I shared my own story here yesterday about not being paid by a client but my friend’s story is a little bit different because the client pulled the job prior to it being completed. My friend worked a few hours on these graphics, trying to bring the client’s vision to life, but the client decided to go with another designer. Certainly, that is the client’s perogative but should the first designer get paid, even if it wasn’t what the client wanted in the job?

Absolutely yes.

It’s certainly unfortunate that the communication broke down between my friend and her client but once she sat down to begin working, the time clock began. And that’s not just for those who work at home. Advertising agencies and lawyers immediately come to mind as those who keep timesheets and bill by the hour. No matter if you’re on a phone call with the client or actually designing, time spent on the project should be billed.

In fairness, I don’t know the exact details of my friend’s plight. Maybe she didn’t ask enough questions, maybe the client was vague about what she wanted the final project to convey. No matter the reason, this type of thing happens everyday to freelancers and you need to have a plan of how to avoid this situation.

1. Use simple contracts for each project. Contracts don’t have to be long or jammed with legal jargon to be effective. Write down all the aspects of the job as you understand them along with deadlines, client expectations, and payment policies. Be sure your client initials the section about being charged for any work that is done, even if they change freelancers midway through a job.

2. Ask questions. Getting a clear explaination from the client about what the final product should convey is difficult if you’re sitting face to face in a conference room and can become more challenging when conducting business online. Ask as many questions as necessary to clearly understand the project and make sure your client is available if additional information is needed.

3. Determine how many rounds of changes are included in your price. Very often designers will limit the number of changes per project to avoid having a fickle client changing his mind every minute. This is especially important if you’re charging a flat project fee rather than an hourly rate. Even if you’re charging hourly, keep your client informed how much additional money these changes will cost.

4. Be willing to share your timesheets. If a client is complaining that something is taking too long to complete, have a hard copy of your timesheet ready to show and be willing to answer any questions. Keep accurate notes on each timesheet entry so the client can clearly see which aspect of the project you worked on and when. I highly recommend Freshbooks for their timesheet and report capabilities.

Without a doubt, some clients will need more hand holding than others, some will be super picky, and some will still balk about not knowing your policies even though you have a signed contract. Use those clients to learn important lessons and be more prepared to handle future client projects.

photo credit by shadphotos

Last summer I was doing some writing work for a client who I really liked and he asked if I had time to do a writing assignment for a friend of his. This was easy – 5 blog posts – so I said yes.

All freelancers reading this, PLEASE learn from my mistake!

Being the trusting soul that I am, I did not require payment up front nor did I even think to ask for half payment upfront. I was more focused on doing the job and getting that extra $100 into my bank account that it never crossed my mind. Afterall, I had never had issues with clients and non payment before so why would it start with this client?

Foolish attitude!

After I completed the 5 blog posts (which fortunately did NOT take that much time) I heard from the client that she loved them. I was thrilled that she was happy because I was hoping for a regular gig. So I went along and sent my handy dandy PayPal invoice.

Weeks went by and I received no payment. After sending some friendly inquiring emails, I got the standard response, “Oh, I missed seeing the invoice.” Then I heard, “The company doesn’t have a credit card; can we send you a check?” Figuring this would be the only way to get my money, I agreed and sent her my mailing address.

Needless to say (and I’m sure you’ve probably guessed by now) I’m STILL waiting for that check.

Lesson learned.

Here are some tips so you can avoid this exact situation. You work too hard to be stiffed!

1. Develop a payment policy and stick with it! Paypal is the easiest way for freelancers to accept online payments but you can’t force someone to pay that invoice. Many freelancers require half payment upfront before any work is started and then bill for the remaining 50% upon completion of the job. If a client is willing to give some payment upfront, they are most likely serious business people.

2. Discuss this payment policy with each client. Just as important as having a policy is making sure ALL your clients KNOW about the policy and agree to it. Don’t just put it somewhere on your website and “assume” that your clients will see it. Tell the clients about the policy either in your contact email or phone call, direct them to the page on your website to read, and have them sign a payment agreement before you start the job.

3. Consider charging a late payment fee. While it’s unlikely to receive payment within 24 hours of sending an invoice, freelancers shouldn’t have to wait longer than 10 days to receive payment. Sometimes a late fee will be a percentage of the total bill or it could be a flat dollar amount. Again, let your clients know about this ahead of time and send followup emails prior to charging the late fee. This might be the incentive they need to get the invoice paid.

