10 Things I No Longer Need for Freelance Success

I have been a freelancer for more than a decade and over that period of time, I have seen a lot of changes–everything from a giant increase in credibility if you actually are a “freelancer”, to technology changes in such a short period of time as to rival any other sort of change over the last century.

Through all of these changes, one major thing has happened. Specifically, the list of things that were once considered de rigeuer in order to have a successful business no longer apply.

Of course there are tools we couldn’t live without as freelancers, but following are ten things that I no longer need to be successful in my business.

The No Longer Need List

• A Desk. I used to have a large, beautifully appointed office complete with a desk ensemble that took four people to move. Now my desk consists of any flat surface that can hold my laptop (ie: a table in the library, a table in the coffee shop, my dining room table, etc).

• A Landline. In the past, a business needed to have a landline, otherwise how would anyone be able to contact them? These days a cell phone works just as well…actually it works better than a landline because it goes with me everywhere.

• A Yellow Pages Ad. Again, in years past, a big (read, expensive) ad in the yellow pages was about the only way to get your name in front of customers. These days, as long as you have a website that comes up in Google search, a few active social media accounts, and good word of mouth, you are golden.

• A File Cabinet. Oh the years of moving paper files from file cabinet to boxed storage at the end of each fiscal year…thank goodness those days are over! Now every scrap of paper I need is scanned into my computer to be kept into perpetuity without the need to lift, copy, or file anything.

• Business Cards and Brochures. While I still have business cards, I can’t remember the last time I used them. These days when I make a contact, I want to leave them with more than just a piece of paper that will end up in the circular file so I usually—while I am standing in front of them—send them a quick email which includes a piece of information I think they will find useful, as well as a link to my FaceBook page, Twitter account, and website. Simple.

• Any Large, Clunky Machine. This list includes but is not limited to: typewriters, fax machines, answering machines, desktop computers, and copy machines. Digital rules!

• Bulk Mail Postage Machines and Bulk Mail Permits. I had a love-hate relationship with our bulk mail postage machine—mostly hate—so I am more than pleased that email is now way more simpler and way more cheaper than bulk mailing stuff out.

• Internet that Kept Me Physically Tethered to a Hardwire. The early days of the internet were painfully slow. Hit the dial-up icon on your (big, clunky) desktop. Hear the squeal of the modem trying to connect. Go get a cup of coffee. Check email. Click to download a picture. Go make dinner. Come back and check to see if the picture had finished downloading. Painful. With nearly ubiquitous wi-fi, life online is much easier these days.

• The Standard Step-Ladder Path to Success. When I first started working (back in the Stone Age), there was a clear, step-by-step path to being successful in any given career. You graduated from high school, you went to college, you got an internship, you wallowed in the mail room or some other less-than-ideal job for a period of years, you advanced up the career ladder, then at the end of your career you got a gold watch and died.

  Thank goodness times have changed and now literally anyone with enough drive and ambition can be successful, often in a very compressed period of time. In the course of a decade, I became a website designer in a period of, oh, two weeks (a client needed a basic website so I picked up a book on Microsoft FrontPage and “ta da” two weeks later the client had a website and I had a new skill to sell), a grant writer (after quickly writing up a proposal for a grant that netted $25,000 for a client), and the go-to person for local non-profits (after perusing the web and figuring out how to file a 501(c)3 application for another client).

• An Office. If there is one thing I hate about business and try to avoid like the plague, is the need to pay for overhead. Overhead—in the form of an office space, paying for the myriad utilities that go along with renting an office space (phone, internet, electricity, etc), and having a fixed location to go to everyday—is not a term I ever want to use.

  These days there are so many options for work space (from your own home, to the library, to Starbucks, to co-working space) that the need for an “official” office is nearly nil.

I am more than a little eager to see what other changes will be wrought by technology in the years to come. Already nearly everything that pertains to work can be handled by my cellphone and laptop and with social media, networking opportunities have grown exponentially.

What work-related “requireds” have you been able to shed over the years?

Photo credit: Some rights reserved by trekandshoot.