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!
Freelancing for the Long Haul means Attention to these areas – Space, Time, Wellbeing, Your Business, and Your Professional Development.
Let’s talk about Space… Workspace and Headspace.
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.
Dress For Work as it helps you get into ‘work mode’ and be more productive.
Working in a clutter doesn’t help you focus. Finish the day with a tidy desk so you can start each day clean.
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)!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If you want to be a freelancer for the long term you need to balance your physical, emotional and relational wellbeing.
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.
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.
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.
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…
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.
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.
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%.
Identify your strengths and work to them. Staff your weaknesses.
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.
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.
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.
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.
