The other day I was scrolling through Twitter procrastinating after a hard day working. One Twitter thread in particular caught my eye and I was here for it. Heidi N. Moore is an editor in the Business and Finance space. Both areas with potentially lucrative contracts for the freelancers who are “in the know.” She spilled “the tea” on what writers should be asking, what they should be earning, expectations on scope of work as they relate to pay and she burned the internet to the ground with these revelations as well as the feelings of a lot of people who were unexpectedly being pushed to reconsider their long-held beliefs about what they were being paid, how they were complicit in undermining their own earnings, and that the reality they were living in was going to keep them broke. Ms. Moore also shared the businesses (many very well-known) that way underpaid their writers, wanted free work in exchange for publicity (I can’t pay bills with publicity), and so much more. I’m going to share my thoughts on this topic, my own underpaid and undervalued moments, and end with 20 tips on how you can own your freelancing process and advocate for yourself during the process. No more free work! And, you don’t know what you don’t know…let’s talk. Freelancers know your worth!
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Show Notes
- First, I want to make it very clear that I’ve totally been underpaid for the work that I’ve done for other people and it pains me to admit the following:
- I didn’t trust my gut when it felt like I should be paid more. And then I would think “at least I got this job” and that I was “lucky” to get it
- I was desperate for cash and that desperation dictated my actions.
- I didn’t know the earnings standards for the space that I was writing in.
- Lack of confidence in my expertise (Imposter Syndrome) affected my ability to advocate for myself
- Lack of earnings diversity was a huge problem. I didn’t have cash coming in from other revenue streams. That placed a lot of stress on me to take what I got.
- Not having enough of a financial buffer
- Here are some examples of projects I said “yes!” to when I should have said “No!”
- Listicals-I used to get paid $15 a post to write those listicals, you know, those posts sharing the 17 best blah, blah, blah, or the 21 best blah, blah, blah. They aren’t hard to write, but they can be time consuming especially if you’re providing links for the post or have to do some research for it.
- The $100 Dollar Book Editing Job-Yes, you can laugh at this one. I do. I said “yes” to this project after returning from Australia and I was taking anything that came my way. It was a digital book that ended up being bigger than I thought, highly technical, and when all was said and done, I probably made a penny an hour for that job.
- I kept a bad client for over a year when I should have fired them.
- Keeping bad clients because I didn’t have enough clients to fire them.
- They were nice people outside of business
- Why were they bad clients?
- Unreasonable expectations of contracted writers
- Late pay
20 Tips on How to Avoid Freelancing Hell
- Have clarity on the role of your freelance work in your income stream. You need to ask yourself the following questions:
- What is the minimum I need to be paid per project?
- What is this money for? Living, paying off debt, savings?
- Understand what you’re bringing to the table for your clients
- Timely work
- Excellant communication
- Well researched and edited posts
- Your life experience
- Education related expertise or life-related expertise
- How many clients do you need to have at any given time? Then, add 3 more to that number.
- Have conversations with other freelancers in your niche. Since I tend to write in the personal finance space, I’ve had numerous conversations with other writers about different organizations that they work for. We all spill the tea. So, if you’re contracting writers in the personal finance space-be warned the tea has been spilled.
- Have a strategy related to lower paying jobs in the beginning of your freelancing career. Pick them so that they serve a purpose and limit the number of gigs that you work on. As well as, setting a time frame for that work.
- If you’re currently working a 9-5, you have a lot more flexibility in terms of saying “yes” to free or low-paying work. If you’re building a portfolio guest post for other well-known bloggers and if you have a blog-that’s part of your writing portfolio.
- If you’re not working for whatever reason
- Add side-hustles to diversify your income and relieve some pressure from your freelancing focus. Side-hustles will motivate you in many different ways. But, they are also a time-suck. Brand ambassador work, focus groups, Convention Center Work, are all fairly easy to pick up depending on the size of your town.
