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?

What do you think? Continue Reading

In my previous post, I talked about pitfalls that await someone who leaves a crummy job for an ill-fated business venture.

For me, the crummy job was in the publications and publicity office of a fundraising organization. This organization lavished all sorts of loving kindness on its donors, but couldn’t extend the same courtesy to its staff. The ill-fated business was a bicycle book publishing venture.

During the summer before I left my job, I attended the Stanford Professional Publishing Course (SPPC), which was held on the campus of Stanford University. This was considered to be one of the most prestigious courses in the publishing industry, and I was thrilled when I got the acceptance letter.

Continue Reading

This is the season of giving, whether it is for Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza, or just to exchange gifts. So, with so many people here self-employed and thus lacking a company to give out those turkey dinners, terrific bonuses, and whatnot; I thought it would be a great idea to provide a list of real and fantasy gifts that would be perfect for the freelancer in your family, even if it is yourself.

Continue Reading