To some freelancers, keeping track of these leads is just as easy as remembering them. But for those freelancers — like me — who are on the forgetful side, we need to have a system in place. Because of this, I’ve created a spreadsheet to manage my leads. After all, I don’t want to leave potential clients hanging.

Here’s how you can make a similar spreadsheet yourself.

The Columns on the Spreadsheet

The image above shows an example of the spreadsheet I use, but with fictional entries. You can create additional columns if necessary, since we all have different needs. Add whatever factors are important to you. Some freelancers might want columns for expected pay, expected total work hours, etc. As for me, I just included the ones that I’ve found essential to keep track of, such as:

• Organization. This column contains the name of the organization, business, or company that’s planning on working with me. If an individual is hiring me, I simply put his or her name in this field.
• Job type. Since most freelancers wear different hats, we tend to be interested in a variety of projects. In the example above, a freelance writer’s job types may include writing e-books, blog posts, sales letters or site copy. On the other hand, a graphic designer may have the following items: logo, web site, or product packaging. For automatic input, I made a drop-down menu listing all the job types, which means that I don’t need to type in the text.
• Contact person. When communicating with an organization, I only find myself coordinating the details with one contact person. So that I don’t get names mixed up, I make sure to include the contact person for each lead. That way, if I need to know more about a job I know who to talk to. On a separate column is the contact information such as their email address or phone number.
• Submission date. This is the date that the query was submitted — whether I’m the one who applied for the job or the lead came to me.
• Last contact date. Knowing the last date of contact allows me to follow up on the lead appropriately. If it’s been a week since I last heard from the organization, I may need to follow up on the lead. Instead of searching my email or social networking inboxes for the last contact date, I can easily refer to the sheet.
• Status. Like the “Job Type” field, I made a drop-down menu for the status of the lead. This tells me if I got the job, if it was rejected, or if the decision is still pending. For easy reference, I applied conditional formatting to the different status items. For “Rejected” I used a dark blue font color, green for “Accepted”, and bright red for “Pending”. This is so that my attention is drawn to the pending projects whenever I’m looking at the sheet.
• Notes. Any miscellaneous notes, comments, and other remarks go to this field. Filling this in is optional.

Tips and Resources

I use OpenOffice Calc for all my spreadsheets, but you might be more at ease with another program altogether (Excel or Google Spreadsheets, for example). Here’s a list of relevant tutorials that can help you compose your own lead tracking spreadsheet on your favorite program:

• Google Spreadsheets. Here’s the official tutorial on how to apply formatting rules. Unfortunately,  users can’t create drop-down selection lists with Google Spreadsheets so you’ll have to input the job type and status items manually.
• Microsoft Excel. For Excel, this tutorial shows you how to do conditional formatting and here’s how you can make a drop-down list.
• OpenOffice Calc. Applying the necessary formatting rules in OpenOffice Calc requires similar steps to those of Excel. To be specific, though, there are two tutorials from the OpenOffice Training blog on how to do conditional formatting and creating a drop-down selection list in Calc.

How do you keep track of job leads during busy months? Are you able to remember them all or do you need a more thorough system?

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As a freelancer, I get the chance to work with startup companies that are still too new or too small to have a lot of in-house staff. Because of this, I’ve become familiar with the common characteristics that many startups share. As I come to expect these characteristics with new clients, I become more efficient at avoiding problems and maximizing opportunities.

But first, a definition: What exactly is a startup? Although the term “startup” is usually associated with tech companies, it’s not necessarily that specific. As long as the business is young, usually still in development, then it can be considered a startup.

The first common trait that most startups have is their tight or unpredictable income. Usually they are bootstrapping (working without external funding) which leads them to minimize their expenses. Even if they have the benefit of external funding, startup founders still tend to keep a close eye at their cashflow. Some of them might be looking for low freelancer rates, or perhaps some prep work to justify your cost. You shouldn’t be selling your services as an added expense: talk about your fees as an investment.

To minimize any negative effects a startup client may have on my own finances, I tend to bill early and send reminders before the due date indicated on the invoice. This sometimes isn’t necessary, but it can be useful, especially if the people in charge of paying you are wearing too many hats or paying attention to several other aspects of the business –  a common situation in startups.

Also, if you’re working with a startup, you’ll be dealing with their growing pains firsthand. This means you’ll be part of an exciting and interesting stage in the development of their business. While this stage is typically filled with new ideas and innovation, there will also be a lot of mistakes, which will often affect your work. They might even be a bit disorganized, since they don’t have standard processes in place.

There might even be major changes when the founders get a better (or simply different) idea of what they want to do. One of my earliest freelancing jobs was writing web site copy for a tech startup. When they hired me they were developing a simple chat application. By the time I left them six months later, they had plans to turn their app into a full-featured social networking tool. Because of possible changes like this, it’s important to keep communication lines open so that you’re updated with the latest developments. Startups are flexible organizations, and you should also be equally flexible as you work for them — as long as you are treated and paid fairly.

There may be some exceptions, but I usually find that working with a startup is also like working with a small, close-knit family. They often don’t have a large staff since they’re just starting out. With few, if any, bureaucratic hoops and hierarchies to deal with, getting feedback and disseminating information is usually faster. In fact, you may be working directly with the founders.

Although working closely with the big bosses has its advantages, there are a few challenges you should expect. Sometimes, founders can be micromanagers. They tend to think of their startup as a baby whose every tiny step they should monitor and approve. While I appreciate this devotion to one’s business, too much of it can prevent growth through other people’s ideas, experience and perspective.

