Monthly Archives: October 2016

Administrative , Leave a comment

Invoicing Inertia: The Cure

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Freelance consultants are no strangers to cash-flow crunches and as quiet as it’s kept, the problem can be of our own doing, or not doing.  The reason for our cash-flow problem could be a slow-paying or, horrors, a non-paying client (an acquaintance who is a business accountant estimates that 5-10 % of professional services providers’ receivables will be uncollectible in a given year).  But we can be our own worse enemy in these matters and it is time to tame our invoicing inertia.

As example last week, I sent an invoice to a client that was worth four figures and was four months late.  Why was I so negligent, when I had important accounts payable to resolve? Why is it so hard for so many small business owners and self-employed professionals to stay on top of our accounts receivable and send out invoices on time?

In my consultancy, and I imagine this is true for most, client work, both performing it and networking to bring more of it in, are the priorities.  Billable hours are the name of the game. Then there is content marketing activity (this blog!) to send to my preferred social media platform (LinkedIn) and my website.  Other revenue streams—teaching twice /week, which entails responsibilities to my students, and producing a monthly post for the online magazine for women entrepreneurs where I am a staff writer—claim another chunk of time and creative energy.  Being in business requires considerable mental and physical stamina.

The invoice was for hourly work, rather than a project fee, meaning that detailed information was expected (and not unreasonably so).  The very thought of generating the thing nearly made me nauseous, so I found several avoidance-behavior activities that on the surface appeared to be ambitious, but in reality served mostly to enable my procrastination.  Then the client asked me about the invoice.  I was so embarrassed!

As I worked on the detailed, multi-page invoice, I thought about what I might do to simplify the process, so that I could easily generate scheduled invoices and would be motivated to do so.  Invoicing for a project fee is much easier than the hourly rate version and it was project fee invoices plus the job income  that sustained me while I neglected the hourly invoice.  Here’s what I recommend (my business accountant friend approves):

Collect in advance

Whether the assignment is paid by hourly rate or project fee, collect a percentage at the contract signing or email-documented agreement (20 % – 35 % of the project fee, or an estimate of the first months’ billable hours).  Discuss with the client a mutually agreeable invoicing schedule and honor it.

Create two all-purpose invoice templates

In the top left of a Word document, type in your name and/or DBA as the vendor, tax I.D. and contact info. This will become the permanent part of your template.  Below that, type in separate lines  for the client name, date, project deliverables, total amount of the project fee and the amount of the invoice.  All you’ll need to do is copy the template, drop in the specifics and presto! You’ll have an invoice to send.

The hourly rate template will have a cover sheet that is similar to the project fee template, but with the lines for rate (the dollar amount you’re charging/hour) and hours (total billable for this invoice) substituted for the project fee info.  A second page of the hourly rate template will have lines for four “week of” headings, ready for you to insert the dates and specifics of your weekly client work.

Either invoice can be used for retainer contracts.  If you are brought in to work a standard number of hours per month for a particular client, or you’re asked to perform predictable functions as needed throughout the year and you can reasonably estimate how often you’ll be asked to perform those services and your cost to provide them, then you can calculate invoice amounts in advance and determine a retainer fee.  If this is the case, then suggest a retainer arrangement at the next contract signing and bolster your income security.

BTW, it is not unusual to invite a client to pay the year’s (or quarter’s) retainer in advance. Offer some attractive incentives for yearly or quarterly advance payments, like a good discount or service add-ons.

On all invoice templates, indicate how the check should be made out (your name or DBA) and indicate that the invoice is due immediately (although it is accepted practice to pay invoices within 30 days). Finally, state that it is a pleasure doing business with your client.

Invoice on time

Whatever the agreed-upon payment schedule, be sure to follow it (not more than one week late). When you honor the invoicing schedule, you communicate to clients that getting paid within 30 days, if not sooner, is what you expect and deserve.  Timely invoicing also benefits your clients, who will be able to better manage their own accounts payable and cash-flow.  If you start to bring in more lucrative assignments, investigate the process of accepting credit card payments.  You’ll be paid faster, but a small processing fee will be deducted.

