You are a creative person and you want a new look for your business—whether it’s a website, business cards, or whatever. Sure, you could do the work yourself—but should you?

For some odd reason, there seems to be a discrepancy of sorts when it comes to doing the work for ourselves. Some designers feel like of course we should take on that Jack-of-all-trades mindset, while others just feel like it makes sense to pass the work off and let someone else do it. —webdesignerdepot.com

Before you jump in and start the project, ask yourself a couple of key questions: How creative are you? How much time do you have? What is your skill set? These might help you decided to forge ahead on your own, or hire someone else to help you. Continue Reading

We’ve been talking a lot about engagement lately, so when I saw this post on Mashable about 10 easy customer engagement ideas I was intrigued.

Engagement with your clients doesn’t happen overnight or all at once. It is something that needs to be worked on consistently over time. Engaging your clients is a great way to keep them involved during the down time as well as offer them reasons to remember your great work.

Following are ideas to help you engage with you clients, which will improve that professional relationship and strengthen your freelance business. Continue Reading

I really like the 60-Second Solutions videos on Entrepreneur.com. I thought that the recent video by communications coach Carmine Gallo on creating a 60 second strategy to tell your story was especially useful.

Sometimes it’s hard to explain to people what it is you really do. Many people hear the word ‘freelancer’ and don’t quite understand what it means, other than you probably work from home in your pajamas.

Gallo suggests you come up with one sentence answers to the following four questions to keep your “What I Do” story to 60 seconds.

What do you do?

Are you a graphic designer? A freelancer writer or photographer? Do you have a niche or topic (like small business, agriculture, health) that you concentrate on? Turn this into one sentence. Example: I am a freelance blogger and I write about small business financing for several online magazines. Continue Reading

The term customer service reminds me of wasted time spent on the telephone with some huge conglomerate that somehow messed up something I purchased. Right now I’m dealing with customer service for both my cable/TV company and my home/auto insurance. It’s infuriating.

But customer service isn’t just for big box stores and insurance agencies. It’s important to freelancers, too.

As consumers, we’ve become disenchanted with advertising and marketing of all sorts, having being duped, tricked or made to feel foolish on more than one occasion. The last true medium that holds sway is referrals from friends, colleagues, or online reviews from the likes of Yelp, AngiesList or TripAdvisor. —Matt Mickiewicz for Forbes.com

According to an American Marketing Association survey, 90% of consumers trust peer reviews and 70% trust online reviews. The author of this post is Matt Mickiewicz, the co-founder of 99designs. He offers three rules that small businesses (and freelancers) should follow to offer their clients great customer service. Continue Reading

I don’t really connect to Mark Cuban (the billionaire owner of the Dallas Mavericks). But I do connect to his business rationale: the only thing you can control in your life is your own effort.

As freelancers, we don’t have anyone but ourselves to be accountable for. If I don’t roll out of bed until 10 am, I have no one to blame but myself. If I don’t make time to really look into what Google+ can do (or can’t do) for me, it’s my own fault.

When you work in an office environment, you have coworkers, bosses, and assistants to help you with your job. When you are a freelancer, you have to do everything from getting insurance to buying computer equipment, to calling clients who are late on their payments. It can be overwhelming at times, but when you worry about only pleasing yourself at the end of the day, it can be pretty great.

Below are some quotes from Mark Cuban’s new book, How to Win at the Sport of Business, that I found in an article on businessinsider.com and what I took away from them:

In sports, the only thing a player can truly control is effort. The same applies to business. The only thing any entrepreneur, salesperson or anyone in any position can control is their effort.

Continue Reading

Now that the holidays are over it’s back to the grindstone. However, many businesses and freelancers struggle in January to get rolling. This blog post by Carol Tice on Entrepreneur.com gives some good info on how to beat the January doldrums. I’ve taken the tips that pertain to freelancers and put in my own two cents:

Poll Your Clients

You are probably not the only one dealing with a slow January—your clients might be in the same boat. Why not involve them by sending them a poll? If you’re trying to figure out what direction you want to go in in 2012, have your clients help shape your path! Thinking about blogging more? Find out how it would be accepted by your readers.

Entice responses with a prize, such as an Amazon gift card or ad space on your website for a certain amount of time. If there is incentive to fill out your poll, people will be more likely to take the time to do it. Continue Reading

Note: A few times a month we revisit some of our reader’s favorite posts from throughout the history of FreelanceSwitch. This article by Martha was first published April 12th, 2009, yet is just as relevant and full of useful information today.

