Payless Freelance Creative Services – Less is Good? How do you know?

Everyone wants to pay less. But what is LESS?

Less than: they last paid, less than their friend paid, less than they have agreed to pay? Whatever “Less” means it is relative for sure.

Bidding sites define LESS by showing you multiple bids for doing the same job. What you do know is that each vendor has agreed to provide the service you desire for their bid price. So, why not choose the low bid every time?

There are many reasons that include:

1. Quality
2. Bad Time Zone
3. Style
4. Lack of Faith
5. Poor portfolio
6. Poor Feedback
7. Bad Ratings
8. Lack of track record

and on and on.

Many buyers will be so taken with the low prices they will hire two providers, thinking they are CYA (Cover Your Ass) mode.

The tried and true way of hiring a good, reliable and affordable freelancer is to get a reference from someone you know or trust. Bidding sites have no incentive to care about the quality of their providers. StudioBuzz on the other hand is putting their reputation and money on it. StudioBuzz.Biz works on the premise that if a provider sets a price on a clearly defined product, that price is neither low or high. It is the price that the vendor feels is fair and justified for doing that job. If you disagree, you can buy a different brand. It is called shopping. What a novel idea. NoSpec, NoBid That is why we call it The Creative Store. There is always a lower price if you are willing to take risks, lower quality or delay your project.

What’s the Buzz about StudioBuzz.Biz?

So what’s all the hype? Why is StudioBuzz better than other outsourcing sites for the Creative Buyer and Artist? Visual shopping, no bidding, no contests, full escrow services and low low fees.

Did we mention that we specialize in the Creative Arts Talents; Art Directors, Designers, Illustrators, Writers, Video Producers, Animators, 3D Animators, Flash Graphics, Website Designers, Photographers, Voice Talents, Actors and Screen Writers?

For Providers

Frustrated by the ludicrously low level of bids that many fellow “artists” offer? Maybe you avoid scavenging the job boards or maybe you occasionally bid lower than your value during distressed times even though your heart is not in it. Then you have come to the right place. Here at StudioBuzz we believe that you can have it all; you have the time to provide exceptional quality. Let’s face it, if you take a job with minimal compensation then it is hard to be excited about the job and as a creative person being excited about a project is key to delivering a top notch job.

As a StudioBuzz registered provider, you will have been verified to be capable of producing only the very best work. You will be backed by our StudioBuzz guarantee, if the buyer is not happy, we will pick up the tab and ensure they are provided with the quality they expect from a premium outsourcing site. We provide a full range of support tools, including a feature rich portfolio section, and the ability to vend standard packages directly from the site, all done safely, as we assure payment by holding project funds in escrow until completion. We pro-actively market you and your services, presenting you with the opportunity of connecting with the kind of clients which your exceptional skills demand.

Collaboration or Project Management Systems are part of our package. We provide you with a free account to the top dog vendor of project management – Basecamp by 37 Signals. Used it before or have a Basecamp account? That would not be usual as they have millions of users that pay for the pleasure. We will set up your first job for free, as you add jobs, we add them to your Basecamp for free. File delivery and verification of files is critical to being paid, so we provide a safe holding bin for all deliverables.

For Buyers

Do you find yourself spending more and more time sifting through project bids, trying to sort the good providers from the bad? Have you had projects go off the rails in the past due to supposedly professional freelancers turning out to be nothing but cowboys? Then welcome to StudioBuzz, we are about to cure your headache. As a StudioBuzz buyer you will already know that the phrase “You get what you pay for” most definitely rings true in the outsourcing game. You will be looking for the very cream of the crop of freelancers and companies providing outsourced services, and you will be prepared to pay a fair rate for them. Whether seeking specialized skills, or simply purchasing the standard packages presented by many of our providers, rest assured that you are protected by the StudioBuzz guarantee. If you are not happy with the results of a project, then we will solve that problem and pay to have the project completed for you by another provider. We believe in the quality of our providers so deeply, due to the fact we verify their skills before they can join the site, that we are willing to put our money where our mouth is, and promise you 100% success in your outsourcing endeavors.

