I’m sitting at my desk in my pajamas with morning breath… FAIL.

This is a seriously good article for anyone who is working from home. My two cents would be:

1st Cent: It is crucial to have a change of pace and scenery every now and then. Go sit at starbucks or panera and work for a couple hours. Get out of the house once a week.

2nd Cent: Have a set time at night when you shut the computer down (actually turn it off and hide it if you have to). There’s more to life than work… and even though you think you’ll make more money and get more done… the reality is you’ll waste time on facebook and twitter and end up tired and burnt out. Creativity REQUIRES that you take some R&R time.

Bonus Cent: Remember that you will have financial ups and downs. If working for yourself if your full time job… make sure you begin collecting a pile of savings early on. When times are slow you can keep going by digging into the pile. It’s foolish to forget the ups and downs.

Cheers,
Ben

I especially agree with nerdburn’s advice on treating your freelance work like a regularly scheduled job… oftentimes new freelancers get a taste of “freedom” and can’t handle it.

I actually work a night shift- I begin work at 10:00 each night, finish up at around 8:00 in the morning, and don’t have to deal with half the distractions I used to succumb to. Of course, there are other issues to work out, such as communication with clients, but in our global era it’s a little easier to understand and manage “time zone” differences.

Find a technical support group – local tech/design/whatever community or forum. Don’t expect your spouse/housemate(s) to understand or discuss topics of concern in your work.

Thanks for these tips, I’ll be sure to check back and make sure I’m following these regularly.

There is some valuable information above that I learned the hard way. A morning routine is vital. I get up, start coffee, take a shower, get dressed, everything except for putting shoes on. Though I’m a night person, I’m more productive in the morning, so I force myself to have office hours.

Don’t let freelance dictate your personal life. Another great piece of advice. I fell into the trap of working from home automatically meant that I was always at work. If client changes come in at 4:30, they can wait until the morning.

The only thing I’d like to add is that there are rich months and there are lean months, so learn to budget your money. I think months out. I think okay, I’ve got enough to make it through March, so now I’m working on April. As long as I have what I need to survive 3 months I don’t mind splurging a little bit, otherwise, I’m extremely conservative with my finances.

One more thing — networking is the key. Join your local ad club, chamber of commerce, etc. A lot of communities have Adobe User Groups, or young professional groups. Join them, attend their meetings, meet people, and pass out business cards like you were selling crack. When you meet people do everything you can to make sure the short conversation was a memorable one.

When I meet business owners at events, I like to get into how marketing isn’t to just make their company look good, it’s about getting new customers, and when done right, pays for itself pretty quickly.

Finding time for family and having fun is a big thing – often I find myself working till 1 in the morning – and that’s from the time I woke up at 8 am. We need breaks too

Great post! I feel like all of these quotes could be published in a book about designing.

My own addition would be, “Clients First.”

If you truly care about your client and put them above everything else, your freelancing career will flourish.

Nice points even for seasoned freelancers. My tip would be to outsource work you don’t have skills for so you can keep the client.

Great post and good advice in the comments.

I’d add:
* Learn from your mistakes.
* Give the best service you can to your customers – especially the ones that refer you to their friends.
* Read the 4-Hour Work Week. It will change the way you look at allocating your time.

Thanks for sharing one of my tips Amanda. Glad to have contributed to this post

Thanks for posting my tips! This is a perfect article – succinct and packed with great advice.

Good tips!

The Biz Card thing has caught me off guard lately. My last two trips to the mountains for snowboarding (yes my off-computer passion), I found myself on the lift with folks asking me questions about what I do and if I had a Biz Card on me – and nary a card in sight! Now my jacket is locked and loaded!!

Also had the reality of this recently… “outsource work you don’t have skills for so you can keep the client”. While my left brain has it moments of greatness, I am a right-brainer so its time to find wiser heads than mine when it comes to some of the more complex stuff. I am also learning but there is some stuff where my eyes glaze over and my brain just flat-lines————————

More of life’s little lessons and adjacent opportunities:)

Nice post pretty good tips.

