What Will You Do for $20
We’ll work from anywhere, but we won’t work for anything.
We have to have our standards, right?
As we prepare to hit the road for most of the rest of the year, we’re gearing up to be be working in all kinds of unusual places. It seems that whenever we pack our bags, we’re profoundly reminded of how fortunate we are to live this life – to be able to make money from anywhere doing work we love and are proud of.
We’re getting good at it and – after a few years of practice – have even developed a sort of flow. A lot of people get in touch to talk about how we got started and how we make it work. We’ve been reluctant to dole out advice, as we were figuring things out ourselves and didn’t want to misguide anyone with sloppy information. In the last couple of years, though, we’ve found our mojo and are happy to share our path.
The one thing we can say with 100% certainty is that it gets easier and easier to do what we do. I can remember when that fact became overwhelmingly clear – the day we were first able to say “no” to a project. On that day, we were first able to exercise the luxury of choice.
This week, thanks to a client interaction, we’ve been talking about the importance of setting limits as you build a reputation and earn the ability to decline work. We want to share our experience grappling with (um, stumbling through?) setting limits in the hope that it will help you more effectively carve out your own path from the get go.
To make a long story short, we just had a potential client offer us much less than the amount we proposed to complete a large project. We negotiated back-and-forth a bit, but the client held firm on the significantly lower price. We declined the project. Here’s the deal… It wasn’t a bad project, and I’m sure that – as the client threatened – they will find someone to do it for their proposed price.
Now, don’t get me wrong, we’ve always had limits (remember, a guy has to have standards), so we’ve never accepted ridiculous offers to do a lot of work for almost no money. You might be surprised by what people will ask you to do for $20, $50, $100. Now, in addition to declining those inane projects, we can take a pass on projects that aren’t all that bad but just not a good fit.
It’s important to say that it took a lot of work to get to this point. When we started out – and were focused on building a client base and a reputation – we had to do some pretty extreme things to meet clients expectations. One time, we did so much work for $1000, that I’m too ashamed to examine what the per hour rate was. Burned most prominently into my brain, though, is the time we had to basically decamp at the Grand Canyon in order to meet a deadline. What a nightmare, but it was part of doing what we needed to do on the zig-zagging path to making the “working virtually” part of our equation a success.
That situation in the Grand Canyon was all about being reliable. Keeping your word is critical, especially when you work independently. That’s not the only foundational item you should pay attention to so that you can work independently and, eventually, be selective. Here are three other biggies:
- Play to your natural strengths and talents. Real success – fulfilling success – is fueled by knowing yourself. If you’re not playing to your strengths, you’ll know it because you’ll feel out of sync.
- Passion is important because it energizes you. When you have a true passion for your work – or anything – you can’t get enough of it. Unfortunately, many people have a passion for their work but remain unfulfilled because it doesn’t also play to their strengths. Wondering why your venture (that you’re so passionate about) isn’t thriving? Examine whether or not it also plays to your strengths.
- Know what differentiates you. What sets you apart from others with the same strengths and passion? Why you?
No matter what, it’s also important to follow your own path. Too many people see a successful model and think they can simply duplicate it. Don’t follow someone else’s dream and don’t muck up your reputation by engaging in things that don’t align with the intention behind your work. It makes you look desperate (which, even if you are, is a card you never want to show).
Even though – while building your money-making venture – you’ll likely need to cast the net a bit wider, remember, you are building your brand. Try to employ big picture thinking that shows you are smart enough to do what you need to do to make money in the moment and wise enough to know that you are defining yourself with every action.
Doing a lot of heavy lifting to get “in the pocket” is what has enabled us to now say “no” to projects that don’t fit, “no” to crazy clients and “no” to budgets and/or timeframes that devalue our work. We found that if you set yourself up for success by paying attention to the above points, you earn the luxury of choice.
In the world of freelancing/consulting, there will always be someone who will do anything for any amount of money. If you are trying to find your way as you start your own business, embark on a new venture, whatever… don’t be that person.
- Set some broad but strict standards, even early on. What guidelines/limits best represent your brand?
- Do the work necessary (see above) to find the right thing to do and the right way to do it. What are you meant to be doing?
- Employ a big picture mindset. What kind of reputation are you building for the long haul?
At all costs, when someone says “Will you (insert asinine workload) for $20?” say “hell no!”
Even more amazing is what people will do for free!
That’s an entirely different post
Great advice. In the past couple of years, I’ve learned to say no to low ball requests. I think it’s all a frame of mind. How much do you value yourself and your time? Once you realize that you have something of value to offer, it gets easier to say no to the extremely low offers. I had a business with my ex and he was always doing work for extremely cheap or free. Never again.
I also think the same goes for pricing a product that you know is valuable. If you price it too low, people will think it’s not that good and not even worth a small amount of money.