4. Develop a collections plan if no payment is received. So, what’s your plan to get paid if your client disappears? You can register a PayPal grievance but that only works if your client has a PayPal account (mine did not). You can also pursue payment through small claims court or, if the amount is substantial, you can hire a contingency fee-based collections attorney.

No one likes to think of doing work with unscrupulous clients but sometimes things like this do happen. Thinking of these problems and solutions when you BEGIN your business can only help you in the future.

photo image by bertop

Here is Part Two of my interview with Jan:

6. What are the qualifications a successful Author’s Assistant has?

A successful virtual author’s assistant knows how to provide the 24 services (or can choose to specialize in just some of them), but beyond that, I think there is an attitude and mindset that makes people successful.  Authors don’t know what they don’t know, so the VAA is part teacher and part collaborator, plus providing the assistant services.

While many VA’s accomplish what their clients ask them to, the VAA is often taking the lead in helping the author know what he or she needs, not just following a list of tasks.  There is a level of professionalism in the traditional book publishing industry that we teach VAA’s so that they can help their authors create a superior product, one just as well done as anything you would see in a bookstore.

So the really successful VAA takes initiative, likes variety, is good with both the big picture and details, is resourceful and doesn’t mind doing a lot of educating in the process.  If you really like books, this is a particularly gratifying job.  You get to see new books come out and most authors acknowledge the author’s assistant in the book itself which is especially fun.  It is wonderful to be a part of a tangible product – I have a bookshelf full of books I helped with and most VAA’s do, too.

7. How long is your training course? What topics are covered in the course?

The training course is self-paced and includes 37 short slidecast videos, where we take you through the web pages you will be working with.  It also includes 47 checklists, tools, planners and hundreds of links as resources.  When you register for the course you get the key to a password-protected web site that is the official headquarters for working VAA’s and those in training.

You can choose to take the course in a planned 30-day curriculum or take it subject-by-subject in any order you wish.  The 30-day structure is great for people brand new to virtual working, because it includes business set up information as well as the 24 services.  But for VA’s who might have a brand new client who needs something specific next week, they can go right to that item, learn it and use it, and come back to the other subjects as they have time.

We have had people finish the entire course in a long weekend when they were really motivated, but it takes an hour to two hours a day for 30 days, typically, so the participant can keep doing other work and learn this material at the same time.

8. When students finish the course, do they need any further training or are they ready to accept clients?

We have practice exercises throughout the course which simulate the experience of doing the actual tasks you will be performing with authors, so we think people are ready to go when they finish.  We also give sample language, emails, a proposal, an author’s assistant contract and many other tools to make the transition from learning to working as seamless as possible.

But, of course, we recognize that no matter how well prepared, most people are tentative when they take on something brand new.  It takes experience to have that really deep mastery of any subject, but we’ve done our best to use our experience to get them to that point as fast as possible.

I feel strongly that we best serve our clients when we work with them on what we know well and refer them to other experts when what they need is outside of our expertise and we talk a lot about what virtual author’s assistants should take on and when they should refer to someone else.  They don’t have to suddenly become book publishing experts to do this job, but after being trained they will know far more than the average person.

We think one of the biggest benefits of our training program is that it doesn’t end – ever.  We have a forum that VAA’s use to pose questions and challenges to publishing experts and their peer group.  We have live specialty classes where we help VAA’s keep up-to-date with the constantly changing book-publishing world.  And we never charge extra for any of these things.  Once you’ve taken the course, you have a place to learn, partner, collaborate and grow for the life of your business.

9. Do you teach students how to market themselves or where to find possible author clients?

Yes.  It was very important to us to get participants started right away working with authors.  Getting that all-important first client is the difference between having the confidence that you can do it and doubting it and perhaps subconsciously sending potential clients away.

We spend about 20% of the entire course work focused on marketing to authors.  We have actual marketing tools, including a video, articles, special reports and ebooks that are available to the VAA to give to authors to help them understand what a VAA does and how to work with them.

We built marketing into the 30-day curriculum, so that one of our goals is to have the VAA get his or her first client by the end of those 30 days.

We also put a lot of emphasis on selecting the right potential clients.  Not all authors make good clients.  Some are writing books as a hobby and may not have the budget for an assistant.  It is important for the VAA to know where to find good potential clients and we teach that as well as how to approach authors and how to set up a referral network that will keep the VAA stocked with clients.  We have a number of VAA’s who partner with other VAA’s so they can hand-off clients when they are too busy – yes, that actually happens!