Management of your creative projects, files, emails, to-dos and more are all part of the process when you use our Collaboration or Project Management Systems Basecamp by 37 Signals.

These are just the very basic reasons why both providers and buyers can benefit by becoming a StudioBuzz user. Please take some time to look around the site, evaluate the features we offer, and decide for yourselves. Isn’t it time you took your outsourcing to a new level? StudioBuzz is a premium conduit positioned between skilled workers, and professional buyers, enabling both parties to work together more effectively, building a healthy business relationship and removing many of the problems inherited by using other freelance work sites.

Canadian TV/Radio Personality Sells via StudioBuzz

Orla Johannes, a popular radio show talk host and TV celebrity is a featured seller on StudioBuzz.Biz The Creative Store.

StudioBuzz welcomes Orla to our stable of Creative Talents.

Here is how this happened.

During my daily search for great creative talents, I ended up on a directory of Voice Over talents. Orla was one of the talents that I emailed an invitation to sell via our store. I was pleasantly surprised when she responded in minutes. BlackBerry’s are wonderful. She asked me a few questions, said she would love to sell via our site and gave me her website where I could get more information and her her samples.

Obviously, this was indeed a great opportunity for us and we hope her as well. So, if you need a talented, beautiful, great sounding British lady, Orla is your gal. We have packaged Orla with some Canadian studios to make a Prix Fixe Package for an Infomercial production to sell a product or host a talk show. Check it out Read More…

This may be your first encounter with Orla but I promise it will not be your last as she has her mind set on Hollywood. So, let’s help her get there fast. Orla’s home page is http://www.orlajohannes.com

Tell her you saw her on StudioBuzz.Biz. And of course tell your marketing friends about this great offer.

StudioBuzz.Biz welcomes Ilari Hoevanaars – Dutch Voice Over With Lots of Talent and Many Voices

Ilari Hoevanaars is a Dutch speaking, English speaking with British accent, German speaking, French accent, German accent voice over and character voice that is very familiar to radio and Internet audiences in Europe.

We are very pleased to add Ilari to the StudioBuzz.Biz list of voice over talents. He has the largest Voice Product line on StudioBuzz with 59 different products. This many is truly diversified and takes voice very very seriously. Check out some of his samples and if you need a better voice for you company then consider Ilari, he is multi-talented and ready to make your video or audio a major hit.

See Ilari’s list of voice products Click Here

What is your freelancing rate? How Low Can You Go?

If you are in the bidding wars on Elance, Guru, oDesk or others, then you know what it is like to loose a job to a “lower bid”.

Creative freelancers are Right Brained. They tend to see the sky as black or white. Grey or mid ground is for art, not negotiations. But the reality is, if you are going to make a living as a graphic designer/creative talent, then you must know how low you can go and when you should bend over backwards to get work.

If you are rich, married rich or do creative work because it is fun, the you should skip this article as it is not for you. If you family counts on your income as a creative person then listen up. You may learn something but even if you don’t maybe you will disagree and write back to say so. Either way, I am happy.

First you need to know your fixed vs variable costs. I am assuming that you know something about accounting (math as it relates to business profits and loss).

Say your fixed costs are $2000/mo. If you are a creative person using a computer, you don’t have any variable costs (costs that go away if you do zero business).

First of all your fixed costs are about 10 times what your Asian competitors is. So, understand that and deal with it. Selling yourself as low cost option will never be your strong point.

But there is hope. There are 2000 normal work hours in a year. Normal is not something I have ever known but we will use it for this example.

So if you were able to work every “normal” hour and get paid your minimum rate would be $12/hour.

Since you never are able to be paid for every hour worked the rule of thumb is this; you are 100% employed if you are being paid for 50% of  your available hours. Or, in this case, 1,000 hours.

If you now recalculate your rate it doubles to $24/hour. So, if you worked 100% of the time but only got paid for 50% of it then you would make your monthly fixed cost of $2,000/mo.

But you are worth much more. $40 – $50 or even $75/hour right? Of course you are, you have proven that over and over again as some clients did pay that much in the past and may even now.