Working with a startup certainly has its own opportunities and disadvantages. We need to be expect both these things if we want the working relationship to go as smoothly as possible.

Have you ever worked with startups? What was your experience like?

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While I believed in my output and knew that the customer was satisfied with my work, I didn’t want these projects to be the first thing that potential clients saw. After all, I hadn’t written about dating for several years. I wanted to focus my writing efforts on business, freelancing and travel.

If you’ve ever done low quality work, accepted a project only for the money, changed niches, or even worked on something ethically dubious, you might understand this situation. There are just some past projects that should be buried by your current ones.

How can you make sure that happens?

Highlight your best work. To reduce the negative effect that an embarrassing project has on your portfolio, focus on promoting your best work instead. Revamp your portfolio to include only relevant, high-quality samples. If you use social media, put them at the foreground when discussing your work.

Work the search engines. My problem with the embarrassing e-book projects was that they belonged to the top three search engine results for my name. This meant that anyone — from potential employers to curious friends — would find that project if they typed my name into Google. If you can easily find your “bad” project using your name as the search term, here are some ways to fix it:

• Purchase your own domain name if you haven’t done so already. Many new web workers tell me that they just can’t afford to buy their own domain name and set up a blog. But what they really can’t afford is the lack of control over what shows up first when you enter their names (or the name of their business) in search engines. This is why it’s important to get domain names based on your real name and your business name. Anything you pair up with it — a blog, a splash page or a static site — has a good chance of ranking well.

You don’t necessarily have to buy hosting and code your own site, either. You can point your domain name to your LinkedIn or Facebook profiles or to a free hosted blog (such as Blogger or Tumblr).

• Get backlinks. Once you have your domain name make sure people link to it. This is easier to do with a blog, since it’s more encouraging to link to something that contains an interesting idea or discussion, rather than just a personal profile. Also, it’s better if they use your real name as the anchor text.

• Learn the basics of on-site SEO. You don’t need to be an SEO (search engine optimization) guru to get your professional blog to rank well for your name. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of misinformation out there, and using some of those techniques might make your blog look spammy. Here’s a good introduction that talks about capitalizing on simple, long-term tactics rather than the “SEO trick of the month”.

Contact the person in charge, if applicable. Since the agreement with my previous client involved using a pseudonym for the dating e-books, I immediately contacted him about it. In a polite email I asked if he could use my old pseudonym for the books. He apologized and told me that he had simply forgotten about our agreement when he had his site and the e-books redesigned. He then corrected this oversight and changed the byline.

This approach may not be useful to those who have different arrangements. Still, if you can do it without upsetting anyone and it’s within the limits of your contract, it doesn’t hurt to ask a previous client to change the credit or byline. They can be very understanding if you explain the situation well.

Become more conscious of these projects from now on. As the old adage goes, prevention is better than cure. Go uncredited or use a pseudonym for projects that aren’t up to your usual standards or that are incompatible with your personal brand. Your future self will thank you.

Remember that whatever happens and no matter how shameful your previous projects may be, it’s important to stay honest. If ever someone asks you directly about these projects, tell the truth and accept it with grace. These projects may be embarrassing, but it’s more bearable than being caught in a lie.

Have you ever worried about embarrassing projects from the past? How have they affected your brand?

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But how do you know if your clients are abusing you? Here are a few telltale signs and tips for how to fix and avoid these situations.

The work keeps creeping in. Scope creep is the bane of many freelancers’ lives. You start with one description of what is to be done and end up doing something entirely different, or something that’s way more involved than the original task.

How to Fix/Avoid It: Have a contract and a clear and agreed-upon scope and schedule for each and every phase or project. Outline exactly what is to be done and when it’s due.

The client expects immediate responses or complete availability. Occasionally, you’ll come across clients who want 100 percent undivided attention. They expect emails to be responded to within an hour and work to be completed at an unrealistic pace.

How to Fix/Avoid It: Set expectations from the start. Explain when you’re available to clients, how quickly you tend to reply to communications, and how you prefer to communicate. You may also wish to explain how you work. For example, do you generally devote a set amount of time to each project or client per day? If so, explain this to clients up front so that they know what to expect.

The client expects to be able to chat with you frequently. Some clients prefer to communicate by phone, others expect to chitchat at the start of each call, and occasionally, you’ll even find those who expect to have multiple calls per day. In any case, these clients can be a serious drain on your time, making it next to impossible to stay on schedule with your work.

How to Fix/Avoid It: Make it part of your policy to limit phone communications altogether. It may seem harsh, but phone calls and excessive meetings are actually counterproductive. Keep all phone calls to 15 minutes or less and require all calls to be scheduled in advance. Finally, let clients know your preferred communication methods so that they know what to expect.

The client frequently goes back and forth over decisions or nitpicks with minor changes. When a client is indecisive, it can make working with him a nightmare. He wants things one way one minute, the complete opposite the next. Round and round you go, until you are completely confused and way outside of the original scope.

How to Fix/Avoid It: Clearly specify the number of revisions that are included in the project, as well as the deadlines for each set of revisions. Then communicate frequently about pending deadlines so that clients understand that they must turn in all changes by that point and that any subsequent changes will fall within the next set of revisions or will require additional revisions (at a predetermined and contracted rate).

The client expects free consulting and advice. Many times, this type of client has “friends” working on things for him or her for free, so if you hear this hint early on, you might want to consider this a red flag and run the other way. Unfortunately, it’s quite common to come across bargain hunters, so you’ll have to be firm and stick to your guns if you don’t want your bottom line to suffer.

