A peek inside the Kamikaze Creative Freelance Manifesto: Doreen gets a question. Let’s talk business.

Got an email from a former student.  Graduated, got a good job with a great Mentor/CD. Have an opportunity to freelance.  I don’t know how.

Here then a few gems from Doreen’s Kamikaze Freelance Manifesto.  These have to do with the business of freelancing, money, billing.  It’s often a difficult thing for beginning freelancers to be firm and upfront with rates and terms.  Hopefully, what I’ve learned will help.

1.  If you freelance while working full time, do not do it at work, discuss it with coworkers or use your employer’s equipment.  Many employers’ frown on employees freelancing.  Others don’t care.  Still not good to have it show up in any form at work.  Especially if it’s for another agency.
2. Never, ever, freelance for one of your agency’s clients.  Seems obvious, but you’d be surprised.
3. Talk money before you accept an assignment.  Tell them your hourly rate, how you bill, when you bill.  Ask what their budget is.  What the job is (get a detailed description). What role do they want you to take?  Concept, Design, Production?  Editing corporate speak or copy/language of concept?  Content?  Content Design/Strategy?  Ongoing blogging or single contribution?  Work from self-research or client input?  
4.  Depending upon the job it’s either one or more parts, or the whole.  How fast do you need it?  Do you need an AD/Designer/CW/backend/production person, too?
5. Each impacts the amount of time you’ll need to do the job.  Can get in/out quickly or will it carry for weeks months years?

4. Work from a signed Estimate.  Outline what your responsibilities are, what you will do, what the estimate includes, doesn’t. 

Give your time estimate, your hourly rate, any fees or materials included.  Have the client sign, keep that copy.  Ask for a Purchase Order.  Some jobs don’t require one, if it does include the PO# in Estimate if possible, always  in Retainer,  all other billing (Progressive/Final/You name it)

