Staying on Top of Your Game
Stay on the cutting edge – Image from iStockPhoto It is important to stay on top of your game as a freelancer if you want to stay valuable and in demand. This means continually improving and honing your skillset. When you work in a job where you are surrounded by others, or when studying your trade at university, you will feed off other people and naturally push yourself to compete.
However as a freelancer, often working alone, you can easily fall into a vacuum where your current level of expertise feels good enough. Give in to this and your service may lose value over time. Unless you have a burning internal urge you may find it helps to put yourself into situations that force you to stay on top.
As a freelancer it is your job to keep yourself improving. This is true no matter what field you are in, but perhaps most critically those fields where you deal with technology – programming, web design, flash animation and so on. But even if you are a writer or illustrator, just keeping up with current styles and new ideas is invaluable.
Here are some things you can do to help keep yourself on top of your game:
- Go to Industry Events
Attending special lectures, conferences, user groups, industry associations and other events is a great way to keep up to date with what is happening. There are also lots of great networking opportunities at these places so you have two reasons to attend! - Get yourself some subscriptions to industry magazines
Staying up to date doesn’t have to be hard work, grab a few magazine subscriptions and read up in your spare time. The great thing about this approach is magazines are designed to be accessible, easy and fresh. -
Get to know and chat regularly to other people in your line of work
Whether they are freelancers or regular workers, keeping in touch with people who do the same job as you will naturally lead to conversations about work. Whether it’s meeting up for coffee, chatting on IM or exchanging emails now and again, you are sure to get something useful. - Regularly buy books (and read them!)
I love the web as much as the next guy, but nothing replaces the feel, smell and weight of a book. Buy them. Read them. - Surf the web, subscribe to blogs and check out sites from your field
Well you are probably doing this already… after all you are reading FreelanceSwitch right now! - Write a blog or teach on your area
Teaching others or providing commentary in the form of a blog or magazine column inevitably forces you to keep up to date to survive. It also helps build your reputation, so again this is doubly worthwhile. - Regularly scout out competitors and what they are doing
Not only will you see related work but you are quite likely to scare yourself into action if your competitors are getting too far ahead.
When I first got out of school I remember being mightily enthusiastic, but with time some of that thirst for knowledge goes away. The more this happens, the more important it becomes to fuel that passion externally to keep driving yourself forward.
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I’m just starting out in the world of freelance and I have a world of stuff to learn but I am definitely enjoying it so far. I was just wondering what magazines you might recommend subscribing to?
@Adam: There is an extensive list in Smashing Magazine’s 42 Design/Tech Magazines To Read.
Just to add to the article; about the competitors; don’t just look at what they’re doing; invade their territory; that if nothing else will give you a nice swift kick in the rear end to give you some motivation to do some work
PS: I subscribe to magazines such as Popular Science, Wired, Layers and Computer Arts, among a few others – but these are my personal favorites.
Adam, I think it really matters of the field you are into.
I work as a freelance Flash Developer, and I can say I am way behind with everything now that CS3 is out. I have to be a pro as soon as I can in After Effects, Photoshop and Illustrator. These are on top of my list. After that, Apollo and Flex.
I think it will be a crazy summer with all these apps and all these projects. But if you have passion for what you do, you get better and better, and you learn that learning to use your tools, will only help you.
I don’t agree with “Regularly buy books” though. I usually get my MacBookPro with me, and he loves pdf files. Let’s save the trees. :p
Adam, I think it really matters the field you are into.
I work as a freelance Flash Developer, and I can say I am way behind with everything now that CS3 is out. I have to be a pro as soon as I can in After Effects, Photoshop and Illustrator. These are on top of my list. After that, Apollo and Flex.
I think it will be a crazy summer with all these apps and all these projects. But if you have passion for what you do, you get better and better, and “you learn” that learning to use your tools, will only help you.
I don’t agree with “Regularly buy books” though. I usually get my MacBookPro with me, and he loves pdf files. Let’s save the trees. :p
Sorry for the double post.
Thanks for the tips and my MacBook Pro definitely loves PDFs, but do like the feel of a book and I do buy plenty of books. I think I want to specialize in CSS design and I want to learn graphic design as well so I can create the art that will compliment the CSS. Then once I have that down, I will see where I can go from there.
Yea, I’m picking up updating myself with Illusrator, Photoshop and Flash this summer holiday. Kekeke. Can’t wait. In about 6 more hours, my exam will be over. Hurray and I can start on my first project
Yeah agree totally…
It is very easy to get comfortable in life and also Freelancing (I will admit, im there at the moment)
Another good way, if you’re a coder and can fit it into your schedule, is to work with the Open Source Community.
Too often it is overlooked as a place to exchange ideas, tactics, and then see them through to implementation and use.
That’s a really good point Luke. Also working with Open Source is a good way to get famous too!
I go to monthly user groups for the kind of work I do. As a freelancer is makes a huge difference to perspective because I don’t get to hang around with people doing similar work on a day-to-day basis
Infact, I think I go more for the socialisation than the talks we give!
Oh, but saying that, I’ve given a few talks and it’s pretty fun. I’d recommend it!
I went freelance and contract in 1990 and have been at it since. I buy a book or two just about every month related to my work and blog now and again. Teaching is one of the best ways to learn and to find out how deeply you know your craft. To get out, I’ve joined some Meetups and even organize one in my area. It’s a fantastico way of, er, meeting up with people in your industry.
…sip…