employer is taking advantage of you, then kindly inform them that there will be an extra charge applied (this is where your project agreement comes in handy). Some employers will test the boundaries of freelancers and will calmly back down if you are firm, but polite with them.

• After a project is finished, follow up with your employer about five days after completion and send him an email asking if they were satisfied with your project work or if the project is working as he envisioned it.

Most of the time they will thank you and say everything is fine, but once in a while an employer will have a concern. Should that be the case, do what needs to be done so they are happy with your work. This is more or less applying a customer guarantee to your employer.

• If an employer has an urgent request or if they try to contact you to fix a problem, respond immediately and handle their requests in an efficient manner.

• Once in a while a misunderstanding may develop between you and your employer that may leave you, the employer or both of you fuming. Whether you or your employer is at fault, take these steps to diffuse the issue:

1. Wait a few hours before handling the situation, or better yet, until the next day. You will calm down more and be in a better frame of mind to handle it.

2. Then take a good look at the issue at hand and figure out the quickest and

most effective resolution to it. Not to mention, one that is fair to both parties.

3. After that, acknowledge the issue your employer calmly over the phone or

by email and explain the resolution you propose. Always give your employer the benefit of the doubt here and you will avoid arguments and calm him down, too.

4. Never under any circumstances argue with your employer even if they are at fault. Otherwise, you may quickly lose an employer and your reputation could be at stake if he decides to complain.



• Remember that you may never even see the faces of some of your employers which makes your relationship with him or her somewhat impersonal. Make small talk with your employer whether it is by phone or email and you will add another dimension to your business relationship.

Work Work Work This should be self explanatory, but do whatever it takes to get that project done on or before the project due date you set. This should be your number one priority. Your ability to get future projects, the possibility that your employer will rehire you and most importantly, your income will depend on you getting projects done on time. There will most likely be times where you misjudge the amount of time to complete a project. In these cases you may have to work “overtime” working more hours than normal or giving up your weekend to get it done. Just do it if necessary. This is part of the learning curve for the new freelancer and soon enough you will be able to better calculate a time estimate of a project. Track Income and Expenses This should go without saying but you need to know how much you are making and how much you are spending since you are a business. It is highly recommended you hire an accountant to do this for you since this can overwhelm you from time to time. If you decide to do it on your own, then here is the bare minimum you must do:

• Create an Excel spreadsheet or use a notebook to track all income received from freelance work. Make sure you jot down every cent earned. If you can, track your income by job/project too.

• Also using a spreadsheet or notebook, track every expense made as a freelancer. This includes rent, utilities, subscription fees, equipment, office supplies, etc. Be sure you have a receipt or somehow be able to account for each expense, too.

• Make sure you set aside part of your income for taxes. The best method is to create a savings account specifically for tax withholding and deposit 30% - 40% of your received income into it. Please refer to your country’s tax tables for an idea of what your withholding should be. Do not ignore income taxes! The last thing you want is trouble with “the man.”



Track Your Hours Worked This is easily overlooked by rookie freelancers but has to be done to 1) Keep you on track and not goofing off and 2) Make sure you are earning what you want/need to earn. Here is a simple strategy for tracking your hours:

• First, make sure you determine the number of hours you plan to work on a project before you even start it. This will be your “budgeted” hours.

• Each day you work on the project, keep track of the time spent on it to the nearest quarter on an hour. If you are working on multiple projects, note the time spent on each one. Total these hours by project on a weekly basis.

• Upon project completion, compare the total hours worked on a project with the budgeted hours you set. Is it higher? Lower? Just about the same?

If the total hours worked is higher than the budgeted hours, this indicates that maybe you weren’t working as hard as you could or your bid price was too low on the project. Either way, you need to take note of this and make adjustments in your work habits or pricing. Your goal is to be productive as possible and earning as much as possible and hour tracking is your best measuring stick.

Next we’ll cover some strategies to earn more money in freelancing.