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5. A word about Estimates.  If you’ve never worked with a client before, pad the hours you think it will take.  Not too much – allow for a few more meetings, revisions, phone calls.  Unless they’re a professional client (ask around, make sure they haven’t been burning every writer in town) who’s done similar projects with other freelancers, getting information, approvals, existing photos/illustrations, meetings, etc., may take longer than you think.  If they don’t, you can always even things up on the final bill.
6. Unless it’s a straight fee, I personally bill to hours spent.  No matter how much more I could charge by estimate.  If I go over an hour or two on a small job, several hours on a big one, I usually eat the time, but make sure the client knows I don’t have to.  If I can keep the relationship upfront and honest, there’ll be no problems when time-sucker jobs really go over.
7. If a job goes over because of my error – I didn’t follow directions, am off the approved strategy, had problems of my own making, I eat the time.  As long as the client isn’t asking for changes due to pure subjectivity, I own the problem.  Make this clear on all estimates/invoices.
8. If a job goes over estimate due to client error, incorrect/incomplete input, changes in previously approved strategy, bringing me in for meetings that don’t happen, blind subjectivity, avoidable corrections and rewrites, the client pays.  Make this clear on all estimates/invoices.
9. When you start talking money, but before you write the Estimate, let the client know you get a 50% of Estimate Retainer before you start work on a project.  You may decide to eliminate it later for a steady, well-paying client, but the Retainer is one of the best indications of a client’s respect for your time and Invoice.  If they pay the Retainer, they pay the Final Bill.
10. The Retainer will also pay the rent until you finish – and then typically wait another 30 days+ - to be paid for it.  If you’re a very busy fulltime freelancer, your cash flow may not make living off your Retainer necessary.  But it’s still good business (lawyers do it), helps qualify clients.
11. Decide what other terms you want.  Will you get the Retainer and wait until the end of the job – no matter how long it takes – to bill them the balance?  Or will you Progressive Bill long lasting jobs?  How many days will you give them to pay?  Ten?  Thirty?
12. I offer tiered discounts for those who pay any bill (but the Estimate) early.  The Estimate is due on receipt, although I usually allow a few days to turn the check around.  I also charge escalating interest for those who pay late.
13. Spell out all terms on your invoice.  I also put in a clause using the Retainer as a Kill Fee if the job is killed after I start, but before I’ve used all the Retainer time.  I am my only inventory.  If I set time aside for a certain job, it may mean turning down something else.  It may also mean I can’t get that job back or start another job right away.
14. If it’s not in writing, you cannot trust things to go according to agreement.  You have no recourse (short of harassment) if someone doesn’t pay your bill.  If the job’s killed, you want to get paid for reasonable time, effort, lost opportunity. 
15. Talking about freelance terms is different from salary negotiations.  You may want to give someone a deal because you want to build a relationship.  If so, be sure they know it’s this once.  Subsequent work will be negotiated at your normal rate.
16. Often we’re asked to do a job for a flat fee.  This can be a bonus or a time sucker.  If I think I can do a low fee job and not feel like I gave it away, I might take it to build a relationship, because I’m otherwise unoccupied, because it’s a job I really want to do (fun, new category, new medium, great art director/designer, whatever).
17.  If the fee’s high, karma is paying you back for the last one that ate your lunch.  I always try to find out if they have a budget before I start taking hourly rates.  If it’s something I don’t want to do, if the fee is too low, I explain what it would cost to have me do it and offer to ask around for a less expensive writer to refer.  I give them a little free advice on what to look for, what things could cost at meatiest – and barest –bone.  Entrepreneurs, single proprietorships, friends of relatives have no idea what we do and how much things cost.  A frank discussion + a little (free) good advice often mean a real client when they have budget to spend.
18.  If you’re freelancing for a living (no job), never let one client become more than 40% of your total time available to work.  If a client wants you on long term Retainer/Contract, that’s something else.  But a real freelancer will work for many different clients.  Individuals, entrepreneurs, start-ups, small businesses, the Forbes 100, ad agencies, digital shops, non-profits.  B2B, B2C, Social Media.  Stuff and people you never dreamed existed.    Let one client take all (or even most of) your time, where will you be left when they go in-house?  Hire an agency that doesn’t want project work going anywhere else?
19. This also means you should always be working new business in some way, no matter how busy you are.  If we learned anything from the last recession, it has to be diversity is safer ground.  New business efforts get you remembered later, hired sooner, with less dependence upon a single client/industry.
20. One more point about freelancing with a fulltime job.  Your job must be priority one, no matter how much fun, much money, much future the freelance may represent.  Your agency – no matter how you feel about it – is paying your taxes, health insurance and other benefits.  Unless you’re ready to take all that on yourself – and freelancers do pay higher taxes than corporate employees – your first loyalty is to the steady job.  Let your freelance client know that.  If he’s a good client, he’ll respect you for it.

ONE TO GROW ON

21. What happens when someone doesn’t pay?  It’s up to you.  Here are some of the techniques I’ve used to collect from deadbeats:
1. Sicced a lawyer on an out of state client.  High fee but the b**@ards paid the bill.
2. Harassment.  Sometimes feels good for your soul, but the truth is the person who’s telling you she can’t issue your check probably can’t.  I’m sure she’d rather pay on time, but clients – especially agencies – hold up payment for many reasons.  They want to get paid before they pay you.  Cash flow problems.  Corporate process.  The only person who can sign the check is in Argentina.
3. Creativity.  After several months of lies (check in mail/on Friday/yaddayaddayadda), one very hot, very humid August day I dressed in my dirtiest barn clothes, neglected to put on deodorant and mucked 24 horse stalls.  I then positioned myself in front of the agency receptionist and politely waited for my check.  To go in or out of the main door you had to pass within nose range.  Amazing how little time it took.  I ran to their bank, cashed it immediately.  Never worked for them again.  Warned everyone I knew to keep away

LAST ONE, I PROMISE

22.  Build your network.  Swap books with other freelancers, no matter what they do.  Keep in touch w/friends and classmates working at agencies fulltime.  Use your college/university alumnae list, instructors.  Follow up with favored AEs, Clients, Project Managers, Production people.  Be respectful of all – you never know where your next freelance job is coming from.

Once again, Blogger is messing w/my word outline.  Hope it's not to difficult to follow without the proper spacing, etc.  If any of you have a fix for this, please let me know.

As all posts in this blog ©2013, Doreen Dvorin/Kamikaze Creative ©

Category vs. Brand: In which Doreen expresses surprise at the apparent ignorance thereof

Sorry about the title but couldn’t stop myself.  

