We’re very proud to announce the release of Freelance Confidential, Rockable Press’s newest book on freelancing. This book aims to provide the hard numbers on the biggest issues of freelancing and advice on how experienced freelancers can improve their business. More than just another single person’s view on freelancing, Freelance Confidential contains contributions from the Editor of FreelanceSwitch, Amanda Hackwith (that’s me!), a panel of expert entrepreneurs and freelancers, and YOU, the FreelanceSwitch community!

Last winter, we asked readers of FreelanceSwitch to contribute to a global survey on freelancing–over 3,200 of you responded! Get those statistics and you’ll learn the real numbers on the biggest questions which revealed some surprising new trends for the freelance industry. Did you know…?

• Fewer freelancers live in large urban cities than did three years ago. What are the benefits?
• New referrals from advertising and cold calling has dropped significantly. What’s the best new source?
• Freelancers with former experience as an employee report the highest level of satisfaction and happiness. Why is that?

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photo credit: sansreproache/flickr

Rockable Press recently shared some statistics from their up-coming freelancing book, Freelance Confidential, with their mailing list. The book includes results from the survey conducted here at FreelanceSwitch a few months ago that polled 3,200 freelancers on every aspect of their work. There were a lot of nifty facts about freelancing in there, but nothing generated more heated discussion more than this simple line:

44% of freelancers are self-taught and never received any university or technical college training in their field.

Some responses were shocked that the number was that high and saw it as a bad thing for the industry. Others thought it should be higher and that education adds little value for freelancers. I thought the responses were so strong that it would be great to open it up to a discussion for the FreelanceSwitch community. So tell us what you think!

• Does a freelancer need a college education or technical training to be successful?
• Is there a difference between self-taught freelancers and freelancers with formal training?
• What value does formal training or education add for freelancers?

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It doesn’t take a long visit to FreelanceSwitch to figure out that many of us were unhappy employees.

Some of us made dramatic exits from the job world–stomping out of the office after a fight with the boss, telling an especially demanding client exactly what you think of her micromanagement of your design work, or, on a Friday afternoon, walking out of that toxic waste dump of a workplace and making your weekend permanent.

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Every year, around this time, I get an email or two from someone wanting to know how to make a few bucks freelancing in time for the holiday season. I generally try to point these folks towards other options, although it does get me thinking about why someone would turn to freelancing for seasonal work. There are more than a few myths that seem to pop up, making freelancing seem like a viable option for seasonal work.

While debunking these myths shouldn’t scare off any freelancers in it for the long haul, they can be easy answers for any friends hoping you’ll help them find a freelance project or two that will bring in enough money to cover some holiday expenses.

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There’s a telling scene in the TV show Scrubs where deranged Janitor shares his business cards—a ridiculous stew of ridiculous occupations he claims to do outside his real job.

Freelancers can relate. Despite all efforts and a scary attachment to color coding, your to-do list is eating your life. When the day’s actual make-money work is finished, your other 50 jobs await: internet marketer, bookkeeper, invoice-chaser, SEO, R&D, publicist, researcher…all-out superman?

It’s a frenetic, demanding lifestyle. Where our real work fills normal (normal-ish) working hours, running our businesses can become a panicked, haphazard afterthought at the end of a long day.

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You might be scratching your head at the correlation between freelancing and a (now defunct) supernatural based TV show, but I believe Buffy the Vampire Slayer can teach us a thing or two about the business of freelancing. Here are ten lessons on how to become a better freelancer, straight from the slayer’s mouth.

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Freelancing can sometimes feel very lonely. You have left behind the finance department, the IT department and several layers of management. You have also left behind your colleagues – the friends you worked with, bounced ideas off, asked for tips, and borrowed inspiration from when you felt dry. There may be times that you miss all of those people – and all of that support.

Many of you are freelancers because you are good at one thing – your craft, your art, your trade. Now you spend each day doing what you love. Except that you have also taken on a bunch of jobs that you may not be good at – bookkeeper, manager, computer support person, marketer. You took on those jobs because they are part of the freelancing deal, not because you’re good at them. And sometimes you’re not good enough.

Where do you turn to for support? When things are not going well, when problems arise that are outside of your specialty, when you need professional advice, or when you’re just plain too busy, you need a support system. It’s better to start building one before you need it.

Financially, you are more secure if you have multiple income streams. In the same way it is important to build diversity into your support network. You don’t want to put all of your eggs in one basket. Here are some great places to find support. Continue Reading