I am new to freelancing, at least professionally. I have done projects on the sides throughout school and here and there. Often, getting ripped off unpaid and never really making it worth my effort.

Due to unfortunate circumstances, I’m sort of forced into doing freelance and at the moment I am not sure where to start (not forced in a bad way. I want to be a freelance creative.) I’ve constructed my website, and have tried freelanceswitch, craigslist and others to no avail. Where I live is very low population, and extremely uncultured. There’s not much interest in my talents here.

These tips in the post are all nice and all, but how do I get some actual clients that will reward me with quality work? Especially when I am just starting out? And getting paid and not screwed over would also really help.

My school loans are on the verge of emptying my bank account and if I can’t start getting some stuff under my belt, well- let’s just say, I am not a person who wants to ask his parents to bail him out. That’s completely dishonorable in my mind.

I’d sincerely appreciate any help. Thanks.

Thanks for these tips

Great tips, thank you!

My advice is: don’t get emotional in your work
! Act and think professional, focus on facts not on thougts and feelings!

Hey Hackwith, thanks for sharing such a nice and helpful tips. I have started following few and hope freelancers like me, who are new, will also find it very helpful.

Thanks for posting my “words of wisdom”!

There are some great tips above. Something to not overlook is Ethics. Remain ethical and set some standards for yourself. While it’s important to understand that you are a business, don’t skip on the seemingly trivial ideas from the corporate world. Write down your ethics and stand by them, then maintain the ethical standards your clients won’t expect.

Simple example, 3 months after completing a project I was going through an old excel sheet and noticed a miscalculation (have since switched to Billings…). I had overcharged a client by about $350. Obviously neither of us caught it (shows how little clients may read contracts…), so I immediately emailed an explanation and sent a check the following day accompanied by an apology card. It sucks issuing refunds, however, I felt good about it and earned 2 more referrals since.

Just be honest and be fair with people, things will fall into place.

Thank you for another great post.

All the advice in this article are true. Here are my words of advice I live in:

1. Charge like you’re worth it: never undersell yourself even if it means more clients. If you do, you’ll burn yourself out very fast.

2. Get away from the computer: It’s good to get away from your computer at least once a day. Even if it’s for 15 minutes, it’s better than nothing.

3. Put 5% or 10% of what you earn into a savings account: This is a general rule of savings I learned, but when you make money from clientwork, put 5% or 10% of it into a savings account or some place where you won’t touch it. You’ll start seeing your savings increase if you continue this.

Thanks for all the great advice.

My bit to add – don’t worry so much about why something happened that you neglect to focus on how you are going to deal with it.

All this great information rounded up into one nice and neat post! Thanks.

great article .. and worth tips.
1. do not always sit in your office while doing creative process. go out get some fresh thoughts, observe new/old systems, works, locations and then do start your though process or doodling about your work.

This might be re written here but I do this always !
enjoy !

Thanks for this post!

Here’s another piece of advice/news I’d like to share with freelancers out there, specifically those in the UK :

http://freelancesupermarket.com/news/2010/2/5/finance-for-freelancers-is-available-if-you-know-where-to-look.aspx

Finance for freelancers is available if you know where to look

Funding of more than £700 million has been approved for nearly 3,000 UK small and medium-sized businesses from the European Investment Bank (EIB), according to the Treasury.

Waking up early, putting on a shirt and tie, and leaving the house before I get to work makes all the difference for me.

I go for a walk, get some coffee, buy a paper, and then walk home as if I’m walking into any normal office.

Great points by all I especially agree with:

“Enjoy what you do, when you stop enjoying it. Stop doing it.” Alex Hughes

Amen brother, Amen.

I have just transferred the advice to a Word doc, made it look pretty and printed it out. It will be stuck up on my wall so I can read it for advice and inspiration. Thank you

“Get up at the same time every morning, shower, get dressed like you’re leaving the house, and sit down with a cup of coffee in your office at the same time every day.”

and set your maximal working hour per day, really…!!!

PS : It helps if your partner work as a regular employee…

Thanks for all the great advice.

What a great pack of nuggets!
Freelancers should take these as the columns of their freelancing temple. When these are solid enough, everything else falls into place by itself.