The Dark Side of the Freelance Moon

By jimdiggitydog

There seems to be a lot of musical symbolism out there, so I thought I’d take a well-known album, Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon and apply bits of it to the freelance designer’s life…

Today, we’ll deal with some aspects of “Time.”

I’ve been scattered for a few weeks, and it’s been good and bad. The good part is that I’ve had a tremendous amount of work - but the bad part is that I’ve had a tremendous amount of work.

I have preached before about the problems of worrying and working out of fear of not having money, and I’ve recently fallen into that trap. I’ve been working with a horde mentality lately, and I’ve taken the past couple of weeks to break that cycle - and it’s already paying dividends.

Working out of worry or fear of not paying bills and taking on clients that you wouldn’t take on if you were making a ton of dough is one of the biggest problems of the freelance designer.

So - advice for the day: Work and look for clients as if you have an abundance of work and clients.

You have to pay bills, and you have to keep things rolling - but you can quickly shoot yourself in the foot if that’s all you’re working for. I have moments of remembering that and moments of going the opposite direction.

When you work out of fear, you’re going to take projects below what you’re worth, and the load of work that you will get because you’re not charging much or taking on lousy projects will keep you from the stuff you really want to do.

You want projects that pay well, with good clients, that are challenging and allow you to flex your creative muscle - but you can’t land that type of project if you’re swamped with low-paying, non-creative projects from pain-in-the-neck clients.

So - look at your client list and job list. Look at the ones that you know are good, creative, fun projects and highlight them. Next, find the ones that are a drag and work to get those out of your life. Once they’re off the docket, take the time that you would have spent on those projects and look for more of the projects that you want - the fun stuff, the well-paying gigs and the good clients.

You’d be surprised at how quickly you can generate good leads - and good projects when you’re not under the gun to all the “get-me-over-the-hump” projects. If you’re a slave to making a couple of bucks, you can’t advance your business or your career, and to quote Pink Floyd’s “Time”:

And then one day you find
10 years have got behind you.
No-one told you when to run.
You’ve missed the starting gun

Bad projects and bad clients might make money, but that won’t make you happy - and a happy designer is a successful designer.

Tomorrow, we’ll deal with “Ticking away the moments that make up the dull day. Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way.”