Yet a stream of young professionals are now giving that term new meaning.
How did they get started?
Where did they find clients?
Jenni Gritters started her own coaching business where she offers one-hour sessions on the business of freelancing. Photo courtesy of Jenni Gritters
And, perhaps the most perplexing question in the work-for-yourself world, how did they decide what to charge?
Both have a presence on social media and had written viral articles about their professional experiences.
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At some point, they both decided that offering their time for free was not financially sustainable.
They also started their own individual coaching businesses, offering one-hour sessions with prospective and experienced freelancers.
Finding clients was never too much of an issue.
Yans and Gritters relative internet fame assured some level of success.
But deciding what to focus on and how much to charge posed bigger problems.
Both have since raised their fees: Gritters is at $150 while Yan is at $200.
They advise being realistic about how much work coaching will take and charge accordingly.
She wanted to save her creative energy for her own work.
Instead, she focuses her coaching on the business of freelancing.
Her plan was to be on monthly retainers with nonprofits managing their social media.
But once those contracts ended, she quickly saw that her clients went back to their previous practices.
She wanted to help them long-term.
Much like Gritters and Yan, it was a sort of serendipity that pushed Snyder into coaching.
The leaders knew enough to know what they didnt know and that was social media and the digital world.
The coaching paid off.
Since then, Snyder has made the pivot from the agency model to business coaching and speaking engagements.
Those range from about $39 to $70 per course.
She also offers social media audits to nonprofits, which function as a one-time coaching session.
Those start at $1,000.
But in the age of COVID-19, Snyder has found real success in webinars.
She offers professional development series for nonprofits that can book her as a speaker.
I really want to get into pitching magazines, they would say, and I would love any advice.
But Tosone didnt have the time to answer every one-off message.
She decided to compile a resource that she could hand off to anyone with questions for a price.
Thats how she created her e-book, Right On Pitch.
The e-book focuses on the making of a successful pitch and looks at pitching brands and publications.
She also has a section on negotiating rates.
That helped her tweak the product to be ready to go.
She continues to do that, because shes seen a good return from that $25 investment.
But shes still managed to find time to grow her e-book sales.
In 2019, the e-book made up nine percent of her total freelance income.
In 2020, it grew to 16 percent.
Tosone found success by compiling all of her advice in one place and marketing it as a low-cost product.
Elizabeth Djinis is a contributor to The Penny Hoarder.
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