4 posts tagged “freelance”
After 9/11 blah, blah, lost all my income, blahdiblah, lost my house, lost my job. I kinda had a thought I'd do some video stuff. Weddings, what-not. So, I went to the old source, Loot, a classifieds magazine here in NY and London that, in the early 2000's was still the way to find things around town. And I did, I found a retiring man from London who was giving up a rather larger video business. Ever seen Taxi Cab Confessions? He did the porn version. I bought my first lights from him - i was going to make my first short, you know. And, after two classes in film, I had quickly realized that the way to go about this was to own the equipment and shoot the damn thing. For the price of one class at Brooklyn College, I could shoot three shorts on a 3-chip camera. So, I did. Sort of.
Turns out, I also needed some income. Bartending in NYC in 2001 just wasn't what it was before the buildings fell. It just wasn't. Like a lot of things. Some people say get over it. Others say, you're too glib about it. They're both wrong. So, the retiring gentleman had tons of stuff I couldn't afford, but that he needed to get rid of. For the past year or so, I'd been buying and selling on ebay and doing a pretty good job. So, I offered him my services. Three months later, we were both happy, we both had money. Now he's living in long island and I still use some of those lights.
I was on a job with a pretty famous actor last year, he was doing his acting, and I just wanted tell him how many naked breasts had been lit with the lights he was standing under. He would have got a laugh out of that. But, I had to maintain my composure.
So, it's tough for me not to hold a special place in my heart and wallet for ebay. I've built a business there. It's always been fun, sometimes too fun, but, LESSON NUMBER TWO - for FREELANCERS -
NEVER PAY RETAIL.
One of the problems with being a freelancer is balancing your marketing efforts. People must know that you're out there, available, and as far as I can tell, they have to be reminded. Every time I remind people anew, via email or what not, I get work. Sometimes for months. So, it's obviously worth risking being a tad pesky. Especially, if like me, you compose a short, to-the-point and thoughtful message and keep them infrequent. I might send out three a year and try to couple the availability message with something of equal importance - I've invested in this equipment that you might like to know that I have; I've updated my website significantly, and the like.
So - I sent out one of these emails last week and because the message was important, I sent it out to a large number of people. So, gmail shut me down for 24 hours. I could get mail, but I could not send. It was okay. I used other accounts for important emails and I got work for a month. Fair enough. But, still gmail should know how much email freelancers sometimes send out and be a little more understanding with the limits.
Jobs are For Suckers!
Ten Reasons Not To Get a Job!
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2006/07/10-reasons-you-should-never-get-a-job/
Freelancing of any kind is a tough way to make a go of it. Add living in an expensive town, add being married, add investment in equipment and it just gets more harrowing.
I have been more than fortunate. But, nothing stings like the email (phone calls are becoming a thing of the past) that says that they're going with someone else. The next hard thing on the list: telling the wife.
But, it's been a great year.
Five Things That Rule about Freelancing:
1) Drinking your own coffee.
2) Reading the paper, as it were. (www.nytimes.com)
3) Charging someone your top market rate and having them thank you when the job is done.
4) Doing a good job without a boss.
5) Making a living on your good name.