V. Strategies For Earning More Money Freelancing is not something you can jump into right away and start earning like you would in a salaried job position. It’s important to first become comfortable in your routine of looking for and bidding on projects, dealing with your clients, and doing your actual job than worrying about what you are earning when you are just starting out. More often than not, though, rookie freelancers are disappointed in their initial income from freelancing and decide to quit. I can tell you that not earning what you expect to earn is normal for a rookie and your income can improve drastically with just a few simple strategies: Always Ask For Referrals It would be fairly accurate to say that 80% to 90 % of your business will be from the recommendations of other clients. That is, if you do your job right and leave your clients feeling confident in you. Don’t just assume they’ll do so, though, like most freelancers do. If you know a client is satisfied with your work, don’t hesitate to ask: “Hey, do you know anybody else that needs... (whatever you do)?” You can even offer a free or discounted service if they refer a friend to you. Make sure that you do this to EVERY satisfied client. Even if they don’t know anyone that could use your services right off the bat, this will “plant the seed” in their head. Any happy client will usually reciprocate your hard work for them by helping you find more. They have to know you are looking for more work, though. Package Deals FWEs such as Guru and Elance allow you to create packaged deals for prospective employers which work similar to the classifieds section of a newspaper. A package deal allows you to set a pre-arranged price for a particular service and post it in their package listings for employers to browse through. You do have to subscribe to an FWE first but they can increase your exposure online. Furthermore, they are ideal because they offer a service that you are already familiar with and you can handle them in less time than maybe other services you offer. This can increase your income by doing more work in less time.



FWEs usually limit the number of package deals you are allowed. In some cases, you may have to pay extra to be able to use them, but pay the extra and use them anyway. You want to increase your exposure and package deals are the best way to do it. Here is a general template of setting one up in an FWE:

1) Catchy title

2) Price

3) Delivery time

4) Package detail which contains:

• what exactly you will do

• upgrades and prices of them

• how you will deliver

5) An example of your work (image or document file or link to website) Here is an example of a package detail: Title: Translating a Document to or From Spanish? Price: $85.00 USD Delivery Time: Delivered within 7 business days. 12 business days international. Details: Sierra Languages, Inc. will translate and notarize any document for $85 per page

• Translate birth certificates, marriage certificate, and official government documents

• We proofread all translations between three certified translators

• Delivery worldwide included in price. Express delivery available for additional charge.

• $65 per page after 5th page



• We can provide special requests, contact us!

Sample File: TranslatedDocumentSample.doc Remember to be very specific about the service you will provide and give the potential client options so it would be hard to refuse your services. In addition, create as many package deals as you can (FWEs do have a limit though) to increase your exposure. Also be sure to offer a variety of services for your package deals and find out which packages draw new clients and which ones do not. Replace those that are not attracting clients with different offers. Repeat this process until all your package deals are attracting new business. Upsell Your Clients This is quite possibly the easiest way to increase your earnings in freelancing. After agreeing to do a project and settling on a price, wait until a few days until after you start it. Then, if there is any way you can improve the project or add value to it, causally mention it to your client along with the cost to do it. Many times they will take you up on it and many times they will not. You can, however, increase your earnings from the ones that do. You have to remember to make it appear casual, like “Hey, I was just thinking and...” Otherwise it could backfire and take away whatever trust your client has put in you, so be careful here. Also, be reasonable with the extra cost involved with the upsell. A client will not likely pay the same fee as the project for an upsell but if the upsell is 10% - 20% of the original project fee, then it may seem like a worthwhile upgrade for them. The Vicious Cycle of Failure New freelancers often fall into the trap of taking on a project for well below what it is worth being desperate for work. Then after finishing it, desperate for more work, take on another project below their worth. After completion, the cycle repeats. This is known as the vicious cycle of failure and will put an end to a freelancing career faster than you can imagine. While you are working on freelance projects, it is an absolute necessity that you set aside some time to be looking for new projects to work on ahead of time. The project search has to be done until a confirmation on new projects is obtained. If you are nearing the end of



