1. Make it clear that work hours are work hours.

Friends and family mean well but they are often your biggest productivity suckers. Tell your friends and family that although you work for yourself that you still work. Although you have more freedom to step out for an extended lunch you still need to plan. Ask friends to call or email before scheduling some socialising so that you can organise your time appropriately.

2. Manage your phones

Random phone calls while you’re in “the zone” are a massive productivity killer. Just because a phone rings there’s no reason to answer it. You have voicemail – use it! Set aside part of your day to review voicemail messages and to answer calls. The tool is a tool that you use to support your business – it’s not your master.

3. Tame your email

Email has simultaneously made it easier for us to communicate and become a noose. It’s common for people to receive hundreds of email per day. So how do you stay on top of your inbox? Start by learning how to create folders and use rules to automatically file messages. For example, I have rules in place that move all press releases out of my inbox into a specific folder. That makes them easier to find later and reduces the clutter. And like your phone, set aside time to deal with email each day – resist the urge to read and deal with each email as it arrives.

4. (Anti)Social Media

Social media can be a a very useful tool but also a vampire that can suck the productivity out of your working day. If you use tools like Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Facebook for research and contacts make sure you quarantine the times you use it and stay task focussed.

5. Breaks, not Broken

When you plan your day out, allow for breaks. Short rest breaks aid productivity by keeping your brain fresh. Systems like the Pomodoro Technique suggest working for 20 minutes and then taking five minutes. Every four of five intervals, take a longer break of 10-15 minutes. There are plenty of programs you can run on your computer that sound an alarm or show an alert at a fixed interview. And don’t forget to take a proper lunch break. I also like a coffee break mid morning and usually head out in the afternoon for the school run.

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The folks over at Freelance Switch have developed a useful guide on creating an elevator pitch that’s worth a look.

They offer several tips but this is the big one in our view.

Once you’ve put something together, practice it. The trick with an elevator pitch is that while it’s planned, it needs to sound spontaneous; not robotic. Practice this by saying your pitch while your in the car or shower, making sure the words are natural and it’s easy to remember.

We’d also suggest trying it out loud in front of a mirror and then running it past a family member or friend who doesn’t understand exactly what you do.

Having a couple of different versions is also handy. I think a long version that lasts about a minute and a one or two sentence “highlights” version work well. For example, my short version says that I am a professional communicator that helps people tell their story. If that piques the listener’s interest (it usually does – who doesn’t like a story teller?) I can go with the longer version.

A solid elevator pitch needs to be memorable without being ridiculous. You want potential customers to remember you for what you do and stand for, not just because you were funny. And make sure you back up the pitch with a business card that tells people what you do and not just who you are. Consider it your paper-based elevator pitch.

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When I started working I came from a science and teaching background so accounting was not my strong suit. I had to work at it by asking questions, talking to the accounting staff and getting them to walk me through reports, volunteering to be on local committees where there was a need to read balance sheets and financial reports and buying second-hand accounting textbooks and reading them.

If you’re just starting out as a freelancer, take the time to learn a little bit about accounting. You don’t need to enrol at a university and get a degree but you do need to get your head around some basic terms and practices. My local council offers short courses for small business operators so that can be a good place to look as well.

Whichever approach you take, make sure that it’s in your personal development plan. Remember, if you don’t write it down, it won’t happen.

Here are ten key terms you need to understand for your business so that you can work with your financial advisor or accountant.

Accounting is a critical part of your business and all of these are important as they have implications for the day to day operation of your business as well as ensuring that you keep up with your legal obligations. I’ve avoided anything to do with tax as this will vary widely depending on where your business is based. I’ve also left out anything to do with salaries and payroll for the same reason.

Accounting Terms You Need To Know

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Once of the challenges of such a talk – I only had 45 minutes including question time – is to cover such a broad topic and do each part justice. I’m hoping to organise a longer version – perhaps a half or full day seminar on the business of freelancing – in the near future. If you’re interested let me know.

However, here’s my slide deck from today. Naturally, it’s not the same when you just look at the slides without the rest of my presentation. I’ve added a couple of extra slides here to add some extra information.

