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If you were in this morning's Cowork Ketchup inside the Freelancer's Pantry, you would have been part of a discussion Feast Member Paula brought to the table.
"Is everyone spending hours creating proposals for every job? How do you know it's worth it? Some proposals I'm spending hours, days, sometimes weeks on, how do I decide what's worth going the extra mile for?"
Firstly, shout out to Paula, having bravely pivoted away from serving the industry that used to employ her, she's now thriving with her design business, serving retailers and restauranteurs stroll-stopping signage that drives customers to their open doors. Paula was one of my very first group coaching students and here we are years later, you can read her success story here.​
Within my own freelancing, I have three levels of response when communicating to a client how much a job is going to cost them.
Level 1 - Basic - Invoice/Simple Estimate (Delivered in Freshbooks)​
This is where the client doesn't need to be convinced or is a returning client. They just wanna know how many dollarydoos this deliverable of creative genius is going to cost them. This would also be for jobs that are smaller, think business cards or simple projects, things that building a deck or larger proposal would take longer than the actual work.
Level 2 - Meaty - Proposal with Scope, Inclusions and Process (Delivered in Freshbooks)​
​I would say this makes up 50% of the jobs I quote on. Ones that have a decent budget OR I can see have 4-low 5 figure price tags once I start scoping out the job. Within that, I include particular sections like Scope specifics and deliverables, an outline of what's included in the job and what's not, as well as anything really specific to this particular project. The bonus is when I build this in Freshbooks, I can request a signature and convert it to an invoice in a single click.
Level 3 - Full Bells and Whistles - Pitch Document, approx 15 pages (Built in InDesign and emailed)​
This is the big one, the ones where I want to impress the pants off the client (not like that, cheeky). I have built over the years the go-to format that works for me, and I know that there are pages to be switched out, specific parts I need to personalise and build something robust enough to make the client say "daaaaaamn, we gotta hire her". I know these take time, so having a semi-templated set-up is ideal for me, because I know otherwise I WILL get distracted with redesigning it every damn time.
SIDENOTE: If you are a Staples or Feast Member, you have access to the Cheesy Cheatsheet that outlines literally all of this in great detail so you can do the same inside the Freelancer's Pantry. Head here to access.​
So how do you decide which jobs you build impressive proposals for and which ones get a simple invoice?
For me, it all comes down to a few factors.
- How warm are they by the time I'm building that proposal? ​
For my own processes, I generally will have a client fill out a form and book a call before I even come close to quoting or pitching them what I believe they need as the creative professional in the relationship. That way, I'll know if I need to bust out the templated pitch doc I have to build a convincing case, or if they just need to know what's included and what's not.
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- If they have provided the budget, does that justify a few extra hours in hopes I land it?​
Some jobs simply aren't worth it to put that extra level of effort into. It's risk vs reward, right? If we want to risk it for the biscuit, we gotta make sure the batch will pay off if it falls in our favour. The largest freelance job I've landed was $45k, and you better believe I hustled hard to make that proposal clearly show the client that the job was worth that dollar amount because of all the factors involved.
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- Are they the type of client who values or requires that level or not?​
If they are a client who often has proposals across their desk and uses them in decision-making, then yeah, I'd be firing up InDesign IF items one and two above are ticked. Things like RFQ (Request For Quote) and bigger project briefs require you to provide something substantial to justify the cost but also may need to be shared among those who make the decisions if there is more than one decision-maker involved.
If there's one abundantly clear thing, and this was echoed in that session this morning, it's that there is no singular right way to freelance.
Some of us are sending proposals. Some aren't. Some are picking and choosing when to spend the time and what makes it worth it to them will likely be different to the freelancer sitting next to you.
Likewise, no two clients are going to be the same, so it pays to have a few different approaches that scale with the opportunities that land on your plate, while also protecting your energy, time and creative genius.
I think Jen in the Cowork put it best...
Just because all your favourite creative influencers are selling templates doesn't mean it's right for everyone, or that they're even using it themselves...
Bam.
p.s. If you're curious about Freshbooks, the accounting software I use, you can head here to grab your first two months on me.
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