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Stop Freelancing

robertnealan.com

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Re: Stop Freelancing

#111

Post by mcdougle »

lsc wrote: post #76
joshyeager wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

First, let me say that I don't mean this to be offensive, and I'm trying to be helpful to you. As someone who occasionally hires consultants to solve urgent problems for me, I would be nervous about hiring a company whose point of contact had a communication style like yours. When I need a problem solved, I want someone who understands exactly what I need and who makes me confident that they will follow through and m…

>I have no idea if that is accurate. But if one of your competitors was easier to understand, I would probably pick them because I don't have the extra time required to understand you and make sure you understand me over the course of our whole relationship. That makes sense. The thing is, I always thought that my writing was an advantage, not a disadvantage. I mean, it's not perfect, or even very good by English-maj…

Like you implied, when you're trying to get a business deal, you're communicating for the audience. It's really all just sales. A lot of really successful salespeople probably don't have good spelling and grammar, but they're great communicators.

Dunno if you've read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, but Kiyosaki says in it, "I'm not a best-writing author, I'm a best-selling author."

That said, I probably have the same problem sometimes, haha.

Re: Stop Freelancing

#112

Post by gjm11 »

btilly wrote: post #105
lsc wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a business writing standpoint? that whole sentence is superfluous. The whole thing is an insertion of humility, something that is important when speaking about yourself to other nerds, but is essentially social fluff. My takeaway is primarily not that I did verbosity wrong, though certainly that comment wasn't right, but that the verbosity itself is the problem. Take, for example one of the bits of writing I'm m…

Here is a simple improvement that should help a lot. Write everything in the active voice. This will make your language less "pretty", but more understandable. Doubly so when talking to people with a short attention span. Let me rewrite your first paragraph to show the difference. From a business writing standpoint? that whole sentence is superfluous. The whole thing is an insertion of humility, something that is imp…

> Write everything in the active voice.

Every verb in the original paragraph was already in the active voice. I'm not sure whether your replacement is better or worse than the original, but the differences have nothing to do with active vs. passive voice.

(You are far from alone in saying "active" where you mean something else. See, e.g., http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/grammar/passives.html and the various Language Log articles linked from there.)

Re: Stop Freelancing

#113

Post by robmcm »

johnkpush wrote: post #83

We prefer hiring consultants who bill us as a business rather than as an individual. It's risky and more costly hiring and paying an individual consultant: * If an individual consultant gets injured, we'd have to pay the individual's worker's comp/unemployment benefits. * When it's B2B, we don't have to worry about 'tax nexus'. If we're based in NY and hire an individual in California, we now have to register and pay…

I find that a lot in the UK, it's a lot better to get set up as a limited company than a sole trader. Some companies and even industries won't touch you as an individual. I guess it's related to the personal liability etc

Re: Stop Freelancing

#114

Post by gjm11 »

lsc wrote: post #103
lukeholder wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me that pdf chapter example was very hard to read.

>For me that pdf chapter example was very hard to read. Huh. Interesting. I often value other people's opinions based on my perception of their skill. Going through your comment history, you do have a very terse, very readable style, so it's probably worth my time to look over that chapter. The whole thing suffers from the apparent fact that I had been reading a lot of Nietzsche at the time. Man. "The will to power"…

You have written two comments in this single discussion that begin with a single paragraph saying "Huh. Interesting."

This sort of habit, if noticed by others, can look bad.

(I've been caught out in similar things myself.)

Re: Stop Freelancing

#115

Post by a-priori »

dangero wrote: post #61
jonnathanson wrote: post #44

It really depends on what types of clients and gigs you want to take on, and what sort of ambitions you have for yourself as a one-man shop. Do you want to remain a one-man shop? If so, biting off more than you chew can be hazardous to your health (literally). You don't want to land the Pepsi account if you're not ready to handle Pepsi volume. By presenting yourself as an agency, you might signal a higher degree of p…

Good points. I would enjoy reading about companies that went from single contributor to agency smoothly.

I think partnering with a handful of other ex-freelancers would be a better route to creating an agency than building one single-handed.

That's how a consulting firm I used to work for got started, as a partnership of 5 (I think) developers. About 15 years later, they're now ~200 people strong.

