Freelancing Fallacies

"Well, you're home so they can just drop by whenever, right?"

"If you were home all week, why is this place not spotless?"

"You can help out more.  It's not like you really work anyway."

These past few days have reminded me time and time again of what my extended family thinks I do all day.  And, while I love my clients, they can sometimes be no better. These detriments have actually inspired me to write a list of my favorite freelancing fallacies - mistaken beliefs about those of us who illustrate and have the drive to be self-employed.

1. Since you use [insert service, website or type of electronic here], you can be my tech support, right?
I can't tell you the number of times I've been asked an Outlook, Access, Adobe or Paypal tech support question.  I don't know why you can't see my invoice in Paypal - I've sent it and sent you a reminder.  Maybe you should double check the e-mail you gave me for a typo.  Or maybe you should contact Paypal support.  I don't own Paypal; I just use it - just like you.

2. If you work from home, you're available to talk business 24/7.
If you e-mail me at 9 at night, chances are I'm not going to answer it until around 9 AM the next day.  Don't get angry with me.  I want to give you the best service possible, but I also deserve evenings and weekends off - just like you.

3. Why can't you just drop everything and see a movie with me? I mean, you get to make your own schedule anyway, right?
I'm generally scheduled down to the last minute of my work day.  If I don't, I can't get everything done.  If don't get everything done, I don't get paid.  If you want to see a movie with me, ask me a week or two ahead of time.  Chances are, I can move some stuff around and see it with you then.  However, if you ask me the day before or the day of, I'm probably going to decline.  I'm working.

4. You don't have the money to see a movie with me? Must be bad business. I bet McD's pays better.
It's called a budget, which is also called being an adult.  It's called my husband's student loans and his car which needs new tie rods.  Much like your parents probably told you when you were a child, money doesn't grow on trees.  It comes from hard work, which I do every day.  Sometimes, that means I have to choose something I need over something I want.  Instead of waiting until the $12 Friday night showing, try asking me about a $5 10 AM matinee on your day off.  And don't forget to talk to me about it in advance!

5. Why does it cost so much to commission you? Drawing just comes naturally anyway, so it doesn't take you a lot of time.
First off, drawing does not come naturally.  Any commercial illustrator will deny the whole misconception of art being a "gift."  I drew in high school so much that teachers would slam my sketchbook shut thinking I wasn't listening to the lecture.  I skipped homework at times to work on anatomy.  I got my first illustration job at 15 and I remember drawing in the middle of the front room floor with tears in my eyes.  "I'm not good enough!  They'll never hire me."  And I got the job, which meant I was drawing every day for 8 hours a day upwards of 40 hours a week during the summer.  More often once I hit college - for illustration.  I have two degrees in art, which took a lot of blood (x-acto knives), sweat (you try drawing outside on a 115F day), and tears (that nagging voice that you're never good enough).  So does it come naturally?  You tell me. Sounds like it took me a lot of time and effort.  And that's why it costs "so much."  You're not just paying for the time it takes me right now, which may or may not be "a lot."  You're paying for my expertise, which took me over a decade to develop.

6. You just draw all day, so work must be an amusement park of fun for you.
This also falls into what you're paying for when you hire me.  I don't "just draw all day."  I have to be a secretary, an art director, the grunt worker, accounting, billing, HR, sales, IT, inventory and even the janitor. So when I spend two hours swapping e-mails with you to make sure I get the details of your commission and put that into your contract, get that signed and file that away, I have to cover that time in your quote.  I have to file the paperwork for my quarterly taxes, review my budget, send an invoice, soothe an upset customer, help another with his Paypal and check my inventory on graphite, then organize my office desk at the end of the day, often all around 6 hours of drawing.  Don't get me wrong - I love my job - but it's not always "fun."  It's often hard work.  Maybe I'm a masochist, but I love that aspect as well.  Doesn't make it any less hard.