The post The Business of Freelancing appeared first on Journo Advice.

It’s really worth doing this if you’re in business. It makes you look more professional, it’s cheap and it means that you are the master of your domain (pun intended) so that your email address won’t change of you swap your ISP. It also means that you can set up multiple email addresses for different purposes.

Also, it means that you can separate your home life from your work – a good thing for freelancers trying to ensure that the work/family balance is maintained.

One other thing – it should only take an hour or so to set up the email account but it can take up to 48 hours for the changes to take effect. You’ll be editing something called a DNS record for your domain and it can take a couple of days for the changes to propogate across the entire Internet. However, it’s possible that the email will be active in less than a couple of hours.

This isn’t a comprehensive guide – it’s an overview of the process. Most service providers have comprehensive instructions on their websites. The problem I’ve found in the past is that knowing where to find those instructions is a challenge.

Step 1 – Register a Domain Name

A domain is a unique name that’s used to identify a internet resources. When you look at a web address it will be in the form www.journoadvice.com. The domain name is the “journoadvice.com” part.

To claim or register a domain name, you need to go through one of the companies that has been authorised to hand out domain names. This company is called a registrar.

There are lots of different registrars to choose from. And although they are all selling similar products, they all offer different extra services and, therefore, charge different prices.

If you’re purchasing a regular “.com” domain name, then it’s pretty much a free-for-all. Sure, you can’t purchase a domain that would obviously misrepresent you and thou can’t cybersquat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting).

When you’re choosing the registrar you’ll be buying the domain through, makse sure that you will have the authority to make modifications to the domain’s DNS record. I know that sounds very complicated and nerdy but it’s actually easy as long as you’re allowed to do it. Most registrars allow this but a few charge extra.

I usually purchase my domains from GoDadddy (http://www.godaddy.com). You’ll need either a credit card or PayPal (http://www.paypal.com) account to make the purchase. It’s important that you shop around. Although I use GoDaddy – I’m not necessarily recommending them as being a good choice for everyone.

If you do choose GoDaddy, pay attention as you go through the ordering process. The ordering processing has some fairly heavy onselling so make sure you don;t buy anything extra that you don’t need. In particular, don’t pay four the email hosting option as there are free options available.

Domain registration for a “.com” address is about $12AUD per year from GoDaddy.

If you want a “.com.au” domain, then you’ll need to go to a registrar that is accredited for Australian domains. There’s a list of Australian domain registrars (http://www.auda.org.au/registrars/accredited-registrars/) at the AUDA website. You’ll need an ABN in order to register a “.com.au” address.

Step 2 – Set up the email service

Once the domain is registered, you’ll need to create an account with an email provider.

There are several options here. I use Google Apps but there’s also Microsoft’s Live and Crazy Domains offers unlimited email storage and up to 50 different addresses for less than $20 per year. A web search for “free email hosting” will reveal lots of options and leads.

If you choose Google Apps, then you can do the domain registration there so that Step 1 and Step 2 are combined.

Once you’ve chosen your preferred provider you’ll need to enter some information. You will need an alternate email address as well as the one you are setting up. Your current, non-business one will suffice.

This process is very straightforward. All you need to do is follow the instructions. There’s nothing tricky or technical to do.

Step 3 – Putting the domain and email service together

Back in Step 1 we said that you needed to ensure that you had control of your domain’s DNS record. The DNS record is the information that tells the world what to do when someone tries to access your domain.

For example, it’s the DNS record that directs the world to your website when the enter “www.yourwebsite.com”. It’s also the DNS record that tells the world where the mailboxes for tour domain are so that email is delivered correctly.

In order to make the appropriate changes with your email provider, you’ll need to prove to them that you own the domain you’re registering. To do that, you typically either need to upload a file to your website or make a chnage to the domain’s DNS record. If you haven’t yet set up your website, changing the DNS record is the easiest thing to do.