Re: Stop Freelancing

#116

Post by btilly »

gjm11 wrote: post #112
btilly wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is a simple improvement that should help a lot. Write everything in the active voice. This will make your language less "pretty", but more understandable. Doubly so when talking to people with a short attention span. Let me rewrite your first paragraph to show the difference. From a business writing standpoint? that whole sentence is superfluous. The whole thing is an insertion of humility, something that is imp…

> Write everything in the active voice. Every verb in the original paragraph was already in the active voice. I'm not sure whether your replacement is better or worse than the original, but the differences have nothing to do with active vs. passive voice. (You are far from alone in saying "active" where you mean something else. See, e.g., http://www.lel.ed.ac.uk/grammar/passives.html and the various Language Log arti…

You are right, I was merely using the term as I've seen it used.

My real point was that he does not organize sentences by the standard subject-verb-object. This makes the sentences more complex. That complexity makes it harder for people to understand what is said. It would be OK to do that occasionally, but he did it with every single sentence!

Re: Stop Freelancing

#117

Post by mncolinlee »

phamilton wrote: post #86
lsc wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I have no idea if that is accurate. But if one of your competitors was easier to understand, I would probably pick them because I don't have the extra time required to understand you and make sure you understand me over the course of our whole relationship. That makes sense. The thing is, I always thought that my writing was an advantage, not a disadvantage. I mean, it's not perfect, or even very good by English-maj…

A very simple change you could make to your writing would be to swap out commas for other punctuation. Parentheses, semicolons, and other less often used punctuation serve distinct purposes and add to readability. I'm no expert. Here is a stab at fixing a sentence of yours. >I mean, it's not perfect (or even very good by English-major standards) but compared to your average salesperson, well, I think highly of myself…

I disagree with the proposed fix. As an English major software engineer, I would treat that as a run-on sentence. First, you should clearly ask yourself if the sentence is necessary before looking for a fix. If you find that the sentence is useful then break it into two sentences, use active verbs, and make sure your logic is clear.

The original sentence begins with the premise: my writing is not perfect. It ends with: I think highly of myself. Self-esteem and writing quality may be unrelated.

"My writing is hardly perfect. However, I write better than a typical salesperson."

I love the epiphany by the author of the comment. Communications is a HUGE factor in sales. Clear, effective writing will amplify your business overnight.

Re: Stop Freelancing

#118

Post by anovikov »

I had a completely opposite experience. Nobody wants a company because everyone thinks a company with simply hire a few Indians, make a 3x profit, and add no value. Freelancer gets way better reception.

I even know a lot of consulting companies who pretend to be a bunch of individual people, hiding the fact they are linked, and don't know any examples of the ooposite - an individual pretending to be a company - and i see no reason from a customer's perspective to prefer a company to an individual unless they have a job so big/diverse that an individual can't do it.

Re: Stop Freelancing

#119

Post by mncolinlee »

jonnathanson wrote: post #44

It really depends on what types of clients and gigs you want to take on, and what sort of ambitions you have for yourself as a one-man shop. Do you want to remain a one-man shop? If so, biting off more than you chew can be hazardous to your health (literally). You don't want to land the Pepsi account if you're not ready to handle Pepsi volume. By presenting yourself as an agency, you might signal a higher degree of p…

I believe it's key to point out that you can always turn down jobs without offending anyone.

I've always used my "Colin The Shots LLC" for freelancing. If I want to get contracts from budding startups, I go to startup events and introduce myself. I don't need to change my company name to reflect a lower degree of professionalism.

Re: Stop Freelancing

#120

Post by babysteps »

adambard wrote: post #91
lsc wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From a business writing standpoint? that whole sentence is superfluous. The whole thing is an insertion of humility, something that is important when speaking about yourself to other nerds, but is essentially social fluff. My takeaway is primarily not that I did verbosity wrong, though certainly that comment wasn't right, but that the verbosity itself is the problem. Take, for example one of the bits of writing I'm m…

I usually write whatever I would say, then go over it after and take out any words or phrases that might be superfluous, or that can possibly be removed. Wholesale removal of extraneous stuff goes a long way towards making yourself clearer. I'll occasionally leave things in that I feel add to my "voice", but more often than not, if a word can be removed, it is removed. --- becomes --- I write whatever I would say, th…

Struggling typists prefer conciseness.
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