If you've ever heard us speak at a conference or seminar, you may have heard us mention that one of the reasons we're successful is that we work hard at not making simple mistakes. In our opinion, there's a simple mistake some freelances make that can kill a project just as it's about to start. That is, insisting on a project initiation fee.

In case you're not familiar with this term, a project initiation fee is a portion of the agreed-to fee that is paid up front before the work begins. Insisting on a project initiation fee isn't a "newbie thing." We've heard about freelances with quite a few years' experience insisting on project initiation fees, too.

Before we go any further, we want to explain one thing. If a client wants to give you money up front,

DON'T TURN IT DOWN!

Once we had a client insist that we not start work until after we'd received the first check. Wow, what a thrill. But this has only happened to us once, and we have nearly 50 combined years of freelancing experience. We also don't want to imply that you're doing something wrong if you have a client who is accustomed to you charging a project initiation fee. If a client is willing to pay it, why not charge it? But for the rest of us, project initiation fees can be a real nonstarter. Literally.

Most of our clients are medical communications companies, medical education companies, and medical advertising agencies. As we've explained before, we prefer to work with these companies rather than directly for manufacturers because one good medical communications company client brings us work from several manufacturers. The business growth is exponential! But our clients don't have the luxury of getting up-front payments from their clients. So if we insisted on charging a project initiation fee to get started on an assignment, we'd be taking money from their cash flow, which doesn't make us very good business partners. This is one of the challenges of running a freelance business as a business, and we find the partnerships we have with our clients are strengthened by the cement of this type of good business practice.

Does that mean you should never charge a project initiation fee? There are occasions when it might be a good idea to do so, for example, if you've been hired by a healthcare professional to write a book. This type of project can drag on forever and by asking for a portion of the money up front you are ensuring the person hiring you has some skin in the game (see Dollars and Sense). When working on larger projects, it's not unusual for us to break invoicing into smaller chunks according to the deliverables. When we do this, we sometimes send an invoice upon project initiation so the first payment arrives around the same time the first deliverable is due.  

DOLLARS & SENSE

Mind the Gap!          

We're now in the process of putting together our personal-appearance schedules for 2014. If you'd like us to come and speak at an event you're organizing, don't wait too long to contact us. Our schedule is filling fast!

Last week we gave our first webinar of 2014 to the writers at INC Research. What fun being part of the company's continuing-education initiative!   

We're waiting to hear whether our proposals were accepted for the 2014 AMWA Annual Conference, The deadline for submission has passed. Did you get your proposal in on time?

We would love to present at your next upcoming meeting or event, so invite us!

How to Avoid Pitching All Balls and No Strikes       

Pitchers threw out the first pitches of the 2014 Major League Baseball season just over a week ago, and you can bet they and their catchers spent the off season studying up on their opponents. The key to success on the mound is knowing exactly how to place a pitch to capitalize on the batters' strengths and weaknesses. Marketing yourself as a freelance medical writer is no different.

If you've been pitching all balls and no strikes when it comes to your marketing efforts, take a step back to figure out why your tactics are missing the mark. There are lots of little reasons writers' marketing efforts fail, but in our opinion the 2 biggest reasons are because writers:

1. Aren't clear about the type or types of writing they want to do--regulatory, educational, or promotional
2. Haven't done a good enough job identifying the companies that buy that type of writing

Let's tackle the first reason, not having a clear vision about the type of medical writing you want to do. Your educational and professional background and past work experiences can help to clarify the type of writing you want to pursue. Perhaps you are a nurse who is proficient at communicating complex disease information to patients and their families. Then, writing patient-education materials might be for you. Or maybe you're a bench scientist with experience writing about the results of laboratory experiments. You might want to look into regulatory writing. We know this sounds a little bit like homework, but we recommend sitting down with a piece of paper and being very specific about what you bring to the table from your past experiences and translating that into the kinds of deliverables you want to create.

Next let's look at reason #2, failing to identify the right potential clients. There is nothing more deflating than creating marketing materials and crafting an email cover letter only to receive a response that says, "Sorry, we don't do that kind of writing," or "We don't hire freelances." Building a contact list isn't a difficult task, but it does take time to investigate companies to determine if their needs mesh with what you have to offer. Granted, the Internet makes it easy to identify potential customers, but don't just grab a list of medical communication agencies you found through a Google search and send your marketing materials willy-nilly. Dig a little deeper to find out whether the companies are a good fit.

Before pitching them, make sure you're clear about:

• The types of projects they handle, ie, their capabilities
• The types of clients they work with
• Whether or not they even hire freelances
• The name of the person you should be pitching

Never send a marketing pitch to the dreaded, "To Whom It May Concern." If you can't find the name of the medical writing manager, creative director, or human resources manager through the company's website, you need to make a phone call or two. If that doesn't get you the information, then become a cyber sleuth on LinkedIn or Facebook. It's amazing what you can find through social media connections.

We recognize that marketing is tough but if you want your business to succeed you have to do it. Nevertheless, even with a well-targeted pitch you still have a 33% chance of getting one of these responses:

• We're not interested
• We like what we see but we don't have anything right now; we'll keep your materials on file
• We want to talk with you about an upcoming project