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Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business

June 9, 2015 by Dee Teal

More than a week later I’m finally posting my slides from my WordCamp Brisbane 2015 talk “How to Freelance like a BOSS” where a a fantastic group of interested freelancers listened attentively and quizzed me mercilessy about my simple tips to begin having a better freelance business. It was a great experience sharing my journey, and an equally great one hearing from everyone else about theirs.

Here are the slides of significance from the talk (ALL the slides are available on the link at the bottom of the page) but feel free to click through the gallery below and leave any thoughts or offer your own simple tips you’ve used in your freelancing business!

Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Paying Attention to these areas - Space, Time, Wellbeing, Your Business, and Your Professional Development.
Freelancing for the Long Haul means Attention to these areas – Space, Time, Wellbeing, Your Business, and Your Professional Development.
Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Managing your Space
Let’s talk about Space… Workspace and Headspace.

Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Have a Dedicated Workspace
Keep Work Life separate… If you work form home, do your best to have a dedicated a space, or work from coworking or cafe to keep home and work in balance.
Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Dress For Work - and not in Your Pyjamas
Dress For Work as it helps you get into ‘work mode’ and be more productive.

Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Keep Your Desk Tidy or clean it at the end of the day
Working in a clutter doesn’t help you focus. Finish the day with a tidy desk so you can start each day clean.
Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Make Your Bed (and yes, I'm aware I sound like your mother right now)
Make your bed – because if you don’t achieve anything else in a day, you’ll have at least done that (and it makes it harder to crawl back into and nap)!

Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Freelancing - Having a change of scene is good for the soul
One of the great things about working for yourself is the flexibility to switch up your working environment, it’s good for the soul. Cafe work, collaborate with friends, hit a co-working space from time to time.
Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Freelancing Tips for Managing your Time
One of the easiest ways to make a success of your business is to maximise and focus your time. It’s also the thing that gets wasted most often when you work for yourself.

Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Keep Office Hours, separate home time from work time where you can
You may not always work them, especially when you get caught by the muse and get in the flow, but preserve the notion of office hours for your clients.
Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Plan your week
Having lists of things to check off, having set time during the week for regular jobs you have to do will help keep you focused and make sure they happen.

Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Track your Time
Conduct this experiment, track all the hours you work for a week – and from the results figure out where you can get time back or make it more profitable. Don’t forget, it only takes 6 lots of simple 10 minute changes you make to client’s sites to cost you a whole hour.
Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Focus your time using Pomodoro
There are great techniques like Pomodoro out there to help you work smart… work focused for 25mins in exchange for a 5min break on your fave game, or Facebook.

Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Take Time Out for yourself
You’re working not just for a living, but for a life. Don’t forget to take breaks, and don’t feel guilty when you do.
Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Look after your Wellbeing
If you want to be a freelancer for the long term you need to balance your physical, emotional and relational wellbeing.

Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Get Exercise
You really don’t need me to tell you this, right? You are going to be sitting down at your computer all day… you need to look after your body and move.
Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | SIt Pretty - set up your workspace ergonomically
Looking after your body means a workspace that will help it work better for longer. A great chair and a desk are an important investment.

Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Set sensible boundaries
Let your Yes mean Yes. Let your no be no. If you don’t know, say so. If you need time. Say so. Don’t over commit. Don’t answer your phone after hours. Better still have a landline or Skype number and give clients that. Don’t respond to email after hours. Or write after house an use Boomerang to send it in office hours.
Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Don't neglect your relationships
When you’re working at what you love, it’s so easy to get captivated by it. If we’re nerds we get passionate… and this is just a heads up, you’re much more effective when you’re balanced… don’t let your work kick the rest of your life out of balance…

Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Get Comfortable with being in business
When you’re in business for yourself it’s easy to forget… You’re in Business! You have a choice as a freelancer. Embrace the business side of things or contract someone to do it.
Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | DO your bookeeping, or hire someone to do it
Hiring a bookeeper is the best money I spend to make money in my business. For the price of two and a half of my billable hours a month someone else saves me a week’s worth of tearing out my hair.

Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Set aside tax every invoice
Set up a bank account specifically for your tax and transfer 25% of all your payments into this account. Even though I knew I was supposed to be doing this it wasn’t till I had a separate account that this actually began to work. If you’re collecting GST make it 35%.
Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Play to your Strengths, hire for your weaknesses
Identify your strengths and work to them. Staff your weaknesses.

Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Plan for your next gig
Learn to live cheap, keep money aside for the lean times, and when you’re in the thick of a gig, remember to keep an eye on what’s going to come after it.
Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Know what makes you, you. Build your buisness on that
Know what you bring to the table. Hone your best skills, find your niche and plan and market to that. Find out what makes you special, focus on what will make people want to work with you and use that to your advantage.

Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Keep ahead of your professional development
Keep growing and honing your skills, keep up to date with what’s happening in your industry. Read the news, listen to podcasts. Don’t stagnate.
Simple tips for a Better Freelance Business | Stay Connected
With a strong connected (even virtual) community around you, even though you may at home, by yourself for the most part, it’s possible to never feel alone when you’ve got a like minded posse of friends about you. It’s living the dream.

Slideshare link

About Dee Teal

Dee Teal is a Scrum Master, Project Manager, and Team leader with a history as a developer (mostly front-end and using the Genesis Theme Framework) and WordPress trainer who is crazy active in the WordPress community.

She's run large scale WordPress events, and small ones, and if you ask someone about WordPress in Australia, you won't usually be more than one degree of separation from someone who knows her.
 
You can also find her here...
LinkedIn | Twitter

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