Overhead expenses

Accounting fees

Advertising

Bank charges

Books (research-related)

Casual wages

Cell phone

Client gifts (year-end/referrals)

Computer costs
Hardware
Software
Internet
IT/computer support
Website hosting

Consulting fees

Depreciation
Car
Computer
Cell phone
Printer
Etc.

Entertainment

Insurance
Motor vehicle
Home office
Laptop

Interest paid

Landline telephone

Maintenance, appls & repairs

Motor vehicle expenses
Fuel & oil
Repairs
Parking
Annual license

Newspapers/journals/mags

Office equipment

Printing, copying & stationery

Rental paid

Small items written off (under R7k)

Subscriptions

Training

Travel

Other

End note: Please be aware that I am not a financial services provider and that you should contact an accountant or book-keeper who specialises in freelance/small business tax if you need more guidance.

• “I’m new-ish to the game. How do I charge: per word, per hour, per job?”
• “Do you charge different rates for different sectors – like a higher rate for corporates and a lower rate for community newspapers?”
• “My friends and family always need work, and I tense up when it comes to quoting/invoicing.”
• “I’m a creative. That’s why I went into freelancing. This admin stuff kills me: quoting, invoicing, chasing money, keeping books. Can you help?”
• “Clients often ask me to quote and then say, ‘Well, we’ve only got [R2000 less than I quoted]. Can you do it for that?’ What do I say?”
• “I’m not sure what other freelancers’ payment terms are, but I find 30 days challenging on my cash flow! Do you have any guidelines?”
• “I’m skaam when it comes to chasing money. Help!”
• “Sometimes there’s such a long wait to get paid that I think client never will. But I don’t want to make waves and have them use someone else next time.”
• “When do you, eventually, write off a bad debt?”

My latest Bizcommunity article, entitled ‘Get the most out of your freelance copywriter or editor‘ went live today. It deals with teaching clients how we work and what we need from them, in order to deliver the best job possible. It also provides a short list of questions for the client, to be used by clients in briefing their writers/editors or by freelancers in trying to locate the Holy Grail that is a clear brief. This is what Jo Duxbury of Freelancentral had to say about it:

“Tiffany, you’ve got this spot on… Many clients don’t see the value of getting their copy professionally written or edited, but it truly is a skill and can add so much to your communications. There’s no point spending thousands on beautiful design or a great web site, only to undermine your credibility with text that’s peppered with spelling and grammar mistakes, or copy that’s clunky and difficult to digest. Getting an outsider – a professional writer/editor – to review your copy may also help you spot the little gems in your offering that you perhaps can’t see as you’re too close to your business. At the very least, clients should hire a professional copy editor to ‘sanity check’ and proofread their copy. The Facebook group ‘I judge you when you use poor grammar’ is nearly half a million members strong… that’s pretty telling.”

• The Boss (the client who thinks he’s your boss),
• The Uninformed (the client who has no idea what you actually do),
• The Briefless (the client who has no idea what he wants) and
• The Buddy (the client who wants to be your friend).

If any of these sound like clients you’ve had, have a read. And let me know what you think.

Copywriters and editors work on all kinds of projects, from corporate profiles to CVs, newsletters to websites, textbooks to brochures. Whether you’re a large corporation, a small business, a government department, an NGO or an advertising agency, copywriters and editors can help you enormously.

Finding the right tone

They can cut through the confusion to make your message clean, clear, correct, appealing and appropriate. They can help you to get it right the first time, and within budget. And above all, because your image is so important, they can help you to find the right tone and choose the right words.

‘Cos, believe it or not…

Your closeness to your own writing may blind you to its flaws. As the UK-based Society for Editors and Proofreadersexplains:

You hold the whole text in your mind, and you have developed its ideas in sequence right to its conclusion. You can’t now put yourself in the reader’s place by somehow ‘unknowing’ any of this. A copy-editor, though, will bring fresh eyes to your text, helping you to reveal your concepts in a logical order. You may also be less than confident in spelling and in your use of grammar (and it’s unwise to rely on spelling and grammar checkers). Perhaps you know what you want to say but find it hard to put it into words. A copy-editor will be sufficiently detached from the writing process to spot mistakes and inconsistencies that distract the reader…

It is important that your customers feel that they are getting value for money – publishing poorly edited copy (or copy that has not been edited at all) could reflect extremely badly on you and/or your company/organisation… You may be able to deal with all the editorial functions… But you will lack the fresh eye that a copy-editor will bring to your work, and this could lead to mistakes creeping in. In fact, most copy-editors never agree to edit their own writing for just this reason… No matter how many times you check it, there will invariably be an obvious error that you miss. You see what’s on the page but your brain interprets what it wants or expects to read, not always what is actually there, and it takes a ‘fresh eye’ to break this pattern.

Client, know thyself

Here are some useful questions for those wishing to engage freelance services:

What would you like the freelancer to do? For example, would you like him/her to write the document from scratch, assess an existing document, copy edit it, or proof-read it on hard copy or on-screen? Ideally, draw up a short brief of tasks required.

What’s your preferred style? What style do you think is most appropriate to your audience or your message? Formal or informal register? Chatty or sophisticated language? Colourful descriptions or irreverent touches? Industry jargon or simple explanations? And which spelling style is more appropriate: US, UK?

What’s your aim or objective? What do you hope to achieve with this document (informing, educating, impressing, entertaining, compelling, sharing, involving, bonding, persuading, credibility-building, fund-raising…) – and what is the ideal outcome or reader reaction that you hope to provoke as a result of the material?

What’s your ballpark budget? Copywriters / editors will be able to provide you with an accurate quote once they’ve been briefed and assessed the job in full. They may quote according to hours, pages or words – or suggest a full flat rate in advance. Extras may include admin costs, travel, research and checking corrections or hard copy proofs.

What’s your ideal deadline? It’s important to decide on a schedule for draft submission, changes and delivery of the final copy.

Who in your company is responsible for sign-off? Who needs to approve the first draft and/or make changes? Will the copywriter / editor have a relatively free hand, or is there a third party you’ll appoint as your organisation’s editorial point-person?