Never Forget to Feed Your Dragon
Posted on Mar 14, 2011 in Business Basics | 20 comments
Freelancers love pets. I have my dogs. Jennifer Mattern has her cats. Natalia Sylvester has her Carrie Bradshaw-esque dog. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s that we work alone from home most of the time. We need a wing man or two to support us as we scribble away in our home offices. I bet you have some sort of pet, don’t you? Well today I don’t want to talk about your dog, your cat or your gerbils. Today I want to talk about your dragon.
Every freelancer has a dragon, whether you know it or not. It’s called your freelance career and the freelance dragon needs to be fed. If it doesn’t eat, it doesn’t put money in your bank account. Which means you can’t give any of that money to your landlord, the grocery store or the guy who sells gas to put in your car. Which mean you’re screwed. So you want need this dragon to be fed.
What does your freelance career dragon eat? Paying work, of course. (Note the “paying” part. Your dragon doesn’t care about “exposure” and “internships.” It wants money, folks.) Your dragon isn’t a picky, either. It doesn’t care if it’s the same work every month or something new. But the dragon must have food to survive. No ifs, ands or buts about it.
So how do you ensure that your dragon stays fed? Prospecting.
I’ve talked about prospecting before and I’ll probably never stop talking about it because it will never stop being important. Whether you’re a journalist who queries, a copywriter who cold calls or a web writer who sends out proposals, prospecting is the lifeblood of your freelance career. Searching for new work on a regular basis. So when is the best time to prospect for work? Yesterday.
Even if a client loves you to pieces, anything could happen tomorrow. You never know when a regular client will go under or just not have any more use for your work. Gigs and projects dry up all the time. But your dragon doesn’t want to hear it. He wants to be fed and doesn’t care how you do it. (In fact, this dragon is starting to remind me of Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors. “Feed me, Seymour!”)
Prospecting is a never-ending process. Even when you have enough work, you must continuously look for more. That’s because prospecting isn’t a quick thing. It’s more like planting the seeds of work and cultivating them. You can’t just throw down a few seeds in the dirt and come back to a record harvest ten minutes later. It takes time and nurturing to bring in quality prospects so you have to dedicate time each week to market your business and connect with potential clients.
It’s easier if you put regular processes into place. Either dedicate a little time each day to prospecting or maybe take one day a week just to work on that. If you have a slow paying client–that’s what I call it when a client pays you but never seems to pay you on time–prospect for a client that pays you the same or more money. The same goes for a difficult client. Use your prospecting to work towards replacing that one. And if you’ve got a a plate full of wonderful, well-paying clients, then target your search for higher paying clients. The point is that there’s always new work or better work you can hunt. Always.
Just remember that nobody’s gonna feed your dragon for you. And that guy has got get fed or you’ll be sorry.
How often do you actively look for new clients? is your dragon happy right now or his looking at a sad empty food dish?
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My dragon is looking at a fast emptying dish right now. Thanks for the reminder. I need to start prospecting more! It’s the one thing that has suffered the most in my freelancing since the baby.
Samar recently posted..Talking Money With Clients- Discussing Initial Pay Rates
Well, it's not too hard to get back into the swing of things. Good luck!
RT Or your cat! =^..^= @samarowais Never Forget to Feed Your Dragon http://t.co/gnUe0ed via @iampsjones
I feed my dragon every couple of weeks. In fact, just this weekend I started reaching out to some potentials. When I near the end of a big, one-time project, I go looking for another.
Emily Suess recently posted..A Novel Way to Read a Novel- Chapter by Chapter on The Huff Post
Happy hunting, Emily.
New on Diary of a Mad Freelancer: Never Forget to Feed Your Dragon http://t.co/1SnQlqd
RT @iampsjones New on Diary of a Mad Freelancer: Never Forget to Feed Your Dragon http://t.co/1SnQlqd
There’s an old formula for consultants that I’ve known for at least 20 years: spend 25-30% of your time on marketing yourself/your business. It’s never changed and it never will. I’ve probably never lived up to this requirement, either, but I’m getting better as the years go by! Thanks for the reminder.
That's an ambitious plan but not impossible. I probably spend about 15% right now.
If you don’t market yourself, who will? Never Forget to Feed Your Dragon http://t.co/HfdU9fF via @iampsjones
RT @iampsjones: New on Diary of a Mad Freelancer: Never Forget to Feed Your Dragon http://t.co/1SnQlqd
Only @iampsjones could compare the #freelance life to a dragon & make it work: Never Forget to Feed Your Dragon http://t.co/1SnQlqd
I’m always making sure to feed my dragon, but sometimes it’s inevitable that all the food comes in at once followed by a slow couple of weeks. That’s when I try to ration the food and save up for the slow times, even if the dragon starts whispering, “I heard there’s a sale at Nordstrom. Why don’t you go buy me a new pair of shoes?”
Natalia Sylvester recently posted..Why I’m Changing My Twitter Name
LOL You've got one of those high class dragons, Natalia!
Thanks for keeping it reals, yo. Prospecting definitely is the way to grow, and your blog posts help to awaken the dragon in us all.
Mahesh Raj Mohan recently posted..Pawn Stars
No problem, homeboy. I just let it do what it do, yo.
RT @iampsjones Never Forget to Feed Your Dragon http://tinyurl.com/45ureyr
RT @iampsjones: Never Forget To Feed Your Dragon http://tinyurl.com/45ureyr <- I forget to feed mine. Is it because I’ve never had a pet?
My dragon was getting fat for awhile, but now he’s looking at an emptying food dish. That was because I made the dumb mistake of resting on my laurels when I had several projects going at once. Instead of congratulating myself, I should have been looking for more projects. You are right. Prospecting is the lifeblood of what we do. Now…off to feed that poor old dragon!
Debra Stang recently posted..Making Time for Your Own Projects
Debra, I did that too one summer! It was the lowest point of my freelance career and I'll never forget how it felt. That's why keeping my dragon fed is always in the back of my mind now.