Tag Archive for business

The Business of Freelancing

March 31, 2012 Business Tips, Guides No comments
Freelancing - Taking Care of Business

This afternoon, I gave a presentation titled “Taking Care of Business - Tools and Tech for Running your Freelance Business” at the annual 2012 Freelance Conference. The crowd was great and asked some incisive questions. Freelancing is a tough gig and I’d never have made a success of it without taking what others shared with me. this was a chance for me to give something to my freelancing comrades.

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.

Link Exchange – starting up, targeting and marketing

January 17, 2012 Business Tips, Working No comments
freelance-game

Each week, I share some of the stories that I’ve read that I think are f the most value and interest for freelancers.

Thinking of going solo? Play the freelance board game first! [My Business]:  Check out ‘Go Freelance’, a fun, satirical, board game about just how much fun you can have going freelance. The game concentrates on the comic book industry, but the lessons are universal.

Ten Common Marketing Mistakes [Business Week]: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this refrain, or a variation of it: “We tried _____ marketing tactic. It doesn’t work.” While it may be true that a given approach is ill-suited for a particular industry, audience, or situation, in my experience the tactic is less often to blame than the implementation of it. In fact, many companies make mistake after mistake based on gaps in their understanding of how marketing really works. Here’s a quick review of 10 of the most common errors to help you avoid the worst of them.

How to Break Into a New Freelancing Niche [The Savvy Freelancer]: I’ve been feeling like a rookie freelancer all over again. It’s because I decided to get into a different freelancing niche. Let me tell you, it’s been difficult, slow going, exciting, unnerving, energizing and mind boggling all at the same time.

Have a great week.

How are you going to improve in 2012?

January 13, 2012 Working No comments
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This year will be my second in full-time self employment. Last year involved a huge amount of learning as I got the hang of working by myself for myself most of the time. I managed to get and keep a regular contract client but I still needed to keep finding other clients and ensuring that I make the most of my available time. I spent some of the quiet time over Christmas and New Years thinking abut 2011 and what I could do to build on the success.

It’s easy to look back and only think about all the things I didn’t do well. However, I think that it’s easy to look at the negatives and create a list of things to do and improve upon that’s too long to do and that distracts you from your main business. this year, I’m going to focus on two things and two things only.

Organizational skills

Managing my time remains my biggest challenge. While there’s an emphasis on the “free” in freelance I need to work harder at creating and maintaining good work habits. That means making better use of my time.

I have a whiteboard on the wall in my office that I use for jotting down notes and reminders. This year, I’m going to draw a five day plan on the board and divide each day into three slots and allocate a specific activity to each slot.

The idea isn’t to totally regiment all my time but to provide some structure. One of my weaknesses is that I can be easily distracted. By creating a regular schedule I can make sure that I make the most of my office time.

Improving my Craft

My main task is writing. I believe (and am told) that I write well but that’s not an excuse to rest on my laurels.

In order to improve my writing I need to do two things more than I have been recently. I need to spend more time reading and more time writing. This ties in nicely with my time management objective as I’ll be setting aside part of my week to write in different styles.

Like all journalists, I’m a slightly frustrated novelist so I’ll put some focus on writing fiction. I don’t know if I’m any good at it but I have some good critics at home and I’m sure they’ll provide honest feedback. My plan is to put at least one three hour block aside each week to write some fiction.

Over the last few weeks I’ve been reading more than I have in some time. I’ll continue that, endeavoring to read outside my comfort zone. That’s always being a challenge for me as I know what I like.

So, what are you going to do to makem2012 evenbetter than 2011?

Best links of the week

January 11, 2012 Business Tips, Freelance Blogs No comments
binoculars

Each week, I read about the art and science of running your own business. Here are a few of the articles that caught my eye this week.

How To Work From Home Like You Mean It [Fast Company] - Working from home requires a new mindset and a good system, not just a nicer pair of pants (but put those on, too).

Be Ready When Someone Asks, “What Do You Do?” [Freelance Switch] - Sometimes it’s hard to explain to people what it is you really do. Many people hear the word ‘freelancer’ and don’t quite understand what it means, other than you probably work from home in your pajamas.

Boost Your Freelance Writing Career In 2012 With These 5 Social Network Tips [Get Paid to Write Online] - Start 2012 with a bang by improving your social network activity.

12 Must-Read Freelancing Predictions for 2012 [Freelance Folder] - Don’t you wish you could see into the future of freelancing? If you could, you’d know what freelancing trends are coming up and what niches to concentrate on. You’d be ahead of the game on social media too.

And, just to finish things off, here are a few of the stories I’ve had published recently.

Apple CEO salary jumps to $377M

Review: Kingston Wi-Drive

Review: HTC Sensation XL

Group Test: Routers

Four things the 2012 CIO will need to focus on

Have a great week.

Link post – freelancing advice

January 3, 2012 Business Tips, Freelance Blogs, Tools, Working No comments
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One of the things I’ve not been very good at in the year since I started this blog has been linking to all of the great advice I’ve picked up through reading from a wide variety of experts. So, every week or so, I’ll be posting links to some the articles I’ve found most valuable.

Proofreading – An Essential Skill for ALL Freelancers (Freelance Switch): Whether you are a freelance web designer, writer or international mountain guide, you are likely to have a website, twitter account, LinkedIn profile and blog – and so you should. Without these tools, most of us would be lost.

Best and Worst Freelancing Advice of 2011 (The Savvy Freelancer): The bottom line is, you can find a lot of guidance for freelancing out there. What’s critical is your ability to sift through all the information that is available, and make a judgement call on which advice is good, and which is bad.

Investing in Your Writing Business (Get Paid to Write Online): Any business needs an investment, and a writing business is no exception.

What A Victorian Novelist Can Tell Modern Writers About Adapting To The Internet (The WM Freelance Writers Connection): What can a Victorian novelist tell modern American writers about adapting to the shift from the older print media and New York-centered publishing industry to the Wild West of writing for the internet — blogs, content mills, ebooks, self-publishing and social media?

8 Metrics Every Freelancer Should Measure at the End of the Year (FreelanceFolder): One of the best things you can do for your business – whether you’re a solo shop or a multi-national concern, is to stop at the end of the year and take a look at how things went.

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