How to Fix/Avoid It: Again, the contract and scope can be a real lifesaver here. If you clearly outline what’s included in a project or job (including the number of phone calls), it will be much harder for clients to negotiate freebies.

By preparing for these common situations in advance, you can often avoid them altogether, saving yourself time, profit and sanity. Put your policies in place and then stick to them without fail so that your clients know exactly what to expect.

How do you handle difficult clients? What techniques do you use to stay on track?

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I was dealing with this a few months ago, when I was thinking of putting together a portfolio site. I was feeling like my presence on the Internet was scattered all over the place, and wanted a single site to which I could send professional contacts who wanted more info. I was tired of providing links to multiple profiles and blogs that didn’t tell the whole story, and I’m not wild about any of the “identity aggregation” services that are out there.

Given all the different things I do, my primary dilemma was to make a non-static professional site that gave a good overall impression of what I’m about, professionally speaking. Below are some of the issues and approaches I pondered. Maybe they will be useful to you if you’re in this position.

Think Bakery

I attended a talk on personal branding at an e-reputation barcamp earlier this year. The speaker‘s suggestion for the Jacks and Jills of more-than-one trade, like me, was to think like a bakery. Her metaphor was this: Everyone knows what a bakery is and that you can get a variety of baked goods inside. So although you may have pumpernickel, cookies and eclairs to offer your clients, you should choose one item to put in the shop window when creating your personal brand, and everyone will know that you will likely provide the complementary services, too.

This can’t really work for everyone, though. In my case, people who are interested in one of my services (translating, tech writing, project management, public speaking, to name a few) are unlikely to have any need for the others.

The Red Thread

If, like me, you can’t really single out a specific thing, you could look for what the French call the fil rouge (red thread). This is the element that kind of ties everything together. Then that thing would be what you emphasize and promote to clients. This is a better option for someone like me. My red thread could be communication, since almost all of the things I do involve communication in some form or another.

What Would Big Bird Do?

You could also take an objective look at the various services you offer. If you have a unicycle, a truck, a bucket and a tractor, one of these things doesn’t belong here. So you focus on the things with wheels, and downplay the bucket or even create a separate site/brand/identity for it. This approach also works well for someone like me.

What I ended up doing was creating a blog where I publish short articles related to some of my professional interests and activities. One column provides links to other my other sites and profiles. I highly recommend this post on how to make a blog into a professional tool by Darrell Etherington, this article about making blogging less of a burden by Dawn Foster, and Celine Roque’s post about developing a content strategy for your blog.

If this is your situation, what strategies have worked for you?

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Recently, it’s been much easier to work from a place of desperation, taking every opportunity that comes our way and doing every marketing tactic imaginable to maintain a contracting sales pipeline. Suddenly, the “fight or flight” reaction becomes almost routine, an up and down roller coaster ride that started as an attempt to keep our businesses afloat during these tough times.

The Fight Response

When times get tough, we take a “no holds barred” approach to marketing and promoting our businesses. The goal is finding ways to stay open and survive when it’s getting harder and harder to secure new business. We create elaborate and ambitious marketing plans with the intention of doing all that we can to keep things going. We get up early. We stay up late. We work at a furious pace trying to keep up with it all until…

The Flight Response

…we burn out. All the running and pushing and fighting has caught up with us. We’re tired. More than tired, we’re exhausted and spent. We’re frustrated with the lackluster results from what seemed (at the time) like very promising plans and the best of intentions. At this point, we just need a break. It takes every bit of effort to muster up enough energy to complete the bare minimum of “must be done” tasks, let alone keep up with the ambitious marketing plan.

We take a few days to rest, and then we decide to regroup. Where do you think we go? Back to the fight response, and the whole thing starts over.

How do we end the cycle of this instinctive response? We have to recognize it and stop it before it starts. Here’s how.

Step 1 — Acknowledge that you’ve been running the “fight or flight” circle.

It may take a while to even realize that you’re doing this to yourself. After all, for many of us, this is perhaps the first time we’ve ever had to try this hard to keep our businesses afloat, so this is all very new to us.

Step 2 — Find a good accountability partner to help you keep things in check.

Let your accountability partner know what you’re trying to accomplish and agree on ways that he or she can keep you on track. Have monthly (at a minimum) phone calls or in-person meetings to discuss your progress and setbacks, as well as ways to improve your efforts going forward. With each call, agree on next actions/steps to move you forward in some way.

Step 3 — Be realistic.

When you’re not stressed or thinking about the problems you are facing, sit down and formulate a realistic plan for keeping your business afloat. Determine the goals you want to reach for your business in the coming months, as well as the marketing tactics you will use to help you achieve them. Your plans should include small but consistent steps that you can take on a daily basis to achieve your goals. Remember that this is a marathon, not a sprint. Plan accordingly.

Step 4 — Plan for time off.

This is probably going to be the toughest part, but you must regularly take time away from your business to do things that restore your energy and enthusiasm. Rest is just as important for your success as the work itself. It’s important to plan for it, and (if necessary) force yourself to do it, and don’t just stay at home watching television. Get out. Get outside. Be with other people. This is especially important for web workers.

The fight or flight response is only natural. We’re finding ourselves under increasing levels of stress, and our instincts are telling us to protect ourselves. We can, but not exactly the way Mother Nature intended. By recognizing that we’re falling into this trap, we can learn to avoid it and improve our results going forward.