So what does this have to do with reality? You are worth what people are willing to pay and if you are idle then either they don’t like your work or you are asking too much.

Forget  the concept of “worth” is it out of this equation. Let’s figure out how low can you go.

First, your primary goal is to bill 50% of your work time at a minimum of $24/hour. So you minimum rate is $24? No, wrong. Here is why. There are competitors bidding $10. You cannot ignore them.

Your minimum is the lowest you have to go to get work. If your lowest serious competition is $10 then your lowest is $10.

Here is the logic; say you always bid $24. Chances are good you will only get about 5%-10% of the jobs you bid on. So, that means you are missing 90% of the jobs. Your effective rate is about $3.00.

But if you bid $10/hour your closing rate jumps to 80-90%. Why would it not. You are US, you are good and you speak English and most importantly you can be reached during normal business hours.

Lets step this along. Week 1 of the month. You bid on every job you can for $10/hour. Your goal is to fill up half of your hours for week one at this rate. Once you hit that mark, start bidding $15 then $20 etc.

Keep raising your rate as your hours available decline and you will always end up busy and you will always be making money.

Any money you make, even if it is only $10/hour is better than zero as it goes toward your fixed cost. You may find that you may have to work more hours to do all of the work but since when does that matter if the alternative is putting food on the table.

Finally, some of the low bid jobs may turn into great clients that will pay more on subsequent jobs. Make sure you explain to them that they got you at your low bid point and your regular rate is XX. Explain how you bid and if they want to get you at the low point again, they will just have to take their chances. If they wish to work with you on a regular basis they will have to pay your regular rates. If they don’t come back, just move on.

Make sense? Disagree? Let’s hear it.

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How does StudioBuzz differ from other Outsourcing Sites such as Elance?

StudioBuzz is very different from every outsourcing site currently in operation. For the first time, seeking outsourced providers and submitting proposals for jobs, does not involve a reverse auction kind of setup. Anyone who has used any number of freelancing sites such as Elance, Odesk, Rentacoder and Guru, will know exactly how these work. A buyer specifies a project, and prospective providers make bids upon the project. The provider then chooses a provider from the range of bidders. Although this system works, at does inherently contain some flaws as a working model for procuring the best value outsourcing.

Let us first define the word value in this situation. Value can be considered to be a combination of cost, quality and timescale. Put simply:

Value = cost + quality + speed of delivery.

In order to try and explain why reverse auction sites are detrimental to value, let me show you something that is hanging in the window of my local PC repair shop. They have a sign which reads thus:

A cheap quick repair is never good.

A good cheap repair is never quick.

A good quick repair is never cheap.

Consider this; we can clearly see that both of the top statements sacrifice overall value. In the case of the first statement, quality is compromised. In the case of the second statement, time to delivery is compromised, it is only the third statement which offers relatively good value, as no compromise in the quality or lead time of the repair is taking place. However, it comes at a price.

Reverse auction sites tend to be full of, indeed they encourage, both buyers and providers who would fit neatly alongside the first two statements above. They want a quick, or a cheap job, and thus are often sacrificing overall quality. The old adage “You get what you pay for” is still true in the outsourcing game.  In this situation, nobody is receiving true value. The buyers are compromising on quality, and the providers are compromising on remuneration.

Now along comes StudioBuzz with an entirely fresh now outlook on how project buyers can be connected with providers, in a way which offers true value to each party. By ratifying the skills of each provider, StudioBuzz is removing the bottom feeders, and presenting prospective buyers with the very cream of the crop of outsourced staff. By setting project minimum bids to a relatively high level, StudioBuzz is making sure that its registered providers will only be matched with premium clients.

Additionally, StudioBuzz also acts as a kind of outsourcing marketplace, where providers can create standard packages, which buyers can purchase in an almost off the shelf style. No need to engage in several rounds of conversation in order to specify a project, just pick the right package which has very feature needed, this streamlines the buying process immensely in many situations.

Overall, StudioBuzz aims to link the very best outsourced staff, with the most professional buyers, creating the world’s first quality outsourcing family.

