UKNM: RE: Going Freelance

[John Braithwaite]

Jo, I'd have to support you vehemently here.


Neil - if you can't choose your freelancers well, then that's your

problem.... but my wife works from home as a content writer for websites

and, at the moment, is judged on every project, page, sentence that she

does. If she doesn't deliver the goods, she has to change it, if she doesn't

perform she gets the boot (yet to happen!).


She charges more than the staff that the company has at their disposal - but

her output is double what they do on a good day (long term contracts are far

more likely to induce the kind of slackerdom that you were talking about).


She doesn't go to Soho (often) and doesn't wear three quarter length

trousers with wrap around shades at night. But she's busy, has plenty of

good clients (who come to her first for availability) and does a very good

job.


But, what would you know?


JB



Date: Wed, 04 Oct 2000 13:09:48 +0100

From: Jo Chipchase <

jocan-u-hack-it [dot] com

>

Subject: Re: UKNM: Re: Going Freelance


Do you work freelance, Neil?  I think you don't.


More so than people who work in an agency environment, where their

shortcomings may be buffered by the efforts of their colleagues,

freelancers cannot *afford* to present clients with sloppy work or, as you

say, "tell them what they want to hear".  Freelancers are directly

accountable to their clients and any f*ck ups lie directly and heavily on

their shoulders.


As for "rip-off work from people you've never heard of", I would also say

that, in my experience, I have heard anecdotal examples of agencies

claiming the work of a freelance developer entirely as their own when they

had no involvement with it, but not generally vice versa (although I'm sure

it *does* happen in some cases).  If someone had so little integrity, I for

one would have no dealings with them.


You use the words "slackers" and "lazy".  Perhaps you would like to come

round here one night at 3am while I'm still working at my PC, and you have

been supping over-priced drinkies in some pretentious Soho bar with your

colleagues, who are probably more concerned with the style of their latest

"urban wear" than the latest network kiosk your company is developing.


Ascerbic, perhaps.  True... most likely.   :)



Jo.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 looking for useful books about the new media biz?

 check out the UKNM books page for some suggestions:

 http://www.chinwag.com/uk-netmarketing/books.shtml

 Email suggestions to:

helpchinwag [dot] com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  To unsubscribe or change your list settings go to

http://www.chinwag.com/uk-netmarketing or

helpchinwag [dot] com