Finally, we also have a directory of PVAA’s, the trained Professional Virtual Author’s Assistants who have completed the course. You can see that at www.AuthorsAssistants.com.  We market that heavily to writer’s groups.

10. What advice would you give to those who are struggling to make a living working from home?

It is really important to have a good set of marketable skills, have confidence in your ability to do great work for clients and get the word out.  What has really worked for me is to set up a referral network I can count on – other professionals working with authors who send their clients to me for what I uniquely do.

If you really work on setting up your own referral network, something we emphasize in the course, it will serve you well for a long time.  My author consulting business is 100% on referrals and has been for a long time.  My best source of referrals is my past clients, so doing great work for current clients is the best way you can assure yourself of future clients.  Marketing can be done in so many ways now – online, through social networking, by teaching webinars and teleclasses, in person at networking groups.  Pick what you like and what fits you and then really work it.  Persistence really does pay off!

Thank you so much, Jan, for sharing your experience and insight into the book publishing field and how VAs can develop some specialized skills for this author niche! For more information about Jan’s training program, visit VirtualAuthor’sAssistants.com

Recently I was introduced to Jan B. King, a publishing strategist and a publisher-turned-coach with over 30 years in the publishing industry.  She created a training program, VirtualAuthorsAssistants.com, especially for VAs who want to work with authors in the publishing field because this is a very high demand industry.

I love to read and this program really piqued my interest because to me, it’s very original and not a niche I ever realized existed. I always figured authors had their editors and publishing staff to do this stuff but not every author has those resources at their disposal.

Jan cordially granted me an interview about the specifics of her training program and some details about the publishing field. Here is Part 1 of our interview:

1. You’ve made your career in the book publishing industry. How did you transition from working in an office to working from home? Was it easy to do?

Yes and no.  In the physical sense, it was really easy.  I had an eight-year-old at home and being able to get him off to school and pick him up in the afternoon was just wonderful.  I live in Los Angeles, and I had a relatively short commute, about 30 minutes each way, but that saved me an hour a day at least, so I loved that part, too.

The toughest part was missing the co-workers who were long-time friends.  I had to make a real effort to get out and see them and stay connected because I couldn’t just walk into their offices any more.  I think if you don’t have work to do that you love it would be easy to be distracted, but for me the problem was working too many hours since the work was always right there.

2. What are some of the everyday tasks that are commonly performed on an author’s behalf?

When I left the corporate world and started consulting with authors and authors who were becoming their own publishers, they kept asking me for information on how to do the same things over and over.  I finally started noting them and I realized there were 24 things I was asked for most often.  These vary according to where the aspiring author or author is in the process of developing a book.

When the aspiring author is creating a manuscript, they typically ask for help in organizing their material or making sure it is all available in electronic form, in getting permissions to use quotes or statistics that were developed by others and in fact-checking or doing research.

When authors decide to publish their own books, they typically ask for help in getting the ISBN (International Standard Book Number), finding a cover designer, finding a printer, getting testimonials for the back cover and filing the copyright.

Then, for as long as an author wants a book to sell, he or she needs help in book marketing.  Authors typically ask for help in setting up their Amazon pages, doing virtual book tours, doing social networking, getting books out for review and more.

What is amazing these days is that all of these tasks can be done online or by telephone, so the job is perfect for someone working from home.  And you don’t need to be anywhere near the author geographically to do them.

3. Why did you create your course on how to become a Virtual Author’s Assistant?

When I was consulting with authors on their strategies as well as these specific services, I realized that although they were asking me for information on how to do these tasks, what they really wanted was for someone else to do it for them.  The learning curve for authors who are only going to do these things once is high and they are usually full-time busy themselves.

At the same time, I had started working part-time with a VA myself in my own business and I realized how capable she was of doing just about anything involving a phone and a computer.  In fact, she already had author clients – but she was handling customer service activities and correspondence for them rather than doing the specific publishing-related services.  It just seemed like such a natural fit for her to be able to offer more services and ones that were particularly valuable for these specific clients.

I started teaching her and then a few other VA’s how to do these things and then I started getting calls from other VA’s asking if I would work with them.  The training was just a natural next step in helping more people work with authors.  It has been great for me because I work with about 100 authors a year as a publishing strategist, and now I have people to refer authors to so I no longer have to do all the explanation I used to with the authors.  I absolutely love training and coaching VA’s because they love to learn and they are usually obsessive about details and getting things right.

