I came across this story in the September 2009 issue of .net magazine on pricing, in an article titled, Be the boss: deciding how much to charge by Mark Boulton:
Legend has it that the artist Pablo Picasso was once sketching in a park when a woman approached him and asked him to draw her portrait. Of course, she was going to pay him, so after agreeing they sat down and- after a few moments of study- Picasso used a single pencil stroke to capture the woman’s likeness.
“It’s perfect,” she said. “You’ve managed to capture my essence with one stroke, in one moment. Thank You so much. How much do I owe you?”
“Five thousand dollars,” Picasso replied.
“What? But it only took you five minutes!” she sputtered.
“Madame, it took me my entire life,” he answered.
It’s a great story, and a nice reminder that when a freelancer prices, it should take into account our experiences, not just the amount of time we spend on a project.
Tags: .netmag, articles, experience, price, rates, tips | Posted in Advice, Lessons, Stories | Comments Off
When I first started freelancing, one thing I knew for sure was the importance of having a contract. I drafted one, had a few people (including a lawyer) look over it, and over the years I have rewrote it and added to it (I posted it way back in February). Whenever I get a new client, I will draft a proposal, and once that’s accepted, send over a contract. Most of the time this takes place online, as I’m dealing with people all over the world. Last week I went over a contract with someone in person, and kind of surprised myself.
Tags: clients, contract, documents, people, relationships, tips | Posted in Advice, Lessons, Stories | Comments Off
Logo for Cognition Media
Sorry for the hiatus folks! I recently finished up grad school (congrats to the class of 2009) and started a new company. In all of the preparation for getting it off the ground, landing our first client, and doing all of the things you need to do to successfully start a company, I came across some things I didn’t really expect. I’ve been a freelancer for quite some time (as you might recall) so I have at least a pretty good handle on running a business. However, when entering the realm of running a small company, some things change. Here are some of my observations.
Tags: cognition media, company, tips | Posted in Lessons, Stories | Comments Off
As a freelancer, a lot of my gigs come from referrals- friends, family, former clients. But, especially starting out, you can’t always rely on these. You should actively look for work on a regular basis. My first non-referral gig came when I responded to a gig board’s posting and the poster decided to go with me. Here is how I did it.
Tags: beginning, gigs, people, referrals, tips | Posted in Advice, Stories | 1 Comment »
I wrote a little over a month ago about finding my first niche. As I said, it worked out for my for a while, but MySpace got big and snatched that market right out from under me. To be honest, it was time for me to move on anyway. My skills were getting better and I was ready to create real business solutions for real businesses. So I had to figure out what my next niche would be.
Tags: beginning, clients, niche, people, skills | Posted in Stories | Comments Off
I’ve always had ideas bouncing around in my head. Aside from a blog and personal site, I wanted to create a website that offered a service. I was a junior in college and knew I had to make something that would create a constant cash flow, just in case work got slow. I spoke to my friend Steve, who at the time was better than me at both design and programming (he still is at design, but I think I win with programming). I proposed this idea: a website called College Housing.
Tags: beginning, failure, side projects, tips | Posted in Stories | Comments Off