your current project and you still haven’t found a new one, set aside even more time to search or work overtime to find new projects. Ideally you want your projects to overlap each other instead of having a gap between them. Looking for projects should be of equal priority as working on a project for you. Many freelancers, however, simply ignore this little fact and destroy their careers in the process. Don’t become one of them. Contracted Positions In freelance work exchange (FWE) project listings, if you keep track of them, you’ll notice that contractor positions make up a small portion of these. Note that most aren’t actual job positions but a contracted position which means you are contracted by a business without being employed. Bottom line: THIS MEANS STEADY WORK. Therefore, keep your eye out for them. Every day, every hour, check the FWE project listings for new projects and be on the lookout. If you see one, do not hesitate to send a bid for that position on the spot. Job boards and freelance job boards usually have a higher number of job positions available, but they tend to be already filled by the time you even look at them. Regardless, keep an eye on these, too, for new listings that offer positions. Then apply right on the spot if you see one that interests you. Know the Hierarchy of Project Earnings Once you are established in your freelance career you should know and target particular types of clients. There are four of these types of clients and each has their own earnings potential. I’ll list them from lowest earnings potential to highest:

• Individuals

• Small businesses (mom & pop) and Non-profit organizations

• Small companies, law offices

• Known companies and organizations Your goal is to eventually draw clients from known companies which will make you earn a nice living. The downside to this hierarchy is that, as you earnings potential increase, the



ability to obtain those types of clients becomes increasingly difficult. You will not be able to start out in freelancing and have Coca-Cola as your first client unless you have amazing luck or connections. As you progress in your freelance career, though, your qualifications and skills to be able to work for those larger companies will be better suited. So keep in mind this hierarchy and always be on the lookout for those larger businesses and organizations that you can work for and apply with them. This also means you must keep your portfolio and resume (profile) updated frequently so it reflects the advancing skills you are gaining as a freelancer. Periodically Raise Your Rates This seems like a no-brainer but as you progress in your career in freelancing, you will develop your portfolio, client base, recommendations for you and reputation. With that progression, you become an expert in your field, so your rates need to reflect accordingly. Don’t be afraid to ask for more in your project fees. If you honestly believe your work is worth the price you ask for it, then it is worth just that. Be smart with raising your rates, though. You need to be aware of the market value for your services. If you are in high demand, then raise your rates slightly (10% - 15%). Otherwise you may find yourself suddenly without a client base.



VI. Foreseeing and Handling Common Challenges For any freelance profession there is always a learning curve before you become successful, no matter if you are even experienced in your field before switching to freelance. Working freelance means running your own business, so besides the skills needed to perform the work in your profession, you have to be your own accountant, secretary, customer service and support, and in the extreme case, a collections agent. In my experience, I learned all those “extra” skills very fast and if you work hard in your own business, you will too. Some of the lessons of this business I had to learn the hard way, though, and therefore I’ll tell you in this chapter what to do when the most common challenges facing freelancers happens to you and how to prevent them. Screening Employers This is the most overlooked task done by a rookie freelancer looking for projects to bid on. Most are in such a hurry to find projects to bid on, that they will rush to bid on a project or send their resume without giving any consideration to the type of employer they might be working for. After all, if you apply for a normal day job, you would be selective about who you work for, wouldn’t you? Of course, so while looking for projects to bid on you must be selective here as well. Read the feedback – Most freelance work exchanges (FWE) have feedback for both employers and freelancers. You can usually find employer feedback and the feedback the employer left for previous freelancers in project descriptions. Make sure you read through these and see that other freelancers have left positive feedback for them, otherwise it is a no-brainer to not bid on any of that employer’s projects. Also look at the feedback the employer left of other freelancers and see if they are mostly negative. If so, this is a good sign that this employer has set extremely high expectations and is unpleasant to work for. Those are other employers you want to avoid. Do not pay for any project – If a project requires you to make a payment or purchase of any kind from your employer then leave it alone. These are scams no matter how good these projects sound or whatever they say they promise you. Analyze the project description – There are telltale signs inside a project description that can indicate an undesirable employer:



1. Look how the bid is written. If you see spelling and grammar mistakes, stay away. If an employer cannot be professional enough in a project description, this will indicate his professionalism in his business and towards you. This can also be indicative of a scam. Though there may not be a quick way to prove it is a scam, it is best just to stay away from that employer.

2. Check if the project is requesting a low bid price for the work involved, asks for bids from overseas freelancers or mentions “opportunity for profit sharing” inside the project description. These are all indications that the employer is unwilling to pay a fair price for the work done. Often, these employers are very demanding, too. Don’t’ fall into the trap of bidding here.

