Five Figure Writer

The freelance writer, refined.

High Income Business Writing: Client Gifting Recap

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High Income Business Writing With Ed Gandia: Client Gifting Recap

Earlier this month, I got to top my “career highlights” list by talking with Ed Gandia on his High-Income Business Writing podcast! What about? Why, client gifting, of course! (You know that’s my thing right? OK… I might not have mentioned it until now, but it’s definitely my thing.)

You can listen the episode on iTunes here, or navigate to Ed’s site and listen on your app of choice here.

But here’s the thing: I wasn’t joking when I said in the introduction of the interview that I had 10 pages of notes in front of me. And since it’s not quite natural to read 10 pages of notes in an interview where you’re having a conversation with a person, naturally I left a bit of what I’d prepared out of what we recorded. So, here’s a quick recap with a few additional points that didn’t make it into the show but that are still very important to consider when you’re building (or refining) your approach to client gifting:

My Business Story

One thing I didn’t mention on the podcast too much is my reason for wanting to freelance part-time (besides the obvious, of course). First, I have an autoimmune illness that makes an 8-hour workday a thing of the past for me. Now I can get 8-hours of work done in 3 or 4 and take a good rest… and on days when I feel terrible (which are more and more infrequent, thank God!) I can just not work entirely.

Second, I now have a son! (And a second one due at the end of this year). As you can imagine, the process of becoming a mother has completely transformed how I look at my time. Every minute I’m wasting time on the internet or stuck in a meeting I don’t want to be in is a minute away from watching him grow and getting smashed banana in my hair. Being “as autonomous as possible” as a freelancer, being able to scale my hours (and income) up and down over the months and years is invaluable to me.

Being able to scale my hours (and income) up and down over the months and years is invaluable to me.

(The Sweet Spot goes into that a little more — I’ve scaled from $57K to $89K and back down to about $63K, though of course this year isn’t finished yet. In fact, I out-earned last year in just the first 6 months of this year because I knew I had to ramp it up for my end-of-the-year maternity leave. A full-time job won’t let you do that.)

3 Major Reasons Client Gifting Is a Good Idea

In my excitement to talk to Ed, I don’t think I made it clear what the three major reasons are! So, in short list form:

1. Expressing appreciation makes you stop and feel good and it makes your client stop and feel good

No matter how little we work or how much money we make, a lot of the time freelancers get into a “busy and broke” mindset. I did that, too! So stopping to thank people became a way for me to step back and look at my P&L and say “No, things are going great, this is a viable business.” And sending new clients a cute little package in the mail is a small way to let them know things are going great for them, too. And think about it: can you really say that you can’t find time or money to send a $30 gift to a client who gave you $20,000 last year? That’s just bad math.

2. “Showing up” in this way makes you stand out

As freelancers, we’re always worried about being replaceable, or being a face in a sea of rising freelancers. Sending a tasteful (read: not brown-nosing) gift can really make clients stop and see you as a professional, not just another pen. Sometimes clients haven’t said anything or acknowledged the package at all, but sometimes they’ve email and I could hear the delight and surprise in their tone — it’s really stuck with me.

3. It’s the right thing to do

The most important reason I send client gifts is because I think it adds humanity to what we do and what our clients do. Especially in the B2B world, it’s easy to forget there’s a human on the other end. Meaningful, infrequent gifting is a way to restore that connection and help people feel recognized.

Especially in the B2B world, it’s easy to forget there’s a human on the other end.

And on a deeper level? While we as freelancers have an incredible amount of freedom in our day and in who we work with, the people we work with often don’t.

Think about this: most freelancers had a full-time job at one point. So, imagine your worst day. Feeling dull and a little trapped. Maybe frustrated with your co-workers, or just kind of like, “Why can’t all of these projects just come together already!” Then imagine how you’d feel about a vendor who went out of their way to be enthusiastic to hear from you, grateful for the work in a professional way, and obviously interested in you and your job, not just getting a paycheck and peace-ing out.

I see tasteful gifting as the freelance community’s opportunity to be the bright part of a client’s cloudy day.

High Income Business Writing With Ed Gandia: Client Gifting Recap

Potential Risks to Avoid

There are a few more risks I wanted to point out about client gifting:

1. Avoid kissing up

There’s a really fine line between “That writer who sent us that thoughtful gift” and “That gift giver who writes for us.” You don’t want to cross it by sending gifts that are too expensive or sending them too frequently.

You need to have your own internal rhythm, but for me that means not going over $75 ish, and the only time I did that was a very specific thank you for a client taking on a big expense for me. Normal for me is around $30-50 because the goal is, “Nice to meet you/know you!” not, “Nice to take your money and give me more please!”

2. Get a mailing address without being too creepy

I’ve found getting the address can be a little awkward because I often don’t need a formal mailing address to get work started when I receive deposits digitally. So the trick is to ask for a mailing address in a way that makes it clear it’s business related and not that you’re going to send spam or show up outside their door.