How and why you need to Productize Your Freelance Business

Freelancers have limited methods to promote themselves;

• Private Websites and Blogs
• On-line directories
• Pay Per Click Ads
• Bidding Job Sites (Reverse Auctions)
• Contest Job Sites
• On-line advertising
• The Creative Store by StudioBuzz

We are going to assume you know the good and bad points of most of the above but we will focus on the last which of course is our favorite. Selling Prix Fixe Packages via The Creative Store.

Advantages:

Help your buyer by pre-defining what is required and what they will get for a specific price.

This maybe harder than you first think, but if it is hard for you then it is impossible for the buyer to get it right.

Steps

1. Identify jobs that you do most frequently
2. Identify jobs that are not too complex or have too many steps
3. Determine Selling Price
   • Determine what your variable and fixed costs are for this job. Here is why:
   • Your variable costs are the lowest price you can charge without losing money while your fixed costs are going to be there even if you turn down a job for a low price.
   • Most freelancers have only fixed costs, i.e. rent, utilities, food, car, boats, aircraft… just kidding. Seriously, keeping fixed costs low takes off a lot of pressure. But, that is another topic.
   • If you are already breaking even with your fixed costs then your price should be 2.5 times your fixed cost.
   • Assume your fixed cost is $2,000/mo or $24,000 per year then your hourly rate would be computed as $24,000/2000 hours * 2.5 = $30/hour but since you will only be paid for 50% of your time you must charge $60/hr.
   • Seems like a lot more than $24,000 per year but you have not paid for any business expenses, taxes and you need to make a profit. So, $60/hour * 1,000 hours = $60,000 less 40% for Uncle Sam and sales taxes leaves you $36,000 or a $12,000 profit (20%). Now remember you are using expensive hardware and software and you need to upgrade every year. So that extra profit will most likey be needed to pay for your capital costs in the future. Oh, you need to save for retirement too? Put half of that profit away for that purpose.
   • So what is your lowest selling price if you are similar to the person above? Say it takes you four hours to do a job. What is your selling price? Hold that number.
   • Now lets see what the competition is charging. You market is the world and so is your competition so you must evaluate all of that. For the purpose of this example, we are going to assume that your competitors offer the same exact product and with the same level of quality. We will factor in those differences later. So, you go to job sites like Elance, Guru, etc. and look for job description that come as close as possible to your package details. You find that a good average for this four hour job is $120. Wow! how can you ever make money at those rates? Well that is not too bad as your fixed costs are about $30 per hour and your variable cost is 0.
   • How low can you go? Here is the deal, assuming that you don’t have any other source of income then you never want to not be doing billable work. So, it is far better to take this job for $90 than it is to not do any job at all. That $90 will at least help you pay your fixed costs.
   • When is low too low? Never if you have no work. But, if you have cleared your monthly break-even point then you can take your price up and take more risk that you will not lose the bid. So, not working — GET THE JOB
   • So, now lets assume that you have filled about half of your billable time with repeat business clients, most likely they will be local and willing to pay more for the service and attention you can offer.  Now what is your price? 50% of billable time is still not great but it is paying your fixed costs. But, don’t get too complacent as next month could be a disaster for your local business and once that happens you must work very hard to make that up later. So, you would like to charge $200 against a competitors price of $120… split the difference and bid $160.  If you get that job bid $180 next time and then $200 the next.
   • One of the offerings to you on StudioBuzz is our ability to use the shopping cart feature called “email me a better price”. This allows you to set a $200 price but offer a lower price whenever you need more business. You can change this lower price daily if you choose.

   Establish your deliverables and what you need from your client. Make a list of the steps you will have. How many revisions what things could change your costs/time?

4. Create a sample of your product. You can give us up to 6 sample jpg files to put into your product listing. These are your portfolio samples.
5. Purchase the appropriate StudioBuzz Product Listing and upload your files.
6. We do the rest.

Make it easy, get the sale, work out the details later with your client not your prospective client. They are now part of your team, they have a vested interest to work with you not against you.