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Barbora Baronova is an award-winning writer and independent publisher whose books have been acquired by well-known libraries, museums, and collectors worldwide. In this talk for Freelance Friends, Bara shares some hard-earned business lessons that brought her international success while keeping her artistic integrity.
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In many European countries, freelancers are not really used to asking clients for referrals to other people who may use their service. In the USA, however, it is way more common and we can easily get inspired. The article titled 3 Stress-Free Ways to Ask Clients for a Referral outlines the essential good practice:
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Some compensations for star independent professionals in the movie industry are quite jaw-dropping. For example, here are the highlights from Robert De Niro’s contract for the “Savage Salvation” movie, according to Los Angeles Times:
As the personal-finance writer Ramit Sethi commented on Twitter: “This is one of the most insane contracts I have ever seen.”
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Gradual improvements in freelance pricing and business negotiations usually beat price jumps and unmanaged sales. The basic recommendation is therefore simple: Avoid risky jumps, and keep improving by manageable steps every time you can.
Here’s a relevant tip from The Freelance Way, chapter Business Negotiations:
“So next time, try saying: For this job, I’ll try to do it differently and negotiate for a better price or terms.”
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Here’s our question of the week:
How would you describe the outlook of your freelance business for the next 6-12 months in just one word?
Drop your answer on our Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter.
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There’s a free online e-book entitled The Self-Improving Developer, written mainly for developers. However, one part in particular may be relevant for all freelancers:
The chapter You’re not building a career argues against the stereotype of career building, claiming that “Success is always a product of two things: luck and effort.” It then argues for embracing uncertainty and placing various small bets while also playing it safe — good advice.
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Few people realize that professional sports(wo)men are also independent professionals. As freelancers, we can learn a lot from them. One of the greatest sources of inspiration in sports is definitely Rafa Nadal, who is now competing for his third Grand Slam title of 2022 in Wimbledon. As CNN puts it in a recent article, Nadal is a world-class athlete who “talks like Aristotle and acts like Confucius.”
Note: Another tennis player who has been a huge role model is Andre Agassi. His autobiography Open even made it into our selection of the best books for freelancers.
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Adam Zbiejczuk is one of the best-connected social-media experts in Central Europe. His Czech-Polish roots and German peers have helped him search for clients, organize events, and connect people across neighboring but surprisingly different countries and cultures. Let’s hear about his experience with international work in a very localized industry of social media:
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If you sell services to multiple countries as a freelancer and tend to have the same prices for everybody, Jakub Res has written an excellent article to dispute this one-size-fits-all practice: Same product, same price? Here is why this pricing strategy is excellent and terrible at the same time.
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Here’s a new quote about selling our time as freelancers, from The Freelance Way, chapter Pricing:
“As freelancers we are generally selling our time in some form, no matter what our prices are or how we set them. And this even applies for celebrities, for example when Robbie Williams asks £1.6 million to perform at the wedding of the daughter of a Russian oligarch, or Ian McKellen refuses $1.5 million to marry off businessman Sean Parker while dressed as Gandalf. Or when the unbeatable boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. leaves early retirement to rake in an estimated $300 million for a single fight with Conor McGregor and, through a technical KO, raises his number of wins without a defeat to an even 50.”
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