Are You a Freelancer With Too Much Work? You Have 5 Choices
It’s the freelancer’s life—either too little work or too much. If you need more work, you can always hustle to get more.
But what if you have too much? What if you’re too successful? Running from one job to the next. You have to decide what to do.
There are five choices. Well, okay, six if you include total burnout.
Here they are…
1. Turn Down The Work Or Put It Off
Your first choice could be to say no, or tell the prospect you could start in a month or two.
Sometimes, for work you don’t want (not your niche, a one-off job), it’s easy to say sorry, no, I don’t have time. You just let it go.
But what if it’s a client you’d really like to work for? Exciting work, ongoing assignments, seems like a reasonable client.
You could see whether they could push it out a month or two. That will work for some clients, but not all.
In my experience, once clients decide to do a project, they want to start NOW. They might wait a week or two, but not much longer.
So, you run the risk of losing this opportunity. You might be tempted to take it on even though you know you don’t have the time to do the work.
You have to be careful. If you say yes, knowing the correct answer is no, something will suffer—either your existing clients, the new one, or more likely, you.
2. Raise Your Rates To Attract Fewer Clients Who Will Pay You More
Common advice on social media is to raise your rates when you get too busy. The higher rates will discourage some potential clients, which could help even out your workflow.
Perhaps.
But raising your rates also depends on giving these clients estimates (more work for you) or a way for them to know your rates in advance. Some freelancers include rates on their websites that will scare off the low-budget types.
Raising your rates is probably a good idea at any time, but I’m not sure it’s effective in helping you manage workflow.
I never believed that rates were the critical decision criteria for my clients. But it’s certainly worth trying. You can always adjust your rates as work comes in. Your business, your rules.
3. Give Work Away—Recommend Others In Your Network
I see freelancers on social media doing this—giving away potential work when they can’t handle it. They may have a list of other freelancers they can recommend for specific types of projects.
This can work if you’re comfortable with the people you’re recommending. I know some freelancers who have built networks of trusted writers, designers, and programmers so they can hand off jobs that they can’t take on.
In other cases, they’re looking for help, hoping someone who follows them on Twitter or LinkedIn is suitable.
However, you have to realize that when you do this, you’re giving away the work and any potential client relationship.
You’re not benefiting from it, other than someone in your network may recommend you when they’re too busy.
This works for many freelancers. It wasn’t my choice.
4. Subcontract Work To Expand Your Capacity
Rather than giving away the work, some freelancers build a network of subcontractors. They take on the work and then brief the subcontractor on the job. They are still answerable for the quality and timing of the work and act as the supplier to the client.
They may or may not tell the client that someone else is doing the job. It doesn’t matter, since they’re responsible for the work.
In this arrangement, it’s up to the freelancer getting the work to subcontract profitably. That means negotiating fees on both ends—with the client and the subcontractor.
A rule of thumb: for this type of arrangement to be profitable, you need to charge the client about 3X what you’re paying the subcontractor.
That covers your time for managing the project and acting as the intermediary. Often, you’ll want to make changes to what you get from the subcontractor, so that’s more of your time. You are, in effect, the creative director and project manager.
To be successful at subcontracting, you need to be disciplined. You need to be 100% clear on the scope of work, deadlines, rounds of revisions, and payment terms with both the client and the subcontractor.
A key challenge of this arrangement is the subcontractor’s availability. Since they have other clients and you’re only paying them by the project, they may not be available when you need them.
It takes a deep network and excellent project management skills to run a business that depends on subcontractors.
5. Hire Staff—Build an Agency
This is the route I took. Working as a solo freelance copywriter for six years, I decided one day to form a bigger company. I had more work than I could handle, and even more was coming in.
I was also being asked if I could bring others such as designers, to projects.
“Do you have a designer who can work on this? Do you have a programmer?”
I did have a network, and I would introduce them to projects but didn’t manage them or profit from the work. In effect, I was giving this work away.
In my previous agency life, I was always teamed with an art director, so my natural instinct was to find a design partner to form this agency. Once I did that, we threw our clients together and opened our doors.
Within months, we hired our first designer. Shortly after, we hired an office admin/project manager to help us stay organized.
The company grew from there. Within five years, there were 30 of us, and we were acquired by a major IT company.
This route is not for everyone, but it works for many. You don’t have to grow to 30 people. I know many successful small agencies of 4 – 10 people. That’s enough to tackle most jobs.
Your responsibilities:
Learning to direct and supervise a full-time staff
Managing expenses such as payroll, benefits, etc.
Keeping the work coming in
Benefits:
Clients see you as a bigger company that can take on significant projects
You have a variety of talent on hand. Since they’re employees, they’re available when you need them.
Properly managed, you’ll earn more
If you plan for it, you’ll get paid again when you sell the company
Too Much Work? These Are Your Five Choices
Turn down the work or put it off
Raise your rates to attract fewer clients who will pay you more
Give work away—recommend others in your network
Subcontract work to expand your capacity
Hire staff—build an agency
Learn more about dealing with too much or too little work in my book, How to Start a Successful Creative Agency. It’s the essential business guide for graphic designers, copywriters, filmmakers, photographers, and programmers.
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“Hey Andy. I recently finished your book and absolutely loved it. I myself am starting a design business with a colleague and it’s already been invaluable for us. It’s helping us organise the million things we have going on in our heads prior to the jump from full time. Hope you’re well. Thanks again for the great read. Cheers Will”
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