(no subject)
Many of you have offered to have a discussion with me. I'll take each of you up on it.
First, a brief refresher course on things I've said in years and months past but it's understandable that many of you missed those blog posts.
Going into business for myself as a graphic design freelancer is not my ambition. The only reason I've been considering accepting it when MetaSpring approached me about it, is that I have no other source of income, job hunting has not been successful, and the bills are piling up. The line between self-employment and unemployment is difficult to see, from both sides of it. Ponder that sentence.
One similarity between self-employment and unemployment is self-marketing. I dislike the process of drumming up business as much as I dislike the job-hunting process, for the same reasons. It puts me in a very ugly mood. It makes me feel all predatory and salesmany. Isn't it true that self-employment is constant job-hunting? This deficit in self-marketing means the only customers I usually get (other than , who was great) are the kind who are so broke that they choke at spending $500, and aren't very savvy so they forget the understandings I try to establish up-front. Acknowledging that some businesses can spend more than that, and are capable of acting like good clients, does not change the self-marketing obstacle of knowing who they are, accessing them, and selling myself to them. And even if I did, I'd be pretty upset most of the time.
Maybe I'm wrong! But I don't know where to go to find out.
An insightful summary from a comment to the last post:
Well, the common theme seems to be you don't know how to sell your skills. As the saying goes, any idiot can paint a picture, but it takes a genius to sell it. And even in the local job market, I would expect you to be able to pull at least $50K. More if you're doing high end stuff.
Now I find this amusing because you can sell -- you're a dyed in the wool evangelist. You sell logban, you sell open source, you sell penguicon, you sell transhumanism, etc. I can go on and on. You advocate ideas that appeal to you. And you mastered that art by going out and immersing yourself in these concepts and then sharing them with anyone who'll listen, and defend them to anyone who questions them.
So, here's the trick -- sell the idea of Matt Arnold, Graphic Designer. Who is he? What has he created? How can he (and this is admittedly the whole crux of the sell) add value to your organization? This last one you sell by providing examples of your work, by providing references to projects you have completed, by providing some suggestions of how the customer could improve their image, etc.
And expect to be shot down repeatedly until you connect with the right customer. That's the freelance approach. And as ATDT1991 pointed out, you find a headhunter to pimp you if you're not comfortable doing this yourself.
And given the local market, please consider that you may have to relocate out of state.
Those are religions, when you really get down to it. I don't see any of it as selling. It's pretty humorous to think of making a religion out of myself. :) But seriously, the concept of adding value to organizations is what I mean by "business". I can't reconcile it with my kind of evangelistic fervor. But I'll keep it in mind.
Comments
stormgren on Feb. 2, 2008 8:12 PM
Isn't it true that self-employment is constant job-hunting?
Similar concept, different mindset. Yes, I'm doing constant work to find places to sell my products and services. The difference as I see it is that in being self-employed with a business entity, I've already got a job. My tasks as part of that is to find new places to sell my services and products to. It's constant, but after a while, inertia kicks in, and it's not nearly as hard to do when you've got enough regular clients to cover things and the new stuff is just gravy.
(Mind you, I'm saying that as I'm spending my Saturday working on profit margin analysis on product lines that a wholesaler I just got an account with carries.)
The other poster was right, there's really no difference between evangelizing open source, transhumanism and selling your skills. It is *advocacy*, not slimy predatory salesman tactics. You are advocating that you can do what they want you to do.
I can and have applied the tactics I use for advocating open source software to selling to someone the reasons why they should do business with me. I didn't think I had any sales skills until I figured out one day that I'd been learning how to do similar things to promote the use of Linux for years.
Again, simply promoting oneself isn't predatory, it's looking out for your own interests. If one pushes themselves too hard at their client/potential employer, yes, it's taking things too far, but one does have to at least be enthusiastic about themselves as they can be. You don't have to lie, but you do have to put a positive spin on things.
No matter what mode of employment you choose you absolutely have to get over that feeling of being "...all predatory and salesmany" while job hunting or looking for freelance work. Why does it make you feel that way to promote your skills and abilities? Moreover, why don't you feel that way about all the things you advocate and promote?
Maybe I'm wrong! But I don't know where to go to find out.
Asking here and listening to what people are saying is a good start.
But seriously, the concept of adding value to organizations is what I mean by "business". I can't reconcile it with my kind of evangelistic fervor.
It doesn't have to be that intense. But it's the right idea.
As a question, what is it then, currently, that you really *want* to do, if you are simply trying to pay the bills with graphics design? Assuming it would pay the bills, what would you be doing instead at this point?
matt-arnold on Feb. 2, 2008 9:03 PM
I need only look at what I already do. I organize conventions obsessively. I create games. I write editorials. I make puppets and perform shows. I draw infographics.
Why does it make you feel that way to promote your skills and abilities? Moreover, why don't you feel that way about all the things you advocate and promote?
Because I love the messages I send, and don't care about the messages they want to pay me to send.
