Freelancer ? So am I !

Dear Freelancers,

First freelancing, in my mind, is about celebrating freedom while offering boutique services that others haven't been able to conceive so far and/or offer. If you are one, then this is what you face probably every day at your work.

1. "Budgets are low this time but there's a lot in the pipeline !"

2. "Let's collaborate." And you end up paying as much as 50 % of your revenue as you expect a chain of regular work. But then what happens is so different. These collaborators come to you with one or two engagements in 2 years !!! And also demand that your work be co-branded with theirs.

3. This kind is very risky. They will ask for all your promo tools and soon you'll find them using your formats for their own business.

4. Since IP copyright laws are not really where they should be, you find your marketing agents replicating your work format and selling at 1/10th the price with an inexperienced young fresher; thereby damaging the market with short-term undercutting.

5. Then there is this too. They will offer you work and promise the skies. And go on and on in circles over dinner and malt with nothing happening. By the time you have realised, you are poorer by a good amount of money.

6 The worst. They will coax you to lock in for an amount, and when it will come to pay the bills, they will end up paying much less than the agreed amount.

7. Check this....and there are these executive spouses who from behind the curtains decide logistics, payments etc. since your off-site is their paid holiday!

I am sharing this based on my personal experience of 2 decades of handling these kinds. Initially, I stumbled. Fell. Looked like a support assistant to fellow facilitators (no fault of theirs or did the circumstance accentuate the situation to their advantage ? No clue).

My humble advice is to make sure you sign contracts for each and every deal that you do. A well-drafted one by a legal expert. Else, make sure you put everything in the mail; marking your own self a copy. For IP protection, send yourself a copy by Speed Post and don't open it. Keep it safe. This works as evidence in a court of law. Study blockchain.

I have faced many and still face many. Please don't undercut or let yourself be taken for a ride.

Negotiate well. This is an ocean with deadly and experienced sharks. Learn to protect yourself. And please note, the sharks have well protected themselves!!

Please correct me if you have something to share. This is my experience. Yours could be different. There's always space to learn.

Cheers, A

(disclaimer - images have been sourced from the internet. we don't have any claim on them. used as reference)