I’m not even going to apologize for the alliteration. Or the geese.
This post is going to be a bit of departure for me because, in case you haven’t noticed yet, I’m not so much about warm fuzzy concepts like support and feeling heard.
Succeeding in the gig economy requires confidence, a firm bottom line, and the ability to do what needs to be done. There’s no room for feeling bad that your client was all excited to work with you but had expected your rate to be less than half of what it is, nor for getting your feelings hurt when you don’t land a gig.
Also, one of the reasons I love freelancing is that I’m ALONE a lot of the time..
So, if I’m telling you that you need a core group of trusted freelancers to make this work, you’d better believe it.
A lot of freelancers complain that, even though they love the freedom and flexibility, they feel isolated working from home all the time. Of course, you don’t need a gaggle* of freelancers to save you from isolation. You can phone a friend when you take a break, meet your sister for lunch, join a book club, take a cooking class, or take up speed dating.
The Reason You Need a Trusted Group of Freelancers
Freelancing forces you to rely on your own judgment much more than most conventional jobs, and for the most part that’s a good thing. You learn to trust yourself and to stand up for yourself, and those lessons carry over into every area of your life.
Chances are good, though, that you’re not 100% confident all the time. In those situations, you may turn to your spouse or your best friend for support or ratification or an honest opinion…but if those people aren’t and have never been freelancers, they may not have the perspective you need.
Your gaggle of giggers knows the terrain. They’ve encountered clients who were slow to pay, have negotiated rates and deadlines, fired clients, and walked the fine line between selling themselves short and pricing themselves out of the market.
They know your issues.
And, if you choose well and participate, they know you.
They feel your pain when your client really is unreasonable. And, they call you out on your shit when you’re the one who’s being unreasonable and there’s no one else around to notice it.
Sometimes, they just make it easier to do what you already want to do, or think you have to do.
Recently, I decided to cut ties with a client who was slated to pay me a regular $4,000 or more per month. Have you ever told the average person that you’re walking away from a reliable $1,000/week for about eight hours of work, because it just isn’t worth the stress?
But, my gaggle got it. They know how a stressful or demanding client, or one who won’t respect timelines, can impact every area of your work. They know that $1,000 isn’t as much as it sounds like, if it’s creating constant disruptions in your schedule and cutting into other client work. Maybe, even, they know that one of the great blessings of freelancing is the power to walk away from a client simply because every interaction with him or her is miserable.
When you’ve been freelancing for 10 or 20 or 30 years, you may not need that back-up often. But, those days will come. They’ll come a lot more often if you’re in your first or second year of freelancing, or if you’ve recently moved into a new niche or increased your rates enough to have leveled up your client base.
If you don’t have that support when you need it, you won’t just have a lot of angst you don’t know what to do with. You’ll waste time. You’ll let bad clients wear you down. You’ll chicken out.
Get the group. If you’re relatively new to the game, it’s a tool as essential as your computer or telephone. If you’re a seasoned pro, you can probably get by on your own…but why?
*My gaggle actually calls itself a tribe, which is probably apt. I chose gaggle here because I recently learned that a group of geese isn’t called a gaggle when its flying in formation. It’s only a gaggle when the geese are on the ground, doing their own thing–much like those freelancers who are out working on their own projects with their own clients in their own space, but still part of the group.
Excellent advice. I, too, have a “tribe” of freelancers whose advice is invaluable to me. For me, it’s the equivalent of after-work drinks to bitch and moan, support and encourage, and just giggle about what’s happening.
So true! My freelancer ‘tribe of gagglers’ is invaluable. To my sanity. To my perspective. To my sometimes sorely tried sense of humor. I learn from them; not only stuff relevant to writing and owning a business, but things I know nothing about. They comprise an unparalleled support system.
How does one find or assemble a group? I’m a relative newbie, so do I start/look for a group of people around my experience level or above? I worry that I’ll be a useless drain if I choose the latter. Please tell me what you think.
That’s a great question. Though occasionally you’ll luck into the right group, your group will most likely form one person at a time, as you encounter people you have something in common with, or who somehow complement you. For instance, a writer might join a local writers group at the public library, and that group might be useful or fun for various reasons, but it’s likely that only one or two members will really “click” with you.
If you’re just starting out, don’t jump straight to trying to put a group together. Start by keeping an eye out and connecting with people who seem a good fit in forums, in social media, and in the real world. The key at this stage is not to be shy, and not thinking in terms of whether the person you’re talking to is a good fit for your ultimate group is an important part of that, as it will liberate you from ruling out people you may see as out of your league. You’re just chatting–no harm in that. Let things evolve as they may. But, you have to do the chatting to start forming those connections.
If you’re relatively new to freelancing, don’t assume you have nothing (or little) to contribute. The most useful group is one with a mix of experience, backgrounds, and perspectives, since people differently-situated than you are will be the most likely to show you different perspectives.
Thanks a ton!