3. Be wary of employers who ask you to work for a rate lower than they state they are

willing to pay in their project or job description. Also look out for those who ask you to work for a lower rate in exchange for the promise of future projects. If they are not willing to pay a price they set or a competitive price for work at the time of hire, then they definitely will not in the future. The promise of future projects is one trap many new freelancers fall into and are left disappointed by.

4. Analyze the integrity of the project. If the project has the hint of being unethical or even illegal then stay away. Even if the employer is willing to pay a premium for your service, it is not worth the possibility of getting yourself in trouble. You may not even get paid by these shady employers either.

There is also one other item of note in a project description and that is if the employer will require the rights to all work performed (documents, programs, graphics, etc) or requires you to sign over the rights. Though this does not indicate an unattractive employer, it should not be a practice to sign over or give the rights of finished work to an employer. The reason is that your work as a freelancer is strictly your own work which has resale value to it. You can use this work on other projects or resell it to other employers. Only under the circumstance that you will be paid a higher project fee should you ever let an employer hold exclusive rights to any of your work. The Impossible Employer Despite all the screening methods you apply when searching for projects, you still stand a small chance of taking on a project by a very demanding employer. You may be asked to do a number of do-overs, revisions or they might try to tack on an extra task and claim it was a part of the project description. All at your time and expense, of course.



Impossible employers can be a hindrance to your freelance business since they take time away from what could be other projects for you to work on. Plus, there is the obvious disadvantage of losing money due to the extra work and no extra pay. First of all, the best way to avoid them is prevention. One of the most important things you can do is to make sure you know all the requirements from the project description and to ask questions if there are doubts. Do not ever assume a single thing about a project. Also, if possible, provide samples to your employer and ask them “Do you want it like this?” MAKE SURE YOU KNOW ALL PROJECT DETAILS AND DOCUMENT THEM IN A PROJECT AGREEMENT! Here was the section again to create a project agreement. If you do encounter an undesirable employer, the best way to handle him is to first adopt a business approach in dealing with him. Though you may have the strong desire to unleash a few profanities through a phone call or email, keeping a calm attitude along with holding firm in your position is always the best way to deal with the employer. Here are some tips to handle a difficult employer:

• You have to remember that a few employers will try to get the most for their dollar and will keep “asking” for more without offering more money for your time. If you politely notify them that an extra charge will apply for the extra work, they usually back down. Remember, though, the keyword is politeness.

• Once in a while a change or redo on a project is the result of a misunderstanding in the project description on your part. In this case you may have to swallow your pride, give your employer the benefit of the doubt and correct the issue. Even if the project description was unclear or misinterpreted, you HAVE to understand all aspects of the project before setting a price and an agreement to perform them.

• If the change or redo is the result of an employer changing his mind or something which was not specified in the project description then you need to inform him of an extra charge to be applied and create a change order. If he continues to be difficult or refuses the extra charge, then politely explain to him how his requests were not in the project agreement (you did make one, right?) and you have to charge for your time. This will usually stop them in their tracks although they may not be happy about it.



If you screen your employers well, this should never happen to you. Therefore, do not be in a rush to take on a job or project without knowing who you’ll be involved with. Use the steps mentioned earlier in this chapter to weed out those potential nightmare employers. Not Winning Enough Bids This is a very common issue for rookie freelancers. Here are steps to take if you find you are not winning enough or any bids at all. I mentioned some of these before, but they are worth mentioning again:

1. During the day, constantly keep track of new bids that appear in your specified field in job boards and FWEs. If any are within your capability, bid RIGHT AWAY. Do not delay.

2. Be patient and only bid on projects that have been posted on the same day. Odds significantly decrease on winning projects after the first day a project is posted.

3. You may need to lower your bid prices. Make slight adjustments of subtracting 10% to 15% off of your rates. A larger reduction might be too much.

4. Bid on smaller projects and more of them instead of the larger and higher paying projects. Small projects are easier to win and are ideal for rookie freelancers to start out with.

5. Personalize your bid for EVERY employer. Employers can easily spot out a “canned” template response and will quickly dismiss it.