Invoice as marketing collateral

To date, my invoices are created on an unembellished Word document, but that is about to change.  I plan to align my invoice design with my other marketing collaterals.  Very soon, I’ll design an invoice PDF that contains a scan of my (lovely) business card, that will appear at center top.  All the other info will be written as described here.  You can also investigate free invoice templates in an online search.

In our hyper-competitive business environment, where clients hold the keys and seem to be looking for reasons to cancel projects that Freelance consultants depend upon, it is imperative that we project professionalism.  All interactions with clients, from the first meeting, to the excellence of our work and concluding with an accurate and timely invoice, must reflect well on our brand.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

 

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5 Customer Survey Questions That Work

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Every once in a while, it makes sense to address your client feedback metric, so that you will receive some lived-experience insight into your operation’s strengths and weaknesses.  You need to learn what can be done better, which service delivery or other operational processes might be simplified and what clients would like to see more of.

The smartest way to begin the client feedback process is to decide what you want to know and what purpose that information will serve.  Are you trying to develop new products or services, so that you’ll be able to give clients what they want before they know they want it? Or is business dwindling and you’re in damage control mode, attempting to win back clients?

Some market research questions are best explored through the eyes of clients and others around the conference table with your leadership team (or maybe your front-line staff, who have loads of on-the-ground experience that they’d love to share). Let’s examine when it makes sense to query your clients and when you’ll learn more from in-house research.  Given below are five standard yet very clever survey questions, some that apply to clients and others that apply to you and your team:

  1. What are the challenges that clients (in a given industry or category) are facing?
  2. Which of these problems is our organization equipped to address?
  3. What solutions are we offering now and what can we/should we add, re-tool, or quit?
  4. How effective are our solutions—what do clients most often hire us to do?
  5. What do we do next?

Note that questions 1 and 4 would best be put to your clients and that questions 2, 3 & 5 involve business strategy and would be addressed in-house, once you’ve spoken with selected clients to figure out questions 1 and 4.

How you conduct the client survey deserves some thought, as well. It might be best for Freelance consultants and small business owners to run a low-key survey by setting up an environment that enables comfortable and candid conversation.  Consider making the process informal and perhaps even seemingly impromptu.  Larger companies may feel comfortable running a formal focus group, perhaps facilitated by an outside market research firm.

Question 1: What are the primary challenges facing your client’s organization?

Whether the client comes to you or you go the client, start by asking a “how are things going in your office” question, or inquire about the next big project or objective (whether or not it would involve your organization). Find out what’s going on and let the client talk.

Questions 2 and 3: Which challenges do you want to solve? How will that be done?

Given the expertise and resources you have, coupled with the client’s inclination to contract for the necessary billable hours, which additional client challenges might you be asked to take on (or what can you cleverly propose to be hired to do)? Can your organization successfully deliver the desired outcomes, or will you need to subcontract some portion? Can you learn how clients are managing these responsibilities now? Is there a competitor who gets hired to do that work , or is nothing being done because the client isn’t sure what to do, or lacks the budget to complete the job?

Question 4: Have our solutions satisfactorily resolved the clients’ challenges?

What project did the client hire you to do? What are the projects that your organization is most often hired to do? How does do clients feel about your performance—is your expertise and ability to deliver the service trusted and respected by clients? Does it seem that you’ll receive more business from several of your clients, on a similar project or another type?

Question 5: What do you do next, based on client responses?

Now here is the judgment call for you and the team. The essence of the process is interpreting the data compiled.  What can you realistically do, based on the responses from clients in questions 1 and 4 and the opportunities and strengths within your organization, as noted in questions 2, 3 and 5?

Remember, it is most likely possible to beta test a new or re-tooled service  with a trusted client who would receive a reduced project fee in exchange for helping your organization to perfect the business model.