"The other poster was right, there's really no difference between evangelizing open source, transhumanism and selling your skills. It doesn't have to be that intense. But it's the right idea."
How can I convey the difference that I see so vividly?
For some people, motivational energy is generated by making "good stuff". Their minds spontaneously drift onto the coolness of the stuff. Often it's generated by a love for someone or ones in their life, and every couple of hours their brain just spontaneously thinks of ways to make the lives of those people better. Some are motivated by a mission, a crusade, a holy cause, and it keeps them awake at night. The list could go on. You can always tell where your motivational energy comes from by where your mind spontaneously drifts without needing an alarm to prompt you.
The problem is, we usually need our minds to be on something else. No matter what you do, you can always think of some way that what you do is helping somebody somewhere. But if it fails to engage your monkey brain, you'll stall. That doesn't mean you're a bad person.
Self-discipline can be a substitute for motivational energy, but each of us only have so much of a supply of willpower. You can acknowledge on an intellectual level that you have a reason to do something, and even generate a spurt of motivation from that for a few hours or a day. But if it isn't your real and true source of motivation, the intellectual agreement with it does not generate sustainable energy. I can say "tough, that's the way the world works" in my mind... but an hour later, my mind will back to something interesting and cool instead.
If you're promoting something that doesn't throw that motivational switch. the promotion isn't real and true. I think that's a possible difference in my mind between evangelism and sales, between advocacy and business-- whether you have to make yourself interested in something, or whether it makes you interested in it. It's unnecessary to put a positive "spin" on transhumanism, Lojban, software freedoms, the future, or Penguicon when talking about them. They're intrinsic goods, which benefit me directly. To put it simply, they're sexy.
I can intellectually acknowledge the advantages that come with artificially-manufactured enthusiasm onto things which would never hold my interest naturally, such as money. But that acknowledgment will not keep my mind from drifting onto interests that are real and true for me. Money tends to be a source of external pressure on me, rather than an internal motivation.
rmeidaking on Feb. 3, 2008 3:39 PM
I've been a free-lance bookkeeper on and off for thirty years. There are some key elements to self-employment that you have to keep in mind.
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Really, really charge what it costs to cover your expected living expenses, including taxes, rent, health care costs, food, vacation, etc. Figure that a paying job on a contract basis has to pay for the time that you're working, plus the following three weeks when you probably won't be working. A good rule of thumb is to double your asking price vs. what you would accept as an employee. That is, if you'd expect to earn $30K ($15/hr, bottom of the range for good designers these days), then you're going to charge $30 an hour as a free-lancer. You could probably specify an 8 hr, $250 minimum.
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You're always marketing yourself. Your attitude and ability are what you're selling, and you have to pay attention to that. You don't get to be sloppy, because you're representing a company: You, Inc.
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Make the client understand that it's a joint project: They have to do their part so you can do yours. Too often I got the idea that the client thought I could do my job without input from them. Sorry, I'm not psychic. There needs to be a high level of communication so that you don't waste your time, and they get what they want and need.
Self-employment is a tough challenge, but in this economy, it may be the best way to achieve a semblance of full-time employment.
matt-arnold on Feb. 3, 2008 3:59 PM
- You have to have clients before any of that comes into play.
- With luck, I'll be able to avoid resorting to self-employment. Note, that statement has nothing to do with whether self-employment is right for you.
rmeidaking on Feb. 3, 2008 6:38 PM
"1) You have to have clients before any of that comes into play."
No, you have to have *potential* clients before it comes into play. I have to think those do exist. If not, you need to find a new career.
"2) With luck, I'll be able to avoid resorting to self-employment. Note, that statement has nothing to do with whether self-employment is right for you."
I'm not sure which statement has nothing to do with it. I presume you mean my earlier comment, rather than avoiding resorting to self-employment.
In my opinion, the best situation is being a member of a team-oriented firm, where I am one person out of many working toward the goal of all of us making a living doing work we're happy about. (Note that I am currently doing bookkeeping for a non-profit daycare and a new-age-ish bookstore.) That's often easier said than done, though.
matt-arnold on Feb. 3, 2008 8:31 PM
I can set a price, but it is impossible to charge money to imaginary potential clients. It's only possible to charge clients who I actually find and meet and talk to.
Perhaps it's possible to market myself to clients who I have not found yet. Until I do such a technique, clients who I have not found, and who have not found me, will not perceive my attitude or ability.
I cannot make a client understand that it's a joint project between them and me, until they know I exist and I know they exist.
Now do you understand "you have to have clients before any of that comes into play"? Maybe if I spell it out as "I have to find them before any of that comes into play." It's been ten years now, and I haven't got over that hump yet, so other advice seems premature.
When I stated my preference to not be self-employed, I felt it necessary to specify that this should not be construed as a statement that any reader of that comment should not be self-employed. The reason I mention that is to cover my bases just in case. I have to include many disclaimers following every statement I make about employment, to seal up any possibility of offending any person who reads it, or somebody will come along and find some obscure way to interpret it as hostile.
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