Displaying All Posts in the Freelance category

4 Clients Freelancers Should Avoid

potential clients

We freelancers perform without a net. We are constantly taking plenty of risks with potential clients — one of them being simply not getting paid.

This can mean getting stiffed, or it can mean having your work deemed unacceptable and facing the threat of not getting your much-needed compensation.

However, we also risk such frustrations as facing inefficient working styles that slow us down and make our overall freelancing life less successful than it should be.

Or we experience unpleasant interactions that hurt morale and thus threaten our freelancing career in general.

It’s true that in every field there are annoyances, and there may be some good personality traits associated with being able to put up with these. To some extent they’re unavoidable. But here’s a guide to minimizing things that slow you down or that detract from the success — financial and spiritual — of your freelancing life.

If you have enough available work to be able to avoid potential clients who look like trouble, it’s a matter of heeding certain warning signs. Here are the ones of which I’m aware. Click Here to Read Article …

What Freelancers Can Learn From TV Characters

freelancing

Freelancers have to be people of tremendous character — our own decisions rule our destiny.

Freelancing means more self-motivation, creating our own atmosphere and learning on the job .

They say art imitates life, but I’ve heard the opposite as well.

There is plenty of art we could look to, but who doesn’t love a little television?

Here’s a look at some life lessons to take — and leave — from some of our favorite TV characters, past and present. Click Here to Read Article …

5 Ways to Get More Done At Your Home Office

improved productivity

When I first started working from home, I was still on someone else’s clock. I was lucky enough to have a boss who would be cool with us occasionally working in our home office.

Of course, at this point, I didn’t have a home office. I had a room. Since my housemates kept odd schedules, they were often home when I was working.

It was then that I learned how to avoid distractions while working at home. I couldn’t do my own thing — I was supposed to be working. Someone was paying me to do it!

Fast-forward a few years: I’d branched out on my own as a freelancer. This is when distractions became more easy to justify and harder on my wallet. If I kept vacuuming and knitting when I was supposed to be working, my paycheck wouldn’t appear. Click Here to Read Article …

Continuing Education for the Freelancer or Solopreneur

freelance info

Working at home is a dream of many, and for tens of thousands it’s a reality that brings us both tremendous joy and endless frustration.

For the freelancer or the solopreneur, the only way to truly remain relevant in such a fast paced career path is to stay on top of current trends.

You also have to learn new ones in order to increase your earning potential in new niches, as well as perfecting the skills you already have.

The important part is ensuring that you’re continually educating yourself in order to increase your marketability and your overall skill set.

However, for those of us that work as freelancers or own a one person business that relies on working digitally, it’s hard to argue against adding additional tools to your toolbox. Click Here to Read Article …

5 Awesome Gifts for Freelancers

awesome gifts 1

Freelancers of any stripe need a good pick-me-up every so often.

Fortunately, many of us know folks who love to give us gifts and the gift-giving season is on its way. The holiday season is officially upon us folks.

A little boost in spirits could come in the form of a little gizmo, one that delivers a bit of consumer goods happiness.

So when someone asks you what you’d like, make sure to add these awesome gifts to your wish list: Click Here to Read Article …

7 Tips to Manage Time Like a Boss

manage time

What differentiates a smart entrepreneur from a mediocre one? Time management. A successful businessman is one who knows how to utilize his time in the right manner.

Sadly, many entrepreneurs fail to cope with this major factor in their life simply because they are either not good at it or are too busy to think about it.

Ultimately, they suffer losses, valuable contacts and above all the much-needed balance in their life that can seriously affect their performance.

But with effective time-management skills, they can turn the situation in their favor. Click Here to Read Article …

Outsourcing Doesn’t Necessarily Have to be a Bad Thing

outsourcing doesn't necessarily have to be a bad thing

Nobody is going to argue that outsourcing, as a general idea, is usually considered a bad thing.

The nightly news is full of stories about huge corporations who dodge tax burdens and destroy jobs by outsourcing their basic needs, like customer service, to other countries.

Sometimes though — especially when you are running your own business — outsourcing can be a good and helpful thing.

Here are the top three things that you can (and should) outsource when you are building a business of your very own. Click Here to Read Article …

How to Stop Wasting Time in Meetings

meetings

The first day of my first office job, my boss told me plainly, “There are two types of people in the business world. That guy who sets up all of the meetings and the rest of us, okay?”

He was no fan of wasting time, and it rubbed off on me in a big way. Spending countless hours in meetings — at least one per day at the height of my office career — is one of the driving reasons I moved away from working for others and started freelancing.

For the most part, fewer meetings have been a natural side effect of going into business for myself. My clients want to be bothered with unnecessary meetings every bit as little as I do. Click Here to Read Article …