How to be a successful freelancer

Freelancers are not really good jobs. And most freelancers are saying they spend more time on job hunting than actual working hours. This is especially true when you're just entering an industry where you're just beginning to expand your list of clients. With the business growth, plus there will be more and more new and old customers move closer to you, this situation is actually gradually changing.

So how do we Dapu East to get customers and then please them? At this time not only by virtue of our final music and audio products, and in the whole created mid-range is even more profound impact between freelance and customer relationship. I've been in the free audio industry for the past ten years and I've learned a great deal from success and failure.

Whether it's project bidding or post-launch support, I learn how to make sure work is done efficiently and how customers are willing to work with me on the next project, praising and recommending me to their peers.

work from home jobs (from recruitingblogs.com)

Always reflect the professional standards

I've heard that many customers always think of audio designers as weird people. They always will not reply to the mail on time, always submit some bad works, always reluctant to answer the phone, and sometimes inexplicably disappear. This really surprised me, for I've always thought it was a chance, but did not think it gradually became a theme was repeatedly discussed.

I do not think people like the old-fashioned artists who think creativity is more important than the profession. Professional is very simple, but it is also very important. Use the correct grammar and spelling in your emails; do not use sketches; speak clearly, confidently, and cut the subject; be gentle and polite; be quick to respond; be helpful. These are some simple things, but if you can maintain this professionalism from start to finish, you can stand out from the fierce competitors.

Bidding process

Often the first email I receive from a new customer is always "So, what's your asking price?" But anyone in our field is very much against this, because we can only reply "Look "Because our asking price must be based on the project, size, assets required, the time frame of the customer requirements, the target platform and other elements of the decision. However, after you make a variety of detailed explanations, the customer will eventually only compare and decide on the prices of other freelancers.

I think the most successful strategy is to show the most favorable and unfavorable price at the same time. Customers may already have their own price standards in mind before contacting you, so if you overpay, you lose that opportunity, but if you overpay, you'll be bitten and kept alive This low price - so freelancers are also very difficult to ah.

The bid price must be kept in a professional document, with your own logo printed on it, and you also need to clearly list all the relevant assets, including sound effects and music. List a range for each other to know that what you are proposing is only a rough figure. So when their budget is low, there is room for lowering the asking price.

Everyone wants their game to have the best sound and music, but if they want to keep their costs as low as possible, they can hire students who provide their services for free just to gain experience. Do not be discouraged even if you have not received a bids - you need to wait patiently. Take a patient look at the letters in a week or two and politely ask each other whether they have received your bidding information.

Various documents

There are always various files in a freelance audio project. We must make these files as clear as possible and keep the backups. Let us make a further analysis.

Project Tender: This should be the first request made by the client. How much time do you need to complete this project? You need to back it up and attach it to the contract. In addition to this form must also appear your name, date of signing, the project name and the relevant contract information.

Confidentiality agreement: By signing this agreement you will be able to know about the project and will not be able to steal this information. This agreement may also appear before the bidding documents because customers may need to show you some details of the game before deciding how much sound assets to invest in.

If a customer begins to distribute various design documents without signing any agreement, you will need to remind each other that you are more than happy to sign a confidentiality agreement and contract before doing any work.

I just want to reiterate: you'd better start the project after signing the contract. Clarify how much you can get, when you get it, what you need to do and how long the time limit is. If the customer has questions about the due date, or if you are not sure why you created the XYZ music theme or even somehow pick the wrong one, then the contract is your best lifebuoy.

Audio Design Files: Regardless of whether the client is asking for it, you need to present the audio design files before actually working. This is a file that both parties can use and edit to plan audio design. You have to document the sources of inspiration, such as what games and media have audio similar to your project, and list the goals that you want the audio to play in the game (for example, forests The music in the scene would need to be accompanied by a gentle breeze and a laid-back atmosphere accompanied by the sound of the birdsong and the sound of the wind with a gentle wind instrument). Before starting to work, you must first gain approval for these ideas in order to reduce the number of subsequent changes and to ease the misunderstanding between you and your clients.

Asset Delivery Spreadsheets / Documents: When presenting your work to clients you must use an excel sheet or document to explain what you are submitting, including where in the game it should be placed (eg, which level the music should appear at, Or when to start playing a certain sound), and leave some space to add additional information. Customers always want to be able to clearly enforce the process, whether the content is recognized or need to be modified and so on.

Invoice: Once everything is approved and the game is coming out, we need to start preparing the invoice. In fact, the invoice is a bit similar to the project bidding documents, but it will specify the asset value rather than only a rough outline. It contains all the contract information between you and the customer, so both parties can print it out and save it for tax purposes. I like to call it "Invoice 1," so that customers will be able to add additional invoices after they are released. And at the bottom of the document I will state that the client must pay within 30 days and thanked the cooperation. Along with this invoice attachment, some of the most suitable payment methods in your email will be mentioned, including PayPal, check, wire transfer and more.