Have you noticed the “fight or flight” response affecting your actions in recent months? How are you learning to cope with the increased levels of stress, while still keeping your business afloat?

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I found myself contemplating these questions recently, and I’ve realized that there are advantages and disadvantages to both options.

The Single Storefront Approach

A single storefront that covers all your services has its benefits. It makes sense to go this route if you want to reach the same target market, regardless of the variety of services you’re selling. This can work wonders if you’ve already established your expertise, and have gained a good reputation among your clients and their peers.

This can also be beneficial to customers who are looking for one team or person to fulfill all their needs. From design to copywriting to online marketing, these big clients might want you to handle more than one phase of a project. If that’s the case, then they’d prefer having just one contact person for the entire project, rather than several.

Having just one storefront also has its practical advantages. It’s affordable, and easier to update and market. Since you’re just managing one web site or blog, you don’t have to split your marketing and maintenance efforts — all of them will be channeled to one portal only.

Having Separate Storefronts

Still, having separate web sites for each service can have its own benefits. First of all, you won’t be tied to serving just one target market. You can tailor each site to suit whichever market you want to serve.

Also, if you’re providing unrelated services — medical transcription, web design and online marketing consultancy, for example — it will be less confusing to your audience if each of those services has its own portal. Your sites will be easier to navigate individually, and your potential clients won’t get lost in information that is irrelevant to them.

Multiple storefronts can also give you the freedom to work with a wider variety of clients. If you don’t want to limit yourself to one market, but you don’t want to make your personal brand confusing either, it can be better for you to set up a separate site for each service you want to provide.

Personally, I keep my services under a single storefront as much as possible. It’s more practical to do so if you’re working with a limited budget and don’t have the time to maintain and manage several sites. But there are some instances where I am forced to separate them due to differences in target markets.

How about you? Are you a multi-skilled service provider? Do you keep all of your services in one storefront or several?

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I was reminded of his dilemma last week, when a potential client contacted me to ask if I could write sales copy for his multilevel marketing scheme — at twice my usual fee. After doing a bit of research on the company, however, it became apparent that this person was running a scam.

As freelancers, we sometimes get requests that we find shady. These can range from the above examples to creating promotional materials for companies whose ethics we don’t completely agree with. How do we deal with these requests?

A Resounding “No!”

“Would you accept a freelance project that goes against your ethics or values?” When I posed this question to several freelancers, most quickly said they wouldn’t. “No real professional would ever do such a thing,” said Eugene Rembor, a management consultant.

The good news is that we freelancers have the freedom to be selective about which projects on which we work. We can easily turn down clients if the company, business or product doesn’t correspond with our personal ethics.

The Gray Area

But while most of the freelancers I asked said they wouldn’t accept such jobs, there are those who recognize a gray area. For example, a few of the freelancers I talked to said that although they wouldn’t take ethically ambiguous or dubious jobs, they might feel otherwise if they found themselves financially desperate.

“There is a difference between something I do not believe in and something that I think is unethical or illegal,” said freelance editor Beth Beaty. As she noted, sometimes her clients write books or articles that support ideas with which she doesn’t agree.

“The higher ‘ethic’, if you want to call it that, for me is that everyone’s voice should be heard,” she explained, “and I am not here to judge the author’s beliefs or the marketability of their ideas.” According to her, as long as the project is legal and the client is trustworthy, she will provide high-quality work.

I’ve often applied these ideas to my own work. I was once hired to edit web site content about astrology. I don’t believe in astrology, but I felt that I should do the work. The client was an honest person who believed in her web site and wanted it to be better; she genuinely cared about her audience. I’d do the job again, just because I respected the client’s intentions.

Drawing the Line

There doesn’t seem to be a concrete rule on how to tackle ethically questionable requests. Each client, situation and project has to be assessed individually. It’s up to you where to draw the line.

As for my potential client’s multilevel marketing scheme, I turned it down. I wouldn’t have been directly involved in the scheme, but I didn’t want to help promote it, either. I’m not comfortable with writing something that convinces honest people to waste their money in a scam, especially in these economically trying times. And I have no doubt that someone out there is going to do this job -– it just won’t be me.

Do you ever get requests for projects that don’t correspond with your ethics or values? What do you do when those opportunities arise?

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“Are you going to buy this or what?”

Was he being rude or was it a sales tactic? I don’t know, but it worked. This got me thinking about my own approach to selling my freelance services. Could I get away with saying something similar to a potential client? I can imagine some of them getting turned off, while I can picture others saying “yes.” I wouldn’t dare try it, of course. The sales process is my least favorite part of online freelancing.

Still, whether we’re providing products or services, we can’t escape being a sales person from time to time. This is why we need to be aware of the different approaches we could use when making a sale.

Hard Selling

Hard sell strategies are aggressive and usually put a high amount of pressure on the client. The clerk who sold me the shovel is a simple example. Other tactics include cold calls, forceful sales letters, and unsolicited pitches. You’re there to sell, they know it, and you know it — there’s no gray area.

The main advantage of hard selling is that it gets straight to the point. This is especially important for clients who are ready to buy and aren’t looking around to do a few more meetings. The decision should be made now, and you want to step up and offer yourself as a part of their team.

The problem with the hard sell is that when it’s done too aggressively, your attempt to help will be seen as an annoyance. This plays a big role, especially if you’re working with small businesses that are savvy to such sales techniques. No matter how genuine your offer is, it might come off sounding like a scam.