4. What are the benefits to hiring a Virtual Author’s Assistant rather than a “regular” virtual assistant?

For authors, working with a virtual author’s assistant is like having the perfect collaborator for your book.  They get someone who understands the process of writing, publishing and marketing a book from A to Z, which most authors don’t.  And the VAA comes (because of our course) with two additional benefits – a referral network of editors, indexers, copywriters, book designers and more, plus they have access to publishing experts so any time the author has a new challenge, we help the VAA find the answer.

So not only does the author get all the benefits of working with a VA – great work ethic, administrative skills and the flexibility of having expertise just when the client needs it – but they also have these specialized skills and connections just for authors, aspiring authors and publishers.

Oddly enough, there is no “author school” – no place where writers can learn the skills they need to know to write a book, let alone publish or market it.  The way I learned publishing, and everyone else in the publishing industry learned publishing, is by working with more senior people, usually in a publishing company.  It is hard to describe how valuable these services are to authors, but even more how valuable the perspective of a VAA is – someone who knows the process and knows the author isn’t leaving something out that would be critical to success.

5. In general, what pay range can an Author’s Assistant command?

We ask our VAA’s this from time to time and we have heard a wide range – from $30 to $80 an hour.  One of the full-time VAA’s has reported making over $100K a year working with authors, and I don’t doubt it.  The amount charged varies by experience, geographic location and the type of services provided.  Authors tend to be willing to pay more for book marketing services, especially the newer online book marketing services like virtual book tours, Amazon campaigns and social networking.

A typical VAA will have between 4 and 7 author clients, depending on how much work they want to take on.

The demand for these services is already high and growing fast.  Even with the economic challenges, there are a record number of people becoming authors.  Up until about 2005, about 150,000 new trade (bookstore-type) books would be published every year.  That number started to grow and it has recently been announced by the people who keep those stats that over just the past 12 months, the number of new trade books has grown to 500,000 – way beyond predictions.

And here is what is especially significant – over half of that number were books published by their authors.  We couldn’t train enough author’s assistants to meet demand if wanted to!

Jan provided SO  much information about the Virtual Author’s Assistant niche that I decided to break the interview into two parts. If this niche appeals to you, check out Part 2 tomorrow and Jan’s website, VirtualAuthorsAssistants.com

While listening to her tales about her two nights away from home, I realized that business owners can learn a lot from the camping experience. Here’s a run down for those of you who wouldn’t be caught dead sleeping in a tent, not showering, or using a not-so-pleasant latrine:

1. Get back to basics. Being 7 years old and always having lights, computers, cell phones and television available (and flushable toilets), my daughter wasn’t quite used to using flashlights to see at nighttime or having to cook her food over the campfire. But she now has a new appreciation for all these things that we take for granted every day.

Those of us who depend on electricity and computers to make a living can’t just turn off the power and hope to make money but we can certainly explore ways to get back to business basics. Do you really need to be on all those mailing lists? Do you really need that $600 software? Are you paying monthly membership fees for programs that you’re not using? What is the bare minimum you NEED to run your business?

2. Know when to ask for help. A continuing theme throughout Girl Scouts is learning how to work together as a team. My daughter had a work team where she was paired with two other girls to do their camping chores and she also had her tent team, essentially her bunk mates. Even though the leaders are present to supervise and keep the girls safe, the girls are expected to do the work themselves, with the help of their teams. If one girls didn’t remember how to place the logs in the campfire, the other two could help teach her.

In business, we can only do so much in a 24 hour day. To reach that next level of success, we very often need to find a teammate or two who can help manage either the client work or the marketing of our own businesses. Spreading yourself too thin across your business will ultimately decrease your productivity and/or cause harm to your customer service. Knowing how and when to delegate to that teammate will help you stay focused on money-making activities.

3. Stay calm when faced with problems. The northeast has been plagued with rain and thunderstorms this last month so it was no surprise to see the dark clouds roll in during my daughter’s second night away. But those dark clouds soon led to rain, thunder, lightening AND hail, none of which make the camping experience fun. But they made the most of it by putting on plays for each other under the pavillion shelter and singing songs.

Not all businesses run smoothly. You can experience setbacks from the moment you open your doors or maybe a few months into your business when clients don’t have as much work to delegate. How you react to these circumstances will ultimately tell you if you’ll be successful or not. Someone who is flexible and keeps their cool can ride the rough waters but others who stress at the first bad thing to come along might be more likely to give up.

And here’s the last lesson for today: HAVE FUN! Enjoy these summer months with your family and friends. If you find that you’re working too much, figure out what changes you can make so YOU run your business rather than your BUSINESS running you.

