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openforbizIf you enter any kind of self-employment scenario after having been employed for many years, it is very difficult to break free of the “aim to please” mindset. Sure, the circumstances are similar. If you want to keep your job, you make your employer happy. If you want to keep your business afloat then you make your customers happy. But there is a difference. Customers are happy when you deliver on your promises and ecstatic when you give a little bit more. Employers want to get the most out of you regardless of your pay scale. In business, more services equal more revenue. This is not necessarily the case in an employment situation. In fact, most employment contracts are written broad enough to allow employers to tack on more duties without having to pay you more. We’ve all read phrasing to this effect, “The following list of job requirements include but are not limited to the following…” or “Additional duties may be required at the discretion of the company based on its needs”.

When you are in business for yourself, whether you run a business of one or more, the thought process can be very different. A business peddling products may do well to offer free samples or provide “value-added” extras to entice repeat business. As a freelancer, more is just more for the client and may become a drain if the price wasn’t set properly to begin with.

Here’s a perfect example. As an employee, I always pushed myself to give more and go the extra mile in the hopes that it would be considered when it came time for raise evaluations.  I would do my best regardless, but when raises are based on performance, you’re enticed to push yourself a little harder. When I went freelance and finally landed a regular gig, I wrote over one hundred articles at $13 apiece.  I know many veterans would scoff and label me green, but I figured I had to prove myself and over time the articles could be produced rather quickly because they were formulaic. Suddenly the article storm ended but just as suddenly they began again but this time I was commissioned to write a handful of articles at $150 apiece. This was a much improved proposition. I thought, “I made it. I’ve proven that I can write well and now I am making above industry standards because of it.” Then out of nowhere, I began receiving offers for those $13 formulaic articles again. I continued to do those figuring that the higher priced articles would be less frequent. Then suddenly, I found myself in a position no freelancer wants. I kept getting those formulaic articles but they were becoming less formulaic.  All the articles were the same length so it had nothing to do with word count. It had everything to do with the skill required to write the non-formulaic articles.

As a professional, I took my fee since I had already agreed to it, but began to inquire about the differing pay rate. The differing articles were offered by the same company but handled by two different content brokers. The $13 lady would keep me tied up and I would possibly not see another $150 article. I had to politely and professionally withdraw myself from this racket.  

As a full-time writer in an economy where random $13 articles don’t pay the bills, we have to think like a business and know when to seek clients elsewhere. You can rely on volume and sell knock-off product at a fraction of the price or you can rely on quality and sell the real deal for what it’s really worth. I’ve always preferred quality over quantity.

Shortly after that, the same client returned to me a short time later offering articles at a more respectable payrate. When you’ve proven your worth it, it’s rewarding to claim what you deserve.

 

 

 

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