A few years ago, articles of this sort were all about building one’s mailing list.

And we in the design field knew the drill quite well. We’d create a list of likely prospects, design something cool to send out, and then wait for the phone to ring. Sometimes it rang, sometimes it didn’t.

A-a-a-ah, the olden days.

Back then, those spinning business card files bearing the Rolodex brand were like gold. If you are of a certain age, you may remember that strict “Don’t Take the Rolodex with You” policy if you decided to leave Company X.

While you were at Company X, the cards in your Rolodex spent a great deal of time on your desk, waiting for you to give them a spin. Occasionally, they had to be spun into a mailing list, and you may be curious as to how that would happen.

Continue Reading

According to a recent study by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 47.7% of women believe they are capable of starting a business compared to 62.1% of men. This lack of confidence persisted throughout all economies and cultures that were included in the study.

So what gives? Let’s delve into the issue a little more…

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Have you tried getting a small business loan from a bank for your freelancing career only to be turned down? You are not alone.

Some freelancers who need access to cash have turned to something called peer-to-peer lending. It’s an interesting model that both Prosper and Lending Club, the two leading peer-to-peer websites, are using. Here’s how it works:

Peer-to-peer lending, or social lending, it is a way for investors who have money, to lend directly to borrowers looking to borrow money. It is a win-win for all parties. The investor gets a better return on their money than a traditional savings account or CD and the borrower gets a lower interest rate than they would likely pay for a credit card advance or bank loan.  —Peter Renton from SocialLending.net

Whether you are looking to consolidate debt or set yourself up with a home office for your new freelancing career, peer-to-peer lending cuts down the wait time and administrative fees from banks.

Continue Reading

I really liked this article on Mashable.com’s business page about giving yourself a raise in 2012. With the economy being what it is (and has been), the thought of raising your freelancing rates might make your heart rate increase and sweat collect on your forehead. Before you go ballistic, ask yourself this question: when was the last time you adjusted your rates? If it was a decade ago—it’s time to give yourself a raise.

Whether you are a writer, photographer, or graphic designer, you need to make sure your current freelancing rates match your abilities.

With the rise of the Freelance or Gig Economy, more professionals are shifting from full-time positions to self-employed, freelance or contract roles. And often, for company employees accustomed to regular raises and pre-determined fee hikes, the notion of being in charge of one’s own prices is challenging. —Nellie Akalp for Mashable

How long have you been in business? If you are still charging the same low rates you started out with to get your foot in the door, you are shooting yourself in that same foot.

Continue Reading

Engagement From Scratch! is a classic tale of learning from other peoples’ mistakes. Thirty professional bloggers prove that hindsight really is 20/20. And you can benefit from their advice thanks to Danny Iny.

I was pretty pumped that I was asked by FreelanceSwitch to preview this book. I had previously written a review for this site on Danny Iny’s online marketing course through his business, Firepole Marketing. I thought Iny’s product was really interesting and provided a lot of great tools, so I was interested to delve into Engagement From Scratch!

The premise is simple. Iny asked 30 bloggers from the very big (Brian Clark of copyblogger.com and Guy Kawasaki) to the up-and-coming (Onibalusi Bamidele from youngprepro.com) what they would do if they had to build a following all over again.

The overarching themes these bloggers shared were pretty straightforward, and nothing you probably don’t already know, such as:

• Be yourself.
• Comment on other blogs thoughtfully.
• Create great content.
• Know who your audience is.
• Find or create your niche.
• It’s not the size of your audience that matters, it’s how engaged they are.
• Write guest posts for other bloggers and have them write for you.

As I read through each essay, I’d nod my head, take some notes for this blog post, and read on. And I listened. I finally listened. Continue Reading

Every freelancer out there has a bag of tricks they wouldn’t want to do work without—whether it’s their computer, useful software, or their favorite radio station. Find out what sorts of things help FreelanceSwitch.com contributors during their workday.

Perhaps their advice will inspire you to try something new, or reaffirm that what you currently use is the best in the biz.

Hardware

My Apple Kit

I regularly use a MacBook Air, iMac, iPad, and iPhone for work. I love the style and function of OSX and iOS, and the quality of these tools is just amazing.

I can enjoy a huge screen at home for digging into some in-depth work, and take the super lightweight MacBook Air on the road. My iPhone never leaves my side, and I’m constantly amazed at how much work I can get done on such a tiny device. –David Appleyard

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