The 4 deadly sins of Freelancing
Monday, November 30th, 2009If you freelance for your work, irrespective of where you stay, the BAD NEWS IS – You will have 100,000s of other freelancers competing with you.
The GOOD NEWS IS – Quite a few of them SUCK!
Ideally, freelancing is not supposed to be a difficult work domain to be in. You do the work, you get paid – As simple as that! Okay, but a lot of guys mess around with this too and strangely in the deal, find new variables that hit their work role.
How about you? Do you, regularly or occasionally, commit these 7 deadly sins of Freelancing?
Underbidding
This is one of the classic sins committed by most freelancers, especially new.
You see a project being posted by a client and you also see loads of other guys bidding for the project. What do you do – You underprice yourself terribly in order to stay ahead of the rat race.
For example, if the client is willing to pay $200 for a job and if others have bid in the range of $175, you would bid $50-75.
Does it work? – Heck no! In fact, clients would just not appreciate that someone is under-cutting their decision to award work at a certain price.
This is why most under-bidders never succeed in grabbing work for a long time! Ahem … They may, but they certainly can’t be profitable.
Sounds like doing a lot of work
What is a LOT OF WORK? For me, it could be like running a brick and mortar business, slogging my body out for 15 hour days, probably 7 days a week and most probably, 365 days a year. Certain sub-niches of freelancing just doesn’t need you to spend so much time at all. Not at all, actually!
That is the key to freelancing – You have time for yourself and you can also earn some money.
Don’t try to stretch this definition too far, else you would soon be out of business, in whatever you do.
Impatience rules the roost
Oh yes, most certainly it does! Most freelancers, buoyed by their early successes want too much too early. Anywhere you try to do this it is a surefire recipe for disaster. What you may want to do is, ask yourselves the questions as below
- Is my niche really in demand?
- Do I offer the correct services to be in business?
- Do I work to increase my network?
If you have answered No to any of these questions, it is time for you to go back to the drawing board.
The problem is – NONE OF US ACTUALLY DO IT!
Lame freelancers have themselves to blame for skinny kids
Lame freelancers – These are guys who just sit on their laurels that they have DONE THIS, DONE THAT, but don’t really work incrementally to improve their credibility.
And in not doing so, freelancers dig a deep grave for themselves, from which they could have an arduous task climbing up.
It is advisable that freelancers work to improve their reputation.
But again – How many of you would do that, or even want to do that?
See, it is simple – The more you work on increasing your credibility, as a freelancer and the more you work on taking stock of your skills, the more chances you have of staying in business. Otherwise, it would be a classic case of BEEN THERE, DONE THAT!
Article author having expertise in Financial Services, Internet Marketing, Healthcare and Legal Affairs Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/business-opportunities-articles/the-7-deadly-sins-of-freelancing-1524608.html