Rice-A-Roni and Writing™ - A Guest Article
I just ate my last box of Rice-A-Roni. I bought 10 boxes on sale a long time ago, never intending to have to eat the stuff five days in a row. A full-time freelance writer of two glorious months, I have now been rudely reminded that to get the glory, one must have guts. At the very least, a gut that can stomach Rice-A-Roni five days in a row.
It all started with a broken-down truck and an obligatory annual family trip. We could sail through these expenses, I kept telling myself. I had a big freelance gig coming through with payment soon and we would be just fine.
But you know what happened? The freelance gig paid two weeks late. As the rent due date crawled ever nearer, I pulled my hair out, lost sleep and finally e-mailed freelancing pros Anne Wayman and Deb Ng for some very helpful advice. I can write this with some clarity now, as the Paypal payment came through this morning and is en route to my bank.
I’ve learned some things from this experience:
Be persistent – Don’t just roll over. I finally got results after 10 e-mails and three phone calls.
Demand upfront payment – Never start a project without upfront payment. This will help pay your bills and make clients feel more committed to the project.
Plan ahead – Never take financial chances, counting on a payment to come through. Keep a rainy day fund (ours was depleted by recent truck repairs).
Research your client – Do you know who you’re working for? I didn’t. This story would have gone differently had I done research on the front end. Don’t forget about the Better Business Bureau.
Weigh the merits – For simple web content articles, this was generous pay. Best of all, it was steady and ongoing work, I thought. So I heedlessly plunged in head-first and, in the end, decided that no amount of money – no matter how steady – is worth that stress.
10 ways to fix Rice-A-Roni – In fairness to the “San Francisco Treat,” it’s really not so bad. You toss frozen vegetables in there and it’s like a whole different meal.
I still love freelance writing – The instant support and advice from Deb and Anne reiterated how freelancers watch out for each other. Then there’s the fact that freelancing has brought me better pay than newspaper reporting. Yes, it’s a cut above the old days of Ramen noodles.
Hayli Morrison is a credit card blogger for Banks.com.
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10 opinions for Rice-A-Roni and Writing™ - A Guest Article
2chey
Sep 6, 2007 at 2:55 pm
Valuable guest article. I appreciate the pov and the hard-learned lesson, I’ll remember it for sure as I freelance more. Kind of want to try rice-a-roni now too.
Writing Nag
Sep 6, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Good advice Hayli! Thanks for the advice…where can I find your Rice-A-Roni article ; )
Angela Williams Duea
Sep 6, 2007 at 4:35 pm
I’ve been there - recently! Sometimes I want to work on a particular job enough that I jump in - and have had some sleepless nights as a result. You have some good tips for me to remember. How do you meet/connect with other writers for support?
Dean Rieck
Sep 7, 2007 at 12:54 am
I always ask for 50% upfront from all first time clients. There are no exceptions. This helps to separate the serious clients from the less than serious clients.
Of course, I’m in the corporate freelance world. I don’t know if that works so much when you’re doing magazine writing or something where the person hiring is following a set of standard rules for payment.
One thing to watch out for: when the person hiring you isn’t the same person paying you. I have a client who uses an outside service to process checks. When something goes wrong with the outside service, my client can’t do anything about it. It’s only been a problem a couple times, but it was for large amounts. And it makes for difficult conversations with the client.
Anne Wayman
Sep 7, 2007 at 8:54 am
connecting with other writers… I’ll blog about that, thanks.
Dana
Sep 7, 2007 at 9:38 pm
Paypal payment turns up in my account at 5:26 pm two business days after the transfer occurs. Every one out of 12-15 times (or so) it fails to happen until the next day for no apparent reason.
I (honest!) had a rice-a-roni dinner not that long ago due to one of those failures. I threw in kidney beans and frozen vegetables with the Spanish rice a roni and it was freakin’ awesome.
Paypal payment was there the next day and we went to Pizza Hut LOL.
alicia
Sep 9, 2007 at 6:41 am
AWESOME article. I could have used these tips, oh, about a year and a half ago, haha. It wasn’t until an event last summer that I realized any of this.
Anne Wayman
Sep 9, 2007 at 9:04 am
glad you’ve got it now ;)
Denise
Sep 11, 2007 at 8:09 pm
Boy can I relate! But my Rice a Roni was tuna fish. Great article and tips. Thanks for an enjoyable read and a reminder of the slim days.
Anne Wayman
Sep 12, 2007 at 10:44 am
Isn’t it great when it gets “un slim”?
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