Something like, “Can I confirm X is the best mailing address for your office,” is better than “What’s your address?” with no details. Otherwise you might have a client worrying they’re about to get spammed, put on a catalog list, or that you’ll show up outside their door one day.

3. Deduct wisely Only deduct $25 per client per person year, so not all of this is deductible.

Only $25 per client per person per year is deductible, so you may find you’re spending more than you can claim as a business expense (I know I do). But like I said, if someone is sending you thousands of dollars, is it that crazy to send them a small gift even if you can’t expense all of it?

Here are some rules I use to make sure it’s “worth it” for me:When I’m looking at onboarding gifts, I’m looking for projects that are at least $800-1K with a strong likelihood of a long term relationship. When I’m doing year-end gifts, I’m looking at clients who spent more than $3-5K with me and will likely have recurring projects in the coming year. I also look for key people who have referred those clients to me to make sure I am saying “Thank you!” in a tangible way.

That’s all, folks!

Thank you for stopping by, thank you for listening, and thank you for thinking about thanking your clients!

Like I said in the promotional section of the podcast, my biggest project in development is a baby! This will be my second maternity leave in two years happening this October, and I hope to write about that soon.

And before that happens, I’m working with Andrea Emerson on a webinar where we’re going to take a energetic look at how to sell when you’re a regular person, not a business person, and share our experience going from selling nothing (in my case getting sweaty and doing an awkward dance after sales calls) to comfortably landing new clients several times a year. The best place to get updated about that is on the Five Figure Writer mailing list, which you can sign up for here.

Until then… waste some time on the site with my most popular three posts, and let me know in the comments if they help you!

Stop Trying to Overcome Freelance Writing Fear

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Stop Trying to Overcome Freelance Writing Fear - Sarah Greesonbach - Five Figure Writer

Eileen wrote me this email yesterday, and it was really heartfelt.

“It’s helpful to know that the fear is part of the freelance writing job,” she says. “Like, I guess, I tend to think that if I’m scared I must be doing something wrong.”

Boom.

Zap.

Zing.

Tell me you’ve never felt that way before.

That first day of high school, when you’re shaking with adrenaline that’s half excitement and half, “Where the crap is my locker?”

That first day on the job when you double-check your offer letter to make sure you didn’t hallucinate that congratulatory phone call or your benefits package.

And then… that first day you ask someone to pay you for the words you write for them.

These moments of fear didn’t precede traumatic downward spiral. (Well, at least not for most high schoolers…). These moments also didn’t mean that going to a new school, taking a new job, or taking a freelance client weren’t the right next step for you. It’s just a feeling. And fear isn’t the problem. The problem is how we respond to it.

Fear is not the problem. The problem is how we respond to it.

Freelance writing fear often sends the wrong message

It would be awesome if every good thing we ever did was accompanied by feelings of light-heartedness and certainty that would clearly say to us, “Yes! Do it! This is it!” But that’s not how our guts work.

Fear is really helpful in the jungle when it tells us to hide in the cave and be wary of those scary sounds. But when we’re trying to build a freelance writing business, fear is just a chemical process that comes along with something new.

It’s not foretelling the future.

It’s not a sign you’re doing the wrong thing.

It’s just a feeling — like hunger or sadness or a charley horse– that tells you something big is about to happen.

When we interpret fear as a warning sign that we should stop, we miss out on a lot of great things.

Some of us might not be married.

Some of us might not have children.

Certainly none of us would run freelance writing businesses.

But deep within each of these tough, wonderful, and intimidating-at-first things is a powerful desire that pulls us through the freelance writing fear and toward a new idea.

Stop Trying to Overcome Freelance Writing Fear - Sarah Greesonbach - Five Figure Writer

Don’t try to escape your fear — work with it

Eileen and I both had the same first instinct: run away from the fear. Run away and do something that won’t make those feelings come up. But that’s not a smart move for Eileen, me, or you, because here’s the biggest secret of all:

Successful freelance writers aren’t people who never experience fear. Successful freelance writers are people who understand that fear is a natural byproduct of doing good work — and that confidence is the result of that good work.

Successful freelance writers work side by side with fear to get things done, and at the end of the day they take their fear home with them to dinner.

Successful people aren’t people who never experience fear. Successful people are people who understand that fear is a natural byproduct of doing good work.

If you’re reading this, your story is probably a lot like mine.

You’re a good, solid writer. You know your way around a Word Document and you know that what you do is valuable to your clients. But when you go to pitch, or when you think of writing something for the business world, your throat clinches up a little and you get a bad case of the willies. You just aren’t confident that you’re worth those rates.

Well, some people let those fears stop them. But you and Eileen and me, we’re going to accept those freelance writing fears, scoop them into a little woven basket on our desk, and put on a show for our fear to watch as we try new things, pitch new clients, and turn in draft after draft of our best work.

Put fear in its place

Let’s look at the freelance life with new eyes. The fear you’re feeling isn’t always a sign you shouldn’t be doing this. It’s a sign that there’s something big there if you’re persistent enough to push through your first fluttering doubts.

