Stand Up 8 Times Blog ~ Diana Schneidman

How to start earning money quickly as a freelancer or consultant

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Twitter! The very very best way to use Twitter

November 23rd, 2011 · Feature Article, Social networking

I’ve been on Twitter since December 31, 2008, and I’m still making up my mind about it.

It’s a no brainer to get thousands of followers and in turn, it’s even easier to follow thousands of people, but I’m still mulling over which specific activities are worth the effort.

Allegedly some businesses are making money hand over fist through Twitter. Allegedly some consumers are consumed with finding out via Twitter when the local bakery is serving a fresh batch of donuts and then racing right over.

I, on the other hand, seldom find anything I would spend money for on Twitter because the messages are too brief and dull to capture my interest. (Years on the Internet have immunized me against such allegedly no-fail words as “free” or “make money while you sleep.”)

Still, I have found one way to use Twitter that can be a source of endless fascination: evaluating internet marketing experts based on their Twitter streams.

Twitter’s beauty is in its transparency. Internet marketers can boast all they want about successes we can’t actually see, but everything they do on Twitter is out in the open for us to evaluate (with the exception of direct messages).

So when a marketer issues content on his social networking expertise and “thought leadership,” it’s great fun to go to Twitter and see how that part of his social networking has been functioning.

On the positive column I put Marcia Yudkin at @MarciasMantras. Her presence is modest seeing how she follows no one and never retweets. Still, every tweet provides valuable advice succinctly.

Now for some other so-called experts who preach the use of social networking:

  • One is a PhD who is praised in her husband’s email marketing campaigns as a Twitter expert.  Her last tweet was on September 12. She posted three tweets in September and one in August.
  • One has a Twitter icon on his home page. Click on the icon and it takes you to his Facebook page. (Yes, you read that right. Facebook.)
  • One used to offer an info product to get you started on Twitter. To date he has issued 46 tweets and his account appears to be stagnant (or closed?).

What about my own Twittering?

So far I’ve used my account mainly to attract readers to my own blog posts but my Twitter efforts could be improved if I gave this tool higher priority. Appropriately, I don’t claim to be an expert.

Check out my tweets at @DianaSchneidman.  If you’d like me to read your tweets and respond to them, let me know by commenting on this article or privately in an email to me that you are following me and I’ll actually go back and respond to your account. Honest!

Now for your post-article dessert, please enjoy The Onion’s report from e-mom Gloria Bianco’s on how to use Twitter “to shamelessly interfere with the lives of your children.”

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Cold calling for freelance & consulting work is OK if…

November 16th, 2011 · Feature Article, cold calling for freelance and consulting

People tell me they hate being bothered by cold calls and therefore they would never stoop so low as to phone someone themselves.

However, I’d guess that the vast majority of the calls they receive are quite unlike the calls I make and fall far short of my criteria for justifiable phoning.

My criteria are pretty high and I myself have experienced very few calls that meet my standards.

Here are my criteria:

  • B2B (business-to-business) call. This is the most important criterion by far! I offer a business service (in my case it’s copywriting and research) to other businesses.  I’m not selling vinyl siding or home swimming pools. I’m not soliciting for suspicious charities.
  • I phone only during work hours. That’s because I only call businesses. Some callers phone before or after office hours on the assumption that administrative assistants only work specified hours. However, I assume that anyone at his desk during unusual hours is there for a specific reason and that reason is not to talk to me.
  • I do not show up on caller ID as “anonymous” or “unidentified.” I’ve got nothing to hide.
  • I am live on the phone starting with the dialing. I hate to pick up a call when no one is on the other end of the call. If they’re calling me, they should have the courtesy to be present when I answer. (I suspect these calls use some type of automated dialing.)
  • I call for a specific individual. If I don’t have a name, my initial goal is to find out the right name.
  • I am not a recording. I hate automated calls!
  • I make all my calls myself. I am insulted when small businesses hire telemarketers to make their calls. If they are too important to waste time calling me, I am too important to waste time speaking with their representative.
  • My calls make sense. And if the person doesn’t understand what I’m talking about, I’m right there to answer any questions.
  • I only phone people and companies likely to be interested in my service. I’m not simply working my way through the phone book.
  • I’m pretty good at pronouncing names. If I have phoned before, I note the pronunciation in my records. If I ask, I immediately pronounce the name correctly and I write it down for future use. (There’s nothing like having the name of Schneidman to experience firsthand that many people have no idea how to pronounce unusual names. Here are resources on how to say difficult names.)
  • I speak confidently and conversationally. I track upcoming assignments and plan marketing efforts to prevent desperation. So there’s no desperation in my voice.

