Throughout the span of this blog's existence, the question I've seen most is, "How can I find more/better freelance work?" To be sure, this is probably a key aspect for most freelancers, often causing them to accept work that is not necessarily profitable or within their talent scope. This is not always a bad thing since such work is sometimes necessary (or at least instructive) during the initial growth of a freelance career. But hopefully, as your freelance business grows, you will begin to elicit more requests than you have time to attend to. So it helps to set some loose guidelines in determing what freelance work you will turn down. Such predetermined guidelines are necessary because people will naturally say yes to most if not all freelance requests, even if the work may negatively affect the freelancer or the client. So let's look at a few aspects of freelance work and see why certain work should sometimes not be taken.
Money Matters
Altruism is a two-edged sword -- it's great to be excited about helping others who need a website but at the same time, it's not so great to have you or your family's income suffer as a result. Unfortunately, many small businesses don't assign much value to websites, and think that a few hundred dollars is more than enough to pay for an entire website, let alone just a design or online branding strategy. Furthermore, I've often heard individuals outside the industry express surprise when they find out our hourly rates or learn that some websites or print designs easily run in the thousands of dollars. But from a full-time freelancer's perspective, even if every one of your jobs net you a few thousand dollars, you still need to book and complete 20+ projects a year to compete with a salary in the corporate world. That said, every freelancer should know what kind of jobs are profitable enough. Figure out how much you hope to make in a given time span (I prefer quarters as months seem too short and years too long) and let that number guide your decisions about project acceptances. Furthermore, figure out a billing structure that allows you to keep up with living expenses and be wary of projects that deviate greatly from your structure. I personally use a simple 1/2 at start, 1/2 at finish payment structure for smaller projects. For larger projects, I'll break up payments into thirds with the second payment coming after a middle milestone. Ongoing hourly maintenance work is billed monthly. Rarely will I start a project without an invoice (and never for new clients). So if a potential project is too low in value or cannot meet cash flow requirements, I'll pass. I know it sounds a bit harsh at times, but your business won't last too long if you are unable to generate sustainable revenue.
Excellence First
Overgeneralization is the bane of many a lawyer, accountant, and web worker. Most lawyers cannot tell you how to get more from your car insurance claim. Most accountants have no idea why you owe the IRS thousands of dollars. And many web workers can't necessarily tell a person why his Google PageRank dropped or why his email is not working. The creative industry, which includes everything from branding to print to websites, is a very big world, and both the freelancer and client should be aware of this fact. As much as I enjoy photography and print design, I have realized I cannot compete in quality or fees with most of the excellent workers in these fields. Even as a freelancer who focuses on websites, there is still a wide range of subjects to cover, and there are certain technologies I am much weaker in than others. Such realization of your limitations is good, and should admonish you to focus on what you can be excellent at. If I receive a request for qork that uses a technology that I cannot adequately learn in time, I will tell the potential client up front. In other words, making promises you can't keep is a surefire way to increase stress and set up both parties for disappointment down the road. Of course, you can always use outsourcing to complete jobs that you have no expertise in, but in general, if you are excellent in certain other fields, paying clients in those specific fields will eventually come.
Looking Forward
Building a sustainable freelancing career takes patience and wise decisions. It's not always about taking the most profitable job. When looking at any project, you should consider two aspects. First, you should see if the client has the potential to send you recurring work in the future. Acquiring new work is a costly endeavour and any time you can generate business from loyal clients you are doing well. Again, in my experience, if a project is both low-income and a "one time deal," I will often pass. Secondly, you must consider whether the type of work is the kind you can build on, whether it be for your portfolio or skillset. If you are a decent Flash animator and a subpar PHP programmer, it will usually make more sense to take Flash projects over web application projects. When looking at any work, consider if it's the type of work you want to be doing or if it just pays the bills. Sure, the latter is necessary sometimes, but if you only focus on the latter, you will soon find yourself an unhappy robot, wondering whether you should have ever left the office job.
At the end of the day, every freelancer has to live with his decision about the jobs he will turn down. There may be additional factors affecting such decisions such as stress potential, schedule flexibility, or the client's mission. Just always remember that knowing when to pass on a project is just as important as knowing when to accept one.
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