The power of FOMO

I attended artist CJ Hendry’s Flower Market installation last week. In case you haven’t heard of it, it was a “market” that you could walk through to look at and buy plush flowers. Entry was free, and all visitors got one free flower, with subsequent flowers being $7 each.

There’s only one word I’d use to describe the experience: insane.

I went on Friday, where I naively thought that going on a weekday, right at the 9am opening time (well, I actually arrived at 9.15am due to delays) would mean I wouldn’t have to queue too long to enter.

I was wrong…because there was already a substantial queue, with a sign indicating an estimated wait time of 120 minutes. I was dismayed, but decided to register for a walk-in slot anyway.

And I really don’t know how, but I lucked out and my walk-in registration slot was for 9am (even though I heard one staff member say the earliest walk-in slots were currently for 1pm)…which meant I got to skip the entire queue and was allowed in immediately.

So, I entered the venue in a state of confused disbelief—and the craziness only continued.

Even though the doors opened only 20 minutes ago, the place was already packed. (See the above photo for reference, and btw the venue was even MORE crowded one hour later as the staff let more people in.)

Also, while some people clutched only their one free stalk, others were scooping up flowers (at $7 apiece, mind you) like nobody’s business. It was incredible.

I couldn’t help but think of how much money CJ was making from this—from the massive hype over the event, from luring people to attend with the promise of a free flower, and from the fact that the flowers are already ready to take home and so, unlike services that take time to deliver, she didn’t have to spend much time fulfilling orders other than collect buyers’ money.

And also, I just thought, amazed: this is the power of FOMO.

The power of FOMO

The fear of missing out. It can drive people to do unbelievable things, like queue for hours for plush flowers.

Why did people have FOMO over attending the Flower Market? I can think of a few reasons:

• Because they’re genuinely a fan of CJ Hendry’s work and want to own some of it
• Because they want a free flower (this was my reason for attending tbh, though I ended up taking a few flowers home haha)
• Because they’re scalpers who want to resell the flowers (…)

And this FOMO was created in the first place because:

• There was an appealing offer, i.e., the plush flowers—especially the Singapore-exclusive ones, plus the fact that all visitors get one free flower
• Demand for the offer among people and their peers was high—and the “among their peers” part is key, because if the people around you don’t care about having that something, you might not either
• There were limited plush flowers (again, especially the Singapore exclusives) and venue capacity

Applying FOMO to freelancing

Keep increasing an offer’s appeal and the demand for it, and people may feel FOMO for that offer even if they were originally lukewarm about it. Especially if the offer is in limited supply.

This dynamic applies to freelance services surprisingly well.

Think about it. If you’re good at what you do, clients are more likely to want to hire you. But your capacity to provide services is limited. If one client books you, you’ll have less time to work with others.

Here’s how I’ve created FOMO for my services:

I typically take projects weeks in advance. So, towards the middle or end of the month, when my schedule is filling up, I’ve messaged clients to ask if they plan to assign me work the following month. Because if they do, I want to make sure I slot them in.

This tactic doesn’t always result in me getting projects (or even a reply) from the clients I message. But when it works, it can be as effective as a client replying to me, after 4 weeks of radio silence, to schedule a call for the next day to kickstart a project (true story).

Try introducing a little FOMO the next time clients drag their feet in confirming a project. And if you have other tips for leveraging FOMO as a freelancer, reply to share them with me! Because, y’know, I don’t want to miss out. 😂

More freelancer news

What to do if PayNow no longer shows your business name

Since 6 Jun, people who use PayNow to pay you will see a masked version of your personal name instead of a custom nickname (if you had set one).

You’ve probably heard all the jokes about people’s names now being weird or even NSFW (here’s my favourite video about this 😂), but I wanted to focus on the implication for freelancers who’ve been receiving client payments to their personal bank accounts via PayNow.

If you had set your PayNow name to your business name, you should let your clients know what your PayNow name is now. This is so they can confirm they’re paying the right person, especially if they know you by your business name rather than your personal one.

If you want clients to make PayNow payments to your business name instead, consider opening a business bank account registered under your business name (which also means you’ll need to register your business if you haven’t already). Your business name will be displayed in full, with no masking, when people pay to your business bank account via PayNow.

​Get answers to FAQs about masked PayNow names here.​

How to navigate irregular freelance income

As freelancers typically earning irregular income and not having CPF or employee benefits, you need to plan your finances differently from employees who earn steady monthly paychecks. Here are 6 tips, courtesy of DollarsAndSense:

1. Build a bigger emergency fund of 6 to 12 months to continue having money to pay the bills, even during slow months or when clients pay you late
2. Pay yourself a fixed monthly “salary” from an operating account regardless of how much (or little) you earn each month, so you have funds from good months to offset the bad ones
3. ​Keep a cash buffer of at least 1 to 3 months of business expenses so you can continue paying them even if client payments take a while to hit your bank account. (This cash buffer is separate from your personal emergency fund.)
4. Consider making voluntary CPF contributions (on top of your mandatory self-employed contributions) to earn interest that can help offset housing and healthcare costs
5. Consider taking up your own insurance plans because you don’t have an employer providing healthcare benefits
6. Keep proper income records to help with securing loans (especially a housing loan), which are often harder for self-employed persons to get approved for. Lenders want to see that you have consistent and sustainable income. Otherwise, they might feel lending you money is too risky.

​More details in the full DollarsAndSense article.​