How about you? Are you receiving many phone calls that meet all these criteria?

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Should introverts phone for freelance and consulting assignments?

November 9th, 2011 · Feature Article, cold calling for freelance and consulting

I say yes, but first, let’s clarify exactly what an introvert is.

The definition of “introvert” on About.com: Gifted Children is typical: “An introvert is a person who is energized by being alone and whose energy is drained by being around other people.”

Notice that words like “shy” and “quiet” are absent from the definition. Introversion is about how you feel when interacting with other people at length, not how you perform and how you appear to others in these interactions.

It’s easy for an introvert to automatically excuse himself from certain business-building techniques because of this inborn trait.

However, an introvert can phone prospects—or even “cold call”—just as well as an extrovert, and I should know because I am an introvert.

Furthermore, there’s no reason to assume that phoning strangers or at least mere acquaintances for work comes naturally to extroverts. Calls in which you are asking for something can be scary to anyone, even those who relish social events. Not only “cold calls,” but requests for charity donations and personal favors are often difficult for people regardless of where they fall on the introvert / extrovert spectrum.

It’s the ask that’s scary, not the engaging in conversation.

Very few people are so introverted that they don’t gab on the phone, at least with friends and family.

Cold calling may seem daunting if you haven’t tried it, but it’s relatively easy—even for introverts—after you gain a little experience because you know exactly what you will say. You only have to formulate a few sentences to start the conversation.

If the callee is interested, the conversation proceeds as give and take like any other conversation. And if the callee is not interested, the conversation doesn’t take long.

Most likely, no one answers your call and you quickly and efficiently leave a message telling the person exactly what they need to know. Don’t worry, they won’t call back if they don’t want to talk to you.

Now back to this thing about introverts. I believe that there are no lucrative assignments in any area of freelancing or consulting that are won, implemented and concluded without some telephone or in-person conversation.

Talking to people is part of the deal. Introducing yourself is only one of many tasks that may have you biting your nails but there are others. Like naming your price . . . following up to find out if you have the assignment . . . questioning client decisions that you think stink . . . getting paid.

It’s interesting that while many people claim to hate cold calling, they feel totally comfortable with networking at meetings. Or at least they say they do.

Telephoning is much easier for the introvert than is in-person socializing because you have much more control over how you’ll start the conversation. And if it’s going especially badly, you can simply hang up. (I’ve never had to resort to that, but it’s an option.)

I suppose it is because many in our society see distaste for phoning (or “cold calling”) as a source of personal pride while networking is so universally lauded that no one can remove it from his tool box.

And now, if you’re thinking about phoning for freelance and consulting assignments, here are some tips on how to start the conversation:

Perfect cold calling script for freelancers and consultants

Best telephone script is the one you feel most comfortable with

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When social networking strikes out

October 30th, 2011 · Feature Article, Social networking, cold calling for freelance and consulting

Corporate sales expert Sharon Drew Morgen recently asked a provocative question in her blog:

How does social networking help make the sale?

She observes that social networking has facilitated customer attraction by building automatic trust in our relationships with people we have met online. It is much easier to make connections and even identify live sales leads than it was in pre-Internet days.

However, she says, while we make more connections more easily, we are closing less because we “are not helping others reach the sorts of decisions necessary to close a deal.”

In other words, making a sale requires more than “know, like, trust.” To sell a high-priced, game-changing resource to a company, the organization must be open to change and able to manage this change process.

To get the full impact of Sharon’s message, read her blog entry to the end for a true incident in which a close social networking relationship wasn’t enough to effect a sale.

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Should freelancers sell the ability to solve client problems?

