Today I have a guest post from my friend Kristin Wong who writes on sites like LifeHacker and Mental_Floss. She also has her own website, www.thewildwong.com.
Enjoy the post – she has great advice for anyone looking to freelance!
When I first started my freelancing career, I thought I hit the mother lode. After months of putting myself out there, I finally got a bite. It was a high-profile company, too, and the work was fun.
The only problem? They paid next to nothing.
I was torn over whether or not to take the gig. I kept asking myself, is it worth it? I ran down a list of pros and cons. I wavered nonstop for days.
Years later, I found myself in a similar predicament on the other end of the spectrum. A corporate client offered me a large sum of money but the job was mind-numbingly boring and aimless.
I was left with that familiar, uncertain feeling: is this worth it?
At a party, I brought up the issue to my neighbor, a freelance musician who wrote songs for commercials and television shows. Like a lot of creative careers, the jobs could be hit or miss. Some paid well and were boring, others were fun and exciting but not lucrative.
My neighbor threw down some sage advice that has helped me immensely over the years.
“When I’m on the fence about a gig, I ask myself three questions,” he said. “If I can answer ‘yes’ to at least two out of three, the gig is probably worth it.”
Question #1: Will I Enjoy Working on This?
Most of us don’t decide to freelance because it’s easy. On the contrary, it’s challenging and competitive, but we take on the challenge because we want to work on things we enjoy. For that reason, this question is especially important among the three, and it’s usually the first question I ask myself when I’m unsure of a gig.
For example, when I wrote professional comedy, the pay wasn’t great. That didn’t matter, though, because I really, really enjoyed the work, at least in the beginning. Who wouldn’t? It was fun, I got to flex my creative muscles, and I was encouraged to showcase two of my worst but most indulgent traits: sarcasm and irreverence. I could answer the question with a resounding YES.
When a suit-and-tie firm asked me to write press releases for their internal studies, however, I was immediately bored. The work sounded easy, but grueling, and I knew it would essentially be similar to the technical writing career I left behind. Would I enjoy the work? Not even a little bit.
Ask for a Trial Run
Some gigs, however, aren’t so cut and dry. Sometimes it can be tough to tell whether or not you’re going to enjoy the work. Sometimes you think the work will be fun, then you end up not enjoying it at all. If I can answer “YES” to either of the other two questions, but I’m torn over whether or not I’ll actually enjoy the work, I typically ask clients for a trial run. I ask them to allow me to write a post or two, perhaps even for free, just to see what the waters are like before I jump in completely.
Question #2: Does It Pay Well?
Money isn’t everything, but it’s a decent measure of your success and growth as a freelancer. Ideally, the more you progress, the more money you can command.
When you work for yourself, you become more aware of the precious value of your time. At a regular, full-time job, your work hours are more or less set. You receive a salary, so the value of your work time is established, too. When you’re self-employed, this isn’t the case. It’s up to you to manage and value your own time.
For example, a few years ago, a new website launched, and after reading a profile about the site in The New Yorker, I was eager to write for them when I saw their job posting online. I reached out, and they were interested, but unfortunately, they only paid $25 a post. Knowing the work would take me at least a few hours, I quickly calculated that I would essentially be paid minimum wage. The answer to this question was easy: no, the job did not pay well.
Determine your “Base Rate”
On the other hand, this question is also a subjective one. What you consider to be pennies might not be that bad to someone else. Or maybe you consider $25 to be a decent rate, but you later land a client that pays you $500 for the same post. Suddenly, your idea of a “good rate” changes, and you value your work time differently.
You have to figure out your own base rate: the compensation you consider to be fair and acceptable, whether it’s per hour or per project. Based on your skill level, experience, and current workload, what is a reasonable rate for your time or work? Once you establish this value, it should be easy to answer this question when you’re offered a new gig. As your career grows, so should your base rate.
Question #3: Will I Learn Something?
Finally, ask yourself how much the gig in question will help you move forward. Whether it’s knowledge, skills, or experience, learning is a valuable resource for any career, as it can pay off down the road.
