When you’re a freelancer, you often find yourself doing several jobs. You may design, develop, write, manage, bill, consult and answer the phone. Unfortunately, while we’re busy taking care of all these roles in the day-to-day management of our business, we forget to step back and take a look at the long term.

Working on the business may not seem important when you’ve got ten active clients and six projects due this week, however it’s an important task you need to take care of, if you ever plan on growing your business (whether you plan to stay a single person business or not).

What exactly is working on your business versus working in it? Working in your business means taking care of the daily things, the clients, the billing, and the actual work. Working on your business, however, deals with stepping back and seeing how your business can improve, where you want your business to go, and so on. You should aim to try and work on your business, at least for a few hours every month.

Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can work on your business.

Read the rest of my post on FreelanceFolder »

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Why? They’re not afraid to say what they think, no matter who might get offended. A week ago, I posted an article called Teaching Graphic Designers About  The Web. Personally I thought it was a great article and it seem to do well traffic-wise.

However a small demographic of my readers decided to completely ignore the 700+ word article and instead focus on one word – gay. Yes, I called the Droid gay. And no, I don’t regret it.

Why People Hate 37signals

I’ve never heard anyone say that they hated 37signals because their products stunk. Or their customer services. Or even their prices. Instead, people choose to hate 37signals because they think their “pompous” and “arrogant”. Apparently being truthful, speaking your mind and injecting humor into your writings now classifies as “arrogant” in the world today. Pity.

I’ve listened to every one of their podcasts and read all of their books. I have never seen one thing that was arrogant or pompous. I think their writing is hilarious and I actually enjoy reading their business books instead of falling asleep like I have with so many other’s books.

Why is it that in this day and age, we have to be so stuck up as to “punish” those that think outside of the box? You don’t want a full-time job? The government punishes you by making you pay double taxes. You want to be an artist? You get laughed at, the crappy building in college or told to get a real job. This world is seems to be built like a factory where from kindergarten you’re told to sit down, shut up and do the same thing as everyone else.

Another reason people hate 37signals is because 37signals writes about how they’ve been successful in business and people claim it can’t “always” be done like that. Well of course, it doesn’t work for everyone, otherwise we’d all be rich, right? Do you really want another general advise business book or a company writing about practices they don’t actually do; or do you want to hear about what a company actually did to be successful?

We’re The Same

I love this company not because of their products, but because of their attitude. You see, if you’ve been around here for any length of time, you’ve probably gathered that I’m the type of person who says what’s on my mind no matter how appropriate it is or isn’t. My mother taught me early on about the importance of truthfulness, and although it’s “offended” some people, it’s never led me astray.

Do you want to know how to really be successful as a freelancer? The type of freelancer who’s always scheduled up and making over six figures? I’ll tell you the secret and I won’t even charge you three payments of $79.99 for it…

Be You

The secret is this…be you. Have personality. Stop being a boring businessperson. No one wants to work with a serious robot. If they did they’d go to Agency X for work. They want to work with someone who knows how to joke, who can laugh and make the client smile when the client is freaking out.

Don’t worry about offending anyone. You could be the nicest person in the entire university and there’ll always be plenty of people who will take offense to that. Most of them are just waiting for an opportunity to be offended. Ignore them. You don’t want them anyways.

This world is so quick to put out personalities. How many times have you heard that you need “professional and serious web copy?” That you need to dress in a suit and tie to meet clients? That you should never smile or crack jokes? Those people are losers and I can guarantee they’re not successful.

This is me

So I’m warning you now, this is me. Yes, this blog is about design, development and freelancing. But if you want the same old crap, you can go to the 1,000,000 other blogs in existence. This is the blog of me. What I’m doing, what I’ve learned and how I can share it with you to help you get there faster than I did.

If you don’t like someone who speaks their mind, has a personality or tells the truth, please go somewhere else.

And that is why I love 37signals….

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But, what do you do when you’re just starting out or not well known? Before you begin getting clients, it can be tough to figure out what to do all day. That’s the perfect time to make yourself well known.

Finding clients is different for everyone and what works for some doesn’t always for others. However, I’d like to share several of the ways I got work in the beginning.

View the rest of my post on FreelanceFolder »

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I wasn’t into the book very much at first. The layout of the pages is kinda weird and artsy, making it a bit hard to read, but thanks to the briefness of text on each pages, it’ isn’t so bad. I warmed up to it halfway through the book, as it began covering some ideas I could use with my own clients. This book is perfect for people who go out and pitch clients in person, although a lot of what it covers can be translated online or on the phone as well.

The book spans 240 pages with eight chapters and each page is a different “section” or topic (similar to the 37signals Rework book). Some of the more interesting chapters include: Learn By Asking The Right Questions, How To Present A Powerful Pitch and How To Handle Objections.

IdeaSelling has some unique viewpoints in the way you view and treat your clients. I was especially interested in the section about selling, where they give you a scale to put your client on from unaware of you and your product to ready to buy. It’s quite an interesting way to view the sales process.

Where to buy it

You can find IdeaSelling at Amazon for $11.55

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In my experience, I’ve noticed something strange–clients are more likely to notice the little extra things you do for them than the big ones.

I’ve always been a strong supporter of not doing any spec work and I always charge the client for work outside of the contract. But, we can offer our clients other little extras that they’ll appreciate just as much.

So what are some little things you can offer your clients?

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There’s nothing complicated involved in this thought process: If you have talent, and if people need your talent, you’ll always have work. There are many benefits and advantages attached to indulging in the freelance business, and these are five of the big ones.

Control your income

You might not get your deserved recognition if you’re winning business, growing profits and generally doing a good job for a company. After all, companies only look to hire employees for the purposes of using them and profiting off of them. In freelance, the amount of times you can get a raise depends on how often you decide to raise your rates. At the end of the day, once you land that big contract, you’re the only one who is going to profit from it.

Constant networking

In the freelancing business, you’re constantly networking with new people in need of your talent, both in the real world and online. Networking may not even come to mind when you’re working that corporate career–at least not until you lose your job. After that, it can be difficult to quickly meet new people and get a new job. Freelancers always have those contacts available. With that in mind, who do you figure might be able to find themselves some work first when they’re suddenly in need?

Less reacting, more progressing

It can be difficult to inspire change in a typical corporate office. While technology advances and markets changes, your company will be left behind if you maintain the usual “if it isn’t broke, then don’t fix it” attitude. In freelance, you will find yourself exposed to various technologies, workflow processes, business models and a whole assortment of ideas. Basically, you will always be fresh in your field.

Better negotiation skills

The majority of people in the world aren’t very experienced when it comes to negotiations. The only times they are expected to negotiate when they’re in a job interview or when they’re buying a car or a house. Because these are their only experiences, the art of negotiation is lost on them and it only leaves frustration. When this happens, they’re more likely to fold quickly because they’re unnerved, or they come across as too aggressive after being too full of adrenaline. In freelance, you’ll be a regular old Donald Trump before long; a freelance career leads into frequent negotiations–of roles, of scope, of time and of rates.

You are in power

There’s no such thing as real job security. You will be better off operating your own freelance business with fast reflexes and quick responses. You don’t, after all, have the same level of competitors trying to take you down as if you were a corporation.

Simply put, after you look at the work you’ve done at the end of the day, you won’t be surprised to see that the everyday freelancer has significantly better job security in addition to a much better ROI than a corporate employee of the same level of success.

Your Thoughts

What are some of the advantages you’ve found by freelancing?

image by EvelynGiggles

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