Credit: Yuri Arcurs on Photodune

One of the most powerful lessons I have learned is to cast a vision and stick to it. This lesson applies to freelance work, but it also applies to life in general. Casting a vision for your career is hard and can take years to fully develop, which requires sticktoitiveness. But, if you apply tenacity over time, you will find the end result is powerful and motivating in a way nothing else can be.

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Credit: Patrick Gaudin on Flickr

For some of us, the progression from a full time career to a freelance state of mind can be as easy as handing in the notice and running for the exit. However, for others the transition can be full of worry, stress and anxiety.

I’ve been pretty lucky in my freelancing career. My progression from hobby to job was sudden and straightforward (to the extent that I’ve never actually worked for anyone other than myself!), but there are many people who are currently sitting at their office desk, looking for a way to follow suit.

For some people, the event that triggers anxiety is being the only (or primary) source of income for a household (putting added pressure on a consistent pay check), for others the business side of things seems like a dark art full of mystery and complicated rituals. While both of these are valid concerns, I believe that anyone (no matter their background) can succeed as a freelancer, even with these variables at work. It’s all just a matter of learning to dodge a few easy to spot bullets!

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The phone calls usually go like this:

Caller: “I want a website for my business.”

You: “What kind of business do you have?”

Caller states the nature of the business, launches into a list of pages that he or she wants on the site, and then asks you for a price quote.

Not a very satisfying encounter, is it?

The caller seems most interested in price, and you? Well, you’re interested in a relationship. As in, the kind that lasts for years.

It might not be possible to have a meaningful relationship with price shoppers, but it’s worth taking the time to learn what your potential clients want in a website. This article will help you create a prospect qualification questionnaire that can be used via telephone or Internet or in face-to-face meetings.

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As freelancers there are often times we work away from our desks. This could be due to taking much needed vacations or working from a coffee shop to gain a little human interaction. How can you keep your business going in a professional setting when you’re not working from your typical office space?

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Photo by Wrote.

In a way, most freelancers have it lucky. I know several in their sixties who are still happily working — and even one graphic designer in his seventies who moonlights teaching Photoshop. Despite being able to easily work long after the age commonly associated with retirement, though, most freelancers don’t intend to spend their golden years at their computer. That means that at least some basic retirement planning is necessary: even if you’ve been paying into Social Security for years now, it’s not going to cover your full cost of retiring.

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We’ve all heard it when we’re seeking new business. No.

It’s a short but discouraging word. One that will make you feel like crawling back into bed and pulling the covers over your head.

But, before you do that, come with me to the FreelanceSwitch Test Kitchen. We’re going taste the Four Flavors of “No.”

1. No way, go away! Might as well get the harshest, bitterest taste out of the way first. This is the “No” that is sometimes delivered with a hostile tone. As in, you’d be a fool to ever contact this person again.

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Your fingers hover above the keyboard as you stare blankly at your empty document. You have an assignment, a topic, a project that you need to work on.

And you have no idea where to go from where you are.

It isn’t burnout. You aren’t exhausted, or sick of writing and wishing everyone who wants you to write something would just go away for a week

What you are is stuck. You know what you want to do, but you just can’t seem to get anything out to work on. Continue Reading

Photo by jenn_jenn.

I recently concluded a series of articles on New Year’s Planning. And here we are, in the New Year, and I have it on good authority that some of you still haven’t created your 2009 client acquisition plan.

I’m also hearing that there are some freelancers who have yet to do an annual budget.

We’ll start with client acquisition. I’ve created a free Excel application that will allow you to track your efforts. Download the 10 Business-Building Tools Tracker file and open it in Excel. Since it’s in Read-Only format, save the file under a different filename so you can work with it.

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One of the joys (and frustrations) of being a freelance writer contributing to multiple magazines, newspapers, and websites is the need to come up with a constant flow of new ideas for articles.

This is not always an easy task by any means—often it seems downright impossible—so we’ve compiled a list of ways to find articles almost anywhere. Continue Reading

Photo by svonog.

It’s that time of year when I have some extra time. Using it to prepare for improving my business the New Year is a smart choice. Once everyone returns from holiday breaks and business gets going again, you won’t have time to participate in imperative year-planning tasks.

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Photo by shimelle.

Freelancers in every field face a constant challenge to achieve and maintain a high level of productivity and quality in their work. One of the ways that you can improve your results is by development of systems or routines for various aspects of your work. Most likely you do some of the same things day-after-day and week-after-week. Having a proven system for getting these things done can bring several positive benefits. In this post we’ll look at why you would want to develop you own systems and some areas of freelancing life that lend themselves to systematization.

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Photo by e-strategyblog.com.

If you were formerly a cubicle dweller, it’s a good bet that someone else was responsible for making sure that the smoke alarms in your building worked, that all staff members knew CPR, and that the company had a business continuity plan in case of disaster. Now that you are on your own, disaster preparedness and all that it entails is yet another task that falls squarely on your shoulders—along with janitorial jobs, stocking jobs, mail room jobs, accounts receivable jobs, and all the other parts that make up your business. Being prepared for a disaster is not as hard as it sounds. Here are some tasks to get you started so that no matter what kind of disaster strikes, you’ll be ready.

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