Pawel Grabowski of Self Employed Cafe recently published a blog post giving 10 facts about himself. I thought it made really interesting reading, so I’m shamelessly copying his idea.

I’ve already got five facts about me on my About Me page, so here are 10 further things you might not know about me.

• Fact no 1: I did six terms of cookery evening classes when I first started work. I had intended to do just one term but the more I found out, the more I wanted to learn.

• Fact no 2: My first job in London was for an advertising agency. I spent the first 18 months commuting from Bedford and I read two novels each week on the train journey.
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I recently returned from holiday. It was the first break I’d had in 15 months and it made me realise I should have taken time off sooner. There are all kinds of reasons not to go on holiday if you are freelance:

• You won’t earn any money (unless you’re lucky enough to be on a retainer).

• You need to save money for your ‘buffer’ fund for when times are quiet, not spend it on holidays.

• You risk losing out on projects that come up while you’re away.

• If you’re midway through a project, the likelihood is it will be given to someoen else to complete

• You have to work like crazy to finish everything off before you go, and then you need to work like crazy when you get back to catch up – so is going away worth the effort?
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It’s  International Freelancers Day today, organised by the guys at The Wealthy Freelancer.

Here’s what it’s all about

It’s late September and, here in London, it’s been beautifully warm and sunny. There’s always something special about early autumn sunshine: it’s delightfully warm without the stifling heat of mid summer. And it’s even more enjoyable because we know there are very few warm days left in the year.

Take time out

The great freedom that freelancing gives us is being able to set our own timetable. Which means we can go out and enjoy the sunshine if we wish to.

I can sit in the sun and work on stuff that doesn’t need the use of a computer. Or, I can take time out in the afternoon to go for a walk in the park. Then I’ll either work in the evening or I’ll set the alarm early and start work with the lark in the morning.

If we were working as employees, we just couldn’t say to our boss: “I’d like to take two to three hours out this afternoon.” We’d be expected to sit at our desk all day.

We all learn from our mistakes. Here are the three I made when I first started out as a freelancer.

Mistake No. 1: Agreeing to drop my price with the promise of further work down the track

There very rarely is further work down the line and, even if there were, how would you get the client to agree to paying your usual, non-discounted rate? Also, each time you’re busy working on discounted projects, you can’t take on other work at your full price.

Mistake No. 2: Saying ‘yes’ to every project

I soon discovered there were some projects that a) I really didn’t enjoy doing and b) weren’t my forte. So I now say ‘no’ whenever such a project comes up and explain to the potential client the kind of work I do undertake. However, I don’t leave them in the lurch; I make a point of finding them a writer for whom that particular project would be right up their street.

What’s the best approach to marketing yourself to big, international firms you haven’t worked with before?

That was a question someone left in my comment box recently. Here’s my reply:

Over the years I’ve been freelancing, I’ve written for all kinds of international companies. Citibank, Pepsi, Hitachi and SonyEricsson, to name but four.

Working for intermediaries

But I don’t have these multinationals as direct clients. Instead, I work for their web design, graphic design agency, or marketing agency. In most cases, I attend client meetings and have day-to-day direct dealings with the end company but I send my invoices to the agency.

Here’s the reason I do it this way. Every time I have marketed myself (ie: sent mailshots) to large companies, I’ve hit against a brick wall. Yet I succeed pretty well when it comes to marketing to web and graphic design agencies, or to marketing agencies.