In my world the customer is always right, but it is all just an act to keep my perfect business rating. Especially in the Freelance marketplace, where the person best at selling themselves always seems to win even if they have no idea what they are doing. The man keeps me down like this, even though I am doing something I enjoy (which is more than most people), just because that is the way our new rating based society works. One mark against your record could hurt business, keep you from buying a car, and make you flunk school. All my customers are just people, individuals doing business, trying to accomplish something, but they have been conditioned by society.

If I don’t make them feel the special treatment burning their skin, they might leave me a 7 out of 10 instead of a perfect score. Now while this may seem fair to them for normal service, the problem is the guy next door is sucking everyone off, even if they don’t pay him, to keep his edge above me. I in turn start to suck as hard as I can trying to stay afloat under the wave of perfection that is the other guy. After a long day and little pay, I feel like I sold myself. I never wanted to sell myself, and yet by not picking one route, by choosing the stay at home freelance path, I have still sold myself to the highest bidder.

Or in this case, anyone who is willing to pay me.

Of course, there are still many benefits of me selling myself to customers instead of a boss middleman. I get to listen to any music I want while on the job which the Sally Beauty’s Mail Room didn’t allow me to do because of “safety reasons” like “I wouldn’t hear the alarm.” I didn’t really realize how important that was until I tried stuffing envelopes for 4 hours. I would rather burn.

But with a job like that, I never had to be in a certain happy enthusiastic mood. If I showed up looking like shit and snapping at everyone, it was okay because hey, work sucks, none of us are here to have any fun, lets get the hell done and out and away. The smoke breaks usually involved talking about the building burning down (we have many fire drills and a few false alarms), how fantastic that would be, or horrible because “I really need the job/money/security/something to do with myself everyday.”

I never once got in trouble for a misspelling at Sally’s. Especially a misspelling in the heat of a fast paced Internet conversation. The mail room didn’t really require much of anything like that, and anything you had to spell correctly was printed in big black letters and underlined. They had a underline person who determined what should be underlined and highlighted, and most important, what color paper every document should be printed on. She loved hot pink, and no one read anything.

The point being I do get in trouble now, and can even lose my dinner for a slip of the finger. Customers have lost complete interest in doing business with me for a misspelled “errened.” I typed it out in a hurry not even thinking, and the next message informed me that payment had been sent for the work done, see you later alligator. I have started playing scrabble before each AIM conversation just to freshen up that part of my brain, but I have also started building a program for AIM that underlines, highlights in big black letters any misspelled word, and don’t let me send it until I fix it or tell it okay. Anyone know the number to the underline lady at Sally’s? I need some advice.

The biggest thing these whole freelance adventure has taught me so far is that the little things count the most. It doesn’t just matter that you finish the large project in front of you, but you also have to spend time paying attention to detail. No force on this planet can get the whole Internet thing complete straight and perfect the first try. When spaces matter, it is hard for people to pick up on the mistakes. Clients always notice the small mistakes, like a little white space in the bottom corner because they are using a browser you never heard of.

Also, never send someone anything until you are completely finished, or at least have it looking the way you want it to look in the end. People don’t seem to understand the “here is a rough draft to show you my progress” idea, and take it all the wrong way. “It looks horrible!” they would say. “It doesn’t even have any images yet!” I say back, but it is already too late. They are crying, thinking they have invested in the worst mistake of their lives. Usually, I don’t get the chance to prove them wrong by finishing it up and giving them something spectacular.

In the end, I log into my Freelance account and check out my account balance. Not horrible for a days work, and at least I am not losing money in my own endeavor. I might actually be able to eat once I transfer it from that account to Paypal to my bank account and out of the ATM. Oh boy, anyone know of any places hiring?