A few weeks ago I was so excited to get my first referral – a charity I\u2019ve worked with a few times had recommended me as a facilitator. It felt incredible to have someone value me\/my work highly enough to recommend me. Plus it was to a new organisation, a charity I hadn\u2019t worked with before, so another step towards expanding my network. However, after the initial excitement, unfortunately they turned into my first ghost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was an interesting charity looking like they were doing great work \u2013 another small charity that wanted an independent facilitator to support the development of their business plan. The timeline they gave was tight – really, really tight. Both for how soon they wanted the event and how quickly they wanted an outline, costing and availability confirmation. While it can be a cause for concern, I also know what it\u2019s like running a small charity and the need to prioritise day-to-day operations, and that each person holds quite a few roles to keep things moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I already had work scheduled in for the few days until their outline deadline, and it was a judgement call about how long to spend on it, and where to get that time from. I knew I might regret it but it took at least two evenings to work through what they wanted. In retrospect it was probably too much time to spend without a work guarantee, but they were really enthusiastic on the phone (about this event and further opportunities to work together), and I want to be known for my high standard of work. I can\u2019t lie, it was also really exciting to have the first referral, and I wanted to do it justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s also just a really fine line between how much work you put into prep before work is set in stone, because the higher quality your pitch, the more likely you are to secure the work. On the other hand, if you put more time in and don\u2019t get the work, it makes it really demoralising to consider how much time you\u2019ve lost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Naturally when things don\u2019t go the way you expect, you want to know why. But with leads for work, there\u2019s only so much you can do. In this situation I did an initial chase after a meeting date to check in about the decision, but after no response, I decided I could only do one more. So another week later I followed up to manage expectations \u2013 that I was releasing the hold on the date we\u2019d discussed and wished them well with their event. I also outlined that if they were able to give feedback about why they didn\u2019t want to progress I\u2019d really appreciate it. In this instance, I\u2019ve heard nothing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Naturally, it\u2019s hard because you\u2019re left with a lot of questions \u2013 was I too expensive? Was the outline not strong enough? Were we just not a good match? It\u2019s hard not to fill in the gaps with negatives, and one thing I\u2019m getting better at accepting something probably turned out for the best. Perhaps we just wouldn\u2019t have been a good fit and its better the work didn\u2019t go anywhere, than I deliver an event that I really don\u2019t enjoy, or worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s frustrating but I\u2019m sure it won\u2019t be last time. It feels a little like lost income, even though nothing was agreed. It\u2019s definitely lost time, but then that\u2019s part of the reason for charging a day rate \u2013 because you have to account for leads that don\u2019t progress. The lack of answers is probably the worst and my gut feeling says it was cost, but ultimately it\u2019s just one to chalk up to experience and move onto to the next. A freelance rite of passage – \u00a0my first ghost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Photo by Michael Mouritz<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few weeks ago I was so excited to get my first referral – a charity I\u2019ve worked with a few times had recommended me as a facilitator. It felt incredible to have someone value me\/my work highly enough to recommend me. Plus it was to a new organisation, a charity I hadn\u2019t…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":363,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[34],"tags":[13,11,12,21,25,10],"class_list":["post-362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-contracts","tag-charity","tag-consultant","tag-freelance","tag-non-profit","tag-self-employment","tag-start-up-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t