VOLUME 21, ISSUE 7 – JULY 2022
THIS MONTH’S MENU:
I. APPETIZER: WORD DOC VANISHED?
“Finding a Disappeared Doc” for Dummies (a.k.a. Me)
II. “FIELD” GREENS: Leaving Money on the Table?
Determining Clients’ “Fee Ceiling” Makes Good $en$e
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: CASH FLOW UNDER CONTROL?
3 Tips for Greater Financial Peace of Mind
IV. DESSERT: COMBO SUCCESS STORY & TIP
Are You Going The (Short & Easy) Extra Mile?
I. APPETIZER: WORD DOC VANISHED?
“Finding a Disappeared Doc” for Dummies (a.k.a. Me)
I recently made a really dumb mistake, and hoping to save you the hassle I went through (though, probably, none of you would do such a stupid thing… 😉
A client emailed me a Word doc, and instead of saving it to the right project folder, I opened it up in the email, and without realizing it, used it as my working doc.
Later, on a 30-minute call with the client, I made notes in the doc about what to change and where, etc. Then, I made those changes on the same doc, spending another hour making my revisions. When done, I saved the doc and closed it.
You know where this is going, right?
Well, needless to say, when I later went to the folder (where I should have saved it, but hadn’t), it wasn’t there. I then went into Mail Downloads, but quickly realized that, even it was there, it’d be the original doc, not my version with 90 minutes of notes and rewrites.
Now, I started freaking out. I Googled, “I closed a Word doc on Mac, and now I can’t find it!” and was linked to this video, where he suggests 5-6 ways to find your doc. One by one, I followed them, and…bupkes.
Now, I’d have to reach out to the client, and spend another hour or so of BOTH our time, recreating the conversation that informed my subsequent rewrite.
No way to inspire confidence in a client, but what choice did I have?
Just to close the circle, I went back to the video, to check out the final suggested fix: open your Finder window (I’m on a Mac, so Windows Explorer on a PC), and search your entire computer (“This Mac” on my system).
You put “.docx” in the search box, which calls up EVERY Word doc on your whole computer, no matter where it is.
Conveniently, they were listed in alphabetical order by file name. I kept scrolling down, heart in my throat, and…there it was. Huge sigh. If you find yourself in the same place, obviously, start with that fix.
You can bet that, now, when I receive emailed docs, I’ll make triple-sure the FIRST thing I do is save it to the proper folder. On that “avoiding-prematurely-gray-hair” note, let’s eat!
II. “FIELD” GREENS: LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE?
Determining Clients’ “Fee Ceiling” Makes Good $en$e
I’ve traveled a lot in Mexico and other developing countries, where huge markets are a fixture, and where haggling is welcomed and expected.
Often, when you ask the price on an item that’s caught your eye, the merchant will throw out a preposterously high price.
And why not? He or she has no idea how good a negotiator you are, or if you even know you should negotiate. And, if this indeed is your first rodeo, they might just make a little windfall off you. If you laugh off their crazy-high offer, then they know they’re in for a more traditional negotiation.
I’ll always try to figure out the seller’s “price floor.” And, if after going back and forth a few times, the seller starts displaying frustration or resignation in response to my latest offer, chances are good I’m close to their price floor.
Of course, the frustration they exhibit could simply be a demonstration of Advanced Negotiating Techniques… 😉
Regardless, when I sense that I’ve hit the floor, I’ll always offer more than my previous offer, making sure we both walk away happy with the transaction.
It’s just as important to figure out your clients’ “price ceiling, ” and the only way to do that is to push the fee envelope. Obviously, this will only work if you haven’t negotiated a set price for a project type with a set scope.
I recently did this with a client, for whom I’d been doing a certain project type for a certain price range. On the next assignment, I priced it using a slightly higher price range. I’d done good work for them and they knew it, making it an ideal time to bump up my rates.
What was the worst that could happen? They’d push back, and I’d retreat to my current pricing. But then I’d know that, at that point in time anyway, I’d hit the price ceiling.
Well, they agreed to my new price, which meant that I hadn’t yet hit their ceiling. So, now I knew that, perhaps a few projects later, I’d bump it up again.
That’s also the nice thing about project (i.e., flat-fee) pricing—again assuming you haven’t negotiated a set price for a set project. Given that every project is different, gentle price increases are far less perceptible to clients than they’d be with a bump in a set price or an hourly rate.