I think a lot of it, too, is about the fact that people are often chasing a quick fix without considering the brand they are building or their reputation.
You have to start somewhere, that’s for sure, but you also have to keep your “future you” in mind. It’s about being strategic.
We can say that now that we’ve been through it and made plenty of mistakes along the way. Gulp.
it really is hard to say no, but it does get easier…and you’re right, sometimes it’s best to say no when it’s not a good fit…
If you have the resources, it’s definitely best to say “no” if the fit is not right. Sometimes that’s tough to do right out of the gate, though.
How greatly do we value our self and our time? Once we realize that we have something of worth to offer, it gets easier to say no to the extremely low offers.
When money is involved (no matter how little!) it’s often difficult to see it that way – especially if you are just getting started.
In our arena – HR related consulting / freelancing – we see way too many acts of desperation that we know (from following closely) often swing back around to hurt the person.
This is never more true right now than in the blogging world. I’ve seen great blogs turn into essentially big advertisement pages because it seems as if the blogger can’t say no to any opportunity for either money or free stuff that comes with the “opportunity” for “sponsorship”.
And the flipside of that is the “will you write for fame” model. In other words, will you write for free (or give us your photo) in exchange for publicity on our bigger and more popular website which will give you traffic to yours?
My reply to this is always no now because I’ve found that “traffic” doesn’t pay my mortgage.
Thanks for bridging the conversation over to the blogging world because, yes, I think the same thing applies in that arena as well. Maybe even more so, right?
There’s a lot of judgement – in a hurtful, sweeping-generalizations sort of way – about what people should and shouldn’t do with their mommy/travel/food/lifestyle/whatever blog. That’s too bad because so much of the commentary is unproductive.
People should be able to do what they want to do. However, just as we see in our professional arena, it seems like many people do things that don’t align with the brand they seem to be building. I think, too, that people do many things out of passion (which is great) but without the natural strengths/talent to make it an ultimately fulfilling venture.
I wanted to say, too, that we have a good friend who runs a tech blog. Recently, he did a post about a semi-related-to-his-blog product because he got a great offer to do it. He was just telling us that it was, ultimately, a horrible decision. What he didn’t consider ahead of time is that – by doing the post the way he did – he was alienating his readers. Apparently, he heard from many who were really upset – not that he was doing something to make money but because it smacked unnatural. It didn’t match the vibe and intention behind his blog, and his readers felt sold out. Worse yet, he now knows he could have put together the deal in a way that honored his client and didn’t play his readers for fools.
I love this! It enrages me to no end when a) I get advertiser/PR inquiries from people who want me to write a FREE BLOG POST about their product (what’s in that for me again?) or b) I see writing gigs on Craigslist, etc. that say “no pay–for exposure only.” I’ve found that now that I’ve upped my asking price for writing and blog advertiser gigs, then people actually are willing to pay more, too. (They can’t say no if you don’t ask.) Who knew, right?
Very true! We always tell people to ask for what the work is worth. The right people are willing to pay. If you start a cycle of doing work for next to nothing, it’s tough to break away from that.
You should know, too, that I loved your amazing “What You’re Worth” post and applaud your saying “You’ll never be valued until you start to value yourself.” It’s what we’re saying all of the time. Pay rates are getting diminished all of the time by “competition” (oftentimes untrained) that will always do it for less. It’s important to make the decision to stand behind both what you do and the value of it.
Anybody can do anything (or at least try) but not many people will do it well. Be one of those who does it well – for your own sake and for the sake of your chosen profession.
I’m still in the stage where I am amazed that people will actually pay me for writing or give me comped travel and adventures in exchange for writing about them, so I haven’t turned down anything yet! But I’m sure that time will come. What I have to learn is not to take on more than I can handle or make promises that I can’t keep. The last couple of trips, I have promised to live-blog as we travel and this can get absolutely crazy, especially if we have to pay for our internet connection. At some point, I am actually paying to work for them! And I miss some fun because I have tied myself to my computer for the day. It’s a quandary because I love to write about what we are doing..I just have to learn to take notes and then write more when I get home. It’s a work in progress. I think we are all learning what works.
Good point. It can easily turn into a “what does my hourly rate work out to” sort of thing if you don’t pay attention to it.
Great that you have gotten to this point. I completely agree with you. Even though it is hard sometimes, you gotta have standards.
Thanks for stopping by, Stephanie.
Hi Guys, I am new here – love the info! Keep it going…
Welcome, Brad!
Great points! When Kali started working in web development he quickly discovered that when he valued himself more, others valued him more as well. This is a silly anecdote, but one potential client even asked Kali if he thought of himself as a “rockstar” in his field.
Kali was like “wtf is he talking about? Who calls themselves a rockstar?”, but the guy really wanted someone who considered themselves the best. I think it can easily take a turn into ego (“but I’m a ROCKSTAR, dammit!”), but confidence and assertiveness can go a long way.
