Last time, I talked about the things I love most about platform freelancing. Today, I’m excited to continue on that same line of thought, but I want to turn my attention to private freelancing. While it sounds similar to platform work, it’s different in many essential ways. Here’s what I’ve learned working privately as a freelance writer over the years.

3 of the top private freelancing perks

These are some things that I’ve learned to really appreciate in working privately with customers. These are details that I would never have realized as important if I hadn’t had experience working via a platform!

• You don’t have to take on a job that you don’t like: Most platforms either encourage you to bid on jobs, or jobs are assigned to you by the platform. There aren’t many who offer you to accept or decline an offer. This can be frustrating if your queue gets full of jobs that you’re not particularly fond of and leaves little room for “fun” projects. Working privately allows you to actively accept or decline jobs to work on those tasks that fulfill you!

• You can offer your own favours, add-ons, and discounts: This is probably my favourite part! While I’m firm on my rates, as 95% of professionals, I love throwing in add-ons or discounts or doing favours for those preferred customers who are in a bind. It helps me create a much stronger relationship with my customers to suit their needs in ways that go beyond the order itself.
  

• You can differentiate yourself from your competition: Platform profiles intend for every seller to be unique but still fit the needs and expectations of the platform. Private freelancing leaves everything wide open so that you can build your very own professional profile however you want to. This can be a little intimidating at first, of course, but it allows you to tweak and adjust as needed, too. This helps you build a business around the things that matter most to you!
  

Stay in charge of the things that matter

One of the things that I learned when trying out private freelancing for the first time was staying in charge of the things that matter most to me. Those things may not matter to other professional writers, or they may seem unimportant to the customer, but they are important to me.

Some examples of this include charging a per-word rate rather than a package rate. This allows for a more customized and accurate quote for the customer. Another perk was offering partial cancellations so that I am compensated for my time spent, but a customer isn’t forced to pay for an entire order that they no longer want for whatever reason. Things happen, after all.

Every professional will have those few little things that they really care about. Offering private freelancing services allows them to prioritize those facets. Do you have any other perks of private freelancing that you’d like to list? Please feel free!

In a few months, I will do an “Ask The Writer” series, where I answer questions from readers. These questions can be on anything about my professional life/services that you’ve been curious about. If you’re interested in contributing a question, please post it below, and I’ll answer it in a dedicated post! There will be a few of these posts, so don’t be shy! If you prefer to do so anonymously, you can contact me privately as well.

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