Keep your eyes out for moments in your freelance journey that cause you to feel fear. Then, don’t run. Look the fear in the face and let it know that you appreciate its input… and that you’ve got some work to do anyway.

P.S. If you’re trying to overcome fears related to breaking into B2B writing, I’ve got just the thing for you: The B2B Booster Shot. If you’re trying to overcome fears about being productive as a freelancer with a chronic illness (or a baby at home, or whatever else you’ve got going on, this post is for you.

How to Write for a Business

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How To Write For A Business - Sarah Greesonbach - Five Figure WriterIf you’ve clicked around much, you’ve heard me squawking about how to write for a business for a few weeks now. First touting the lucrative benefits on The Write Life, then a free webinar with Andrea Emerson on how to get started, and then today on the Horkey Handbook.

Now, all this talk about making a great income doing great writing is well and good, but most writers don’t have experience writing for a B2B audience. You can make your own experience, but there are some basics you need to get a grip on so that the spec work you develop is as compelling as possible.

Today, I’m going to dig a bit deeper into the nuts and bolts of B2B writing to help you get your head on straight and write for a business. So, please let me introduce three important business concepts for writing for businesses:

Write for a Business Concept One: Understand the Hierarchy of Business Needs

The mindset of writing for a consumer is very different from writing for a business. While consumers have certain needs — to get a deal, to solve a problem, to avoid a danger — businesses have others. Fortunately, Seth Godin put this into an easy-to-remember hierarchy of business needs:

  • Avoiding risk
  • Avoiding hassle
  • Gaining praise
  • Gaining power
  • Having fun
  • Making a profit

Every business is motivated by different variations on these six goals, and this helps you write for a business in two ways:

First, you’ll use this list to inform how you approach writing when you write on behalf of a business. You address the business’s customers need to avoid risk and hassle and have fun and make a profit, etc.

Second, you’ll use this list to inform how you approach a business to write for them. You show them they are avoiding risk by working with you to market their company effectively and having fun and making a profit because you’re such a great writer, etc.

Write for a Business Concept Two: Don’t Be Afraid to Come Back to the Bottom Line

Last week I had a phone call in which the client explicitly told me that they’re investing in their content to help them grow their revenue. And here’s the thing: even if your client doesn’t say this out loud, this is what they’re thinking.

So while “making a profit” was already mentioned in the business hierarchy above, it’s worth it’s own bullet point to encourage you to think about your writing from this perspective.

Even if your client doesn’t say it out loud, they’re thinking about the ROI of hiring you.

It’s very American of us, but business writing always comes back to the bottom line: What the business does for its customer and how you can communicate that in the most compelling format, tone, and style possible.

As you write a white paper, article, or case study, you must keep this mindset at the top of your mind and every word you write must refer back to the bottom line.

How To Write For A Business - Sarah Greesonbach - Five Figure Writer

Write for a Business Concept Three: Understand How Businesses Are Structured

If you’re like most people, you’ve been an employee all your life. You know that HR is in charge of benefits and if you have any question about your salary you should check with payroll. But other than that, we don’t really think about what a business wants and what it does beyond how our job plays into it.

Every department within a business has its own identity

In reality, every department within a business has its own identity. If you want to be hired by one section, you need to understand its values and its place within the company. Here’s a very, very simple and basic breakdown of the different departments and stakeholders within a typical corporation that you can use as a jumping board for researching potential clients and B2B writing markets:

How to Write for a Business - Sarah Greesonbach - Five Figure Writer

What you write and who you target will depend on the type of writing you do and the client you prefer to work with. Understanding that target client’s motivations and place within the company will give you deeper insights into that client’s specific business needs.

For example, since HR is often seen as a necessary expense within a company, the department is likely more concerned with gaining praise and avoiding risk than it is with making a profit, while sales is definitely concerned with making a profit over all the other factors on the hierarchy of business needs. How those departments interact with others will determine how you can talk about them, to them, and to their stakeholders.

Again, this insight helps you in two ways:

First, you’ll want to identify which groups you prefer to work with within this organization chart. You may be more comfortable with HR or accounting, or you prefer to work with leadership directly.

Second, when you’ve identified the person within the company you prefer to work with, you need to understand their motivations and challenges based on how they interact with other departments within the company. In general, this means understanding how that department reflects its value to the C-Suite and how it works interdepartmentally to accomplish its goals.

Not Quite B2B-Ready?

These three concepts can go a long way toward getting your feet wet in the B2B content world. However, if you’re going from newbie to B2B, this post alone won’t help you feel confident about writing for businesses. The best way to do it is to do it (AKA create homework for yourself and practice, practice, practice) and continue to research and try new things. Check out these awesome B2B writing resources:

Ask Away… and Check Out the B2B Writing Institute

You’ve got questions, I’ve got answers. Let me know in the comments below if this post leaves something to be desired and I’ll add it!

And of course, I’d be silly not to mention The B2B Writing Institute, which explores the art and science of B2B writing with a forever free foundations course.