October 25th, 2011 · Feature Article, Marketing

When you reach out to possible clients, the idea of diagnosing and then offering to solve their problems is quite alluring. Surely if they have problems, they want solutions. And if we can provide solutions, for them to give us the assignment should be a no-brainer, we may think.

Of course, most people avoid the word “problem,” preferring “challenge” or “opportunity” or something else equally sunny.

However, in practice, there are some problems that are unique to the prospect’s company and to which management may be quite sensitive (in a negative way) when the situation is pointed out.

In general, if you want to position services as solving client problems, point out problems that are universal rather than portraying the prospect in a negative light.

These problems may include getting more work done without hiring more people, specialized IT procedures that no one on staff would be expected to have mastered, training on the latest regulations, legislation or other developments in the industry, etc.

Offering to solve problems unique to the prospect is not a winning idea. It’s a turnoff. An insult.

Note that this article is directed at writers and other freelance service providers. Higher-level consulting assignments are frequently about analyzing and making recommendations to resolve complex managerial problems. There’s nothing to solve if there’s no pinpointed problem to dissect.

If the problem is readily apparent, there’s a reason why. Maybe it reflects the outlook of the very person you are talking to (and whom you disagree with). Maybe it reflects the outlook of someone else with more clout. Maybe it reflects incompetence. Maybe there’s a reason you don’t know but is totally valid.

One of the challenges of true consulting is when your view conflicts with the dominant corporate view.  That’s something to be worked out along the way, determining how to deliver your findings with tact yet with honesty as well.  It also requires research and analysis to generate the best advice possible.

So don’t be hasty in delivering criticism in the process of diagnosing a problem to solve.  Instead, search out upbeat ways to offer assistance to the prospect that will be more likely to be welcome.

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Courageous marketing doesn’t require all that much courage

October 18th, 2011 · Feature Article, cold calling for freelance and consulting

Today I’m reading a blog I really enjoy. It’s called Cold calling for wimps: One writer’s terrifying quest to jump-start a commercial writing business by calling 1,000 strangers on the phone. The writer is Sarah Maurer.

There’s lots to like about this blog but let’s start with the basics. She set out to follow the advice of Peter Bowerman, author of The Well-Fed Writer, and made 461 calls before she got too busy to make even more calls.

I love her fun, chatty style and I love her honesty. She’s totally open not only on the number of calls she has completed, but also on what she says and how it works and the days with no results.

Here’s something else I like: I saw the phrase “courageous marketing” and it really tickles me. (Alas, the courageous marketing [dot] com domain name is already claimed.)

For me, it really gets to the heart of phoning for business.  Especially the first time you do it, it takes courage to pick up the phone and call a stranger.

What if they’re furious? What if they hang up on me? What if they swear at me? What if they report me? (And to whom, exactly?)

Actually, none of these fears pan out. One call-ee has hung up on me and no one else has been angry. Guess it’s because I’m such a nice person.

And because I only call people who may need my services.

And because I get to the point and explain why I’m calling without a lot of glitzy but empty hype.

And because I make all my calls myself.

And because I only phone during business hours.

And because I always think of some type of answer, maybe great, maybe so-so, to any question I am asked. (We all pull through under pressure.)

Oh, yeah, and because my work is really really good and I reach for the highest standards.

So if we soon discover that the worst case scenario is unlikely, then why the fear?

Could it be the fear of getting an assignment?

Freelancing and consulting can be scary. At our old “regular” jobs, we knew what to expect each day. Over time we learned more about the company and our role in the company, and everything got progressively easier.

Being a solopro is quite the opposite. While our skills continue to grow—and to grow faster than they did at our job—we never feel totally comfortable with a new prospect or a new client.

Every company and every client is different. Often we don’t see the person live and have no visual cues on how they perceive us. It’s quite easy to interpret the assignment differently from how the client does because we may know so little about them yet have to portray confidence that we can do it!

Plus there’s the money issue of proposing a price and deciding how to negotiate when there’s so much we don’t know about the other party.

Realistically speaking, it’s not the cold calling that’s scary. It’s what happens after they engage in conversation with us. And it’s what happens as we undertake the freelancing or consulting assignment itself.

Freelancing and consulting are for courageous people. They don’t require an extraordinary amount of courage but they require some courage. And it’s definitely worthwhile to build our courage muscle by exercising it.