When I wavered on that corporate gig, for example, I realized that, no, I wouldn’t really learn much. I knew everything about the job, because I’d done it for years, and it would be fairly easy for me to crank out the work. Considering the fact that I also wouldn’t enjoy it, I eventually turned it down, because money was the only motivator. It was the only question to which I could answer “yes,” and that wasn’t enough.
Don’t get me wrong, money can be a perfectly fine motivator. However, it sort of defeated the purpose of trying to launch a freelance career. I wasn’t doing what I enjoyed, and I wasn’t learning any new skills to help propel that career.
The same could be said for the site I read about in The New Yorker. It didn’t pay well, but I knew I’d enjoy it. Unfortunately, I wouldn’t learn much, because I’m fairly familiar with the world of blogging. I turned down the gig. Again, I could only answer “yes” to one of the three questions.
That said, let’s say you can answer “yes” to the money and learning questions, but you won’t enjoy the job. There’s probably nothing worse than being stuck with a job you hate, even if it pays well and even if you’re learning from it. From my own experience, the best course of action is to keep putting in your utmost effort so you can extract all the skills and experience necessary from the gig, then move on when you’re ready.
Come to think of it, these questions aren’t only handy for freelancers, they can work for just about anyone who feels unsure of a job, even a full-time one. Are you enjoying your job? No. Does it pay well? Yes. Are you learning anything from it? Not anymore. Then it’s probably time to come up with an exit strategy.
Of course, this method won’t work for every situation. If you’re struggling financially, you may not have much of a choice in deciding whether or not to take work. When you think about it, wavering over work is a good problem to have: it means you have options.
When you are wavering, this strategy works well because it values money without idealizing it or making it the only factor in your decision. Chasing money alone can leave you miserable. This method values the two things that should matter to you more than money: your happiness and your growth.
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Kristin Wong is a freelance writer who covers personal finance, travel, and career. She tackles all three topics at her own personal blog, www.thewildwong.com. Get a free copy of her freelancing guide, The Freelancer’s Toolkit for Getting $hit Done.
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I consider similar questions when I decide whether or not to take a freelance gig. Not every assignment can be fun and not every one will be financially rewarding, but I have to get something meaningful out of it to do it. Sometimes, as this post says, it’s that I’m in a position to learn something new or do something out of my comfort zone.
At the end of the day though, it really does boil down to money. That’s the whole reason I work in the first place. If a job doesn’t pay enough, it’s hard to justify completing it.
Money can be a good measure of a gig. If a client is willing to spend the big bucks, that typically means they value the work, and it’s always nice to work on something that your efforts are valued.
What a great post. I’ve asked myself the first two question but never thought about the third: Will I learn something? That’s very important to consider as well and can make a boring or lesser paying gig worth it in the long run.
Definitely! It ensures you’ll still get something out of it.
Great set of questions. Employed people could also use these questions when mulling over job offers. Will keep these in mind for my next freelancing opportunity
That’s a good point! These work well beyond freelance gigs.
Oh yes I do always this question about myself, sometimes I accept low pay but I learn some new, in this period I’m looking for side hustle to save more:D and who is doing the same will find this post really interesting, thanks for sharing!!!
It’s like the old country song, “You got to know when to hold them & know when to fold them.” The money is the biggest determining factor for me as I have turned down gigs because I could make more money flipping burgers than writing a 1500 word article for $15 each.
I also try to diversify my niches by writing about 2-3 different topics to avoid “freelance drought.” This is where #3 comes in. I have taken jobs related to my prior experience but had to learn something new that I never dealt with in corporate. I made a little less per hour, but I enjoyed the research and it will make me quicker in the future too.
I’ve just started, and stalled, in Freelance writing, but I have gone by those questions in my wood and metal working side gigs. More time than not, I’m not going to learn something, so . . . . I’m managing a state organization’s website, free of charge, as I enjoy it and I’m definitely learning. I could be paying to take a course, but I get to learn without the cost. :-)
Great info again Kristin! I hope to be on your’s, and DC’s, level someday.
Thanks for the insight!!