Soft Selling

Soft selling focuses on the relationship-building aspect of sales. You don’t put psychological pressure on potential buyers. Instead, you find passive ways to show them that you have the solutions they need.

In online freelancing, this could be done through your blog, by providing a free ebook or white paper, or even by participating in online discussions. With all the available online tools for these, it’s no wonder that this tends to be the approach chosen by more tech-savvy freelancers.

A study released by New Century Media in October 2007 showed user buying behavior after being exposed to informational and educational resources that were actually soft selling efforts from businesses. According to the study, consumers were 30 percent more willing to buy a product through non-direct advertising rather than media advertising. Not only that, consumers exposed to this method of advertising were 97 percent more likely to tell their friends about it, and 95 percent more likely to repeat their experience with the business.

There is, however, such a thing as taking an approach that’s “too soft.” You might spend so much energy on updating your personal blog that you forget to use it as a platform for selling your services. Or you could be spending so much time Tweeting with your potential clients that you don’t make firm, actionable proposals that will bring you recurring revenue in exchange for your efforts. Being too gentle with your sales approach might also give clients the impression that you’re not too confident about your services, or that you’re just not interested in working with them.

Soft selling may work in some cases, but it doesn’t make sense to apply those tactics to all of your clients, regardless of where they are in their buying cycle and what services you’re trying to sell. Find out the conditions that make soft selling work and apply it there, but don’t waste your time and effort using these techniques exclusively.

Call To Action

Whatever approach you use, there’s one thing you should always do at the end: ask for the order. From a simple “Will we be working together on this project?” to the more overt “Buy Now!”, there should always be a call to action at the end to indicate the start of a working relationship. Without it, your approach won’t even count as “selling.”

What experiences did you have with hard selling or soft selling? Which approach works better for you?

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It’s good to remember that everyone has felt like that at least once in their career. Almost all freelancers have a story to tell about the mistakes they made and what they could have done to avoid them.

Equipment and the Home Office

After one of his first meetings with a client, fellow WWD blogger Scott Blitstein wanted to send his client a questionnaire to assess their needs. When he asked them how they preferred to receive the questionnaire, they opted for fax instead of email.

Realizing that he didn’t have a fax machine handy, Scott decided to buy one on the way home. “I think I’ve only used it two or three times since then, and only because I had it,” Scott said.

While it’s important to have a fully-equipped home office, we should also have a realistic idea about how often we’re going to use each item before purchasing. This prevents us from overspending on equipment when we’re starting out, without under-equipping ourselves.

Dealing with Clients

Ruth Thaler-Carter is a freelance writer and editor. When starting out, she worked on a project where she made a profit of “next to nothing.” She explains, “I didn’t confirm who would be responsible for printing and mailing a newsletter I was contracted to write, edit, lay out and produce for print. It never occurred to me that the client would expect me to pay for printing and mailing.”

As Ruth’s example illustrates, one of the most important aspects of client-consultant relationships is the list of deliverables. This list indicates who is accountable for a task and when it is due. Without this list, it’s hard for both the client and the freelancer to identify what their areas of responsibility are.

Money Matters

Elena has been a freelance writer and editor for 11 years, but when she started out she was a far cry from the veteran she is now. Initially, she was billing her clients after every long-term project was completed. This left her with poor cash flow and clients who weren’t submitting their deliverables on time.

Elena decided to bill clients monthly. “Every month, I bill for work I’ve done in the last month. That way, if things sit, at least you got paid, or you can refuse to continue the work until you get paid,” she said.

How to charge for one’s services is a decision that beginning freelancers face. As Elena notes in her story, it’s important to bill regularly for big projects. But how do you charge? Charging by the hour is hard for both parties to track.

One thing that has worked for me all these years is charging per milestone. This is because the deliverables are defined, and the client pays based on the results I produce, not how much time I spent on it. If you set the rates right, your fees per milestone can reflect your ideal hourly rate anyway.

After you’ve decided how to charge, another question comes up: how much? This tends to be a hotly debated topic among freelancers.

David, a legal consultant, said that he was embarrassed to find that he was charging half as much as his competitors. “Upon mature reflection, I left my rates unchanged. I have never been short of work and I have always earned enough,” David said.

I have an alternative story to tell about undercharging. Early in my online writing career, I would see other writers take jobs for $1-$2 per article. This made me nervous as I was charging $8 to $10. If I had cut my rates, I would be taking a loss. So I stuck to my rates and focused on finding the types of clients who wouldn’t be swayed by price alone.

Perhaps the best amount to charge isn’t a specific number. After all, several factors come into play:

• how much your client is willing to pay;
• what everyone else is charging;
• how much you’ll need for business and living expenses;
• and what rates you feel are “fair” to both you and the client.

Keeping this in mind, there is no right amount to charge, there’s only what’s right for you.

Your early web working career will always be unsure and full of mistakes, no matter how well you plan or research. By learning through other people’s experiences and hearing about their humble beginnings, then maybe your first steps as web workers won’t be as awkward – and even if they are, rest assured that it’s quite normal.

What about you? What mistakes did you make as a beginning web worker? What could you have done to avoid them?

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It’s important to be methodical in order to cut costs effectively. Here are six strategies we can learn from companies that are tightening their belts:

Look at the facts and numbers when faced with a decision. It’s easy to jump to conclusions and make emotional decisions when you think your business is in danger. Most people seem to have an instinctive drive to be ruthless with their cost-cutting. In the corporate world, the basic knee-jerk reaction seems to be laying off employees. Whatever your instincts tell you, this is hardly the time for an uneducated approach.

