The Freelancer’s Support Staff

Confession time: I kind of, sort of, almost miss my 9-to-5 office grind. Granted, my home office comes equipped with a bottle of scotch and I’m not stuck using Internet Explorer, but there are some things a staff position at an established magazine or company can offer freelancers that harder to come by on our own.

What I miss most about going to the office every day are the people in all those departments that are usually ignored, but are so integral to the smooth turning of the gears: Legal, Accounting, Tech Support, Reception, the list goes on. Whether there was trouble with a libel suit or just a printer problem, it was easy to find an expert with an answer somewhere down the hall. Freelancers aren’t lost though, since there’s a wealth of online resources that’ll act as your support staff and help you through the workday.

Tech Support

Protonic.com is run by a staff of tech-savvy volunteers that offer free answers to questions about hardware, software, operating systems, or even a kink in your CSS. An answer can often take a day or so to make its way to you, but sometimes you’ll get answers within an hour. It’s the next best thing to sending a support ticket to the IT guys on the third floor.

If you’re willing to exert just a little bit of effort, you may want to browse the forums at Tech Support Guy. Chances are, your question has already been asked and discussed at length. If you’re worried about taking the advice of a stranger who might not know what they’re talking about, forum posters are ranked from Junior up to Distinguished Member, and their posts give a little bit of info about their experience and skills.

Your Own Legal Team

For those of you who might be facing certain legal doom, let’s start right away with attorneys who might help you free of charge. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a non-profit organization that tackles tech-related cases, from a file sharing to online free speech, with a team of lawyers who all work pro bono. If you need a lawyer to have your back in a case that involves technology issues, this is the first place to look.

If all you need is a quick answer to a legal question, in an effort to avoid the aforementioned certain doom, LawGuru.com has a network of more than 5,000 attorneys who review and answer queries, often within a few hours, sent through a simple online submission form. They handle more than technology, too, so you can ask about anything from contracts to parking tickets.

Once LawGuru has answered your questions about patenting your new web application, or forming an LLC with your colleagues, you’ll want to spring into action and do it. Nolo Press offers plenty of free or cheap services to do so, as well as software you can use to make your own legal documents.

A Personal Assistant

It’s sort of counter-intuitive that, if we can have IT personnel and Harvard law graduates at our fingertips, the freelancer’s personal assistant is the only resource that doesn’t involve an actual human being. Sandy, the personal email assistant from Values on n (the same company that brought us Stikkit), holds her own among her flesh and blood counterparts, though.

I Want Sandy helps you stay organized by turning emails to yourself into to-do lists, address book updates and calendar appointments. Just send a message to yourself with Sandy CCed, and she’ll complete her tasks according to your simple commands (i.e. ‘reminder’, ‘lookup’ and ‘update’). Granted, there are plenty of programs out there that create to-do’s and keep track of your calendar, but for all of those to work you need to actually open the application to update it as well as read it. Raise your hand if you’ve ever missed an appointment because you forgot to check your Google calendar or lost precious time tackling your to-do list because you spent hours compiling it.

Sandy eliminates the need to update and check all those lists and calendars regularly. Everything is done through email, which you’ve probably got open all the time, anyway. She sends you a message when you need to leave for an appointment across town, reminds you to return your library books on the way home and, if you ask, sends a client’s phone number that’s buried too far in your address book to find. You can also text her commands or ask for info when you’re on the go. Sandy’s just finished her on-the-job training (read: beta form), and is accepting signups for free accounts.

What more could you need?

So there you go, you’re not alone and you can impress friends by talking about your personal assistant and crack legal team. Now just sit back and wait until someone creates a website that’ll brew your coffee and take your socks to the Laundromat.