If you’ve chosen Google Apps for your email, they provide detailed instructions for modifying the DNS record. In summary, the process involves:

1. Logging in to your domain registrar’s website.
2. Going to the Account Management area of the site
3. Opening the DNS record for the domain you’ve registered
4. Making the changes as instructed and saving the changes

The process should only take a few minutes to do but up to two days to take full effect.

Once your ownership of the domain is confirmed, you can change the DNS record so that your email uses the new domain name. This involves changes the MX (Mail Exchange) records in the DNS.

It’s important to enter the information exactly as directed, including any trailing fullstops and ensuring that there are no extra spaces accidentally typed in or other errors.

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Here are the five things I do to manage my time.

1. Workflow management

I’ve been using a self-developed workflow system using a program called Bento on my Mac. The neat thing is the system can be synchronized to my iPad and iPhone easily so I can record ideas, pitches, commissioned work, work in progress and submitted work.

Without this system, I’d lose track of my work as in a typical week I’d have several deadlines on the go at any one time.

2. My whiteboard

I have a small whiteboard (900 x 450mm) on my wall that lists the week’s deadlines, to do items (such as bills and invoices) and other stuff I need to keep track of. It’s a low-tech solution but it works to keep my focussed each day.

3. Set daily goals

Each work day I set targets. The nature of the targets varies depending on where I am in my work cycle. Sometimes it’s to conduct a certain number of interviews or write a number of words or submit a number of stories.

Daily goals are important. By setting small, achievable targets that are linked to deadlines and budgets it makes the somewhat daunting tasks of hitting monthly or annual earning goals mo achievable.

4. Mix it up

I know my personality pretty well and know that I need to vary my work otherwise I lose focus. So, I try not to fill consecutive days with the same work. If I have a full day of writing, I make sure my next day involves something different.

If it’s not practical because of pending deadlines then I try to introduce some diversity by planning work for different clients. If I have a day of writing about consumer tech, I make the next day about enterprise or management. That gets my brain working in different ways.

5. Schedule some fun

In order to get the most out of my work time I always slow for some social time during the work day. If I was in a 9 to 5 office I’d occasionally grab a coffee with a friend or chat in the lunch room. There’s no reason that has to stop just because I’m self-employed.

Each week, I plan to catch up with a couple of friends on the phone and go out for lunch with my wife. While those activities can cut into work time, they actually help me be more productive by keeping my brain fresh.

So, what do you do to get the most from your time?

The post Five Time Management Basics appeared first on Journo Advice.

This guest post is by Phoebe Netto, the Managing Director of Good Business Consulting, a marketing and public relations consultancy for small-to-medium businesses. Phoebe has a background in public relations and marketing, and takes these skills that are often reserved for big businesses with big budgets, and uses them to help good small businesses grow and meet their objectives. Visit www.goodbusiness.net.au (be sure to sign up for the Good Business Consulting newsletter and check out the blog while you’re there) or follow her on Twitter at @Phoebe_Netto

In marketing yourself and your business, you should aim to be at every watering hole where your ideal clients congregate. After all, if people do not know that you exist and what you can offer, how else will they become clients? For many of you, one of those waterholes will include social media.

Social media opens up a whole new audience to you, provides a means to make new connections, and gives you the tools to introduce yourself and your services in a subtle way to your ideal clients.

It allows you to extend the reach of your thought leadership and gives you the opportunity to share examples of your work and testimonials. Social media can also provide you with a constant flow of advice, ideas, and links to resources that are focused on your area of expertise or interest.

Regardless of what social media platform you decide to use, there are universal principles or golden rules that you must adhere to. You will notice that these rules are not much different to society’s rules for social engagement offline.

1.        Do things on purpose

If you are on twitter, know why you are on twitter and let your tweets reflect your purpose. The same rule applies for every social media platform. For example, I help small-to-medium businesses and sole operators grow with marketing and public relations. I need to ensure that the majority of my tweets on twitter are about small business, marketing and public relations. My twitter followers should know what to expect of my twitter content.

One of the mistakes that many small businesses and sole operators make when using social media is that they do not choose the right platform. This results in busy activity rather than productivity. Only focus on social media platforms that are a gathering place for your unique target group.

