As a freelance writer you are in charge of sending invoices and collecting payments. All of this may sound easy enough, but as your client list grows you will find this to be quite confusing if you are not organized 100 percent of the time. This is not to say that managing invoices and payments is so difficult that you will stumble time after time. But you definitely need to know that it will take time to setup a system, and that you will need to stay on top of things day in and day out.
Sending invoices is a big part of my freelance writing career. Some clients need an invoice for every job I complete, and others send the money without any type of documentation. This is something you will need to hash out with each client. I like dealing with invoices because it helps to keep me organized, and it shows the client exactly what I did and how much I owe.
Once you send an invoice you need to be prepared for the real fun. This is when you will either receive the money you are owed, or find that the client is late. If you have waited too long you will need to get back in touch with the client, and in many cases resend the invoice. You are going to run into clients that are slow when it comes to paying. This does not mean you are going to get scammed, but it does mean that a reminder or two is more than necessary if you want to get paid soon enough.
Managing invoices and payments is an important task of any freelance writer. If you want to be a success you need to have a system for managing this part of your career. Fortunately, once you settle in you should not have any issues sending invoices and receiving payments on a regular basis. Â
The beginning of the year is a great time to increase your freelance writing rates. While the ideal situation is doing so on January 1, you still have time to make this happen right now. Of course, it is your right as a freelance writer to change your rates when you please. You don’t have to do so at the beginning of the year; this is only a suggestion.
Whether or not to increase your freelance writing rates can be a tough question to wrestle with. There are definite benefits of doing so, but at the same time you need to be careful because you don’t want to put off current clients or scare away those that may want to work with you in the near future.
Benefits
The main benefit of increasing your freelance writing rates is that you can earn more money for doing the same amount of work. For example, if you charge $500 for a sales letter right now you could increase this to $750 and earn an extra $250 per project. While this may appear to be a huge jump, this is more than reasonable. Remember, you are a professional and as you gain more knowledge and experience you need to increase your rates.
Additionally, higher rates are not always seen as a bad thing. Some clients will see your high rates and be scared away. But others will see them and realize that high rates mean higher quality work.
Drawbacks
There is no denying that you will scare some potential buyers if your rates are higher than the competition. But as noted above, you can play up the fact that “you get what you pay for.†Charging more can be seen as both good and bad, so you might as well set your rates where you feel comfortable and then find clients who are willing to pay.
Should I attempt to raise my rates on existing clients? This has to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. There are times when you can do this, but also times when this will scare away existing clients. Try this: increase your rates with new clients but keep things the same for those that you have been doing business with. This way you don’t risk scaring away good clients, but you can earn more on new ones.
If you are thinking about increasing your freelance writing rates consider both the benefits and drawbacks.
Time management is an important part of becoming a successful freelance writer. If you don’t know how to manage your time you may find yourself checking email and watching online videos when you should be writing. And as you can imagine, this will lead to many issues within your career. Simply put, you need to make the most of your workday. This holds true no matter how many hours you have available for work.
If you are finding it difficult to manage your time follow these tips:
1. Have a to-do list. Early in my freelance writing career I found it hard to stay on track because I did not have a list showing me the way. But guess what? Once I implemented a to-do list I became more productive. Everyday since then has been guided by some sort of list.
2. Cut out tasks that are wasting a lot of time. Do you spend too much time checking email? Are you always walking away from your desk to grab a bite to eat? If so, you need to cut these time wasters out of your day. Again, a schedule will allow you to do so with success. For instance, take breaks just like you would at an office job. But remember, when they are over they are over. You don’t want a 15 minute break to turn into a half hour and so on.
3. Complete the most important tasks of the day first. You need to prioritize to ensure that the most important projects and related tasks are completed first. From there you can move onto others that are not as high on your list.
As a freelance writer you only have so much time to work. Even if you are a full-time writer you probably only have eight or so hours each day to get your work done. It is important that you make the most of every workday.Â
