Posts Tagged ‘freelance tips’

Bob Sawyer on Freelancing

Jan 21, 2009 50 Words

Bob says…

Spend at least two to three hours a week on networking and relationship building. The relationships you make may not pay off immediately, but you never know when someone will pop up with a job or referral. Join LinkedIn, get involved locally, and always be willing to collaborate on jobs.

About Bob
Bob Sawyer is the owner and head bottle washer of Pixels and Code, a web development shop in Atlanta, Georgia. He has freelanced on and off for about eighteen years.

About this Post
This post is one of a series, written by various people within the web industry. They are responses to my request for a maximum of 50 words on the topic of tips for freelance success. You can use the 50 words category to see all the answers so far.

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Donna Spencer on Freelancing

Jan 7, 2009 50 Words

Donna says…

Time track every work-related activity – client work, admin, business development, training, everything. Time spent on billable activities is helpful for proposals, tracking your admin load lets you decide when to get help and you can keep your eye on all those other non-billable hours. Count in actual minutes – don’t estimate.

About Donna
Donna has been freelancing for Maadmob for 5 years where she does information architecture, interaction design, teaches and writes. She time-tracks every minute of her working day.

About this Post
This post is one of a series, written by various people within the web industry. They are responses to my request for a maximum of 50 words on the topic of tips for freelance success. You can use the 50 words category to see all the answers so far.

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Deciding How Far to Jump

Jan 5, 2009 Excerpts

This is an excerpt from the book, The Principles of Successful Freelancing. Sample chapters are available for downloading from this page.

Now that you’ve made the decision to become a freelancer, we’ve reached the point of short-, medium-, and long-term preparation. If you’re anything like me, you’ll want to jump in running as fast as you can. However, it’s been proven time and again that to ensure the best chance of success, you should expend plenty of effort in planning and preparation. This raises the question of which work mode to begin your freelance life with: full-time or part-time.

If you’re a student nearing the end of your studies, you’ve got a distinct time to work towards. (That said, I recommend that unless you have run a business previously, don’t go freelance straight after graduating—spend some time in employment in your chosen field first, to get those skills polished.) This also applies if your current work is coming to a close—you may be on a fixed-term contract, or the company you’ve been working for is winding up. However, for many people, the entry to freelancing is a case of juggling full-time employment with preparations to exit the rat race.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both situations, and you’ll need to weigh these up carefully. Let’s take a moment to look at some of them.

Freelancing on the Side

There’s a lot to be said for freelancing “on the side,” at least in the beginning:

  • This is a great way to test the waters without making that big jump.
  • You can spend as much after-hours time as you need on planning your business.
  • You can save just-in-case money for as long as it takes for you to feel comfortable before venturing into the unknown.
  • You’re able to be choosier with the work you take on, as your salary is still coming in to help with costs.
  • If you don’t have any good recent work to show, part-time freelancing allows you to build a great portfolio before you move to full-time.
  • The clients you groom now are likely to be with you once you make that leap, helping with immediate cash flow.
  • It allows you to take your time to fit out the home office, without blowing your starting budget.
  • Freelancing part-time after hours, as well as holding down a full-time position, gives you the authentic taste of a busy week as a freelancer. This can help you determine your ability to cope with that amount of work at any given time.

There are a few disadvantages to this practice, though:

  • Depending on your employment contract, you may be restricted from doing work that directly competes with services offered by your employer. It’s best to approach your boss to discuss this.
  • Most clients will want to contact you during their workday hours, which tend to be when you’re busy at your full-time gig.
  • You lose out on the all-important downtime hours of evenings and weekends. If you attract lots of work, you may end up exhausting yourself trying to work two jobs.
  • You’ll be cautious of growing too fast, given you have restricted hours in which to work. It can become tricky trying to keep everyone happy, and you may have to turn down new work in order not to fail existing clients.

Freelancing Full-time

There are some compelling advantages to jumping in with both feet:

  • You’ll have the freedom to set up your freelance life, instead of juggling it with a full-time job.
  • Full-time start-up mode means that you have plenty of time in which to network, make important contacts, and meet prospects.
  • There are no issues with your employer being aggrieved about you working freelance on the side, and you’ll have no hesitation in taking on as many new clients and projects as you can handle.

There are, however, some disadvantages to full-time freelancing straight away:

  • Nothing feeds self-doubt more than work failing to come in during those first few weeks.
  • The cash drain while you rush around making contacts and courting business can really hurt your back pocket.
  • The all-important planning tends to be the first casualty when those projects come in—understandably, you’ll be more interested in taking an opportunity to earn some much-needed money than mapping out your legal business structure.

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Win a signed copy of the book!

Dec 24, 2008 Promotion

I need your help; just five minutes of your time, and to thank you, I’ll enter you in a draw to win a signed copy of the book, posted to wherever you are in the world.

How? I’ve been inviting smart people I know in the industry to submit fifty words as a tip or hint to freelancers, and a 30 word biography about themselves. You can see them all here. We’ve heard some great tips, and there’s plenty more in the book itself, but what I really want to hear is YOUR hints and tips.

Writing a total of eighty words shouldn’t take you long, and you’ll be helping all the readers of this blog with your experience. I’ll publish the best of the tips here on this blog, and between now and the end of January, I’ll be asking two of my colleagues to help choose one tip they think stands out, and I’ll personally inscribe and post a copy of the book to the winner.

You have until January 31st to send your entry - by submitting the entry via email (send it to ‘me at milesburke dot com dot au’), I’ll assume you give me permission to publish it here, with due credit of course.

I trust you’re already working on that entry, and good luck!

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Have a freelancing tip to share?

Dec 15, 2008 Announcements

Do you have a freelancing tip or idea to share with readers of this blog? Over the last couple of months, I’ve posted a 50 word tip or idea from various invited people from the industry. You can see all of them so far, under the 50 Words category.

Now, I’m calling on you to give me your own ideas and tips, in no more than fifty words, as well as a short bio of no more than thirty words, to publish here.

Have something to share? Please email me with the finished (spell checked) text, to ‘me at miles burke dot com dot au’ (no, I don’t like nasty spam).

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