In Over Your Head on a Project Once in a while, you may take on a challenging project which may pay a substantial amount only to later realize it is way beyond your capabilities. This is sure to happen once or twice, but the key is to not worry, recognize it immediately and take action with the following:

1. First contact your employer immediately and notify him that you cannot handle the project. It is very difficult and humbling to admit you cannot perform a particular task but you do gain credibility and maybe a bit of sympathy from him if you do this.



2. Offer to make arrangements to find an immediate replacement that will take over for a similar project fee as yours. If you need to search through an FWE or job board yourself, do it.

3. Make a sincere apology to your employer and explain any specifics in the project that you were not able to handle. Be honest. Your employer will probably understand and be civil with you about the matter.

4. Do not expect to collect for any work done even if there was completed work to some degree. It is not a good idea since this could anger your employer and possibly damage your reputation through negative feedback. If you do not uphold your agreement to fulfil the entire needs of the project, your employer will not be required to pay for it, plain and simple. You have to take this as a loss and a lesson learned.

Unexpected Delays For new freelancers, it is a very good possibility that your first few projects may take much longer than expected. This is usually caused from unexpected details within the project itself that were not given to you by the employer or were overlooked on your part. To begin with, all aspects of a project must be thought out and any questions that arise must be cleared before deciding the bid price and having the employer agree to it. We are all human, though, and sometimes we can overlook a thing or two that will eventually be caught later. These new details can add a little to a significant amount of extra work to a project. The first reaction upon encountering unexpected details is to blame the employer for not filling you in on them. You have to remember that the employer is almost always in the dark about what kind of delays to expect since they are depending on YOU to provide the solutions to them. Therefore you need to take a service-minded approach into handling this. Here is the approach into handling the extra work:

• First, determine how much extra work will need to be done and the time needed to complete it.

• Next you will have to determine if you will charge for the extra time needed. The

general rule is that if wasn’t covered in the project agreement then you need to charge.



• If, however, the extra work was due to a project requirement you overlooked, then it may be in your best interest to bite the bullet and not charge for that extra time required. It will not go over too well with your employer if he is asked to pay more for the same service he expected with the original bid price.

• The last thing you need to do is inform your employer if there are changes in the bid price and/or if there will be a delay in the project. Let them know as soon as possible, too. Most employers understand if a delay happens in a project, but are much less understanding if you tell them on the project due date, or worse, later than the due date.

If you do not charge for the extra work but can still finish the project on time, let your employer know it anyway. It inspires confidence in your employer that you can handle setbacks and makes them more likely to retain you for future projects. The Slow Times In the freelance business, it is typical to go through times when you are absolutely overwhelmed with projects and other times when there is nothing to do. Once you are an established freelancer, you will notice that work will start to come from the client base that you develop. Regardless, the slow periods do come. Here are ways to keep the work flowing to and get through those slow times.

• Always set aside time to look for new projects. Do this while you are working on your current project, too. Continue to do so each day until you have one or more projects lined up after completion of the current project.

• Make sure you are well aware of the scheduling of your projects. If you have other

projects lined up, estimate the time it will take to complete them and use this as a reference of when you should be looking for more work. For instance, if you have two projects and estimate three weeks to complete them, then in the beginning of the second week, begin looking for more projects.

Keep a consistent rhythm of working and looking for work so you are not all of a sudden out of work and desperately searching for it.

• If the slow times do come, they are also good to catch up on necessary administrative tasks or start personal projects. One important task you could do would be to update your profile for the job board and FWE sites. Also, you can



email previous clients to see if they are satisfied with the work you have done. Sometimes you can drum up new projects this way.

Waiting for Payments In a perfect world, once you finish a project, you should be paid right away. Sometimes this is the case, however, it is normal to wait anywhere from a week up to a month for payment. For employers you never worked with before, if you still haven’t received payment after one month, then politely inquire asking them if they have received your invoice. Most of the time, your employer is just very busy and missing the payment will only be an oversight. Remember, too, that the business standard is to pay an invoice within thirty days of receipt. There is always the slight possibility that your employer will intentionally skip payment. The best prevention of this is to screen employers in advanced, which is outlined in the beginning of this chapter. If you screen carefully and build a friendly working relationship with your employers then this should almost never happen to you.



