Freelance Facts

So last time we talked about common myths of freelancing.

Now let's talk about some facts...

-Employers of virtual freelancers look for different things than employers of onsite employees when hiring.

-Your resume alone WILL NOT sell you for an online position.

-It can take you months to years to perfect your online job landing skills.

-Employers of freelancers generally have TONS of proposals to sift through and choose from.

-Only 1 out of 10, and that's being generous, of most proposals are worth even reading.

In handling the hiring process for a client who I act as Virtual Office Manager for, I was ASTOUNDED at the slim pickins out there for Customer Service Reps...a job that requires fairly simple and common skills.

I honestly couldn't believe my eyes. I don't remember offhand how many proposals we had for the job but it was between 100 and 200. We went with process of elimination...if they don't do "xxx" or if they do "xxx" or X, Y, or Z factor, hit DELETE and don't read any further.

I found myself having maybe one submission left every few days.

I couldn't believe the amount of people who got themselves eliminated...often within the first couple of sentences of their proposal, that I knew HAD to be qualified for this position.

I was in the process of writing my Freelance Guide at the time so I did a little research. For the next week, those that were getting the "DELETE" button...I would glance over their resume and previous projects. What I found was that they likely very well had the skills and ability to handle this position and even positions that required more skill and technical level BUT they lose the employer with the proposal.

I say this over and over again because it is a FACT - most employers WILL not look at your resume, your prior experience, etc. UNLESS you sell them on your proposal. (Sometimes they don't even look then, I've worked with clients who never review resumes at all.)

And the FACT is that most people THINK they are writing a good proposal. But that's so rarely the case. If you aren't landing AT LEAST half of the jobs or projects you bid on, you aren't writing a good proposal.

I can say this because I honestly can land just about any project I want. Why? Because after years of perfecting my proposal (and building a reputation), and now managing the hiring process of virtual freelancers, I know what a project-landing proposal consists of.

And you can't just have the content right either. There is a very specific formula to landing projects and if you don't follow it, you won't land the jobs very often.

...I really didn't even mean to go on a rant about this - I always end up doing that when I write on this topic! I can't help it. It is truly something that astonishes me. I wish it weren't wrong for me to post examples of tons of proposals so that I could show you.

So, I'm done. I seriously just wanted to stop in and provide some "Food for Thought" for you when writing your next proposal or trying to get your next freelance gig. And I did that with the five facts I provided at the top of this post.

Zipping my lips,
K