Photo by ReefRaff.

True or false: freelancers tend to be relatively adventurous people, given that they’ve eschewed a “regular” job to live a more free work/life style? I vote for “true,” so it wouldn’t surprise me if a large proportion of freelancers suddenly decided that they wanted to live the lifestyle of a Digital Nomad – a person who utilizes technology to combine work and travel.

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The new year is always a good time to reflect upon your business practices of the previous year. Did you perform as well as you’d hoped as a freelancer? Or did you get rejected more often than you were expecting?

When you’re turned down for a freelance gig, how does it make you feel? It stings, right? Even when you have a few years of experience. It’s tough enough being a lonely freelancer, tougher still being rejected for a gig you were hoping for – or worse, counting on.

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As the new year is just around the corner, some of you might resolve to take a step forward into becoming a freelancer. According to what’s been written in the comments at FreelanceSwitch, there are those of you thinking about this.

With the way the economy has been, it wouldn’t be too surprising if the freelancer ranks grow in the next few months. Here are a few tips to get you started.

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No matter how much freedom you have as a freelancer, if you’re suffering from a double whammy of recession and rejection, it’s tough going. Throw in the big holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s), and for some lonely freelancers, it’s a difficult time. What do you during times like this?

Weathering a Downturn

Here are some general tips for improving your lot as a freelancer during a business or economic downturn.

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WAHFs (Work-at-Home Freelancers) have it tough. Sure, there’s freedom of work schedule, not having to sit in traffic or otherwise commute, eating a home-cooked meal and being able to watch soap operas or Oprah everyday. But for some of us it gets darn lonely working at home all day, every day. Combine the state of the economy, the Holiday season, or the start of the winter blues and the feeling of loneliness right now can be magnified manyfold. If you’re single, it’s even worse because working at home means it’s that much harder to meet people, even for casual conversation, weekly drinks or whatever. Here are some tips for weathering that “lonely freelancer” feeling that sometimes visits.

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In a previous article, Managing Multiple Freelance Gigs With Mind Maps, I covered how to use a grid/ mind map to track your freelancing projects and tasks. In this post, there’s a bit more detail about actually working on tasks, not just tracking them. ( See bottom of article for a free MindJet MindManager 8/Pro 7 map template of my work grid, as per some requests in the comments of the last article.)

The freelance task management process is best demonstrated by an example. Since my work is mostly freelance writing, that’s what I’m using here, though you can extrapolate for other types of work.  Assume that you have a big writing project and several smaller ones for a given week – possibly with some of the larger projects spanning several weeks. Here’s what you do to manage and work on your tasks.

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We all know there are advantages of being a freelancer, especially if get have the luxury of working at home. Unfortunately, it’s hard to be creative every single day, especially if you’re worrying about payments, existing clients, finding new clients, feeling overworked, or whatever.

Don’t get overwhelmed. Here are some general tips to get the most out of your freelancing efforts.

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Photo by Gaetan Lee.

If you’ve been freelancing for a while, you probably already know that you often have to juggle several projects at a time. That’s not to say that you necessarily have to multi-task, but simply need to manage overlapping task schedules. The more successful your freelance career is, the more likely it is that you’ll have to manage multiple tasks simulaneously. They might be part of a single big project or parts of several smaller projects.

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Freelancing from home has many obvious benefits over working from an office. But it also has its downsides.

I don’t even know where to begin to describe my work environment, but it has two cats, two dogs, lots of chirpy birds and a few fish. There’s the occasional car passing by with thump-thumping bass on the stereo, too. But the worst is the over-protective younger dog who literally barks if I clear my throat too loudly. Many a time, I’ve had to re-record audio segments of a podcast or screencast as a result of her barking at phantoms. Heaven forbid anyone should knock on the door, setting her off in a tizzy of barking for many minutes. There are days when I don’t get much multimedia work done.

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You’ve possibly read countless times that businesses with an online presence can benefit from having a blog. Of course, freelancing is a business, and a blog is likewise valuable to you, regardless of what you freelance in. Here are some reasons having a niche-focused blog can help your business. The tips are geared towards freelance writers, but much of what’s here can be applied for other types of freelance work.

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How many of you have had jobs or freelance gigs which you billed for once a month? It often takes an act of financial yoga to balance your checkbook each month, right? Wouldn’t you say that being paid weekly or bi-weekly makes life more pleasant?

1. You’re more relaxed about when your next paycheck is coming.
2. You can take a few days off without worrying that you will not earn as much this month. You’ll be relaxed as a result. (See #1)
3. Being paid weekly makes it much easier to ensure that there’ll be enough funds when a bill is paid through automatic deductions from your bank account. You’ll be more relaxed. (See #1. Again.)

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What’s one of the worst things that can happen to you as a freelancer?

Besides a lull in contracts, it’s possibly a lull in creativity that can have you wondering why you gave up salaried work. Sometimes the work just doesn’t want to be finished, whether you write, design, code or do some other type of freelance work. You’ve tried exercises to get your creative juices flowing, but maybe the flow is just not coming. That’s when it’s time to battle your creative blocks.

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