VII. Final Word I sincerely hope this guide assists you in jumpstarting your freelance career. All the methods contained are the result of trial and error when I first got started in my freelance career. It took me years to learn the basics I describe in this guide, so you already will have a jump on the learning curve if you apply them to your freelance career. In addition, I highly recommend utilizing the freelance forums and websites (see the following Appendix A) to assist you in your budding career. Once in a while you will come across an article or tip that will make a huge difference in your business. And lastly, I want to see you succeed in your career, so if you have any questions regarding this guide or any other in general, then I encourage you to email me. Also, I greatly welcome any comments you have, positive or negative, on how this guide has helped you or can be improved. My email address is:

[email protected] Best wishes and good luck on your new freelance career! Johnny Spence RookieFreelanceJobGuide.com FreelanceRant.com


mailto:[email protected]


Appendix A. Other Resources & Links Used In This Guide Hourly Rate Calculator

1. First you will need to figure out the yearly salary for your profession given your experience. Go to CBSalary.com where they have a salary calculator that can give you a range of salaries for your profession.

2. Next you will need to figure out your overhead costs for the year. To do this, first figure out your monthly costs. Include the following:

• Rent • Utilities and phone

• Health or other insurance

• Membership and license fees

• Office equipment and supplies

• Marketing costs

• Accounting fees

• Travel expenses

Now add these monthly costs and multiply by 12 to get your yearly overhead. 3. Now you will have to figure out your billable hours for the year. Given a normal

working week of 8 hours a day/40 hours a week, we get 2080 hours total possible working hours during the year. It is impossible to work them all since we need time for administrative work related to our freelance profession, but not productive towards working on projects and earning money (i.e. looking for clients, writing emails, creating and sending invoices, writing project bids, etc). We also need time for vacation, don’t we? Here is how to determine this:

• First figure out non-billable hours. A rough estimate for your administrative duties necessary is 10% of the total working hours or 210 hours. Also a rough estimate of vacation time is 56 hours, or one week of vacation (8 hours/day X 7 days). Add the two and we’ll have 266 hours of non-billable hours.


http://www.cbsalary.com/


• Now subtract the total non-billable hours available from 2080, the total billable hours in a year, to get our billable hours for the year.

• A good rough estimate for your billable hours is 1800 though make adjustments according to your own needs if necessary. If you have more vacation time or need more time for administrative needs, take those into account.

4. Next is roughly calculating your income tax. Take the amount from step 1 and multiply this by .40 to get this estimate (40% of your salary).

5. The last number we’ll need is your desired profit margin. After all you are a business and you do need to make a profit, right? This is generally 10% - 20%. To get this amount:

• Add together your salary from step 1, yearly overhead from step 2 and the estimated income tax from step 4.

• Multiply this amount by the profit margin as a decimal (.10 if 10%, .15 if

15%, etc) to get the amount of the profit margin.

6. Now we can determine your hourly rate:

• Add together your salary from step 1, yearly overhead from step 2, the estimated income tax from step 4 and the profit margin calculated in step 5.

• Divide this amount by the number of billable hours from step 3

• Here is an example:

1. Desired salary is $30,000 2. Monthly overhead is $700. Yearly overhead is 700 X 12, or $8,400

3. Billable hours are 1800

4. Income tax estimate is 30,000 X .40, or $12,000



5. Profit margin selected is 15%. So add: 30,000 + 8,400 + 12,000 = $54,000 $54,000 X .15 = $8,100

6. Add: 30,000 + 8,400 + 12,000 + 8,100 = $62,100

62,100 / 1800 = $34.50 hourly rate Other Useful Resources The Rookie Forum Check out our forum for The Rookie Freelance Job Guide. Post comments and view tips and advice from other users and the author of this guide, Johnny Spence. You will need your email address or order number, used when purchasing this guide, to login. Updates to This Guide Once in a while, updates will be made to this guide which you will also be entitled to. For here, too, you will need your email address or order number, used when purchasing this guide, to login. iDontWannaBoss.com This is an ezine dedicated to the freelancers out there, like myself. Check out the useful articles. The Freelance Rant My freelance blog with advice and general rants about the freelancing profession. Links Used in This Guide All Freelance This is a one-stop location for everything related to freelance. It pays to check out every section and become familiar with this website. Probably the most use will come from their message boards and articles.