As I gear up for Thursday’s drive to Atlanta and the first class of the Circus’ summer term, I’ve been thinking back to last quarter’s panels.  For those of you who aren’t Creative Circus students, each quarter ends with a review of every student’s work from all his classes that term.

 

I met many of this term’s students in last term’s panel.  Took notes about trends I saw in two days reviewing copy students’ work.  Since I only saw writers, I thought it’d offer guidance for what they’d need this term.

Most did not know the difference between writing for one distinct prospect and writing for one entirely different prospect.  Work which should have been targeted to other groups was all concepted/written for their own age group.  This one’s quite scary to me, but why I offer the Come One Come All Creative Strategy workshop at the beginning of each term.  If they haven’t attended one yet, whose fault is that? (You don’t have to be a Circus Student to attend.  PC, GA State, GA Tech, Emory, Arts Center and all other students interested in advertising are welcome.  It’s this Friday, 7/12, 9:30 a.m. in the Carol Vick Bynum Theater.  Tell the security guard you’re my guest.  If you can’t make it, read my blog entries from 9/28/10, Love Poem to our Prospect, 5/8/12, Sway – it’s also discussed in relation to other subjects in many other posts.)

I also saw a decided lack of creative risk taking.  Lots of good, safe work.  Very little that snapped my head around in envy, made me think Now he/she’s gonna be a star.  It’s about time students stopped worrying about being good and took the kind of risks that create lots of bad work – until it turns genius.  My husband’s boss repeats “Good is the enemy of Great,” usually coupled with other inspirational clichés.  This time he’s right.  (For this one, read any blog post that discusses the Kamikaze Key Fact.)

The other big problem was the one I’ll talk about today.  Category vs. Brand.  Sounds simple and it should be.  Like just about everything else, the answer to the problem can be found in a smart KCWP (Kamikaze Creative Work Plan – what I’ll be teaching Friday morning)

  

Before we get into the solution, let’s talk problem.  When asked, many students genuinely did not know the difference between Category and Brand.  As they were mostly lower Qs, I suppose I should cut them some slack.  Still, Category vs. Brand is a basic tenet of advertising creative.

Category is the general type of goods/products/services your client offers.  Banking and finance, fast food, fashion, retail, travel, breakfast foods, baby toys, furniture, copiers, printers, computers, software, beer, wine and spirits, automotive - all are Categories.  The list is endless.  Most have sub-categories as well.  In the travel category, sub-categories include trekking (on foot and on horse), cruising, resorting, camping, road trips, RVing, guided tours, etc.

Brand is one particular company, bank, brokerage, fast food joint, fashion line, retail store, travel destination or operator, toy, furniture line, named computer (Apple, Lenovo, HP, etc.), software (Microsoft, In Design, whatever), beer label, named resort, individual designer, etc.  A printer is something you need to produce hard copies of what you write with your computer.  A Hewlett Packard printer is a particular brand of printer, with many different models you usually discuss one at a time, or as one series of products/printers with similar attributes you promote as a group, at one time.

In other words, a category is a group of similar products/services, with many different Brands represented.  A brand is one particular make of the product/service, usually with many different models.  If we’re talking cereal and you sell category, you’re selling the need for/benefits of eating a good breakfast.  When you sell the Kellogg Brand, you’re selling the name Kellogg and all it represents (taste, USA, product variety, quality ingredients, history/heritage, brand within brand (Special K, Rice Crispies, etc.) on the parent brand’s merits.  When you sell Special K, you’re selling something even more specific – a specific product – on its own merits, under the brand umbrella.

Category = Breakfast foods

Brand = Kellogg’s

Product = Special K

Capice?

There are valid reasons to sell category – usually when it’s one you’ve invented (smart phones, for example).  People have to learn what the category is, does and why they should pay attention to it.  The problem, even if you try to position your brand within the category, or sell category over your brand’s name, the consumer isn’t motivated to any particular brand/model smart phone.  Just gets the idea it’s a product category that bears watching.

 

Most of the work I saw sold category, even when the problem should have been one of brand.  But you’re rarely hired to sell just any old banana.  You’re hired to sell Chiquita bananas, Dole bananas, Mom’s Organic bananas, etc.