Thanks for reading,

Kim

 

 

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Freelancers: We Are the Future

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Presented for your perusal are relevant statistics and observations gleaned from the third annual “Freelancing in America” survey, conducted by the Freelancer’s Union.  According to the organization, “Freelancing in America” is the largest and most comprehensive measure of independent workers conducted in the U.S.

Who we are

In 2015 55 million of our fellow citizens, representing 35% of the nation’s workforce,  participated in the Freelance economy to greater or lesser degree and we earned $1 trillion.  The survey found that 63 % of us were Freelancers by choice, rather than by necessity, and we enjoy this way of working.  Freelancers reported feeling positive about our work and 79 % preferred Freelancing to traditional employment.  We’re much more likely than our traditionally employed counterparts to feel respected, empowered and engaged in our working environment.  The survey assigned categories to different types Freelancing:

  1. Independent contractors (35 %, 19.1 million) — Full-time Freelance Consultants whose only income is derived from client work.
  2. Diversified workers (28 %, 15.2 million)– Freelance Consultants who regularly do client work, but provide themselves a guaranteed income floor by working part-time (maybe as an adjunct professor at a local college or maybe as a bartender and possibly both!).
  3. Moonlighters (25 %, 13.5 million)– those who take occasional side projects along with their traditional employment.
  4. Freelance business owners (7 %, 3.6 million)– Full-time Freelance Consultants who put together a more-or-less permanent team to form a consultancy, so that more complex and lucrative client work can be taken on.
  5. Temporary workers (7 %, 3.6 million)

What we like

Flexibility is a huge perceived benefit for the majority of Freelance Consultants and 60 % felt that a Freelance Consulting career is a respectable choice.  Further, more than 50 % of workers who left full-time employment to join the Freelance economy were able to earn more money within the first year of Freelancing.  46 % of us raised our project fees/hourly rates in 2015 and 54 % said they planned to do so in 2016.

Serious challenges

Money is an issue for Freelancers.  Survey respondents reported that adequate billable hours, negotiating fair project fees or hourly rates and receiving timely payment of invoices (or receiving full payment of accounts receivable) could be problematic.  On average, full-time Freelance Consultants obtain 36 billable hours/week. When the billable hourly rate or project fee is considered inadequate,  cash-flow is impacted and there can be a struggle to meet financial obligations.  As a result, the survey also found that debt is a real concern for us Freelancers.

Access to health insurance and retirement benefits remain major concerns.  Full-time Freelance Consultants rank medical and dental insurance as a primary concern; 20 % of us have no health insurance.  Of those who had health insurance, 54 % faced increased premium rates or deductibles in 2015 as compared to 2014.

Surprisingly, the matter of retirement funding was not addressed by the survey.  Freelance Consultants, unless we are moonlighters who have full-time traditional employment or we’re married to a spouse who receives that important benefit, must completely self-fund our retirement and many millions of us do not have the income to build a worthwhile retirement account. Please see my recent post on retirement planning for Freelancers Exit Strategy: The Retirement Plan

Shaping the future

As traditional full-time, middle class paying employment continues to disappear, the ranks of Freelance Consultants can only increase, making us a fast-growing segment of the American workforce.  Sadly, politicians have paid no attention whatsoever to either our special challenges or our voting-bloc potential.

85 % of survey respondents said that they planned to vote in the 2016 election cycle.  If that statistic can be applied to the entirety of Freelance Consultants in this country (and I feel it is unrealistically optimistic) it would represent nearly 47 million voters, more than enough to influence a presidential election.  70 % of survey respondents would appreciate candidates and political representatives addressing Freelancer needs, because no matter how lovely things may be for the chosen few who command lucrative project fees, Freelance Consultants (and most part-time workers) are vulnerable.

