The One Thing a Freelance Writing Mentor Must Have (Part III of III)

This article is the final part of a three-part series originally entitled, 5 Things You Must Look for in a Freelance Writing Mentor.

In Part I, we went over the first two things to look for, eg, tech-savviness and variety of projects.

Part II discussed why your freelance writing mentor should give you specific answers to specific questions, and why they should be able to give it to you straight.

Following is the final thing - the single most important thing you should look for in a freelance writing mentor. It is, not surprisingly;

5. Experience: I left this one for last because it seems obvious, but is perhaps the most important.

A mentor should have a certain number of years under their belt - I'd say three at least. Why three? The first year as a full-time freelancer, you are learning the ropes. You will make pricing mistakes - eg, undercharging (overcharging never seems to happen because most freelancers don't have the luxury of doing this).

Other mistakes that will happen during the first year:

**under-estimating how long it's going to take to complete a project;

**setting up an invoicing system;

**dealing with clients who don't pay on time, or don't pay at all;

**marketing for new clients;

**upselling old clients;

**expanding service offerings, etc.

There is so much to learn during the first year that a mentor with only a year's experience won't have encountered - hence, dealt with - enough situations to advise you on how to deal with it.

I've been a freelancer since 1993, and I've basically been through it all. BUT, there are still situations that pop up that cause me to go, "Hmm, how do I resolve this?"

No mentor will ever know the answer to every situation, but a seasoned one - one with 3+ years - will have enough experience to draw on to be able to give you some guidelines as to what to do when "x" happens.

So, what about the second year? During this time is when most freelancers will experience either growth or a drought. They will also figure out how to effectively market their services and complete projects at the same time.