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Topic: How long does it take to "succeed" at freelancing?
| Author | Message |
| sofisays | Posted – 5/1/2008 10:39:37 AM | show profile Medical Corporate Work All of the advice is very, very informative- Thank you. I have a backround in medical billing- talk about boring! Anyway, how could I go about finding a corporate gig in the medical field? I know a handful of pharmaceutical reps. Do you think this is good route to try? |
| WordyBird | Posted – 5/1/2008 11:47:13 AM | show profile Chucho "Wordy: I have lived in NYC on less than $53K, with debt. It was tight (at $42,500) but manageable, albeit I saved very little money. But now I'm debt free. But that $325 a month health insurance? Ouch. I wonder if I should estimate 40% off the annual income to cover taxes, FICA and health insurance. I'm not sure 35% would cover it all in NYC if over $300 a month goes for an individual health plan." My accountant suggested 35% just for taxes and Social Security. Depending on your age, whether you smoke, and your medical history, $300 is cheap. I'm looking at $316 a month, with a $2,000 deductible, after which my copayments are minimal, if anything. The only issue is that I will need a referral from my primary care doctor to see a specialist, and in NY, there are some (IMO shady) doctors who insist on an office visit every time you ask for a referral, so you have to be careful with who you pick as a primary care doctor. A good one will just ask you if you have a specialist in mind, and if so, will just fill out the form for you. If you want no deductibles, you're looking at more than $400. Now I'm a 41-year-old female without a lot of pre-existing conditions and only one major surgery in the last five years. If you're younger, your plan will be less. But let me warn you about something: There are a lot of internet sites that try to pass their plans off as insurance, and offer rates for about $100, $150. You enter your info, and someone calls you up and invariably tries to sell you not insurance, but a "discount" plan or a "patient advocacy program." That is not insurance. The benefits for those things are VERY limited and it has been my experience that they are not well-accepted in New York. Also, be very wary of anyone who wants you to agree to enroll over the phone. Some dingbat just called me up trying to sell me a "patient advocacy program" and when I told him I would not agree to paying anyone anything or enrolling in anything without first having written material in my hand to review he got really snitty. "Do you even know the difference between insurance and patient advocacy programs?" "I know that I want health INSURANCE, and if you are not offering health INSURANCE and an application for health INSURANCE that you can mail me for my review, we have nothing further to discuss." *click* Just a WordyBird word to the wise. |
| sophiesMOM | Posted – 5/1/2008 12:19:04 PM | show profile hi sofisays. corporate writing is typically a marketing thing, as you're producing content that advances the company's agenda. so i wouldn't think that the sales reps would be a good place to start. you could try the "corporate writing" section of MB's jobs page (i've seen some stuff there specifically for medical and healthcare industries). good luck! |
| HisGirlFriday | Posted – 5/1/2008 4:58:41 PM | show profile sophie's mom; interesting - thanks for the good ideas! I get a few of those internal company magazines - say, from my insurance co., for example. (I actually LOVE my insurance company.) Would you think it absurd for me to reach out to them and say, "Hey, I'm a writer, are you looking for writers?" The magazine does personal finance stuff, profiles of other members, etc - the kind of thing I do for consumer pubs all the time. |
| Letterbox | Posted – 5/1/2008 5:42:42 PM | show profile Actually, I'm going to counter Caitlin by saying shorter pieces are good bread and butter work. I do maybe 7-8 FOB service or product type pieces for 2 different pubs every month and they take almost no time at all to do. I know what they need so its just a matter of making a couple of calls, doing some web research and you're done. $300 - 600 per piece x 7. It takes a couple days worth of work tops. I do features on top of that. |
| ISR | Posted – 5/1/2008 6:37:50 PM | show profile I've been FT at this for 2.5 years, and expect to make 40K this year, after <20K the first year. I don't pitch short articles---unless they're a version of something longer no one wants that I've pitched around. I also won't write for places that pay less than $1/word, and check rates before pitching---and pitch the highest-paid pubs the most. I also put in massive hours of research to pitch, say, a feature that will land me $4K. This seems to work better for me. I've also narrowed my focus to three fields (versus everything) to keep my research time down, which helps me mentally and saves time. I'm also starting to take on corporate work, but have gotten very very little so far. It's the next step for me, given that the pay will be higher. Custom pubs and in-flights are working well for me, too, because the editors are friendlier and my expertise goes a long way at these places. |
