Relationships are my cornerstone

Freelancers, Artists, Designers and Developers can all agree that the hardest thing to deal with coming out of an Agency environment is how to begin growing your lead or customer base. Word of mouth and connections through friends are usually the first thing that we establish because we are looking for what is familiar. Agencies have an old business ethic that teaches us to treat our clients like transactions, to quote a new friend of mine, and that very thinking is what has destroyed many companies in our country.

What is the first human agreement? It is the relationship.

What creates the need to be ethically and morally fair with your friends, family and customers? Knowing them, empathizing with them.

I would like to present a theory for making connections. Make friends.

Outgoing doesn’t mean “life of the party”

When I say that you need to make friends and allies to attract honest opportunities, I don’t mean you need to be the king of the keg to win people’s affection. I simply mean that you should first pursue groups that are in the same field and dedicate time every month to trying some of these meetups out and seeing if there is a group of people that you identify with.

If you like a particular type of software like Drupal or WordPress it is quite possible that you can find a user group in your area filled with other people who are interested in either teaching you how to work with the software or possibly work with you.

In Denver DBUG is a place to start or you can peruse the MeetUP website.

Chambers of commerce

Another fantastic resource are small local city chambers of commerce, the reason for going for the local groups will be the familiarity you get with the group that you are apart of. Being in a room with 20 people from other fields that want to talk to you and get to know hwo you are and how you work in the community is great way to not only make friends but find resources that you may also need.

Of course with COC the bar for entry is always cash but, in a smaller city or a suburb of the nearest large city there are plenty of inexpensive and fruitful places to meet other professionals.

Call on your heros

The other thing you can do is email people whom you hold in high regard as professionals or perhaps as role models in your field. I recently emailed craigmod of the Tokyo Art Space and Link Spice fame. He was nice enough to answer some questions that I had about a particular market and took the time to give insight to an area that I had been exploring.

Whenever you email someone that you are a fan of it can be rather strange, like sending fan mail to a musician that you enjoy, the results can really change your perception of them or what you found engaging about them.

I have been met with my own fair share of experiences where the image in my mind was better than the real thing. It will happen. But you have to remember that if someone you respect isn’t gracious with you it’s either because:

1. They are really busy and cannot afford the time for idle chatter OR
2. They are pretentious dicks!

Look for the humanity and feed your creativity from this. Then, you will be the greatest artist in the world!

Sincerely Your Pal,

Zach Attack Meyer
ps. I am sorry if I have every been a dick to you. call me.

Show me the money

Freelance has a lot of interesting barriers to overcome. First you have to find a client, then you must determine what the scope of work will be, then you must determine the price for your work and when all is said and done you have to COLLECT!

It seems like, even when you agree to something with your client,  you may encounter some last minute changes in schedule that weren’t apart of the original deal. Namely, they don’t want to finish paying you because they think that they don’t need to pay you for your work. They don’t remember negotiating your rate, or asking you to perform the work in an unreasonably short amount of time. I’m almost convinced that they don’t care. They used you for what they wanted to accomplish and now suddenly they want out of the deal.

No matter how fairly you have treated someone, they want to take their guarantee back.

So here is how everything happened;

1. A gentleman asked me to create a WordPress theme in one day for a client of his
2. He agrees, after many back and forth conversations, to the price for the work
3. I complete the work that I could do, and even generated artwork to complete the design
4. I am on call as a consultant modifying theme settings and php templates
5. I send the final payment for the other half of what the total job was priced
6. Customer says that he is waiting for his client to pay him
7. I politely tell him that this is not my problem
8. He doesn’t agree

From my perspective, if you have hired me to do something and you agree to pay a certain price then it doesn’t matter to me what other arrangements you have regarding the same project. I am willing to go a little bit for people, but if you have agreed to pay me for my time, you had better follow through without any condition attached.

I will keep you posted as to whether or not he actually follows through.

Thanks for letting me complain a bit,

Zach “the unpaid” Freelancer