7. You're a freelancing artist. Have you drawn anything I've seen? No? That means you're unsuccessful.
My husband and I went on a double date with his coworker and his coworker's new girlfriend.  The first thing she asked me is if I'd drawn anything she's ever seen.  Chances are, as a concept developer and caricaturist, probably not.  "Oh, that's sad."  No, not really.  I work full-time doing what I love.  Business is usually steady and sometimes absolutely monotonous.  Just because I haven't drawn the next big business's new logo doesn't mean that I'm not doing a job I love and making the money I need.  Sustainability and happiness are the definitions of job success to me, and I think I've gotten that pretty well.  Besides, what have you done that I've seen?

8. As a freelancer, you must need more exposure. Tell you what, if you draw this for me for free, I'll pass your name around and you'll get millions of dollars in extra business!
This is probably the most well known misconception out there.  You'd think, after over ten years at this job, people would stop asking if I give out freebies, but it simply never ends.  "My company really wants to hire you as a caricature artist for their next event.  They won't pay, but you can leave a tip jar and pass out all the business cards you want."  You know what that'll get me? A loss of materials and exactly zero contracts.  When you tell them the real cost of hiring you, they want nothing to do with you.  "Why can't you do it for free for me too?" It's like giving one child a cookie when ten others are watching.

9. You're home all day, which means you're a housewife.
This is, hands down, the most sexist thing I've ever been told.  I'm not a radical feminist, but something about this just crawls up my spine and sets my fuse ablaze.  Yes, I keep a good house.  In fact, I keep a great house.  We have two cats and a dog and I'd like to think that you'd barely notice.  You'd be hard-pressed to find grime in my bathtub or dishes in the sink (though seriously, don't look at the laundry room.  No, seriously, don't.).  That being said, that is not what I do all day and certainly not my job title.  I'm also not the only one that cleans.  My husband and I try to share 50/50 of the housework (try being the operative word; sometime's it's more like Aaron: 0, Marietta: 1000).  We also often clean for 30 minutes to an hour every day for upkeep.  That's called adulthood, by the way.  And if my house does get messy, for whatever reason, it's because I'm busy, usually because I'm working.  Shocker.

10. You're home all day, which means you're lazy.
If I had a dime for every time I heard someone call me "unemployed" or any variation there of, I'd be filthy rich.  My mom has been known to stretch the truth of my employment (she used to insist I was an education or graphic design major when I was in school too), and I'm pretty sure my in-laws just flat out think I don't work.  When my mom was in the hospital for a few days after her knee surgery, my dad and I got into a rather large argument. "You could help out more.  You don't really work, anyway."  Not only had I often helped for a good 5-10 hours a day depending on the day, but I was working on top of it.  I've never been explosive with my dad, but I definitely lashed out that time.  It certainly won't be the last, particularly because my family members aren't the only ones that think I'm not drowning in commissions and paperwork.  In fact, the real estate agent for the house we're renting thought he could just schedule a showing whenever because I'm, and I quote, "home all the time anyway."  Just because I'm here doesn't mean I'm not busy.  And I'm honestly not always here.  I couldn't argue it out of him any other way than by saying that my husband and I like to both be home for showings.  Not only was it demeaning to me as a woman, but it was demeaning to me as a freelancing illustrator.  And don't even get me started when someone says, "Freelancing now will make it harder for you to find a real job later."

The truth is that freelancing is anything but "lazy."  I'd like to say I pull 8-hour days but my real work time is probably more around 10-12.  Sometimes it runs into weekends if I can't get everything done.  Sometimes I end up spending an extra hour or two on the phone with or e-mailing a client. Sometimes my cat decides to knock over a glass of water into my computer and I'm suddenly my own IT support, ripping off the side of my computer and replacing whatever the heck just fried. I'm filing, writing, typing, budgeting, organizing, e-mailing, listing, graphing, calculating and even Windexing before I get to the drawing part.  Then I'm drawing and doing all those things on top of it.

So the next time you run into someone self-employed, be courteous.  Chances are that they're overworked, over-stressed, over-employed - and yet they absolutely love it.