| Letterbox | Posted – 5/1/2008 6:54:49 PM | show profile This thread certainly shows the many different formulas writers use to get to similar income goals. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 5/2/2008 3:28:41 AM | show profile Yes and no. Writing isn't manufacturing. People write for reasons that do with self-expression and creative expression. Everyone has to figure out for themselves how they want to balance that with the money. --"On one hand, thinking in terms of hard dollars is going to become important" This is a critical point that not many freelancers realize. Well, the successful ones do. It's all about sales and profitability. You are a small business and you must focus on income and expenses. You start learning ways to minimize your effort and expense for the most income, which maximizes your profits. Writers who just focus on "getting work in" without thinking about profitability don't stay successfully self-employed as writers.-- |
| snappiness | Posted – 5/2/2008 7:28:59 AM | show profile In response to Dribble: Maybe it's not manufacturing, but I definitely think of it as a craft. If I were an Artist, I'd be writing novels or poetry or maybe plays. But I'm not. I'm a working journalist who depends on writing for a living. As such, I have to crank out the work, there's really no other way to look at it. As I'm cranking out the work, I sometimes get a feature or book that is really a labor of love. Perhaps it's a topic I'm passionate about, or I'm trying a new way of telling a story. There are moments of art, but mostly I'm trying to craft the best story I can, day after day. That's pretty darned close to manufacturing. Don't get me wrong - I absolutely love what I do, and am challenged to create the best work I can every day. But the bottom line is that this is how I've chosen to make a living. The writers I know who are more focused on the art have day jobs that let them be very picky about what they write. If I got hung up on being picky about the art, I'd never make a living at this. |
| chucho | Posted – 5/3/2008 1:16:45 PM | show profile After reading all of this I am nervous about the possibility of trying out freelancing. (I've always supplemented my income with freelance work, I'm talking about f/t.) The income goals are about $43,000 in New Orleans (which pays for a decent and attractive apartment) and about $53,000 in NYC (just enough money to get a tiny, crappy Inwood apartment down the street from meth dealers). I can last about a year without income in either situation, so almost anything I make in the first year is savings for the second year. But to hit $43,000 in New Orleans seems more difficult than hitting $53,000 in NYC. I am considering getting a lowly reporting position at a paper in South Louisiana as I work toward self-sufficiency in freelancing. (For NYC: I would probably scrap the entire idea of freelancing and just get a soulless editing job and enjoy the museums and films.) As Caitlin pointed out: get a part-time job to help -- well, why not a low-paying reporting position at a newspaper? That way I can develop contacts while making ends meet. I could support myself comfortably at $25,000 per year at a small paper (and have cheaper health insurance), but it would not be enough to be sustainable at the quality of life I expect. (All of this, by the way, is huge pay reduction from what I'm earning now, but I want to move eventually.) I don't know. It seems like to make things work I'd have to land one high paying feature ($2,500+) one decent-paying feature ($1,000+) and a handful of paying shorter pieces ($300+). I have a decent corporate publication design portfolio, so I could probably pull some money from that (maybe $500 a month eventually -- I don't want to do it full time.) So: One $2,500 feature a month. One $1,000 feature a month $500 worth of layout work a month 4 smaller pieces at $300 apiece That's $40,560 take home (already deducting 35% for taxes, FICA and a portion of your private health insurance monthly deduction -- but this could be as high as 40% considering our super expensive health insurance system) Somebody here said it took a year to break $40K. I would love to be able to do that, but it seems like it would be very difficult. And actually I would need to break $43,000 (in a place like New Orleans) in order to reach a level of comfort in terms of saving money and depositing for retirement. |
