Th
e 5th Annual Creative Freelancer Conference, June 21-22 in Boston (early bird deadline is this Friday, March 30!) is around the corner.
So today’s podcast interview is with Cameron Foote, Editor of Creative Business, who will be taking part in this year's "Perspectives on Pricing Panel."
Each year, I am surprised and delighted by how many longtime freelancers attend CFC -- which is one of the reasons we created a track for "Veterans" this year.
I have been hearing from a lot of new freelancers lately who are also "veterans" of a sort -- in their 50's and 60's -- many of whom have had long careers as art directors in agencies. Now they're freelancing and trying to figure out how to get their salary back up to what it was.
I asked Cam: How can they create the perception of being worth 
what they need to charge?
Cam: A lot has to do with the way you promote yourself. What you really have to do is promote wisdom and experience … and not be promoting what most freelancers promote which is the “big idea,” “trendiness” and that sort of thing. You have to look at where you stand vs. what the client is looking for. There are certain types of clients you shouldn’t approach, simply because they’re looking for something which is trendy… you should be going after businesses that are looking for wisdom and stability.
Listen to our 14-minute interview to hear more of Cam’s thoughts on pricing, including his take on hourly rates vs. project pricing.
And if you aren’t yet registered for CFC, sign up here and take advantage of the combo $100 discount: $50 early bird before Mar 30th + $50 Marketing Mentor discount with promo code “CMM12”
And listen to the rest of the podcast interview series with our speakers, including Dyana Valentine, Mark O’Brien of Newfangled.com, Shane Pearlman and Ed Gandia of International Freelancers Academy.
Designers schooled with traditional design skills who embraced IT with 'open arms' are a real commodity in any agency.
I'm one of the 99% who can't find a job, and while in the past you have included me in in your books and magazines in the past (Idea Revolution) I no longer have the money to attend your terrific conferences. But I do do workshops about "Reinventing Yourself Creatively", and would love to speak at an event, having started my own publishing company traveling around the country speaking, and selling my new books. http://www.spaghettibrains.com
It's nice your focusing on older creative directors, a topic that I would love to address in an issue of How, but traveling to Boston is not really on the timeline of book signing I have to focus on. Great topic however. would love to write something and interview other older designers that find myself in similar situations.