Review your financial and sales records. If you have your own blog or web site, study its site stats. Check out the other metrics you have. If you’re not measuring anything in your business, now is as good time to start: you need these figures to base your decisions on.

Make your schedule as effective as possible. Companies that are hesitant to do layoffs are reducing employee work hours or providing alternative schedules such as a four-day work week. In some ways, this approach might be useful for online workers who have control of their schedule. Audit your work hours and see if there’s a way for you to spend less time on non-billable tasks. Find your peak working hours and use them as the center of your scheduling decisions so that you can maximize your productivity. Beware of getting caught up in internet time sinks as well.

Also, to increase profit, check if you have more time to work on other paying projects.

Limit business travel. With telepresence technology constantly improving, it rarely makes sense to travel for business. There might still be exceptions, such as networking events that are essential to your career. Many companies are making business travel less glamorous and more practical, which is a move which makes sense for freelancers as well. Stay with friends and family if you need to go out of town, or share accommodation with other web workers who will be attending the same events.

Go the extra mile for current clients. Why is this a cost-cutting measure? Generally, it’s much cheaper for you to keep current clients happy rather than acquiring new ones. Provide them with the best quality of work and customer support so that they won’t even think of taking their business elsewhere, even if your competitors might lower their prices. Give them a feeling of security knowing that it would be too big of a risk for them to let you go. By keeping them happy, you’re likely to get referred to their friends – a no-cost method of marketing that provides higher conversion rates.

Drop weak or unprofitable ventures and focus on the most profitable ones. If some of your products or services aren’t selling, even if you’ve made several attempts to improve them, then it only makes sense to drop them, at least temporarily. Now is not the time to devote your energy to unprofitable ventures that will only drain your time and energy as you try to look for creative ways to make them sell.

Don’t cut expenses that are crucial to your growth. While you’re busy working on your cost-cutting plan,  remember that you’re not just supposed to think about how many dollars you’re going to save. There is something that deserves higher priority: the growth of your business or practice.

Remember that cost-cutting isn’t just about lowering your expenses. You should channel your costs in such a way that you’ll get the highest return on investment (ROI). If you use this thrifty mindset in a way that is complementary to your growth, you might find yourself thriving rather than just surviving in tough times.

Are you using any cost-cutting methods? Share your strategies in the comments.

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In art and music, the term “minimalist” describes work that is stripped down to its fundamental elements. Everything is simplified. This approach has its benefits on the web, where there are thousands of freelancers making themselves heard. There’s just so much noise out there that it never hurts to keep things simple.

People who are just starting with their freelancing career will benefit from applying minimalism, especially if they’re only planning to freelance part-time. Minimalist values will allow you to focus only on the essentials, convey a clear message, and keep maintenance tasks to a minimum.

So how can we apply minimalism to our freelancing practice?

Provide only one product or service. While most web workers are multitalented, it’s best to start with just one venture to focus on. For example, if you’re launching your freelance career as a press release writer, focus on this field first before you decide to profit from your SEO skills. Working on only one narrow field at a time will allow you to become known as an expert in that field because you won’t be distracted by other ventures.

Serve one audience only. One of the most common mistakes new freelancers make is trying to please as many people as they can. I’ve made this mistake myself, thinking that the wider my audience was, the better. The problem with trying to communicate with too many types of people at the same time is that instead of doing a great job of reaching a select handful of prospects, you’ll do a mediocre job of reaching many prospects, with less work as a result.

Whether you’re marketing directly or indirectly, the language you use should be intended for one niche market only. Often, this will lead to repetitive deliverables, processes, and client communication. And if something is repetitive, it will be easier to delegate or automate, saving you the effort of changing your approach with every single client on your list.

Have the simplest web site possible. Many web sites today are cluttered. Apart from the ads, there are sidebar widgets and plug-ins that can be distracting if used unnecessarily.  Every time you think of adding a new element into your professional blog or web site, ask yourself, “If I remove this, will it have a negative effect on my readers?” If your answer is no, then you obviously don’t need that image/widget/thingamajig as much as you thought you did.

Keeping your web site uncluttered will also allow your audience to focus on your message rather than the 101 bells and whistles going off in the background. Also, simpler web sites often load faster.

In the 37Signals book, Getting Real, they have an entire chapter entitled “Stay Lean”. Here’s a relevant quote from that chapter:

“Nimble, agile, less-mass businesses can quickly change their entire business model, product, feature set, and marketing message. They can make mistakes and fix them quickly. They can change their priorities, product mix, and focus. And, most importantly, they can change their minds.”
Source: “Getting Real” by 37Signals

In other words, by keeping things simple, it will also be easier for you to adapt. It’s much harder to do this if you’re providing too many products and services.

When I was starting out, I was a little too eager to provide so many services and do so many things. In some ways, I’m still struggling with this. While it’s safer to have multiple streams of income, sometimes the surest way to be a successful freelancer is to do it one simple step at a time.

Is your freelancing practice minimalist or complex? How is that working for you? What are the advantages and disadvantages of your approach?

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But if something is repetitive, then it can be automated.  How can we make our clients better informed so that they don’t ask us the same questions repeatedly?  I believe that the following 5 documents can help:
Client tutorial reports. I got this idea from Yuwanda Black’s post at Copyblogger.  As an SEO copywriter, she works with many clients who are unfamiliar with her field.  This is common among web workers.  Designers may be approached by clients who haven’t figured out their branding yet, and PPC (pay-per-click) consultants might have clients who haven’t chosen a target market.