| rhino writer | Posted – 5/3/2008 4:27:12 PM | show profile You say you've been freelancing for a while, albeit part-time. Are they repeat clients? If so, you are ahead of the game. If not, can you figure out why not? Maybe try pitching more aggressively to them, or following up more consistently, whatever you need to do to make them turn to you on a regular basis. So now you're part way there. In terms of New Orleans, you seem nervous about being way down South and freelancing, which I don't think you need to be. Part of the point of freelancing is that you can live anywhere, and I would think New Orleans would give you a ready stream of stories to pitch elsewhere. Contact New Orleans/LA pubs and try to start freelancing for them now, so your name will be familiar to them. You can still freelance for wherever your current clients are, and for NYC pubs as well, no matter where you end up. That said, freelancing full-time isn't for everyone. It's a big leap of faith, and comes with uncertain bank accounts. From what you say, you have enough to get by for a year while you build up your client base. Maybe you need to consider whether you're cut out for the financial unpredictibility. Not everyone is. |
| flight risk | Posted – 5/3/2008 4:59:29 PM | show profile I think one of the toughest things about freelancing are the long pay cycles. Some pubs like Outside pay net 90 or worse--and they're a monthly! So if you spend a lot of time on a long feature, you have a long wait to get paid. |
| reporterwriter | Posted – 5/3/2008 5:42:54 PM | show profile >>But to hit $43,000 in New Orleans seems more difficult than hitting $53,000 in NYC. << How so? I've heard that mail delivery hasn't quite recovered in New Orleans, but, gosh! Seriously, if you work for national magazines, you have the same opportunities in tiny towns as in the big city. It's just that your money (same money, too) goes further in tiny towns. I know this first hand! |
| caitlinkelly | Posted – 5/3/2008 7:20:24 PM | show profile I think "counting" on a $2,500 feature every single month is not realistic. The single biggest challenge of freelance is that, unless it is a part-time job or column, it is NOT steady income -- and that's a big monthly number. I am sure you can live on much less $ almost anywhere beyond NYC, whose costs are insane. The place is also crammed with writers so you will need sharp elbows to find a way in. The impression I get from writers in cheaper regional places like Tampa and Boulder is that writers there (perhaps due to fewer local competitors) are far more collegial. After 20 years near NYC, much of it freelance, the last word I would use to describe writers here is collegial. Lower costs might = lower stress; a fulltime freelance friend in Tampa bought a house for $150k (alone), makes $50k and feels very happy. A writer making $50k in NYC is not going to buy even a studio in Inwood (as a friend did about 4 yrs ago for $100k). The whole shoebox lifestyle gives me the creeps, (did it in my early 20s), but others think it totally worth it. A poorly paid FT writing job may exhaust you...and do you really want to work 24/7 writing? |
| candylilacs | Posted – 5/3/2008 9:02:29 PM | show profile Yeah, chucho...you will find there will 2-3 months of nothing and then (I kid you not!) 12 assignments in one month and you will kill yourself that month. That's just how it works. No one works on your schedule except you ... you have to accommodate the clients sometimes more often than yourself. Good luck! ------ http://www.mswritesguide.blogspot.com |
| snappiness | Posted – 5/4/2008 9:33:11 AM | show profile spreading out the work Freelancing income can be uneven, but not as much as I'm reading here. If you focus on pitching, even when you're busy, you can spread the work out so that you have something every month. If you have a year's salary saved, you're in an amazingly strong position to take the leap, as long as you can mentally handle the risk. I keep a simple Excel spreadsheet of my pitches, assignments, pay and due dates. At a glance I can see when my deadlines are and when work will begin to slow down. I know how much I'm making and when to pitch. That spreadsheet is the only way I can keep track of the many projects I'm juggling. $2500 a month will be a stretch starting out, but not for long if you hustle and you already have some good clips. Maybe six months. Maybe you should try lining up a bunch of assignments before you dive in (factoring in some down time for a move). |
