Freelancing Lessons Learned: 1 Year of SkeevisArts

December 4th, today, marks a pretty big day in my life.

Since I was in middle school, skeevisArts was the moniker I used for any “professional” work I did (back then, I used the professional label pretty loosely).  Skeevis was my nickname back then, and considering that I was doing mainly creative work at that time, skeevisArts was appended to everything I created.

But on December 4th, 2008 – I began my journey as a full time freelancer, finally turning the dream of skeevisArts into a reality.

I’ve learned so much, met so many amazing people, and been lucky to do some pretty incredible projects – especially considering how “fresh” I was. Sure, I had done a decent amount of freelance work before, but nothing compared to the experience of the past year. When I compare an “average day” – which no entrepreneur ever has – to what I had experienced just a few years ago, when I was still full time at unnamed-ginormous-government-contractor…. its beyond comparison.

DISCLAIMER: When I was working at aforementioned consulting agency and dreaming about freelancing full time – and doing a bit of it on the side – I read… a ton. Everything I could get my hands on via social media – blog posts about lessons learned, war stories of entrepeneurs, Top X tools you need to Y… I consumed it all. Everyone was willing to hand out advice. Let’s face it, most of the content out there is regurgitating information found via other sources, mindless unfounded banter just to generate page views, or just monkeys mashing at keyboards. I don’t want to be any of that. Instead, I just want to reflect upon the lessons I’ve learned, primarily to cement them in my own head, but also hopefully, that someone out there will find it useful. This isn’t a definitive list of “Steps to take to Master Freelancing” or “Why it’s so hard to start a company” or any BS like that. This is solely what I have learned for myself. This might be completely useless to you, it might be just what you needed. Take this advice at your owk risk.

Here we go.

What I’ve Learned, In One Year of Freelancing

1. Do Amazing Work. Duh, right? I couldn’t stress this enough, and still have to remind myself of this every day. First off, there are so many other tasks and activities you have to deal with – new business, accounting, new business, partnerships, new business, internal projects and processes, new business, project management (and did I mention new business?) – that sometimes the actual labor is second tier, rushed through, or put off to the last minute. No. Amazing work is all that matters. The money will come in once that is taken care of.

1b. Do Amazing Work. I am blown away on a weekly basis by how much crap there is, especially stuff put out by other freelancers. I’m disheartened that some people would actually put this out, and that clients would pay for it. But, this is also an opportunity. If you come in doing good work, clients will instantly see it, latch on to you, and – best of all – be willing to pay nearly any price for that kind of quality. 1/3 of the work I do is replacing another developer (or team of developers).

2. Find What You Are Good At. Outsource The Rest. Just because a client is hiring you to do a project, doesn’t mean you’re expected to do all of it yourself. They’re paying you to get to the finish line.

3. Every Client is Valuable. When I first started, I took any client that walked through the door. I still keep in touch with them to this day, and it’s paid off – even if it’s at a lower rate, doing smaller work (example: I still do IT work for a couple small businesses at an hourly rate a fraction of my current rate). Just because a bigger, better, client has walked through the door, doesn’t diminish the importance of every single client before it. (I know, at this point, a lot of this is “duh!” stuff. I’m only saying it because every day I see more people who don’t think this way)

4. Don’t Mess Around (Too Much) On Payments – Invoice promptly. If the project isn’t a rush project, wait until you get the deposit. If you’ve set generous terms, and the client is still behind on paying you – alarm bells should go off IMMEDIATELY. I’ve learned this lesson a couple times already in a year.

5. New business is the lifeblood of a company. Don’t underestimate how much time it takes to process this. While so far I’ve been successful enough to build a business solely on word of mouth, I still end up spending 1/5 of my week in new business phone calls and meetings, writing proposals, and negotiating terms.

6. E-mail is not the lifeblood of a company. I’m still fighting with not checking e-mail every five minutes. Learn more from Jared on this, he’s the expert.

7. Rigidity will only lead to frustration. I’m at the point where, when I wake up in a day, I have no idea what I’m going to work on, unless I have a scheduled appointment. This is how I best function personally, as far too many things change in a day, to have a strict work plan. Keep an eye on your deadlines, get the work done, but know that every day, unforeseeable items pop up.

8. Surround yourself by people smarter than you, more dedicated than you, and more connected than you. Strive to be like them, every day.

9. Networking is crap. If you want to get business from people you’ve met, you have to do more than just the business card swap. Get to know them. Have lunch with someone every day. Follow them on twitter. Spend more than 30 seconds with them at a conference. 100% of the work I get is from word of mouth, usually kicked off by someone I know. 0% of the work I get is from a business card in an ever-growing pile on my desk.

10. Learn something every day. Stay on top of what’s going on. Clients may be paying you for what you know right now, but you’ll also need tomorrow’s skills and knowledge someday as well.

10b. Bring something new to every project. It’s far too easy to get into a rut of doing the same kind of project, for the same budget, over and over again. I keep myself on my toes by always trying a different technique, framework, or feature in everything I do.

11. Educate your clients. One of my tenets that I convey to my clients is that I want our professional relationship to be a learning experience, for both of us.  I clearly state that my goal is, once the project is complete, that they’ll almost never need me for that project, barring major changes.

12. Project management is incredibly important, but the hardest to quantify/charge for. Clients won’t just leave you alone until the work is totally complete. Be prepared to spend a lot of your time answering e-mails, taking phone calls, and in meetings to discuss what you’re doing, defend your approach, and talking to anyone you’re requested to speak to. Nicholas suggests tacking on a set percentage for project management on top of estimated labor charges.

13. Strive for a good work/life balance. Yes, I’m still easily working 80 hour weeks, but I’m happy with that balance at the moment. I still find time to spend time with Alex, see friends, read, watch all my TV shows, and play DJ Hero.

14. Project minimums are important. I say this because often times, the smaller the project, the more work it tends to be. Ask any freelancer about that $500 project that ended up taking them a week to complete. Work for full price, or give it away for free. The area between that is where it gets hairy.

15. Find time for personal projects. If you have your own product startup in mind, or just want to work on some personal projects, make sure to set aside time for that every week.

15. Enjoy it.