Freelance Freedom #136: Holiday Edition
ThinkGeek Giveaway: Mini Business Card File Cabinet
Most freelancers spend much of the time when they’re not creating deliverables out networking and drumming up new business. Although many of us are doing it exclusively via the Internet these days, a lot of freelancers still do it in person–and as a result, rack up a ridiculous amount of business cards.
The Mini Business Card File Cabinet is a fun way to store them–and it should see you through a few networking events yet: it holds 800 cards.
Tell us why offline networking is still important to freelancers, and if you can convince us, you’ll win the prize. You evidently need it. See this post for terms and conditions.
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absolutly awesome.
Great post to finish the year, a little sad, perhaps, but true.
Thanks for all those smiles and laugts of this year.
hugs from Brazil.
Just give me 2 more hours, I promise!
Proof that true creativity doesn’t follow a formula!
Sometimes a genius creative solution on a project happens with the first few seconds of a design brief, sometimes within a few weeks…
haha love the end! thanks for all the posts during the year! helped me out countless times! best of luck in 2010!
omg. hilarious.
Very true, the world needs more creative accounts. Gee, this sounds so wrong.
I was thinking the very same thing – it shouldn’t be like that. This is the result of a lack of discipline. My freelancing is not and will not be like that in 2010. Great comic and art as always though.
Noooo! The one thing you don’t want is a creative accountant! The last one we had was sooo creative she never ran out of ways to pilfer money from us.
On another note – I think most creatives would struggle to be accountants (right brained vs left brained), I once took stock market trading course and when it came to the accounting section I realized that this was not for me.
sadly, it’s true.
That was awesome. Are we all the same? Jesus, this is the everyday me!
Merry Xtmas everyone!
I’d love to have that business card filing cabinet! I’m running out of random drawers to store all the business cards I get!
Cutest post of the year. loved
haha good one, happy holidays.
awww, poor baby and Momma. I know my husband and three daughters feel that pain a lot. Hubby likes to boss me around and tell me I’m NOT working! I like to use that for an excuse when I need it.
I think these comics are great, but jeez when you think about it, they really make freelancing look less than appealing.
This guy needs some time management skills ASAP ;p
Although I may work late from time to time, I try to plan my schedule better. You shouldn’t constantly be working 15 hour days and weekends. That means you either need to plan your time better, raise your rates, or both!
Nice! Happy Holidays everyone!
Nice christmas comic
Why do I want the Mini Business Card File Cabinet? Let me count the ways: I love miniatures. It would be so cute sitting on my desk next to my mini city recycle bin. It would be the perfect place to keep all the business cards I collect – at least until I get them entered in my database. It’s the most adorable, useful little item I’ve seen in awhile. I help clients with business organization and would love to show it to people.
While I have associates and fellow freelancers who prefer to sit behind their computer and only network online, I sometimes wonder how well it works. I do both and see the results. I set a goal of attending one live networking event per week, although I often attend two or three. I belong to quite a few slightly different groups and attempt to go to each group’s meetings at least every other month.
Even though I can and do work virtually, I find most people want to meet you at least once and it’s much easier to find local clients. I like to meet with prospective clients and see their businesses so I know how I can help them. I’ve had people tell me they called me because I am in the area. Or they turn to you because they’ve seen you around.
As the saying goes, people do business with those they know, like and trust. You can build relationships online, market online and do business by email but lots of people still prefer to meet and get to know you before trusting you with their business.
You can easily find groups to join at meetup dot com – I suggest joining several and giving them a try. I belong to groups for marketing, virtual assistants, organizers, small business, freelancers, internet, technology, and more. Unless the meeting is terrible, attend several times. It pays off as people get to know you and learn what you do and feel comfortable with you. Even those who don’t seem like a good fit may refer others to you. You may find business partners – for example, I like to meet web designers so I have somebody to send my clients to. Go with the goal not of finding clients immediately but of building relationships and helping others.
I’m most excited about the merging of the online/offline. More and more when I attend live events I meet people IRL (in real life) who I know from the social networks. And all the people I meet in person can now become part of my online world so we can continue the conversation there.
Oh, and I just thought of one more thing I will do with my new Mini Business Card File Cabinet! Some of the events I attend have a table where you can put your business cards and brochures for the other attendees. I’ve been using a little clear plastic holder for my cards and I always get comments about what a great idea that is, as opposed to just laying them flat on the table. Now imagine I put MY business cards in the Mini File Cabinet – wouldn’t this make me look so super organized and cool?
This person should win because their comment is too long for me to read.
That was awesome! Happy Christmas and Merry Holidays!
Brilliant and spot-on!
Oh yeah… I was killing a bit of “free time” before I pack up to visit the family for Christmas.
I still have two more comps to turn into a client. ARG. It’s 11:30 at night -_-;
The nice thing about being a freelancer/consultant is that you can work your own hours. The down side is that none of your hours are your own. And then if you’re really successful you have a great collection of accounts receivables!
Great post! Working into the wee hours of the night on projects is a common thing for us freelancers!
I need to have the mini business card filing cabinet! I have been networking like crazy lately, since I recently moved to the area. My desk is COVERED in business cards, that I refuse to throw out because I might need them sometime soon. Every now and then they get neatly stacked into piles and when it gets busy I end up knocking over the piles so it’s just one heap of business cards.
I’ve been thinking that I need to organize them some way. I know some people take the info off business cards and just put them into their computer, but because I’m a visual person, I need the actual card. I associate the card with the person and the memory of meeting them. I can’t throw it out, because if I just had the info entered into my computer, I wouldn’t know who that person was in three months.
It’s important to network locally and offline. Meeting someone in person is invaluable. It’s easier to trust someone you’ve met. (or at least it’s easier to tell if you CAN trust them, in person). I’ve been networking online, and it’s gotten me more site traffic, but not a lot of business. My business comes from people I’ve met, who trust me, and know my work.
If you want to be a successful business person you must get out and meet people in person, exchange business cards, and file them in a mini filing cabinet.
Gosh, where are those happy pills when you need ‘em, huh?
hehehe good one!!, no! an accountant no plz!!
Omg this is so funny… i was wondering what the kid would do if both parents were designers and the grandmother would be telling the story hahaha
Happy Holidays everyone!!!
… and do look away from your screen… every now and then to see
if the packages have been unwrapped…
hehe that cmeans chrismass has passed
Uh-oh-oh, hope it’s not too late, I was helping Santa and doing some very “last, little, tiny” changes in his brand new intranet which was already approuved…
Can you believe he wanted me to change the green but not the red (!) from the very carefully chosen palette of the intranet page, because it was not matching with the new Christmas clothes that arrived just minutes before he took his sleigh… and wanted me to change as well the whole structure of the real-time children wishlist tracking system because of a new idea he had while he was delivering the gifts over Lituania… so I had to change the whole DB structure while he was calling me to hurry up from his mobile (who the hell gave a mobile to Santa, that was definitely a crime) all the way long, all the Eve long…
It’s morning here in Brazil, I have no idea about the time there in Australia and I’m way too tired to check it… I’ll go to the kitchen ger some cold turkey in case the people remembered to leae some for me, and after I’l get some sleep, yaaaawhn…
Let me wish you all a Happy Christmas (am I in time?) and a Happy and Sparkling New Year!
Thank you for the always great posts and the hilarious Freelance Folder
nice Mexican themed strip
The great thing would be if you could actually bill 100percent of the hours you work…
HAHAHAHAHAHAAAA… from a freelanceDesigner&Dad to another: HAPPY NEW YEARS!! (you really make me laught of all these everyday-disasters! XD ) Cheers from Argentina!!!!!