For example, young pet owners would be more inclined to interact with you on facebook than on LinkedIn. If you are a freelance journalist, twitter would be best as there are countless editors to interact with there and you can share links to examples of your work.

2.        It’s called SOCIAL media for a reason

Always remember that social media is not a foreign land speaking in another language. It is real life with real people, real relationships and real conversations.

This is why many of the same social etiquette principles that we value and operate by in business and in life, also apply to social media.

3.        It is better to give than to receive

In my business there are a couple of principles that lead to successful marketing and public relations. In media relations if you give others (journalists, editors and the publication’s readers) what they want, you will get what you want. For example, if I help a journalist by giving them a great piece of news or a well-written bylined article, I will get what I want which is great coverage for my client.

Similarly, marketing is most successful when it is focused on meeting needs and making life easier and more pleasant for others. When a small business addresses the deepest concerns and desires of both its clients and potential clients, and makes them feel special, they will attract leads and repeat business.

When operating by the following rules, social media can deliver your message to new audiences, provide you with new connections, and act as a platform to share your expertise and thought-leadership:

4.        No yelling in the hallway (or on social media)

Would you ever walk into a room full of strangers and announce, “I can take your business to the next level at half the price”? No? Didn’t think so. So don’t do it on social media.

If you notice that someone on your social media platform asks for a recommendation or complains that they can’t find a good provider of a certain product or service, then sure – feel free to suggest a solution or offer to discuss offline with them. You might even land a nice piece of new business. The point is to be helpful, with brings me to my next point.

5.        Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you

Use social media to share, give value, help others, provide helpful information, collaborate, and create a reason for people to want to know more about you and what you do.

You can give value and at the same time promote your business by sharing links to your blog, provide thought leadership, expertise and helpful advice. This shows that you are passionate about your industry area and gives people a non-confrontational and subtle way to experience your knowledge.

Make sure you also share other people’s blog posts, links to useful website, spread great social media content (such as tweets) from others, and promote other businesses (if worthy of promotion). Remember, it’s not all about you!

6.        You have two ears and only one mouth for a reason

My mother always used to tell me this and she was right (as usual). Social media is not a forum for monologues. Those who do not interact or listen to what others are saying on social media will eventually find themselves very lonely (offline and online).

Worthless tweets and overactive robots cause more harm than good.

Instead interact with others by asking questions, offering advice and responding to other people’s online questions.

7.       All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

Show your personality. People do business with people, not companies. So make sure show your personality so people can feel a connection.

Be sincere. You can’t fake relationships – even on social media. Put a smile on the faces of those who follow you.

These principles are also golden rules of social media. Zig Ziglar summarised it by saying, “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.” When you follow these principles you are well on your way to building important connections with your ideal clients.

Social media is one of the greatest tools available to small-to-medium businesses and sole operators. You can communicate directly with your ideal clients without going through a ‘middle-man’ such as a journalist, advertisement or website.

The post The 7-step guide to using social media for small business owners appeared first on Journo Advice.

Moonlighting is a way to move from fulltime to freelance

Many freelancers  don’t just wake up one morning and decide to be self-employed. Many, like me,  work in another job, building the contacts, confidence and cash reserves required to step out and go solo. However, doing so can be a little risky if you need to balance a full-time job with your new freelance career.

Here are 6 tips for making the leap from employed to self-employed.

1. Be honest – you’ll get caught anyway

Let’s face it, it’s impossible to do two jobs properly if you have to do one of them in hiding. When I started freelancing I spoke to my boss and we came to an agreement. That way, when my byline started appearing it wouldn’t come as a surprise. Make sure you keep a paper or email trail so that if there’s a change in management you can keep freelancing on the basis of the agreement.

2. Don’t let the universes collide

If you’re going to start working for yourself, register a domain and set up an account with Google Apps or some email provider. That will accomplish two things. It’ll make you look more professional with your new clients (using a Gmail or Hotmail account makes you, in my view, look like an amateur) and ensure that you don’t use your employer’s email system for personal messages.