- Always be onboarding-Basically, you have to create a mechanism in your business where you’re always adding new clients to your roster. This keeps you from stressing about clients and lets you fire bad clients fast.
- Know your budget and add 40% to it
- Track your earnings-what isn’t measured doesn’t grow.
- Diversity your earnings
- This diversity comes in several ways.
- number of clients
- Topics that you’re an expert in and can work on
- Do you offer a service, sell a product, coach clients in something? No? You probably should re-think this.
- If you have a podcast/website-do you
- Pitch for sponsors? Or, accept pay for sponsored content?
- Share your favorite affiliates
- Have a self-published book?
- Work on growing ad revenue on your site?
- This diversity comes in several ways.
- Always be marketing-This is the flip-side of always be onboarding.
- Share what you do in person (and, yes, you’re available to work projects)
- On social media
- Via cold-pitches
- People can’t hire you if they don’t know what you do and that you’re ready to work with them.
- Grab testimonials from happy clients.
- Use services like Contently to build out your portfolio
- Build in raises each time you sign on a new client. Even if it’s just $25 more.
- Create an onboarding process. Freelancing was a frustrating process for me because I enjoyed the work, but found the client side of the business driving me nuts. My friend Sarah Li Cain who makes well over $100,000 a year got me thinking about what was and wasn’t working with my freelancing projects. Then, she gave me some insight into what she did and continues to do to be a successful freelancer. One of her key actions is having a client onboarding process where she gets clarity on the following:
- Scope of work
- Writing expectations
- Payment terms
- When
- How
- Don’t take any projects that have a longer than 30 day payment term. You did the work, everyone else gets paid on-time, why not you?
- The company’s communication protocol.
- Email responsiveness
- Deadline day expectations-do you need to be around when you submit a post on a deadline day? I was caught off guard by a company expecting this, emailing me at 10:00 am asking for edits. I was at a conference that day. Then, they emailed me at 11:00 am angry that I hadn’t responded. I had no idea that they’d contacted me.
- Understand how your company is funded-so, if they balk at paying your $200 bucks you know it’s bull
- Acknowledge your money mindset. One thing that I found really interesting on Heidi’s Twitter thread was how a lot of money mindset issues came out and it was fascinating. No, you do not deserve to be underpaid and your work has value. If it didn’t, why are they having you do the work?
- For me, my issues were underearning and imposter syndrome.
- Ask if there is room to be compensated more? “Can the company pay a little more” We’re adults, one of three things may happen.
- You don’t get the gig-you should always be onboarding and hopefully that won’t be a big deal
- They say “no” and you move forward
- The company says “yes” and you earn more.
- Be 100% unapologetic about advocating for your own best interests. More often than not, you won’t have people like Heidi N. Moore, myself and others advocating for you. Or, it may take time to find those people.
Resources Mentioned
- Heidi N. Moore’s original Twitter Thread
- Grab my free mini-guide on “How to Manage Your Capacity”
A Special Shout out to the
Current Money on the
Mountain Sponsors and Speakers
- Plutus Foundation Harlan Landes and Charlotte Baker are amazing
- The Financial Gym-Shannon McLay is changing lives
- Kassandra Dassent, Financial Coach
- Jessica Garbarino-Every Single Dollar
- Emily Guy Birkin
- Jason Vitug-Phroogal
- Ryan and Carrie-Hashtag Colorado
- Melanie Lockert-founder of The Lola Retreat and author of Dear Debt.
- Phylecia Jones TedX speaker and creator of the speaking service iFindYouClose
- Jenny Bayless-Real Estate Investor
- Danielle Desir-Founder of The WOC Podcasting Community and The ThoughtCard website
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I am an obsessive foodie, but not self-righteous with it, love travel, meeting new people, helping you look good, and am freaked out by people who don't enjoying reading...something! Grab a Perrier, read my blog, feel free to drop me a line! Hope to hear from you soon.
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