The freelancer glossary

“Payment in advance” (aka advanced payment) ensures that you get paid fully before rendering any services. This helps to thwart payment issues, such as late payment.

Payment terms are usually included on an invoice to specify expectations for payment. For instance, a freelancer may enforce net 30 terms and penalties for late payment.

Per diem is a daily allowance that companies typically offer to their employees and/or freelancers to cover travel or living expenses. Per diem amounts are set by the company.

A photographer uses images to tell a story or capture an event. Some professionals specialize in commercial photography, while others specialize in portraits, news, and other niches.

In content marketing, a pillar page (aka content pillar) is a valuable SEO-friendly page that covers the main aspects of a topic and links out to other related (and more in-depth) pages.

A pitch deck is a presentation that’s often given by a founder to investors during fundraising. A pitch deck includes a short explanation of the company’s goal, differentiators, and plan.

A point of contact (PoC) is the main person or department responsible for receiving any inquiries for a certain project, program, or organization.

A writing or design portfolio is a collection of work that gives a potential client an idea of your skills, experience, and expertise. Modern portfolios are published online.

A press release is an official statement or announcement directed at members of the news industry. Its main purpose is to draw attention to something that the author has deemed important.

Product adoption generally refers to when the market starts to use and enjoy your product. As an example, Facebook was a novel platform in the early 2000s and took years to achieve product adoption.

Product differentiation is the process of identifying what makes your product (or service) unique from your competitors. Differentiators can include features, performance, and more.

The goal of product marketing is to bring a product to market and ensure its success. This typically involves defining the product’s positioning, creating sales collateral, and more.

A product roadmap is a visual roadmap of all the planned stages of building a product. It helps everyone on a team stay aligned on the timeline, progress, resource allocation, and more of the project.

Product-market fit refers to when a company has successfully identified their target customers, based on sales velocity, positive feedback, word-of-mouth marketing, and other indicators.

Professional contacts are people whom you’ve met and/or worked with before. They may be able to serve as referrals for a job or as role models in your field (as examples).

A profit & loss (P&L) statement is also known as an income statement. It is a financial report that includes the revenues generated and expenses incurred in a specific time period.

Project management is the process of guiding a team through the various stages of a job. Project managers will typically oversee the planning, budget, and completion of all required tasks.

A project scope is an outline of the specific deliverables, tasks, timelines, and resources of a project. It is intended to set boundaries and prevent “out-of-scope” requests.

Proofreading is the final step of the editing process in which you check for any remaining grammar, spelling, punctuation, or formatting issues.

In sales, prospecting is when you research, find, and initiate relationships with potential customers. Prospecting is specifically an outbound sales activity, whereby a salesperson actively seeks out new contacts.

A quality assurance (QA) engineer is usually a member of the development team who specializes in testing, debugging, and ensuring that a product meets users’ expectations.

A quarterly business review (QBR) is when a freelancer or company connects with their customers on a quarterly basis. The meeting is intended to gauge satisfaction and identify additional needs of the customer.

A query letter is a letter addressed to a literary agent, editor, or publisher to generate interest around a book or book idea. It is comparable to a cover letter on a job app.

In freelancing, a quote is a description of the services—as well as a price breakdown—for the client to review. This helps to set expectations before a contract is signed or an invoice is sent.

Recruiters help to find and engage qualified job candidates for hiring companies. They may work for a staffing agency or an in-house human resources department.

In SaaS, a renewal refers to when a customer chooses to continue using a product after his or her contract has ended. In other words, the user decides to renew his or her platform subscription.

A retainer agreement is a type of contract in which a client pays upfront for work that is to be done in the future. Payments may be made as a one-time payment or as recurring fees.

In SaaS, retention is a metric that shows how many customers continue to use a product over time. Retention compares the total number of paying customers at the start of the period with the number of paying customers at the end of the period.

A return on investment (ROI) captures how much money a person or company has earned or lost from the cash they’ve put into a product, marketing campaign, or other expense.

Runway refers to the amount of time a company has left before its cash balance goes to zero. Runway is typically used by startups that rely on external sources of cash to finance the business.

SMART goals is short for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based goals. It is a framework for planning projects that are purpose-driven and measurable.

A SWOT analysis is the process of identifying your business’ strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It is a common framework for understanding your competitive positioning.

Sales enablement is the ongoing process of equipping your sales team with all the tools, content, strategies, and resources that they need to be successful.

The sales funnel is a part of the marketing funnel, starting from when a prospect has been qualified by the sales team to when he or she has made a purchase (or, alternatively, dropped off).

The sales pipeline is a visual representation of an organization’s sales process. It’s useful for tracking the progress of open accounts and the steps for closing a deal.

A sales pitch is a short presentation or speech intended to persuade someone to purchase your product or service. The best sales pitch is concise, personalized, and well-researched.

A sales qualified lead (SQL) is a prospect that has already been vetted by the marketing team, and is then confirmed by the sales team as someone worth pursuing.

A sales referral (aka customer referral) is a prospect who was introduced to a company through a mutual contact or an existing customer.

Schedule C is part of Form 1040, which is used to report how much money you earned or lost over the last year. Sole proprietors and single-member LLCs are generally required to fill this out.

Scope creep is when the requirements of a project begin to change once the project is already in motion. It is an unwanted event that tends to delay, complicate, or confuse the project at hand.

Search engine marketing (SEM) is the process of paying for and managing ad placements to appear at the top of search engines like Google.

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the exercise of enhancing your site and web content to rank higher on sites like Google, which each has its own ranking algorithm.

Search intent is commonly used in SEO to describe the motivations behind an online search. For example, some users may be looking to find information about a brand while others are seeking to learn.

Seed funding refers to the very first stage of funding that a business pursues. This precedes Series A, B, C, etc. However, startups do not always raise more rounds after receiving seed money.

Self-employment tax (SE tax) is tax that most self-employed individuals must pay in addition to income tax. It encompasses Social Security and Medicare taxes.

Series A, B, C, etc. is the naming convention for the funding rounds that a business may pursue. Each round is an additional effort to raise money for the growing business.

In SEO, a short-tail keyword is a search term that—as its name suggests—is only composed of one or two words. These terms are generally very broad and high-volume.

Slack is a messaging app for teams. It supports one-on-one messaging, in addition to “channels” for multiple participants. Aside from instant messaging, you can send calls, share documents, and more through Slack.

A social media manager is the gatekeeper for a brand’s or individual’s social accounts. He or she manages the voice of those accounts, creating posts and maintaining positive interactions.

Unlike a social media manager, a strategist focuses on the “big picture” role of social media. He or she often crunches data, talks with clients, and creates a targeted plan for each social channel.