Having a strong brand can be a game-changer for your freelance business.

Good brands command respect and establish a reputation. They establish your presence in the marketplace. When questions arise like “where can I find a good freelance writer” or “where do I go to get my website redesigned” … strong brands immediately come to mind.

So how do you build your brand? What rules of branding should you follow?

It takes time and effort, of course, but here are 5 often overlooked rules to remember when branding your freelance business… Continue Reading

View awesome conference lectures, engaging how to discussions, and high quality freelance advice via video here on FreelanceSwitch.

This week we look at Web Development from Scratch Video: Helpful Dev Web Apps by Jeffrey Way of Nettuts+. In this video (aimed at beginner web designers) Jeffrey takes a step back from coding just long enough to bookmark ten very helpful web apps that you should be familiar with. This is part of a video series on Web Development from Scratch.

Continue Reading

Credit: Chi King on Flickr

Freelancing with a day job can do more than ‘just’ bring in a little side cash. While that does help, there are more advantages to consider. Freelancing is a way to distribute risk. Especially in uncertain economic times, it’s good to seek alternative forms of income than full-time employment. Having a single source of income leaves you vulnerable.

How secure are you at your current job? If you’re still in the 9-5 trenches, and vulnerable to layoffs, then developing a freelance side business is a fallback plan to consider. Let’s look at some factors that make freelancing ideal in today’s economic climate.

Continue Reading

Credit: Patrick Gaudin on Flickr

For some of us, the progression from a full time career to a freelance state of mind can be as easy as handing in the notice and running for the exit. However, for others the transition can be full of worry, stress and anxiety.

I’ve been pretty lucky in my freelancing career. My progression from hobby to job was sudden and straightforward (to the extent that I’ve never actually worked for anyone other than myself!), but there are many people who are currently sitting at their office desk, looking for a way to follow suit.

For some people, the event that triggers anxiety is being the only (or primary) source of income for a household (putting added pressure on a consistent pay check), for others the business side of things seems like a dark art full of mystery and complicated rituals. While both of these are valid concerns, I believe that anyone (no matter their background) can succeed as a freelancer, even with these variables at work. It’s all just a matter of learning to dodge a few easy to spot bullets!

Continue Reading

At just 26 years old, Scott Gerber is revolutionizing the way that people think about work. He is the founder and CEO of Gerber Enterprises, an entrepreneurial development and venture management company that has launched several successful businesses.

But his passion goes beyond business–he wants to help other young business people and thus founded the Young Entrepreneur Council, an advocacy group made up of many of the world’s top young entrepreneurs that works to help young people overcome the devastating effects of youth unemployment and underemployment by teaching them how to build businesses. Did I mention he wrote a book, too? There’s so much to tell–so I asked.

Continue Reading

credit: antonella.beccaria on flickr

January is National Mentoring Month in the United States. Wherever you are in the world, I suspect that many of us have a mentor (or five) to thank for our freelance successes. I personally have a handful of generous, wonderful people who helped connect me with potential clients, find my voice as a writer, and navigate contract negotiations when I was first starting out.

I still turn to several of these mentors for advice periodically, but I’ve also found myself on the other side of the table, mentoring up-and-coming writers as they build up their confidence and client base.

Here are some of the tips I’ve learned about being a good mentee. Continue Reading

Credit: Cory Doctorow, gruntzooki on Flickr

Back in the early ´80s – if you were actually born at that point when I was a young music student in the UK – on graduating, aspiring soloists organized the production of a nice glossy brochure, set up a few high profile concerts and then gained experience by treading the national music society circuit. You might offer teaching in order to pay your rent and perhaps enter a few local competitions to raise your profile and that was that – all quite straightforward.

With the advent of the Internet, social marketing, MP3 downloads and You Tube, from a marketing perspective it seems to me that a musician’s life is just a mite bit more complicated, or perhaps that’s  just my middle-age talking! These days if you fail to have a presence in the Internet, so far as a potential audience is concerned, you don’t exist – period.

One question I’m asked a lot is whether or not a classical musician needs a website in order to be successful. I know I need a website. The answer to that poser is ideally, yes – should you have the requisite funds to pay the costs of a competent web site designer, but not necessarily – an important consideration if you find yourself in a tight financial corner and already possess some working knowledge from your personal use of the Internet. Continue Reading

I never cease to be amazed by the number of players I meet who still believe in playing the classical music equivalent of corporate cubicle nation – clinging onto the notion that an orchestral job is fundamental to reputation and survival.

Those of us who have already escaped from the traditional straitjacket can assure you that life is infinitely more pleasurable and less stressful when you’re fully in control of your own destiny.

For classical music jobs, successful freelance musicians center their work around the concept of a “portfolio” career. In order to survive and thrive with such a lifestyle, just like learning to play an instrument, it is essential that you start with the basics in order to build solid foundations.

Following the method outlined below, I re-launched my classical music career after two decades out of the industry and have never looked back. It works! Continue Reading

In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, Travis King and Thursday Bram look at the drain of working two jobs and how to grab the eye of a video agency.

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.

Hit it!
Continue Reading

Debating on whether or not you should venture into the world of freelancing while going to school? Wondering if you have what it takes to make it as a student freelancer? Well, below are five reasons why you may not be ready to start that venture after all. But, since I don’t like when people tell me I’m not cut out for something and then give me no pointers on how to become better, I will also explain how you can rectify the issue.
Continue Reading

Last week our sister site WorkAwesome published two posts on working from home that are great reads for beginning or soon-to-switch freelancers. Find out how to ask your boss to let you work from home, and whether you really should.

How to Ask Your Boss to Work From Home by Mike Vardy:

I’m writing this article from home – where I’d love to do all of my work.  Much of my writing is done here, but my day job doesn’t afford me the ability to enjoy the same “luxury.”  That’s not to say I don’t do some of my work for my day job at home – that does happen from time to time.  Actually, the separation of the two pursuits makes not only for a clear set of responsibilities depending on where I am (for example, I can leave my work at the office should I choose), but it makes for more productivity on the whole.

But many of you have one job.  One that you could do just as easily from home.  One that you know you could do better from home.  So why not do that?  How can you go from working at the office to working at home?  Here’s a step by step method to get your boss to say “yes” to your request to work from home…

The Benefits of Working From Home by Ana da Silva:

Going to work in an office can be stressful and costly for both employee and employer.  Thanks to technology many people have the option of working from home (or off-site at that warm beach somewhere!).  For consultants and freelancers there are obvious reasons why you should work from home (you might not have another choice anyway!) but for full-time employees there are financial and personal advantages to working at least a couple days per week from home.  Not every profession allows for this flexibility but if yours is one of the many that do, here are some benefits to look into for both employer and employee.

The number of blogs and websites offering up information on freelancing has exploded over the past couple of years. In a way, this is a good thing: the more information freelancers have access to, the better decisions we can make and the more money we can earn. But in other ways, it makes things harder.

Not only do we have to spend time deciding how reliable a particular site is, but we also need to spend at least a little time working, rather than just reading how other people are doing it each day.

Continue Reading