Balance family and work life

Finally, the decisive factor is the quality of your work. It is always difficult for freelance audio creators to balance family life and work, and if they are not balanced, they can hardly create truly good work. As each person is living a different life, finding such a balance will also face a variety of challenges. Freelancers may have children, roommates, rich social life, a second job and more.

Stay Active and Attention: Working from home is always easy to distract. Any action, whether online, television, refrigerator, mobile phone, or family and part-time workers, can interfere with your work. No one in the house will always keep a close eye on whether or not you are at work, and you will not have your boss at any time to check with you if you are on Facebook.

If you can not keep enough enthusiasm for your work, you will not be able to finish any work. If you are deeply troubled by this problem, you can also set up all the tasks to be completed today in the morning, and ensure that these tasks are completed before you start to distract.

Healthy working hours: As a freelancer, we always do not want to reduce the workload, so it is hard for us to set healthy working hours. In the past I always worried that I was wasting time at those moments when I was out of work. When home office audio designers are able to plan their own working hours clearly, they can return to life on time and relax.

The worst part of it for me is that these hours are not invested in the same amount of money - not getting real income to prove my hard work and driving me to work harder. This is an unhealthy time, and I not only can not share my leisure time with my family, I am only constantly worried about my career. This is not life!

And all I need to do is set myself a work-for-life like ordinary people and follow those schedules very carefully, stopping work after one day, keeping work even overtime, and Harm your own life and family. Of course, working overtime is an essential part of most people's work, but if overtime becomes commonplace, you need to rethink your own schedule.

Work alone at home: I need a special office, different from gaming or social networking. As an audio designer, we have to have a quiet environment to perform some uninterrupted sound creation. If necessary, you can also hang outside the door "do not disturb" and so can let people know you do not want to be disturbed prompt language. At the same time, I also hope that family bills and terms will not appear on my desk, because I want to clearly distinguish between work and family. I will not confuse working documents with important family documents. I will not install any games on the office computer - because this is the biggest disaster. We need a clear distinction between working hours and family time!

Manage multiple projects

Freelancers also have their own joy and sorrow. Sometimes I try my best to avoid having to deal with multiple projects at the same time because I can not guarantee that everything will be done in an orderly manner. The plan is very important at this time because our goal is to ensure that every customer gets the right audio by the deadline. We generally make this clear when discussing with customers or emailing.

Your job is to write down every asset your customer requires. Next to my monitor was a calendar with a clear record of the expiration date and the name of the customer, to ensure that I had enough time to fulfill what each customer requested. I always leave a buffer for myself because audio production is a creative process, so there are bound to be things that do not work effectively.

In addition, I will use Google Docs and the spreadsheet on Gmail, giving me access to the content at any time. Here I will list all the items I receive, including various assets, the date of submission, some important timetables and unpaid invoices. Before I start writing, I will first browse these files to make sure that there is no new content or no other content to be deleted, so that I can better understand the work I need to do each day and ensure that all creations can be completed within the specified time frame.

If you need to reach out to new customers in just a few weeks, you need to know them in advance. I think they are willing to respect your professionalism (that is, try to balance all the contradictory work), but the document also mentioned that if you have problems you can also delete them.

You inevitably need to work overtime and work on weekends! I never miss a deadline and I am always able to do everything in the asset list, and I also hope I can continue to do so in the future. At the same time we also need to set aside the time to modify and add the final asset. Few projects have audio that works best from the start.

Criticism is a good thing

Others say that my greatest strength as an audio designer is always being able to accept criticism in a friendly and professional manner. Of course, I did not do a lot of work to this end, because I always devoted a defensive psychology to the works that I devoted a great deal of time and energy. Who is not? "Customer is God" is the reason. Because they pay for the game, they also have their own ideas about the final product (including sound settings).

If your audio does not meet their goals, this is caused by misunderstandings and will eventually become a problem on your part. Some customers have very musical cells, and can clearly express their own design goals, but some customers are almost sobbing, simply do not know exactly what they want. It is important for us to listen carefully to each other's description and to make the next change around them.

In the past few years, I learned how to do it is really helpful to the game, and how to make design choices to make customers happy. Sometimes, customers may just want to be in control and "have someone to help them with something." And when your audio is able to run in the game, you'll want to make sure it's the best, and you also want to make sure that your customers are confident that their game has the best audio. And we can do that by accepting the criticism of professionals and consulting them with relevant questions. Then let them know that you are really listening to them.

free

Free audio design work has both benefits and challenges. How to schedule your own time, dare to accept new projects and do a job well - it can be said that this is a life full of uncertainty, but also with all kinds of exciting unknown opportunities. It's always hard to get a lot of customers at once, but if you always take our professional attitude and then show high quality of creativity, then customers will want to continue to work with us. Successful freelancers have the talent to pick the right project from a long list of customers, and years of learning if you want to get the trust and trust of your customers.