Definitely. And to be fair… good clients often want to hire that person – and for good reason. They want to feel as though they have a “rockstar” among them (but, my god, do they have to call it that).
Excellent points!
Great post! I’ve been a freelancer on and off for ten years, and it really is a skill figuring out what works for you. I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with on the road this year!
Thanks Abby. We’re excited to see what we come up with this year!
I am sure vegas will be on the list (we can’t stay away for too long).
Finding out what works for you can be really difficult and, frankly, scary. It often requires you to step off the path that others have laid and scramble though the brush a bit. Of course, it is exceptionally rewarding when you do find something that really works for you – something that leverages your passions and your strengths.
Great advice. Its always good to hear things like this first hand from people who have had success! Looks like you’re in a pretty good position doing something you love with the freedom to be able to do it anywhere!
Doing something you love – that also leverages your strengths – from anywhere in the world… Not bad at all.
Good post, guys. I knew you weren’t cheap dates.
Saying no to the crap leaves you available to the good stuff. That’s true in business and in life. And when you value yourself – your time, your talents, and your contribution – other people will, too.
We stumbled on this lesson a bit at the beginning, but we’ve since learned that people who only want the cheapest vendor are not our ideal clients and we cannot do our best work with them. They often come from a hoarding mindset and we find that this extends to their communication/input on a project. You can never please a client like that, and you can never make anything great because they are always looking for a cheaper option on every little detail. Penny wise and pound foolish.
If you compete only on price, you’ll become known as the cheapest option, not necessarily the best option. Hard to feed your soul with that kind of tag line, not to mention your belly.
> If you compete only on price, you’ll become known as the cheapest option, not necessarily the best option. Hard to feed your soul with that kind of tag line, not to mention your belly.
What a perfectly concise way to say this. Thank you.
Saying No is very important in todays world. Its necessary to straight away say No, rather than going round and round and wasting time…
A very good post.
Great advice but you are so right, it is very hard when money is on the line. Holding on to the firm belief that you’re worth what you charge is important in so many ways and not just business.
If I ask myself the question “What would I do for 20 dollars?” the first answer that comes to mind is “Depends who’s asking”!
But more seriously, I am right behind this post, and its liberating to learn that you can, and should, say no at times, even when people claim to be offering you the holy grail – kudos or exposure or traffic or whatever it might be.
My style of writing means that I am of very little interest to business people but for a lot of the bloggers that I like I think it’s a real issue – this thing about respecting your reader and showing them some love or taking them for fools for a quick buck, and probably not even all that much.
I know this didn’t start out about blogging but I think it applies; good blogs are fizzing with buzz. They are more than capable of including some sponsorship but if the the buzz goes you’re just left with an exploitative scam.
And in any walk of life I concur with your point above. Don’t just chase money – it’s pathetic and and exactly what we all need less of.
Do your thing. Do it well. Enjoy it.
Very true… and that thinking really does apply to pretty much anything one might do to make money.
A lot of others in the HR consulting/freelancing arena offer ridiculously low prices (oftentimes to compete with foreign competition) and/or a low quality product. We don’t mind that they are in the arena – we are all for people doing whatever they want to do. We are more bothered by the fact that they often provide such substandard work. It tarnishes the work landscape for the rest of us in the field. We’ve learned, though, that providers like this usually exit the arena about as quickly as they came.
The reason? They aren’t doing good work in the right way, so it’s just not sustainable. No surprise.
So, yes, there are many parallels to the blogging/writing arena. As we said (above in comments) about our friend who has a wildly popular tech blog, readers – customers! – are smarter and more involved than you might think. He learned that the hard way.
If you do something well – applying your passion AND natural strengths – it will usually work out. Too bad that so many people chase a popular idea… or money… or someone else’s dream. They make the mistake of working from the outside in and not the inside out. That usually doesn’t end well.
Love your sharing your sucess
As a travel agent, we use to give our services for free when the airlines paid us a commission. Once we were reduced to a big fat zero, it was hard for most of us to begin charging and to put a value on our expertise. Now after several years have gone by, it’s still sort of a touchy subject. But now we’ve come to realize that the more we charge for our time, people recognize that we offer a valuable service and are willing to pay. It was a slow process to ask for money for what was once free, but heck, I’m worth it!!
What’s the expression – “you pay peanuts, you get monkeys”!!! A good discussion, thanks.
Saying no is an important and a lesson I need some help with. I LOVE helping people especially if I am passionate about the subject matter. I am also a teacher and I think it might be in my blood.
I’d do quite a lot for $20! haha
As a couple who have just bitten the bullet and started working location independent I read a lot of this post out loud to my Husband. Saying no to cash can be very hard but in the long-run it will definitely help our brand remain true to what we want it to be.
Great post.