Your Thoughts: Freelancer New Year Resolutions

I resolve to learn more this year…especially things that are outside of my comfort zone like some programming (FBML specifically), and more in-depth knowledge of CSS. You gotta stay up with the technology to stay fresh and valuable to clients.

At the same time I resolve to try to have more work/life balance.

I’d like to start the new year by not spending so much time blaming the economy for the slooooooooow business situation. Yes, the economy has hurt; while it makes it harder to find full-time employment, it’s also providing an opportunity to grow the contract/freelance business. (Companies still need design and marketing work done if they want to succeed, even if they don’t want to put you on payroll.)
Having an easy excuse at hand is a double-edged sword. It does explain the reality of hard times in business, but also can prevent a freelancer from actively taking the steps necessary to combat the situation. I know; I’m as guilty as anyone for not putting forth the effort to pursue new avenues of business. Does it mean I have to sell myself and my services harder than ever? Oh, yeah. But guess what: that’s part of the price of being your own boss.
So, that should be the resolution: double up the effort to pursue the work you want to do; harder economic times are actually a great opportunity to grow, if you’re willing to put in the effort. And it’s also a great time to sharpen and expand your skill set to increase your value to potential and existing clients.
On that note, a Happy New Year to everyone, and good luck moving forward!

I’m going to spend 1 hour per day working on / generating content for a new blog I’m starting. 1 hour, every day, including weekends. Obviously sometimes I’ll work more, but I think setting up a daily amount will be helpful.

Also I bought a giant wall calendar so I can track my progress.

@UnitB – agree about the economy thing, although whenever it was at it’s worst (year and a half ago?) it did seriously hurt my business – my retail business (70% drop in profit for about 9 months), not my freelance IT work, which saw little change.

One of my biz resolutions is to properly account for daily things every day. That is, enter daily expenses and incomes into my book-keeping package, *every* day. We’ll see how long that lasts.

I want to spend more time (2 hours per week?) on personal projects.

I too want to spend more time working on personal projects – it’s so easy to put these projects off.

for me it’s the year to get well and truly serious. I’ve been making a small supplemental income for years, but now it’s time to push it to the next level as far as earnings are concerned.

Happy new Year, everyone

mine is to dive in fully into freelancing – quit the dead-end bar job (no more work christmas parties, which generated a fair bit of business and interest!), and go for design fully!!!

so more marketing, business and promotion. also, move to cyprus!

I’d like to get on a more set schedule as far as my work goes. An even time for marketing, working on client projects, and for side projects and blogging. I always get done what needs to get done, but at the same time I’m always going through phases of rushing through deadlines or not having many clients because of my lack of recent marketing.

I will dedicate one complete day per week to social media. That means no client work, no designing, no coding. One full day dedicated to:
- blogging (writing, video blogging)
- tweeting
- facebooking
- flickering
- commenting on blogs
- writing/responding to forum threads

That’s in addition to normal social media activity throughout each day.

Interested to see what the impact will be.

I’m with Jamie- spend more time on personal projects. For me that means my writing that’s not client-based (although you know how I love writing for WorkAwesome!) and….

….I’ve challenged myself to get in 210 surf sessions for 2010. Hope to do this consecutively weather and water permitting!

I want to spend more time on personal projects and sharpen
my web design skills this year.

I think I too will dedicate an hour every day to solid blogging and blog commenting. As I registered my business only a few days ago, I would also like to be more organized in the way I track income and expenses, be more conscious of where I stand in terms of internet exposure, and to learn more about NLP in Marketing

Spent more time on personal projects and probably set a working hours instead working almost whole day (and night)!

I would like to not waste so much time in between projects just watching t.v, laying around and being lazy, but then again I guess that’s part of freelancing.

thanks

My new years resolution is to have a passive income. I’m going to try it through Envato’s marketplaces. If I can sell templates and graphics on there, I would be set

Also, my other goal is to get a big name client. I believe I have the talent to have a big company contact me for a website. I mean, I have been doing this for 5 years now.

Other than that, I don’t have any other resolutions besides keep doing great.

My resolution is to do at least one new illustration every week. I’ve got so many ideas that I keep putting off and by the time I get around to doing them I’m not interested anymore. If I just try to bang out something each week by the end of the 2010 I should have quite a list of new work to show off.

I want to be more productive in writing, mastering web programming, and trying to leave all the bad habits I was in the previous year.
May God make it easier.

Resolutions have never worked for me. They’re too wishy-washy. Instead, setting actual goals (and writing them down and looking at them every day) is much more powerful. This year, I’ve set ONE goal for each major area of my life. I think that’s going to work much better than having 2 or 3 for each area. Less is more

I prefer goals to resolutions. It’s probably only semantics but goals seem more concrete – resolutions remind me of drunken promises.

This year my goal is one of positivity. Last year we had some negative moments and I allowed my passion to cloud my professionalism. This year I’m going to be positive in mind and positive with my actions.

I also feel goals work better for me than resolutions: goals are easier to measure.

But, having said that, I find that setting goals at the beginning of the year is somehow more effective.

My main goal for this new year is to re-balance my social and work lives. Less social work, more work.

Last year was a lot of fun, but not very productive. And I’ll enjoy my social life more if I use it as a reward for being more productive.

My goal is to keep my to-do list a little shorter and allow more time for projects. I heard the ideal number of items on your list should be 7. I am starting with that.

Get PHP certification, sharpen my Zend Framework skills, spend more time on personal projects and finally by scuba diving equipment

My resolution is to tell clients ‘No’ when they come to me with unreasonable projects, whether it be complicated projects in a short amount of time or projects for barely any money. I lost out on a lot of money last year by being too nice. Year of the Ape

-> I want to be more productive this year.
-> I will sharpen my knowledge (attend seminars, online seminars).
-> Take some time to refresh my mind.