We have all been there. Short on time, short of work and, above all, short of money in your pocket!
You keep checking your online bank account waiting for miracle money to get in, refreshing your email checking if someone wants to offer you a job out of the blue, your memories wander to your 9-to-5 job routine and you start blaming yourself for your poor choices.
You don’t go out for days, you don’t see friends, and if you meet them you just spend your time complaining about not having any job at the moment.
And you’re so anxious about your situation that you can’t help yourself but bidding all jobs you find on Upwork, Fiverr and so on. Law of averages tells you’re going to get the next one, doesn’t it?
If this description fits your situation, well…just stop and take a deep breath.
At the very beginning of my freelance experience I was bidding everything I found, literally EVERYTHING. I tried to stretch myself to adapt to different tasks, sending different portfolios and discounting my rates right away.
Now I know that this is no way to start a freelancing business.
But at the time, I got really desperate and stressed out. I was trying so hard to get my first freelance job that I forgot anything and anybody else. My only concerns were money and jobs. I was literally driving my boyfriend crazy. And I can tell my dog was pretty unhappy too!
At some point I was so tired of the bitching being I became that I had to stop and ask myself what I was doing wrong.
But, for the ones of you thinking that this is the same old story of the “freelance wannabe” facing reality, let’s take a little step back.
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When I quit my corporate job to start as freelance, I knew it wasn’t going to be that easy but neither I imagined it was going to be that tough.
I did not expect to achieve the “work for 4 hours a week” dream, lying on a sandy beach in Bali while sipping my tequila sunrise. I knew it was just bulls**t.
I was eager to work (and to work a lot!), to challenge myself, to study and learn new things.
I already had few good friends who had been working as freelance since forever and we had many chats about the topic, how hard it can be sometimes, how much more discipline you need, how it’s not all rainbows and butterflies as someone out there describe.
So it was crystal clear to me, since the beginning, that this job is not easy and cannot just be your backup plan.
But still, why wasn’t it working out at all for me?
The problem was I had no strategy.
Without doubt there is a lot of competition out there, but I did not make a plan before climbing into the ring.
First, I didn’t properly think of a niche I wanted to work in, I was just bidding everything I felt like “I can kinda do this” job and apply, without even giving a second thought.
So the first step was to think about what I was able to do and what I really wanted to do. I asked myself how my freelance profile should have been like and spent some time to build it accordingly.
This means that you should choose a field you can really be good in, apply for that kind of jobs and leave the others.
Moreover, I realized my applications were poor, and so were my cover letters. I guess they were only a concrete proof of my despair.
As a matter of fact, clients can tell if you’re desperate. It can be by your voice, by the way you write your cover letter, by keeping your rates low. You appear not valuable and not in demand.
You show you are not confident about your skills.
And this was exactly what was happening to me. My compulsive bidding was giving voice to my fears, my personal doubts. I was self-sabotaging and telling my clients all the good reasons to not hire me.
So, this awareness brought me to pay more attention to the subtle messages I was sending out there, choosing my words carefully and taking the risk to not lower the rates.
This takes more time and fewer applications but it pays back. Quality over quantity is the key.
For the record, with this new mindset I got my first freelance job after six applications (a very small number compared with all the previous attempts!) and I’ve made a living out of it since then.
And you? What’s your experience about “compulsive bidding”? Share your story in the comments.