| WordyBird | Posted – 5/4/2008 4:04:55 PM | show profile Flight Risk said: "I think one of the toughest things about freelancing are the long pay cycles. Some pubs like Outside pay net 90 or worse--and they're a monthly! So if you spend a lot of time on a long feature, you have a long wait to get paid." Net 90 is something I will not work for or tolerate. I am net 30, max, after which I start charging fees and interest. Usually my invoices are payable upon receipt, if a timeline is not stipulated in a contract. (Which is rare. I only do that for one client and they are a former employer whom I've known for 10 years--and they have yet to take longer than two weeks to pay me.) I think it ludicrous that publishers try--and writers let them get away with--the "net 90" thing. They don't make their employees wait three months to get paid. Why should they have the right to make anyone else wait three months to get paid for work done? Try that with your landlord, electric company, or credit card company and see what happens. Plus, in this day and age, with so many publications on financial thin ice, letting payment go that long is an invitation to get shafted should the publication fold or the company go out of business. My most recent former employer is four months behind paying freelancers, and they normally pay about 45-60 days (which is bad enough as it is). They wanted to know if I'd do work for them and I said, "Call me in four months when you are caught up--and when know if you're even still in business." |
| caitlinkelly | Posted – 5/4/2008 6:51:08 PM | show profile True. I recently invoiced a new (to me) mag and was told 30 to 45 days. I politely said, "Let's make sure it's 30 days." With every new client begins a new relationship -- one hopes a happy and longterm one. Don't start out being a doormat. Your bills will not wait and if you pay late you will be charged late fees, higher interest rates and screw up your credit scores. No one needs this additional anxiety on top of freelance life. |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 5/5/2008 3:06:29 AM | show profile My feeling is that each writer has to choose his own course, in terms of producing work that is meaningful and work that generates income. I find it intrinsically no better or worst to write marketing copy that means nothing to you for $250,000 a year or to struggle making $9,000 a year doing one short magazine article a month while working on your Great American Novel. I write lots of different stuff -- novels, humor essays, magazine articles, advertorials, marketing pieces, email campaigns. Some is meaningful to me. Some I do only for money. My personal decision is to, throughout the course of the year, spend about half my time on writing novels and have my time on high paying sclhock work. Sometimes I'll spend weeks on end working on a novel that may not end up making me any money. And sometimes I'll work on a corporate gig that pays me $6,000 for three days work. --In response to Dribble: Maybe it's not manufacturing, but I definitely think of it as a craft. If I were an Artist, I'd be writing novels or poetry or maybe plays. But I'm not. I'm a working journalist who depends on writing for a living. As such, I have to crank out the work, there's really no other way to look at it. As I'm cranking out the work, I sometimes get a feature or book that is really a labor of love. Perhaps it's a topic I'm passionate about, or I'm trying a new way of telling a story. There are moments of art, but mostly I'm trying to craft the best story I can, day after day. That's pretty darned close to manufacturing. -- |
| dribbledrive1 | Posted – 5/5/2008 3:11:00 AM | show profile >>But to hit $43,000 in New Orleans seems more difficult than hitting $53,000 in NYC. << As a freelancer, that's only true if you are seeking out local clients. Otherwise, a publication or company will pay the same rate for work no matter where the wirter is based. |
| snappiness | Posted – 5/5/2008 8:29:10 AM | show profile -My feeling is that each writer has to choose his own course, in terms of producing work that is meaningful and work that generates income.- Well said! And hopefully sometimes they are one and the same, but of course not always. |
| snappiness | Posted – 5/5/2008 8:52:51 AM | show profile -Net 90 is something I will not work for or tolerate. I am net 30, max, after which I start charging fees and interest. - Wordy, thanks for mentioning this. It prodded me to contact a few clients and let them know I'll have to start charging interest after 30 days. Do you write that into your contracts up front? |
| Canadiana | Posted – 5/5/2008 10:00:29 AM | show profile I am still waiting for a "net 90 days" national consumer mag to pay me (they're not late but it seems like forever). If that's their policy, how do you change that without coming off as a pain in the ass - especially if it's the first time you're writing for them? Does an editor have control of the pay cycle? |
| snappiness | Posted – 5/5/2008 10:12:56 AM | show profile Good point, editors don't usually have control over payment schedules at the magazines I work for. But when the contract says "30 days" and they don't pay in 30 days, that's what I'm upset about and want to hold them to. I don't usually take work that doesn't pay within 30 days of acceptance. |
| Canadiana | Posted – 5/5/2008 10:14:30 AM | show profile Oh, okay, thanks. That's what I thought. I think I'm going to suck it up for this pub though since the work is interesting, it pays well, the editor's good to work with and it's a national magazine. |
