Show Notes:
B2B vs. B2C (and Why Freelancers Can’t Afford to Miss the Difference)
What is Low-Friction Freelancing?
What is “Strategic Freelancing” Anyway?
- Everyone should freelance.
- How freelancing is defined here at BF.
- BF Prioritizes a Balance of Income and Peace.
- Freelancing isn’t just writing.
- BlackFreelance is focused on B2B freelancing.
- Everyone should have a strategy.
Transcript
Hi and welcome to the very first episode of the Black Freelance Podcast. I’m Megan and I keep things running in the world of Black Freelance. I am glad to finally get this podcast rolling. Black Freelance has been around for a while, but this has been a few years in the making. We’re going to have great interviews, conversations and even dig deeper into some of the topics covered on the site. But first, I want to talk to you about perspectives that Black Freelance takes on freelance work. That’s because freelancing holds a lot of specific opportunities to benefit black people around the world and address some of our specific challenges. But, there is also a lot of different interpretations out there, on what freelancing actually is.
Perspective #1
First off, everyone should freelance. That doesn’t mean that everybody needs to be employer-independent or fulltime freelancers for their entire career. But, Black Freelance takes the stance that, everyone, regardless of education or field or age should probably be able to earn some sort of income, separate from an employer. For some of us, that’s going to mean something like what I did, which is building a freelance career off of an employment background. But for other people, that might mean you bounce back and forth, using freelancing as a side hustle, boosting retirement income, saving for a house down payment, anything like that. So it’s not so much about freelancing versus employment, they don’t really exist on a binary, but instead, being able to use both to shape the kind of life that you want.
Perspective #2
The second perspective is, how freelancing is defined here at Black Freelance and that’s by four traits.
- Number one is a lack of commitment to any one organization. Freelancing should mean flexibility. I mean, you can move on from a project or a client when pay is low, when you don’t like who you’re working with, or when you see an industry or economic trends shifting. Variations like permalancing and even some contract work, those are honestly cousins to employment, at least the way they’re treated here at Black Freelance, with fewer benefits.
- Number two is that, you’re creating custom solutions. That means you’re doing and creating work that’s specific to each customer or client’s need. So, if you’re selling something that you can make repeatedly and or sell to anyone, like physical products or online information products, you’re probably leaning closer to the entrepreneurship side of things.
- Number three is actually a lack of scalability. That’s going to be anything like courses or software that’s not custom made, which, around here doesn’t count as freelancing, since to freelance at some level, you’re going to be trading hours for dollars. Anything that scales, inches closer to the entrepreneurship, into the spectrum.
- The fourth trait is, translation to employment. This one is big because it’s an important filter for evaluating the viability of your freelance choices, but also kind of clarifies the type of relationship that’s addressed around here, which veers away from coaching type of arrangements. And that’s basically saying that your work has some sort of employed counterpart. If you’re a graphic designer, a brand writer, like me or something like an SEO analyst, there’s going to be somebody out there somewhere getting paid a salary to do similar work.
Perspective #3
Perspective number three is that Black Freelance prioritizes a balance of income and peace. This means that everything around here is rooted in the idea of making your life better. There is just entirely too much worship of struggle and grind and hustle in the freelance world. And in black people especially, we have enough going on and we really need to find ways to get more out of our work for less effort. Freelancing should improve your life. So, you know the saying, work to live, not live to work. If you feel a calling to make deep sacrifices for your field, I have the absolute utmost highest respect but, it’s not really what we cover here. Because of that, Black Freelance doesn’t praise busyness or prioritize passion, which means you’re going to be encouraged to pick up healthier work habits and create goals of shaping a business that pushes your hourly income in a way that allows you to make more while working less.
Perspective #4
Perspective number four is that freelancing isn’t just writing. Black Freelance is based on the idea of building a sustainable freelance business strategy and that applies to all skill sets. And that’s whether you’re in accounting or content marketing or engineering, virtual assisting, podcast production, but it’s writing too. So, that’s brand writing, direct response, technical copywriting. The way that strategy is addressed here is applicable across the board, so all skill sets are welcome.
Perspective #5
Perspective number five is that black freelance is focused on B2B freelancing. There is a post on the site that spells this out in more detail and I’ll include that in the show notes. But B2B is business to business, meaning, freelancers who do most of their work selling to other businesses, which is honestly most freelancers. The other major option, which is still pretty common is, B2C, business to consumer, which is like your personal chefs, makeup artists who work with individual people and personal trainers. The topics we don’t hit on here might be useful, but, they’re specific to people who are running freelance businesses that sell to other businesses and not to individual consumers.
Perspective #6
The last perspective is that everyone should have a strategy. This show and the resources on the site are designed to support a deliberate strategy that meets your goals. And while also helping you continually refine that strategy over time. It doesn’t have to be overly complicated, but it should involve taking a strategic look at your marketing, your services, your customer service, productivity and reflecting on that and on your business on a regular basis. I’m going to include a link to the Black Freelance strategy workbook in the show notes and it’s completely free and you should definitely pick it up and get started on that right now, even if you’re an experienced freelancer.
So that’s it! Welcome, come by blackfreelance.com to check out a ton of content and subscribe to the weekly newsletter. But, also pull us up on the Mighty Networks app to connect with the community, I’m over there on a regular basis, but you’ll also get to talk to other freelancers who are taking action on their freelance goals right now. Hope to see you there and I will talk to you next episode.
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