While you’re at it – get a separate mobile phone account so that you can’t be accused of using the business phone inappropriately. If the budget is tight, you can buy unlocked handsets for less than $50 and then get a pre-paid account so that you can receive calls.

3. Be sneaky

OK – so this might sound a little dodgy but you’re going to have to sneak off from time to time. I suggest making sure you use your full lunch break every day – whether you need it or not. That way, when you need to head out for a meeting or make a non-employer related call being out of the office won’t stand out as much.

4. Keep doing your day job well

All the preparation in the world will come to nothing if you mess up your full-time job. Managing the balance is hard but if you miss on an expected bonus or, worse still, get canned you’ll need to go hungry

5. Manage the transition

If your plan is to leave your fulltime job and go 100% freelance you’ll need to plan. Set some targets so that you know how the transition will work. If you can, try to have enough money in the bank so that you can survive for between three and six months after leaving fulltime employment.

You’ll also need to ramp up your freelance work in the lead up to the transition so that you can hit the ground running on Day 1 of your freelance life. That will mean careful time management so that you manage both jobs.

6. Leave on good terms

You never know what will happen in the future. Make sure that your departure from your fulltime employer is on good terms.

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Manage your dollars

The thrill of the first job as a freelancer wears off pretty quickly if you’re not paid. In fact, all of the benefits of self-employment diminish when cashflow is slow or non-existent. Here are 5 tips for getting paid.

1. Don’t work for nothing – no matter what

Giving freebies isn’t a path to financial independence. When you work for free (volunteer, charitable work is the obvious exception), you’re telling the world what the value of your work is. Set a rate, agree woth the client and invoice promptly.

2. Value your work

When you work for a low rate, like the $25 per story things you see on many job boards these days, your resigning yourself to a life of hard labour, frustration and poverty. When you take a job for low pay you’re telling the client that’s what your work is worth.

3. Make sure the client knows you’re getting paid

Even if the client is a friend, make sure that they know you’re not working for free. It’s better to be frank and open about the pay rate and timing than to get into a nasty argument later.

4. Make your invoice crystal clear

How do you expect to be paid if the client can’t work out where to send the money? Make sure that your invoice clearly

• shows your company name
• the services you’ve provided and the price
• all of the legal tax stuff you need to include. In Australian this means having the words “Tax Invoice” printed on the invoice as well as your ABN
• payment details including bank account details, Paypal address (if you use it), due date and contact details in case there’s a problem

5. Ask and ye shall receive

A bonus tip

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Here are five ways to use social media

1. Engage with your audience.

Try to get your publishers to include your Twitter ID in your byline. For online publications, this is usually pretty easy to do. When readers can engage with you, you gain a new level of connection with them. With online publications, this usually isn’t too hard to negotiate

One piece of advice – if readers start following your Twitter feed you’ll need to think before you tweet. One thing you can do is have two Twitter accounts –  a personal one and a work one. Also, don’t follow readers automatically as they can then direct message you. This might be somewhat intrusive.

2. Promote your work

If you do publish online, sending links over Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and other social sites can be a great way to increase traffic to your work. A good strategy is to not only send links to new work but also to older stories that haven’t dated. That will expose your work new readers and help build your audience.

3. Build up a living CV

Creating a blog, even a simple one, can be an easy way to make a living curriculum vitae of your work accessible to potential clients. While that might sound technically difficult for some, many web hosting companies make it very easy to register a domain name and build a web site.

A great example of a blog like this, that shares both work and some personal information is my friend Alex Kidman’s site.

4. Show off using YouTube

If you do the occasional TV spot, getting the clip on to YouTube gives you visibility and exposes you to an even greater audience.

Just make sure you aren’t breaking any copyright rules if you do this.

5. Find sources and information

Last, but certainly not least on this list, is using social media as an information gathering tool. Asking a question on Twitter, as an example, can be a great way to find interview subjects. Also, there’s the newest kid on the social media block, Quora, that lets you not only follow people, but also topics of interest. It’s sort of a cross between Twitter and LinkedIn groups.

How do you use social media? Do you find it valuable or a time waster? Share your thoughts in the comments.

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