So what should be in your client tutorial?

• Prerequisites. What do they need to know, prepare, and have before they can start a project with you?  Why do they need these things?  If they don’t have these prerequisites, list some handy resources that will help get them started.
• A glossary of jargon. Although you should avoid using too much jargon during initial communication, those terms will eventually come up.  Give your clients an easy reference in case they encounter these terms that they don’t understand.
• A short “crash course” on your field. This may include paragraphs on why hiring a professional is important, how good design/copywriting/whatever service you provide will improve their business, and any background information that can help them understand what you’ll be doing.

FAQ document. FAQs or “Frequently Asked Questions” are usually found in websites of a company or small business.  I rarely find links to FAQ pages in a solo freelancer’s website.

For the uninitiated,  FAQs are pages where you respond to anticipated or predicted questions from clients or website visitors.  They are presented in a simple question and answer format.

This document, when introduced well, will lessen the time you spend answering repetitive questions such as “What methods can I use to pay you?” or “Are there other services you provide that aren’t listed on your website?”  Note the most common questions that your previous and current clients have raised.  These will give you a good idea of what questions you should include in your FAQ page or document.  You also have the option to serve this in the same file as your client tutorial.

Layperson’s translation of legalese. While some of your clients can easily afford lawyers, there will always be those who cannot.  It’s entirely possible that some clients actually just skim through your contracts without reading them, leaving them unaware of the details of your arrangement.  If you don’t think it’s possible or if you believe all the fault lies with your client, just remember how many times you signed up for an online app without reading the lengthy Terms and Conditions.

What might work is an accompanying document that translates each paragraph or item from the contract into plain English.  I don’t just do this with clients, I provide a similar document to my contractors as well.

Just remember to add a notice at the end stating that your layperson’s version is not meant to be a replacement for the contract itself.

Annual update. After all, a lot can happen in a year.  You may have received an award, got another certificate, or were featured in a major magazine.  You shouldn’t hide these things, especially not from your clients, who would probably love to know that they’re working with someone as accomplished as you are.  Just make sure that you mention these accomplishments in a way that shows how these will benefit them.  If you’re the overachieving type, you can do this 2 to 3 times a year, just make sure that your tone is personal and that you don’t come off as a spammer.

Case studies. Unlike the 4 documents mentioned above, case studies are better if they’re publicly accessible rather than sent to clients privately or on a need-to-know basis.  They are meant to convince potential clients that your methods work.  They are marketing tools rather than ways to facilitate better communication and understanding between you and your clients.

Darrell Etherington recently wrote an informative post about case studies, which is a must-read for any freelancer who is interested in creating them.

These 5 documents might require many of your non-billable hours if you want to produce them.  You can create them incrementally over time, so that you won’t be too overwhelmed.  Of course, you can always outsource or delegate to others.

Even with all the initial work involved, I think these documents would be worth it.  If you have any experience with creating these documents, please share it with us in the comments.  How have they worked for you?  What are the other advantages of having these documents?

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It may be alright to wait for leads to find our professional sites and contact us, but there are some cases where this isn’t enough.  Other times, we have to actively scour the web for new jobs.  After 5 years of online job hunting, I eventually developed my own system that requires minimal effort and time – a necessary ingredient if you don’t want your job hunt to mess up the jobs you already have.

Identify how much extra time you have

Before you go on your job search, it’s important to have a concrete idea about the number of hours per week you can devote to an extra job.  This number will always be changing, so you should keep it where it’s accessible and can easily be edited.  You could stick a post-it on your monitor, place a virtual note on your desktop, or write this number in a corner on your whiteboard.

Know where to look for jobs

If there are specific websites where you look for job ads, make sure to bookmark or list them.  Whenever you have free time, all you have to do is turn to this list and approach the job hunt systematically.

Don’t forget to look at offline ads as well.  Many businesses that need the expertise of freelancers, especially if they’re new to internet technologies, will be using offline methods such as newspaper classifieds to advertise their needs.

Automate what you can

Although there are some cases where visiting actual job boards can help, there are several ways for you to automate your job search.  For example, I set up Google Alerts for the phrase “Write for us”, so that I can be notified when websites and blogs call for submissions from writers.  Other alternative key phrases could be “writer needed” or “looking for writer”.  Just replace “writer” with whatever your job title is, and you can receive alerts every time someone posts a relevant job ad on the web.

I also have ready templates for cover letters and emails I can send to potential clients.  There are templates for informal applications, such as jobs where the approach to work seems more fun and laid back.  I also have templates for formal job applications where I apply as a writer for businesses with a more traditional and strict approach.  Include in your templates the common elements of your cover letters, such as a brief description of your background and your contact information.

Just remember that even if you use templates, make sure to customize them a bit.  Nothing says “I’m unoriginal and won’t stand out” than an email that starts with “To Whom it May Concern”.  Do the research on who you should address the email to and how you should approach them.

Record your actions

It’s also important to note what jobs you applied to, the contact information of the people concerned, and any response they give you.

Hunting for a few extra projects to work on doesn’t have to eat up your time, especially if you’re already booked for a few commitments.  By becoming more efficient with job hunting, you’ll spend more effort on the jobs themselves rather than the task of finding them.

How do you make your online job hunt more efficient?  How much time do you spend actively looking for online work?  Which method works best for you?