However, that doesn’t mean that my client calendar is empty and as I remember well from last summer, this 11 week break is tough when it comes to balancing work and family. That’s why I’ve decided to try out some new time management tips to keep both my clients and my kids happy.

Let me just say that time management is not easy for me. While both girls were at school I had 7 full hours of uninterrupted time to work but do you think I actually billed 7 hours a day? No way. As any WAHM will tell you the distractions of working from home are many. Add to that the appeal of social media (Twitter is my fave!) and you’ve got a multitude of things all vying for your attention.

But my husband suggested that I break up my days into sessions, such as 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the afternoon/evening. Brilliant man! It sounds so easy but as I know from experience, putting time management into practice is challenging enough when school is in session, never mind when the kids are at home all day. However, self imposed breaks actually help to regain your focus and it will make the kids happy that you have time to spend with them.

For some reason I work better under deadline pressure so this short-session strategy might actually work. Knowing that a deadline is looming helps me to focus and complete the project more quickly. I’ve also told the kids that television viewing will be significantly decreased this summer so maybe my morning work session will be their chance to watch tv.

So for today, I’m testing out the 2 hour work session theory. I started at 7am and will work til 9am. After lunch I’ll work from 1pm to 3pm and if necessary I’ll work from 8pm to 10pm tonight. Sounds easy enough, right? As they say, it takes 3 weeks to form a new habit so if this works (fingers crossed) maybe this can carry over to when school starts.

Hold on a second…I need to take this one day at a time…

Working from home during the summer months requires some flexibility because not every day will be the same. Kids will have different needs, camp schedules might be different, surprise playdates might be scheduled. But it IS possible to keep your family and your clients happy with some planning, flexibility, and communication.

What’s YOUR strategy for working at home this summer?

We are pleased to welcome a new Freelance Parent to the blog this week.  Christina Lemmey has been freelancing as a home based Virtual Assistant for a couple of years now and will bring us a look into life as a internet based VA.

I’ve often been asked, “How did you decide to start your own business?” and for me it was a fairly easy decision. After being a stay at home mom for 10 years and cringing at the idea of having to go on interviews again, commuting, and putting my girls in after school care, I just knew that working from home would be the best solution.

The bigger question for me was, “What kind of business should I start?”

My husband and I had always talked about my going back to work when my youngest was in school full time. On the one hand I thought maybe this would be the perfect opportunity to start a career I really wanted rather than one dictated by my college degree but for someone who puts family high above career, I just couldn’t see myself devoting 8+ hours a day to work and missing bringing my kids to their activities.

Despite the cost of gas, I really like being the mom taxi and seeing how much they enjoy their various after school classes.

So I started researching work at home opportunities while my youngest daughter was in preschool. Luckily I had found the Internet Based Moms website and religiously read the forum questions and advice given by Alice Seba, Kelly McCausey, and Mila Sidman as well as the other more experienced forum visitors.

The idea of working in a service industry intrigued me because of the innate motherly gene in me – you know, the one that wants to take care of and help everybody. I didn’t have any products to create or promote and my corporate background was in advertising print production (which I hated) so I knew that helping other people was the way to go for me. The only question now was, “How to get started?”

When you want something badly enough, you need to listen when opportunity knocks, even if it means stepping out of your comfort zone.

By this point I was on numerous work at home mom mailing lists and received a mailing one day that Kelly McCausey was looking for a podcasting intern. Quite frankly, I barely knew what a podcast was but it was my “aha” moment – I needed to learn a new skill after being out of the workforce for 10 years and here was my chance.

Yes, I was definitely reaching outside of my comfort zone because Kelly was (and is) so well known and I felt intimidated sending in my letter and resume. But considering that I had all of 15 minutes to get this done before preschool pickup, I just bit the bullet and hit the send button. After all, to be an intern you’re not expected to know much or anything about the chosen subject. So I figured I was the perfect candidate!

Luckily for me, Kelly and I hit it off in my phone interview and I was chosen as her podcasting intern. While some people might have thought I was crazy for accepting an unpaid position, for me it was a non-issue. The experience of learning how to record, edit, publish, and promote podcasts was worth its weight in gold. And thus I decided on my type of business: multimedia production.

So internships are very powerful and if you learn from the right mentor, they can provide the basis for a new business or long term freelance opportunity.  Pay attention to what opportunities are available to you and go for the gold, even if you don’t think you’re qualified enough.

You don’t want to miss your “aha” moment.