Credit: Cecilia Picco on sxc.hu

Many are the freelancers who keep a foot in the employment world by serving as a part-time instructor at a community college or university.

This is a great way to have an income platform while building one’s freelance business. And, for those who don’t care for being alone with just a computer for company, it’s motivation to get out of the house for some high-quality human interaction.

One of my close friends is a public relations consultant who also holds the title of lecturer in a university department of communication. She’s been a lecturer before, and the university invited her back at the beginning of this semester.

Being the diligent social networker that she is, she updated her online profile to include the lecturer position. And from somewhere deep in the recesses of this social networking site came an e-mail announcing her new job.

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Nothing quite matches the convenience of exchanging contact information like handing out your business card. Paperless office or not, business cards are still pretty darn useful.

So here are a few great choices from the Creattica network to give you a little inspiration to make your next business card design really stand out!

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As freelancers, we tend to want to keep the number of tools we’re using to a minimum. We’ll set up some sort of accounting tool, maybe something to help us handle project management and not much more. But there are reasons that finding a customer relationship management (CRM) tool that you’re comfortable using is worth the added hassle.

• The more you know about your clients and (prospective clients), the better. Good CRM tools help you collect and maintain information about the people you’re working with. Many of the newer tools even go out and pull in information from social media about given people in your CRM database. You can use that information to better tailor your services: perhaps a recent tweet from a customer has given you ideas on how better to design a website for him. Similarly, a well-timed birthday wish can show your client you care about more than his checkbook.

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Site: Men with Pens

In this interview learn from James Chartrand of how to take your freelancing to the next level. She outlines ways you can grow from a freelancer into an agency, sell your own educational products, and increase your revenue. She runs Men with Pens where she manages a team of creatives that deliver copywriting and graphic design services.

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So often when people think of writing, they picture novelists or journalists. But have you considered medical writing?

There is a great deal of opportunity to thrive as a medical writer, and build a career in this arena, for those that take the necessary steps, such as getting to know the field, attending conferences, and networking in this niche.

Cyndy Kryder, a medical writer hailing from the Philadelphia region, got into the field as a way to leverage her health industry experience into a flexible career. Along the way, she’s helped others get into this booming industry. Meet the “accidental medical writer” herself….

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Editors Note: This contest has closed. Congratulations to the winners Justin Katz, Heather Hunter, and Lee Gustin. We’ll be contacting you shortly to distribute your prize. Big thanks to everyone who entered.

Credit: Luisa Vidal on MOO

Need to put your name out there? Get the right peoples attention? Grab more clients? Who doesn’t right? It’s time to put together a creative self promotion.

FreelanceSwitch and MOO have teamed up to challenge you to think outside the box. Will you create a viral video to promote your freelance business? Design an awesome set of promotional postcards? Utilize multiple media to get your message out? Or will you do something nobody else has ever thought of?

Whether you’re planning a new creative self promotion, or have a great story to share about a successful promotion you’ve done in the past, we’d love to hear about it. Win One of Three $100 Printing Vouchers from MOO by sharing your creative self promotion story or ideas.

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“I wouldn’t want to know a man who hasn’t been fired!” I forget who said that but I laughed whenever I heard it because I had never been fired. But in the corporate world “the boot” can come unexpectedly, thrust us into having to jump into running our own freelancing business, and place us in the unsteady position of needing to learn the small business ropes quickly. Being prepared before getting fired can help you negotiate a severance package that will help you land solidly on your feet, even if the worst happens.

There was one time I gave two weeks notice and they fired me the next day. They actually told me to go and not to train my replacement, which is a sound business decision because who knew if I would steal client information, or poison my replacement. It’s a good business principle to just pay someone the two weeks of salary and get the lame duck out and away from the company.

In this case, however, since they technically fired me, I was eligible for unemployment. Six long months of it, baby! I didn’t care. I was happy.

Since then there were two more similar incidents. One involved a payoff for leaving quietly with a resignation to keep my mouth shut about…something. The other was what they call an “at-will-firing” (you sign a document when you are hired, agreeing you can be fired without notice or reason and will not take legal recourse – standard in America these days). Unfortunately, my former employer gave a reason. They didn’t have to. They shouldn’t have.

It would have been better for all involved if they had just said, “we’re sorry but business is bad and we need to cut our overhead. We’ll consider bringing you back if business gets better.” Sounds better — friendly and professional. I would have been happy. Instead, after several rounds of layoffs and the strain of buyouts, retirements and severance, someone must have had the brilliant idea to change the rules on year-end-reviews.

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Looking for a new client? The FreelanceSwitch job board is a great resource of freelance gigs and opportunities. These opportunities are in various fields, from development to writing to design, and come from a wide range of potential clients. The job board is hand-moderated by dedicated staff and volunteers from the freelance community.

Each week, we’ll feature a selection of the best job opportunities posted for the week. This week, we’re featuring jobs in blog design, marketing copy writing, development and more!

To apply for any of these jobs, simply pick up a FreelanceSwitch membership for an affordable $7 a month. See something you like? Join now!

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5 Ideas for Choosing Your Home Office Equipment Setup

Now that you’ve made the decision to become a fulltime, stay-at-home freelancer, it’s time to start thinking of ways to outfit your home office. There are a few things to consider when choosing home office equipment – form and function being part of it, but personality is important, too. The equipment in your home office needs to fit a set of criteria; such as: be supportive, ergonomic, useful, durable, affordable and yes downright cool. Let’s look at a few ideas to consider as you setup your home office.

Artists unite for Japan Flags

Since March 11, the tragedy in Japan has impacted the entire world in many ways and unfortunately continues to do so. But can we make a difference? We certainly can! As artists and designers, we can support the people of Japan and their struggle with our art.

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In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, we look at charging for tying up your computer and what to do when you win multiple bids at once. Ask FreelanceSwitch is a regular column here that allows us to help beginners get a grip on freelancing. If you have a question about freelancing that you want answered, send an email to askfreelanceswitch@gmail.com.

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Credit: freeparking on Flickr

Many designers stumble into the web industry from a fine arts background. Working commercially is a natural progression for artists – not only does it make for a reliable income, but you have the pleasure of making something useful for a wide audience. Furthermore, both art and design draw on many of the same concepts and we artist/designers are often able to incorporate our art skills into designs and illustrations.

Sometimes, however, the inspiration behind creating original artwork is missing from the design process, especially when cranking out content-managed websites or banner campaigns. A return to artistic roots often becomes an unavoidable want, and for me, such an instinct meant deciding to paint thirty portraits in three weeks during a trip back home. What surprised me was how much I discovered portrait painting could actually make me a better graphic designer.

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