The opportunities are intellectually stimulating, professionally challenging, lucrative and even fun. We can do it!

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Do you know how to READ online posts? (I’m serious!)

October 12th, 2011 · Feature Article, Social networking

Communicating is a two-way street. When we write online, we want to create relationships imbued with know, like, trust. However, because these messages may be composed in haste and ultra-succinct, the recipient must do his share in the communications process and read what we send with his interpretation of know, like, trust.

There’s plenty of lessons out there on how to write for the internet. Advice such as: keep it brief . . . use abbreviations liberally . . . break up longer copy with lots of white space . . . be conversational . . connect at a personal level.

However, in practice, it’s easy for the reader to feel offended, especially when a message is directed at us personally. Blog comments, answers to our posted questions, tweets, Facebook reactions and more can easily feel like a putdown.

The problem is compounded when the format is especially terse (think texting and Twitter here). Also when messages are exchanged quickly. (And this is almost all the time since relatively few people read, much less think about, what they have written before hitting “send.”)

One solution is smiley-face emoticons to lighten the mood of the message. Another is exclamation points to intensify emotion.

Traditionally, such devices are frowned upon as lazy alternatives to effective communications.

Still, they persist because they continue to serve a purpose, shaving the sharpness off a brief comment that comes off as harsh, even critical, when left bare.

But I think there’s another solution as well: When we read these messages, we must read them the right way.

And what is the right way?

We must read them in a friendly, warm tone. This often alters our interpretation of what we have read so that we feel much more positive towards the sender.

There are two participants in communications: the sender and the recipient. We as recipients must take on more responsibility for the success of a message by assuming the best until the worst is definitely proven.

The internet, particularly social media, is meant to promote social connectedness. But if we read these communications as we have read longer, more thought-out, pieces in the past, we can feel like we have been vaguely insulted and belittled, as though our opinion is not valued.

If we put all the responsibility on the sender, we can be incited to anger, or at least discomfort, from moment to moment.

However, social networking and other online communications will change our world much more successfully if we actively look for and assume the best in the messages we receive.

What do you think?

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New reason to start freelance & consulting: Hiring process becomes even more stupid

October 4th, 2011 · Feature Article, freelancing and consulting

Back when I started writing these articles and compiled them on my blog, I posted quite a few reasons to try freelancing and consulting, either as a permanent career or as a temporary measure while looking for a regular full-time job.

Now I have a new reason: The hiring process is becoming ever more ridiculous and job seekers need an alternate activity so you don’t go plumb crazy from the job hunt.

The latest inane (non)hiring practice is to not hire people because 1) they are unemployed or 2) they have bad credit. Not coincidentally, the two tend to go together. Many of those with deteriorating credit have been unemployed for awhile.

I don’t see why these two factors make people become undesirable as employees, but I have two theories.

One is that hiring managers don’t like people with bad luck. We can no longer look around and conclude that those who don’t have jobs are necessarily bad workers. We all personally know too many exceptions. So we simply don’t like those who have experienced misfortune. And worse, it may be contagious!

The second is that neither hiring managers nor HR seem to have developed criteria that they can readily apply and that can predict success in a position. So they seek to shortcut their recruitment process by creating handy but irrelevant criteria for excluding candidates instantly . . . such as being unemployed.

Why are freelancing and consulting the answer?

Because in all my years of freelancing and consulting, no one has ever asked permission for a credit check (and I assume they would ask before conducting it). Nor has anyone asked why I left my last job.

First, this information is not relevant and has nothing to do with the work to be done. (And by the way, my credit is fine.)

Second, the act of freelancing and consulting creates a job to be listed on your resume. (True, some recruiters look at this suspiciously as a way to cover periods of unemployment, but that’s their issue.)

The recruitment process is consistently becoming more absurd. Seekers are spending far too much time customizing applications and resumes that disappear into the internet. That’s so frustrating, while using this time to land assignments in your proven specialty feels really good.

And now for some links to past articles on why freelance and consult?:

Why start your own freelance / consulting practice? (Part 1)

Why start your own freelance / consulting practice? (Part 2)

Why start your own freelance / consulting practice? (Part 3)

And now for a link to my book that shows you exactly what to do to land great clients quickly.

