1. No matter how professionally you conduct your own business, there are any number of people out there who will not extend the same professionalism back to you. Expect it and screw on that professional face with every interaction. In other words, be the bigger person.
2. The Murphy’s Law of Freelancing – if it’s the holidays, your bank account is suddenly very thin. It doesn’t matter if you’ve worked yourself sick all year and have bolstered that income to nearly triple. Every holiday is going to be tight. Buy your Christmas gifts in June. Trust me.
3. If you don’t aim high, you’ll always stay low. No one will champion your cause better than you. Likewise, no one can sabotage your efforts better than you. Go on – send that query to that magazine you’ve always wanted to publish in. It’s only one stamp or one email.
4. Negative people influence your mood entirely too much to remain around them. This goes for negative clients and negative editors. It really doesn’t matter how much you get paid if you can’t stand the stress and the anxiety of it. Surround yourself instead with people who don’t suck the life out of you emotionally.
5. Professional jealousy is flattering, but pointless. We all have talents that are unique to each of us. Some write fantastic fiction. Others write incredibly detailed annual reports. Some writers craft excellent articles, while some are talented children’s writers. Appreciate each other and learn from each other. If you’re jealous, be jealous and proud of your fellow writer at the same time.
6. The minute you have something on the calendar that cannot be moved, the work will appear in truckloads. If you’ve finally scheduled that root canal, you can bet your best clients are all showing up the day before with emergency, gotta-have-it-immediately projects. And you can bet you’re going to work your tail off that night getting done what you can.
What are your freelance facts?
You’ve hit everything perfectly.
Also: the one who convinces you to make an exception will wind up being the biggest pain in the ass.
When you get a promise of more work to come before you’ve started the initial project for a new client, the chances of that promise being realized is SLIM.
The jealousy thing is so silly. I’ve had to remove myself from entire groups of people in the past because of it. I so agree with you that we should just admire one another, learn from one another, and be proud of our fellow writer!
Freelance fact? Hmmm… Be nice! Kindness goes a long way. 🙂
*smiles*
Michele
Always give your client a little lagniappe; realize freelance work usually comes in the feast or famine mode; apply the golden rule (even when “they” don’t deserve it). 😉
Oh, I love all these additions! More! More!
Here’s one to piggyback off Devon’s – the client who insists no contract is needed is the one you need to have a contract with the most.
The ones with the lowest budgets will be the most demanding.
There’s always somebody cheaper than you. Don’t compete on price.
If it’s the holidays, you’re broke.
If they take forever to approve the project at the beginning, they will take forever to send the check at the end.
These are fun!
Don’t get too happy over a big job that will pay for something very much needed. Before the pay comes, something even more important will break down, come up, be needed!