Carlos On Web :: Blogging from Experience

This is the second installment of a two-part article about getting the money that you deserve. I’d like to call this “The Art of Getting Paid.”

Before giving you the meat, a short quiz first: As a freelancer, which of the following is the most important to you?

1. Closing a project
2. Finishing a project
3. Getting paid for the project you’ve “finished”

Personally, I would put item number 3 on top of the other two. Call me greedy or anything, but at least I am not a hypocrite. In any business deal, my objective has always been to get satisfactory compensation for the value that I am giving. I don’t know about you, but for me I don’t see any “conflict” in doing something valuable for my client and in return being compensated for a job well done.

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Have you ever been shafted out of a fee that you feel you truly deserve?

Perhaps, you have been working so hard on a project day in and day out for about a month or so and when it’s all done you were disappointed to discover that the promised cheque will never have a chance of arriving in your mail box.

Perhaps, you were lured into a million-dollar share of the profit when the website you are trying build eventually sells to some giant corporation looking to devour a startup pet project. After all, it looks promising and what is an extra two hours a day (or night) spent over the project, right?

Perhaps you have partnered with a son-of-a-rich (dad?) who provided the financial capital to materialize that something only you can explain though given a nice Integrated Development Environment you are 100% sure you can implement the thing and offer to the marketplace. Too bad, your partner turned out to be a jerk and sucked all the proceeds of your invention.

Or perhaps simply, your client just flatly never paid you for your effort. Period. OMG, how can the bastard afford to do it to you, a technical guru who knows how to code even while asleep?

Does any of these sound familiar to you? Well, I can relate to you, my friend.

And this I am sure: hundreds, or even thousands, of other freelancers out there who have the guts to lay open their experiences in the jungle can relate to that as well.

Those are classic examples of money lost by one’s failure to face the realities of a business deal. It’s expensive; it’s stressful; and it hurts. But there’s definitely a lot of lessons to be learned from your failure to collect the money that you deserve.

In Part 2 of this article, I will share some techniques I use to handle those kinds of deals and ensure that the money I demanded, is the money that I get.

Don’t worry it’s all for free. A street philosopher like me loves to share his philosophical insights to someone like you. If you like to be notified of future articles, you can subscribe via RSS using the form below. I am using FeedBurner, so you can unsubscribe anytime. Promise: I won’t be clogging you inbox – I only write sparingly.

While finding new clients is important for you at the beginning of your freelance career, you should strive to reach the point when your clients will be the ones looking for you.

Hard to believe? Well, right now you better start throwing your doubts out of the window, because it is happening to me — the lonely freelance cowboy from the Philippines, who works from his home. And I am convinced beyond reasons that, with the right mindset and the right timing, it will happen to you one day.

I am not a motivational author, but if that motivates you, feel free to give me an advice if I should start a change of career. But as far as this article is concerned, my main focus is to share the lessons I’ve learned on how to have projects coming your way instead of you sniffing after them. I call this the art of self-promotion.

If you are ready to continue, I will not waste your time any longer in some useless marketing pitch. Here they are the techniques, straight from my treasure chest of freelancing wisdom.

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