The holiday season approaches and that means drastically fewer billable hours will be available to the vast majority of us, as many clients limit work from about December 15 to January 2.  We will not receive holiday pay for Veteran’s Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s Day.  How do we fund our retirement accounts and buy health insurance when it may be all we can do to cover basic living expenses? We need political representation, advocates and activism.  The Freelancer’s Union is what we have now.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/24/business/freelancers-union-tackles-concerns-of-independent-workers.html

Thanks for reading,

Kim

 

 

Marketing , Leave a comment

The Rewards of Awards

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I’ve just spent a month as a  preliminary round judge for a prominent international business award’s Women in Business category.  I’ve judged the preliminary round four times now and I still consider it a great honor to have been invited to do so.  The judging is done online.  Entrants in my queue were mostly from the U.S., but a handful were from outside of the country.  The entrants are top of their class in every way and all are prominent leaders in their organizations.

Many are employed by Fortune 500 companies and others are founders of their own enterprises, for-profit and not-for-profit.  They are amazingly capable, brave, ambitious and so very fortunate to have had their considerable talents recognized, encouraged and rewarded.  Reading their approximately 700 word entry summaries gave me a glimpse of how effective leaders set priorities, rally their teams and achieve extraordinary goals that not infrequently have national and global impact.

The awards were first presented in 2002 and there are several thousand entrants each year.  There are numerous award categories within the Women in Business segment, including Executive of the Year, Maverick, Young Entrepreneur and so on. There are other award categories that recognize men for significant business achievements as well.  The entry fee is less than $50.  Entrants obtain access to all of the judges comments, which are no doubt instructive.  Basically, you don’t walk away empty handed if you enter, but do not win, an award.  It appears that highly successful Freelance consultants need not shy away from the awards and in fact, would be wise to include an award strategy in their brand development activities.

Nominating  yourself for a business award is one heck of a clever business promotion strategy.  Getting  your brand story in front of a panel of judges, who are often well-connected movers and shakers, is a wonderful way to get on the radar screen of influential players who may have a need for your talent, or may know someone who does.  Plus, if you’re able to read the judges’ comments, you’ll get some helpful feedback that can be considered coaching.

If you do get lucky and win an award, you will be called to the podium to make your acceptance speech–your  chance to shine, however briefly.  Not only that, but the award sponsor always gives quality PR to winners in every category. You’ll get an electronic version of the award to upload to your website and social media profiles.  You’ll have a reason to send press releases of your own to media outlets, right along with the awards sponsor.

Winning a business award is surpassed only by winning an A-List client to add to your roster.  Awards bring prestige, credibility, visibility, new clients and good referrals to your business.  The application process is likely to be time-consuming,  but I dare say that you’ll be the better for it regardless of the outcome.

Step 1 is to identify an award that you have a reasonable chance of winning. Pursuing a small local award in your first attempt is advisable.  Step 2 is to join the association or professional group that sponsors the award and Step 3 is to attend  organization events, get to know people and join a committee.  In about two years, once you’ve built some solid relationships, Step 4 is to nominate yourself for an award or ask a fellow member to do so.  If you can win an award or two at a smaller organization, then investigate Awards given by larger and more prestigious groups.

Be aware of the obligations that are attached to nominating yourself and especially, of becoming a finalist.  Finalists may be expected to buy a table at the awards luncheon or dinner and that will mean perhaps ten $35 or $50 tickets.  If you win, there is also the price of the award itself, which may cost $100 – $300.  If you nominate yourself you’ll have to buy at least one ticket and if you’re a finalist, then you must also look fabulous, dressed in a great suit, with your hair cut and color in good shape and your make-up expertly applied.  Consider it all as a marketing expense and take it off on your taxes (you can make it work).

When in business, investments must be made and whether you are a Freelance consultant or Executive Vice President at a multinational corporation, in this millenium we must recognize that we have a personal brand to develop and nurture. Accolades and financial rewards are bestowed upon those who package and present themselves well.

Thanks for reading,

Kim