Friday, September 14, 2012

Freelance smilers.

Because of my ineffable ineffableness, I was recently asked to help out a strategic-planning friend on a launch she was working on. Friendships are friendships, but money is honey, and once I got my terms, I was happy to lend all ten digits.

Maybe some of the worst freelance you can accept is when you partner with someone from a client's in-house "creative" department. Often these people are prisoners of knowing too well the tastes, proclivities, likes and dislikes of the "client."

No matter what you say or do, the work you strive for winds up looking like an in-flight video. That is, smiling people, happy faces.

Having been burned in the past, I have a couple of rules about accepting freelance.

I have high "start-up" costs. That is, I won't do something unless it can make a material difference in my life or my daughters'.

And I insist on getting half my money up-front.

Even so, it's hardly ever worth it.

Especially when everyone's smiling.

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