If your category is bananas, your brand could be Chiquita.  But unless you give your prospect a reason to prefer Chiquita, they’ll buy any old banana they find in the supermarket.

This harks back to the KCWP (Kamikaze Creative Work Plan).  The Kamikaze Promise and Reasons Why.  What promise/claim of benefit can Chiquita make over its competitors?  How about the Chiquita brand IS bananas.  Any other brands of bananas don’t take the care, have the growers, the varieties, health awareness, food handling safety, etc., your family deserves. 

Why can Chiquita make that claim?  It’s the oldest US banana brand (I made that up, but it may be true).  They’ve been buying and selling bananas for x years, so they know what works, what doesn’t, what varieties taste best, last longest, how to get them to market faster.   Those are your KCWP’s Reasons Why.

 

What I saw in the student work was, for conversation’s sake, an ad for Chiquita that gave me no reason to seek out Chiquita branded bananas.  Lots of reasons to eat any old banana, with no mention of brand other than the logo.  Maybe mentioning it once in body copy.  This can also be solved in the KCWP’s Kamikaze Competition section.  There, you should not only give the various competing brands (Dole is the only one that comes to mind, I’m sure there are others.)  The competitive info should always be a direct comparison to your client’s product (Chiquita Bananas):

Dole – widely distributed, depending upon where purchased can be lower priced than Chiquita but the brand is not as well known for fresh bananas as Chiquita.  Dole is usually sold in discount stores and supermarkets (Wal-Mart, Food Lion, convenience stores, etc.) vs. the more upscale markets (Harris Teeter (in Charlotte, the deluxe supermarket) and specialty food stores, which usually trade on the Chiquita brand.  Perceived as quality canned goods, Dole fresh foods have yet to attain the cachet of Chiquita.

Know that + the perceived value of the Chiquita brand, its history (I’m Chiquita banana and I’ve come to say…) and perceived quality difference over other banana brands = a compelling concept/campaign/individual marketing piece that motivates people to seek and buy Chiquita, no matter where they shop.

Granted, this is all pretty elementary and far from a treatise on branding (a huge subject in itself).  It does, however, illustrate how to deal with Brand in product advertising.

 

Back in the dark ages, McCann hired Bill Cosby to sell PCs.  It was the advent of the PC revolution, long before Apple and IBM owned the category.  Cosby had to sell category – back then, people didn’t know what a PC (Personal Computer) was for, techno fear was rampant.  He did it under the Texas Instruments brand, but because the market had to be educated as to why they needed a PC before telling them why the TI machine would be better for them, he talked personal computing, not why TI made a better product.

Those kinds of opportunities are rare in this business.  Sure there are new tech products and brands coming out all the time.  But the PC and computing are now engrained into our collective consciousness.  No need to sell people on the idea of a home computer at all.  But they would like to know which brand computer is best for their needs.  Today, we can talk brand.  Back then, even if you were IBM (known for mainframes), brand was a second thought. 

There you have it.  No excuses, now. Time to sell brand, assuming the Prospect understands the category.  If your assignment is for a Toshiba laptop, you sell it on the merits of that particular product – not on the merits of having a laptop, period.  As in everything else, knowledge is power (4/6/12, Do your own input).  The more you know about your own product and its brand, the more you know about the competition in comparison to your product, the more specific to it you can be.    

A little historic perspective.  In the 60s, Alka Seltzer and Bromo Seltzer were neck and neck in the ad wars.  Both had some great spots – RA Blechman’s (sic) arguing stomach, prisoners in the dining room banging on tables after a meal, chanting “Bromo Seltzer, Bromo Seltzer, Bromo Seltzer” in time.  Problem was, even with great ads, no one remembered the brand.

Bromo Seltzer ads sold Alka Seltzer and vice versa.  Today, w/many parity products, communicating the brand name and proprietary message/positioning is more important than ever.  Do a smart KCWP.  Sell the heck out of the brand/product.  With so many imitators out there, so many products with no real difference, pushing brand over category is more important than ever.

FOR ALL YOUR KAMIKAZE CREATIVES WONDERING WHERE I AM: In which Doreen explains the concept of Spring Break.

Like you guys need to know about Spring Break.

Working on a new post.  Will be online asap, promise.  D.