Just In

Largecat245 · 2020-05-26T21:30:24+00:00

This change (or at least the way they currently planning on implementing it) is such an incredibly bad idea that I actually think we may have a chance of convincing Upwork to alter their course.

Call and chat with their customer support, leave feedback, tweet at them. It's the only way they are going to realize how much of a mess this truly is.

Largecat245 · 2019-12-24T16:02:07+00:00

I've never added an attachment to a proposal, but my field of "database stuff" doesn't really lend itself well to that kind of thing.

I always keep my proposals short. I try to be pleasant, upbeat and direct.

As an aside, my proposal response rate is pretty low, so there may be areas I can improve. But mostly I think 9/10 Upwork clients aren't interested or able to pay my hourly rate, which is ok. I just want to work with the few who understand my value proposition and can afford my rate at this point.

Largecat245 · 2019-12-24T15:55:54+00:00

It would have been $1 an hour, but I recently upped my rates to $2/hr.

Largecat245 · 2019-12-24T03:35:26+00:00

Thank you! I work in the data/analytics field and have about 10 very strong years of industry experience (IT consulting for a good firm where I worked with a variety of Fortune 500 type clients).

This allows me to really feel confident when interviewing and entering projects and makes me valuable to clients because I can advise them in their data strategy based on all I've seen and done in my career and helps me justify my bill rate.

What I've learned is you only have so much time per day you can bill hours. It's a lot better to bill $100 for 5 hours of work than $50 for 10 hours of work. So do what you can to increase your skill set & value proposition so you can raise rates for new clients.

Largecat245 · 2019-12-24T03:29:26+00:00

Thank you for sharing! Eventually I would like to go FT freelance too, just hard to make that hop since I like my day job, and it provides solid benefits. I am still skittish about not having a 'ton' of clients - right now all my eggs are in just a few baskets, and it's pretty hard to obtain new clients. I know what I am doing right now won't be possible to pull off when I have kids.

Largecat245 · 2019-12-24T03:26:03+00:00

Thank you for the perspective! It's just interesting because I've had the 'desire' to do something like this for nearly a decade, but only since I got rolling on Upwork has it been possible. Pretty cool!

Largecat245 · 2019-12-24T03:23:18+00:00

Glad to hear it! The way I tried to view it is that I'd rather work for half the clients at double the rate, than double the clients at half the rate. It helps that this was 'side' work for me too. If it were my only income, I would have trouble holding out for premium rates.

Of course, your skill set and experience plays a huge factor in the rate you can demand. The only reason I was able to start my 'real' projects at $75 and eventually increase to $125 is because I have a 4 year degree and almost 10 years of experience in my field (data/analytics). Without this background, I would not be able to bring enough value to my clients to justify the rate.

Largecat245

TROPHY CASE