Making Money as a Freelancer
The first time I had the entrepreneurial urge, I was about seven years old and I sold jokes, written on little scrolls and tied with string, to neighborhood kids for five cents each.
As soon as my parents found out, they put a stop to it.
The next time I had an entrepreneurial urge, I was in high school. I knew that the high school sold license plate frames and bumper stickers and similar items, but you had to go into the office to buy them, and interrupt the office staff, and so almost no one ever did. So I proposed that I sell these items at a table in the front hall during parents’ night for extra credit in a business class I was taking.
My parents still did not approve, but to them extra credit was a better (more seemly) motivation than money, so they let me do it. Or possibly I never told them and just said I had volunteered to help out.
That night, I sold enough tchotchkes to get an A in the business class.
Unlearning Negative Money Lessons
My fascination with entrepreneurship eventually led to my freelance career where, as I like to say, I’m coin-operated. But it wasn’t always easy getting to that point.
My parents failed to extinguish my money motivation but I’ve often wondered why that was so challenging to them. They were very traditional people, so perhaps women having and pursuing their own money was threatening to them. Or maybe it was a class-related thing: the upper classes don’t do anything so undignified as earn money (my parents were by no means members of the upper class but they certainly would have liked to be mistaken as such).
Over the years, I’ve had to battle a lot of money-related messages stemming from these early years, and I think most of us do. Women especially tend to be people-pleasers and so we worry about other people before we worry about ourselves: What if it’s too expensive for someone? What if they would have to give something up to afford the service we’re offering? What if, what if, what if.
Money questions also get tied in with self-doubt: Why would someone hire me to do the thing? I don’t have ten years’ experience like everyone else does.
Focus on Your Own Money Needs
One of the most important steps I’ve ever taken in my freelance career is to stop worrying about other people and to figure out how much money I want to earn in order to live my life the way I want to live it, and then charge accordingly. In other words, to put the emphasis on me.
If someone can’t afford my services, that’s okay. I don’t want anyone to break the bank hiring me. I’m not going to do a hard sell. I offer a service and you may or may not want to use that service and you may or may not have the budget for it. That’s your business.
My business is earning enough money to live my life the way I want to live it.
Sometimes it can be a real challenge to move past the money messages we heard when we were growing up but it’s the only way you’ll see the financial reward for all of your hard work.
