Jovan Cicmil's Blog - Negotiations

How To Handle Clients Asking You To Lower Your Rates

May 17, 2023

Of all the things clients do to freelancers, asking you to lower your rates mid-project might be the most treacherous. It might be worse than being ghosted. When a client disappears, you know where you stand. Being asked to lower your rates after you’ve started work feels demeaning. But, it’s not always an act of malice. Sometimes, it’s a justified business move. It’s happened to me ...

How To Double Your Rate as a Freelance Writer

May 3, 2023

Imagine you’re a freelance writer charging $0.50/word. How hard do you think it would be to grow your rate to $1/word? How many hours of practice? How many referrals? How many writing samples? How many years of hard work? What if I told you that pricing is a function of positioning rather than a function of delivery? In other words, it’s a function of marketing skills rather than ...

How To Avoid Getting Cheated by Freelance Clients

March 8, 2023

One of the most common questions I get asked is: how do I avoid scams? Beginner freelancers are deathly afraid of being cheated by clients. This fear is often valid. There are malicious clients out there scheming for ways to wrangle free work out of you. Some disappear when you send an invoice. Some try to ...

How I Reduced My Earnings by 14% With a Single Email

June 24, 2022

Tired of stories about how people got crazy returns from a single brilliant move? They’re everywhere these days. There were probably a couple on the page where you clicked on this article. Not to worry — I’ve got you covered. Here’s an (arguably more instructive) story about how I cheated myself out of thousands of dollars with a single wiseguy move. On being far-sighted… In ...

How To Deal With Difficult Freelance Clients

December 20, 2021

Most of my clients over the last decade have been wonderful and easy to work with. I attribute this partly to luck and partly to my ever-growing standards. However, I’ve had my share of difficult clients, particularly in the first couple of years of my freelance career. Here are five types of freelance clients that are difficult to work with and how to handle each one. How to handle ...

How to Write Follow-up Messages That Generate Clients and Close Deals

August 18, 2021

Following up with prospective clients is tricky business. There’s a fine line between a confident, entrepreneurial message and a spammy ping notification that serves no purpose other than to irritate the person on the other end. During my decade of freelance experience, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to experiment with different approaches to communication. I’ve also had the ...

The Two-Step System for Getting a Better Deal From Marketing Agencies

August 6, 2021

A digital marketing agency reached out to me a few days ago with an offer to promote my recently released book. The exchange didn’t go well, but it was highly instructive and I believe I’ve discovered a neat two-step approach to filter marketing offers. Their proposal was simple: for a flat fee of $2,000, they will promote my book to a number of top industry blogs and get me featured on a ...

Pricing Freelance Projects: Everything You Need To Know

April 11, 2021

Building a freelance career is unique in that each year can require new skills and new adaptations. One thing that remains constant is the necessity of good pricing. During almost a decade of freelance work, I have encountered every kind of project — from shifting a website menu item slightly to the left to ...

Six Ways Emotions Can Make You Fail as an Entrepreneur

March 19, 2021

Entrepreneurs talk a lot about common problems: building a product, reaching customers, getting funding, and hiring the right people. On the other hand, there is little talk about the things going on within the entrepreneur’s own mind that can make or break their plans. Here are some ways psychology can stand in the way of success. Being prepared for potential problems is half the cure. ...

Should Freelancers Charge Fixed-Price or Hourly?

February 24, 2021

Have you ever undercharged a client? Have you ever had a client complain that you’re overcharging them? These sorts of disputes are common in the freelance world. Many come down to one simple mistake: charging a fixed price when you should be charging an hourly rate, or vice-versa. The choice should be made for each individual project and based on several variables. With this in mind, I ...

How I Negotiated the Sale of My Bootstrapped Business

December 2, 2020

There are probably more articles out there about starting a business and running a business than you can read in a lifetime. But, what about selling a business? If your business is successful, you will eventually want to cash out. For major successes, this can take the form of going public by listing the business in the stock market. For minor ones, you will usually be acquired by a larger ...

How To Upsell to Clients as a Freelancer

April 30, 2020

If I have learned something in ten years of freelancing, it is that the best kind of client is a repeat client. The overhead of searching for new projects, applying, interviewing, vetting clients and acquainting yourself with the project is immense. This is why it’s very important to regularly search for opportunities to extend your relationship with your existing clients. The trick is doing it ...