You quit the 9-to-5 job and have gone out on a limb to create your own career from your home office as a Freelance Writer. Sure, that means the suit and tie and 7 a.m. alarm can be tossed out the window. It means you can sit at the computer with your Avengers coffee mug and your college t-shirt and lounge pants to start writing. However, there are certain things professional content writers understand they need to continue practicing in order to be respected. Most of these are true in any field. However, the world of the freelancer is a bit different, simply because of the way work is done and contacts are made.
I’m a Freelance Writer, Now What?
This particular blog will look at certain areas of freelancing that require care and professionalism in order to enhance your career. Those areas are social media, client interaction and combating stereotypes. Without some focus on professionalism in these areas, other efforts will be undervalued or completely ignored. Therefore, remember professionalism in the following ways, and have confidence that your career will move forward at the rate and in the manner you hope to achieve.
Social Media Techniques as a Freelancer
The first thing to remember is your profile picture on Facebook. If you are utilizing Facebook as one of your self-marketing tools, it is best to appear professional in that profile photo. While you may love to kick back at a party on the weekend and do a keg stand, or you are proud of the black eye and broken nose you received last time you engaged in a bar brawl, these moments are best kept away from your professional persona.
Likewise, the status updates that chronicle those weekend free-for-alls or even your intense political views should be avoided, unless those aspects of your life contribute positively to your writing in some way. If you can’t refrain from those status updates, make sure your professional contacts are on one list and the friends you share those crazy moments with are the list you select to view that particular group of posts.
One final aspect of your Facebook persona that you should keep in mind is the option to separate the personal page from the professional one. In this manner, the photos and status updates meant for college buddies or your weekend crew can be posted freely, while your clients are seeing the image you want to present to enhance your career.
Facebook has made it simple to link a professional page to your personal one, so you can be an admin on the professional page and toggle between the two with a simple click or two. This provides the ease of access some feel would be lacking with separate professional and personal Facebook pages.
Things to Remember When Interacting with Clients
Interactions with clients, whether in the swank office of a Fortune 500 company or in your home office, should have some basic tenets that remain the same. For instance, do not have a television blaring or the radio overshadowing the client during a conference, even if that conference is taking place over Skype.
As a mother, I recognize that noise levels are not completely controllable with children living out their lives in the living room nearby. However, having spent years in a newsroom at a small morning paper, sometimes it is easier to get the television turned down at home and the kids to take it down a notch than it was to have co-workers reined in on a particularly stressful or exciting news day.
Also, for those video conferences, it is best to look semi-presentable. A three-piece suit is not in order, but combed hair and a work casual shirt would be a great way to let the client know you take their project – and them – seriously enough to prepare for those conferences instead of simply rolling out of bed and clicking the Skype button on the computer.
Combating Stereotypes As a Professional Freelancer
Being the creative element for a company where you may have no other contact can give them the entirely wrong impression. In general, freelancers are seen as unable to keep a “regular” schedule, unwilling to work full-time and even seen as filling time until they find a “real job.” This is the mindset that is held, rather than to see freelancers as an asset to be utilized when necessary that would otherwise be tied up at another company and out of the reach of that narrow-minded client.
Since that client is still the one handing out the paychecks, it is best to combat stereotypes in a manner that does not result in a confrontation or battle. Instead of fighting over these concepts, show them your value in other ways.
- Be prompt or even early on a deadline, if that is feasible.
- Be available for communication throughout the project. Let them know you aren’t sleeping or aren’t out on field trips. Instead, you are working hard in your work area, regardless of where that might be.
- Be firm with your expectations and reasonable in what changes are allowed. As a freelance writer, you still have the right to put your foot down when things have been adjusted a few too many times and your time is being wasted.
- Finally, be prepared to turn down the clients that don’t see your value and continue to attempt to get quality work at subpar rates. You are making a living and are as professional as the client regardless of work space. If that can’t be understood and valued by one client, it will be by the next one.
As professional content writers, sometimes we forget to present ourselves in the right light in a more public arena. If this area of your career is neglected, however, it can sorely affect the overall success. That isn’t to say you can never lounge in your pajamas at the computer, finishing up that project or putting ideas that suddenly hit you into fruition. However, remembering to be professional at the times it counts means those moments in your pajamas can be even sweeter.