http://www.rookiefreelancejobguide.com/forum/

http://www.rookiefreelancejobguide.com/users/updates.php

http://www.idontwannaboss.com/

http://www.freelancerant.com/

http://www.allfreelance.com/


Aquent A freelance job board that actively seeks freelancers (though not all) to fill projects jobs by employers. CBSalary.com A useful site with a salary calculator for most and a cost of living calculator for any region of the U.S. Elance A great site to join in order to find continuous freelance work. It is ideal for the new freelancers to the freelance veterans alike since they offer thousands of projects to bid on for every skill level. Freelance Switch A freelance blog with useful articles, forums, job board, and other resources for freelancers. This site is especially helpful when just starting out on your career. Go Freelance A site designed for the freelancer just starting out. A subscription allows access to their job board, tips, manuals, articles and useful resources pages which all happen to come in handy. How to Build Up Your Samples Without Professional Experience A great article for showing you how to establish your portfolio without experience under your belt. Monster.com A job board with a fairly large database of freelance work. The Monster List of Freelancing Job Sites Here is a large, updated list of freelance job boards and freelance work exchanges to find work.


http://www.aquent.com/

http://www.cbsalary.com/

http://www.elance.com/subscription?rid=129BQ

http://freelanceswitch.com/

http://www.gofreelance.com/

http://www.allfreelancework.com/articleportfolio2.php

http://www.monster.com/

http://freelanceswitch.com/finding/the-monster-list-of-freelancing-job-sites/


oDesk.com A freelance work exchange with no membership fees, but charges 10% off of projects you win. Project Agreement Template Includes the buyer/provider agreement and statement of work. Project Change Order Template Get used to using this one in your projects, too. SoloGig.com Another large freelance/employer exchange site with a large database of projects available. Ten Terrific Ways to Gain Job/Career Experience More tips for gaining job experience. Workaholics4hire.com An agency seeking qualified freelancers to fill job and project vacancies. Yahoo HotJobs The other popular job board with a large database of freelance work.


http://www.odesk.com/

http://www.elance.com/p/corporate/community/resource-center/contract-sow.html

http://www.elance.com/p/corporate/community/resource-center/contract-change-order.html

http://www.sologig.com/

http://jobs.nicepakistan.com/gainworkexperience.shtml

http://www.workaholics4hire.com/

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/


Appendix B. Cover Letter Samples For maximum effectiveness, try to obtain the name of the person who your profile will be sent to and use it. In cases where you are sending your profile to employers by email, it is recommended you use this template as the body of the email and your profile as an attachment. Also, try to include your work samples in the same document as your resume (which will be your profile) to keep the employer from having to download and open multiple files. Cover letter for applying for a contract position where a quote is not needed: Greetings, [or if you know name Dear Xxxx,] Thank you for the opportunity to apply for your website maintenance position. I’ll be more than excited to take on this position and enclosed you’ll find my resume and work experience which will show I am very qualified to handle this. In fact, here is what you can expect me:

• Expert in website server maintenance

• Able to handle emergencies in a snap (as I’ve done many times before)

• Reliable and always available. My enclosed references would love to

tell you the same.

• Periodic communication so we’re on the same page Feel free to contact me at [email protected] or by Yahoo Messenger under screen name example. In addition, I’m located in Seattle and can be reached by phone at (555) 555-1234. I look forward to working with you soon. Kind regards, John Doe [ Continued on next page ]




Cover letter for a project bid where a quote is expected: Greetings, [or if you know name Dear Xxxx,] Thank you for the opportunity to apply for your project needing a blog set up for your online business. I’ll be more than excited to take on this position and enclosed you’ll find my resume and work experience which will show I am very qualified to handle this. In fact, you can expect the following from me:

• Expertise in installing and configuring blogs on web servers • Have your blog optimized for the major search engines

• Have your blog customized to suit your preferences

• 100% Satisfaction or no charge at all to you

• 30 Day Warranty Period for any errors that occur after installation

I’ll give you a quote of $500 for installing the blog and a turnaround of three days to complete it. Feel free to contact me at [email protected] or by MSN Messenger under screen name example. In addition, I’m located in Orlando, FL and can be reached by phone at (555) 555-1234. I look forward to working with you soon. Best regards, John Doe

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