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Advice from George Clooney

September 26th, 2011 · Feature Article, cold calling for freelance and consulting

When personally contacting prospects for freelance and consulting services, concentrate on helping them rather than whether they “like” you.

Actor George Clooney said something simple yet profound in the September 25 issue of Parade, the Sunday newspaper insert.

He noted that he had been “proficient at failure,” but that he had learned from failure how to do better next time.

In regards to his acting career, he told the interviewer that:

I had to stop going to auditions thinking, “Oh, I hope they like me.” I had to go in thinking I was the answer to their problem. You could feel the difference in the room immediately.

This advice applies perfectly to contacting potential clients about freelance and consulting services.

This certainty that we offer a service that clients need inspires us to keep phoning and otherwise reaching out when we start feeling tired or bored or discouraged.

This confidence also helps solve the problem of deciding exactly what we should say. To script out everything carefully and then try to memorize words the sales experts say should work pressures us to strive for perfection in the hope of impressing them. The more we hope they like us, the more timid and fearful we feel, stumbling over our words and tormented by any slip-ups.

“What impression am I making?” we wonder. Or worse yet, “Do they resent my wasting their time?” “Are they sorry they answered the phone?” “Are they going to swear at me or hang up on me?”

Instead, let’s remember that we’re calling to offer help to prospects in solving their problems.

Let’s focus on our mission—to benefit our clients.

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How much pay is too much for a consultant?

September 19th, 2011 · Feature Article, How much to charge

When a consultant gets a public contract with a high hourly rate, the public may not understand why that rate may actually be quite reasonable.

On September 16, a front-page headline in the Chicago Tribune read “Metra’s big ticket.” The big ticket referred to the fees charged by consultant George Avery Grimes to improve service and otherwise clean up Chicago’s troubled commuter railway service.

How much do you think the consultant is paid? Well, I was curious at the outrageous fee he charged so I looked for the details . . . which were easy to find because the absurd hourly rate featured prominently in the story’s subhead, copy and photo caption.

Now get ready to be shocked.

The scandal is that Grimes is paid $275 per hour.

To some people that sounds like a lot of money . . . and it is a substantial amount . . . but I was expecting a rate of $1,000 per hour or even more based on the tone of the story.

Doing the math, $275 per hour may appear to equal $550,000 per year, but actually, it doesn’t. There are several reasons for this. First, he’s only charging for hours worked, not necessarily for each full week, and he estimates he has been billing substantially below the actual number of hours worked.

Second, he doesn’t have a full-year contract—renewal of his first six-month contract is now being considered.

Third, he has been totally ethical in the ways he has coordinated, managed and billed for his engagements. He is not reimbursed for lodging or expenses, and he even pays his own ticket to return home to Denver every two weeks.

And finally, his work is exemplary. When taking the train on his own, unpaid time, he investigated why fares weren’t being collected as they should be. He discovered the conductor reading a newspaper and reported him, resulting in disciplinary action.

Chicago has lots of governmental scandals. Nothing new there.

But the entire article gave no indication that George Avery Grimes profited from political connections, bribes or anything else inappropriate.

Furthermore, his qualifications are impressive: a recent, successful consulting project recommending administrative and safety improvements in the Los Angeles-area train network, three decades of relevant experience and a Ph.D. in railroad economics.

The article details the controversy, now under way, over renewing the Grimes contract. Some argue that it’s ridiculous to hire a consultant when the goal is to cut costs.

But actually, the agency’s management and budgetary problems erupted during the reign of the previous CEO who committed suicide while under investigation. Now the organization lacks the expertise to move forward without a consultant.

And the newspaper story totally skips over how much time and money Grimes invested in winning the contract, such as how many presentations he prepared and the number of trips he made to Chicago.

This incident is a great example of how consulting can appear to be an expensive boondoggle to a critical outsider but a reasonable, fair expenditure to someone who understands the consulting profession.

Yes, $275 per hour can induce sticker shock to the casual observer, but considering the individual’s unique standing in his narrow specialty, I believe it is quite reasonable.

What do you think? Comments?

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