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Whether you’re getting someone to share the work (and the profits) with you 50-50, or you’re looking to hire a helping hand, there are some advantages and disadvantages you need to consider before taking in a new working partner.

The Advantages

Someone else can share your workload. Freelancers usually do everything themselves, from customer support to marketing to delivering the final product.  On busy months, doing all these things can be so exhausting that you’d wish you had the money to pay for an all-around assistant.  While a partner isn’t exactly an assistant, he or she can take care of half the work while you focus on your half.  If you divide the labor well, there’s hope that both of you will have the time to take a nap once in a while.

You can build a very strong team if your strengths are complementary. If you’re a great copywriter, but you don’t have the social media marketing savvy that your partner has, then it sounds like a great idea to combine your efforts and unleash a monster of an online marketing campaign.

The same goes for any type of work where your weaknesses are your partner’s strengths.  There will no longer be any job opportunities that you will turn down just because you didn’t have all the skills needed for the entire project.

You have the benefit of someone else’s opinion. More importantly, this opinion is from someone else who knows your web working business just as well as you do.  It’s always good to have someone you can ask advice from, especially when it comes to the big decisions.  It usually looks unprofessional to ask another freelancer, but it’s normal practice to ask a business partner.

The Disadvantages

You give up full autonomy. Although this is a single item in this list, it’s a very important one.  Once you start delegating, you will lose control on some aspects of your projects.  This has several disadvantages attached to it, such as your partner not delivering the quality of work you expected.

Also, you’ll need to confer with each other whenever there’s a decision at hand.  You and your partner might have different ideas on what’s best for a project, so decision-making won’t be as fast as when you’re taking care of a project by yourself.

Additional legal work has to be done. Whether you’re considering a short-term or a long-term partnership, you need to draw up some new contracts.  This is especially important if you want to launch a business with your new partner and make your working relationship a long-term one.

Before you sign any papers or go through your LinkedIn network looking for the ideal web working partner, you need to be aware of why you’re looking for a partner in the first place.  What are your expectations?  How much responsibility will your partner have?  How will you check each other’s work?  Are the advantages you’ll be gaining worth the disadvantages you have to pay?  By asking yourself these questions, you’ll know whether it will be helpful or harmful to take in a new partner.

Have you ever considered getting a web working partner, whether it’s for a simple project or a joint-venture startup?  What was the decision-making process like for you?  How did having a partner affect your work?

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I believe it is, and here are seven simple things we can do to make it happen:

Add new skills and credentials. Adding more skills, projects, and credentials to your resume, usually means that you’ve gained more experience and will have more to offer your clients.  When this happens, it only makes sense to raise your rates because of the new and improved contributions you’ll be making.

Here are some simple ways you can lengthen your list of credentials:

• get additional certification,
• take a course in a relevant field,
• win an award,
• and participate in high-profile projects.

Don’t forget to highlight your additional credentials by posting about them in your blog, or by editing both your resume and your social networking profiles.

Qualify clients. Another way to earn more money this year is to qualify your new clients in such a way that you’ll only be working for those who understand the value of your work and are willing to pay a good price for it.  Do you advertise in places where these types of clients are likely to find you?

Upsell. It’s also important to ask yourself what extra products and services you can offer to your existing clients.  This works best if you bundle related services together.  For example, if one of my clients hired me to write an ebook, I’d also ask them if they want me to write the sales letter and the press release that goes with the ebook.  Usually, clients wouldn’t say no to something like that, unless they’ve already hired someone else before you made your offer.

Lower business expenses. How does this affect your earning power?  Well, if you lower your regular business expenses, then you can set aside more money for yourself.  You can look at how much you pay for web apps, rent for office space (if applicable), as well as expected equipment purchases for 2009.

Note that lowering business expenses isn’t just about indiscriminately crossing off these items.  It’s not about cutting costs per se, but about making sure that your costs have a good ROI (return of investment) attached to them.

Network. When there are evident connections between you and a prominent person in your potential client’s industry, this provides a more compelling reason to hire you.  If you know the mentors, “gurus”, and moguls of a certain industry, then why not target the people who are following their steps? While it doesn’t strictly follow that you work for these giants just because you know them, it does make a good impression that will be more lasting than the resume of someone they’ve never heard of before.

Beware of blatant name-dropping, though.  You can hint at your strong connections via social networks and your blog, but don’t write a roll call of famous entrepreneurs in your cover letters. Doing this doesn’t carry the same level of credibility.

Look more expensive. Although I’m not a big fan of judging people by their image, I know from experience that clients definitely judge you based on the way you package yourself.  Why?  Because that’s the first thing they see.  To them a professional look equals professionalism (even if this isn’t always the case).  Make sure that your website, business cards, online profiles, and other marketing tools look professionally done.  That way, it seems much easier for clients to justify your competitive rates, since they can see that your personal brand is polished.

Provide case studies. In a previous post here at WWD, Darrell Etherington talked about the importance of case studies to freelancers.  A case study proves to potential clients that you can deliver the results you promise.  This proof gives you the credibility and trustworthiness that merits even the slightest addition to your fees.  Why?  Because clients already have some guarantee that you’ll provide them with the solutions they need.  They would gladly pay a small premium on the safer bet rather than another freelancer who doesn’t have similar proof to show.

While raising your rates comes with some extra work, the additional effort is always worth it.  Apart from justifying better rates for yourself, clients will also feel secure knowing that you’re worth every penny they pay.

Do you plan to raise your rates in 2009?  How are you planning to do it?

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