All clients care about when they look at an estimate you present is, “Is this a fair price for this project from this writer.” And, of course, the answer will depend on the experience they’ve had with you up till then.
As I never get tired of pointing out, for good clients (the types we want to work with), within reason, the superior predictable outcome always trumps price.
III. MAIN “MEAT” COURSE: CASH FLOW UNDER CONTROL?
3 Tips for Greater Financial Peace of Mind
Great piece from friend, colleague, business-building coach for writers and copywriters & E-PUB regular, Ed Gandia.
Managing a freelance income is a whole different animal than managing a salaried income, so if you’re coming from being employed to being independent, Ed’s words are even more important.
Few things are worse than being caught short by an unexpected expense. I know how that feels. I’ve experienced my fair share of cash-flow challenges—both as a freelancer and when I worked in commission sales.
Over the years, I eventually learned what I needed to do to avoid cash-flow problems, especially when my income varied from month to month.
Learning these lessons has had huge implications for my financial health (and probably my physical and mental health too!).
Here are the three things that helped me with cash flow the most:
1) Pay yourself a fixed amount every month: Before, I used to pay myself whatever I brought in each month. Inevitably, I’d end up spending more than I should during lucrative months and getting caught short on tight months.
Paying yourself a fixed amount every month builds discipline. It forces to you pay attention to your spending—and plan carefully.
That doesn’t mean you have to live your life as a pauper! You can give yourself a raise when you can afford it and the time is right.
2) Build a reserve of one month’s income: Having a cash reserve of one month’s income can give you a lot of peace of mind. Compiling this cash reserve won’t happen overnight. It will take time.
Maybe you can come up with a few hundred bucks now. Then, every month—after you’ve paid yourself, your taxes and covered your expenses—you can put a little bit more aside. Before you know it, you’ll have one month’s income tucked away.
But don’t stop there! Continue to build that financial buffer. There’s nothing more powerful than having a one-, two- or three-month financial cushion to give yourself the freedom to do things like fire a client or invest in yourself.
3) Keep a spreadsheet of expected payments: Many of us already track work we’ve booked. But consider also tracking when payments are due to come in.
Having this in a spreadsheet helps you keep on top of payments and spot potential problems before they happen. It also helps with your planning.
Cash Flow Management Takes Effort: Unless you take control of it, cash flow will always be an issue—whether you’re making $1,000 a month or $6,000.
By putting a few simple practices in place—paying yourself a fixed “salary,” building a financial reserve, and tracking incoming payments—you CAN get it under control.
IV. DESSERT: COMBO SUCCESS STORY & TIP
Are You Going The (Short & Easy) Extra Mile?
I finished up a white paper recently for one of my clients. Naturally, they made some edits here and there. After they sent me the final produced version for my portfolio, of course, I read through it once again. Don’t we writers just love to see our words in print? 🙂
And, I noticed a handful of errors (not mine!) as a result of their internal editing. First, I highlighted the errors in the PDF using the highlighter function.
Then, I opened up SnagIt, the image/video-screen-capture program, hit Capture, and created a little video of me mousing through the PDF, pointing out the errors along with my suggested edits.
Some were clear errors, others were more discretionary (i.e., italicize this, underline that, etc.). Once the video was done, I uploaded to another site, which generated a URL I could then forward to the client for easy viewing.
Yes, I wanted to be able to proudly show that sample to prospects. Even if those errors weren’t mine, a prospective client who saw them in a sample would just assume they were—and, understandably, might judge me harshly.
But, just as importantly, I wanted my client to know I cared about the professional impression they make on prospects. They already know I do good work, so this “value-add” was a logical complement to the rigor I already bring to their assignments.
Would they have judged me harshly if I hadn’t done this? No. They weren’t even aware of the issues. But, just as one of my prospects, upon seeing the errors, might think twice about hiring me, one of their prospects might do the very same thing.
You can bet it made an impression. Here’s the key: it took me ~10 minutes to do all the above. A few days later, she sent back the corrected version, no doubt feeling much more confident about both publicly disseminating this piece and about her writer.
Stuff like this has clients go from viewing you as a vendor to considering you a partner—someone with a stake in their success.
So, keep your radar up for quick and easy ways to raise your clients’ eyebrows, and cement their loyalty to you.