I have to admit I was a little disappointed. While it did contain some great thoughts, none of it was really new. Seth Godin is supposed to be some kind of marketing genius, so I expected a little more than “to succeed, go against the flow” well…duh.

The book itself is short, half the size of the iPad I’m typing on right at the moment and only 160 pages. Despite that, it took me several days to read, just because I could’t really get into it.

Seth Godin did, however, offer some great examples of leaders who picked up their community from nothing and became one of the most popular groups in the world. I really found it interesting that Starbucks came from a 3 location struggling cafe. That stuff is cool.

My biggest pet peeve of the book is somewhat political – I found it both laughable and strange that Godin would use Jimmy Carter as an example of selfless charity. Carter was the worst president of all time, and nothing he does is ever selfless.

Other than that though, I’d say it was a solid business book, and worth if it you haven’t read any or many business books yet. If you have, just be aware that there’s a lot of repetition as far as ideas go.

You can find the Tribes at Amazon for only $13.68.

Attracting your target client instead of working with just anyone has several benefits. It allows you to get the kinds of projects you really want while working with your ideal client. No need to tell you how working with your ideal client can lift a ton of stress off your shoulders, right?

So how do you attract that perfect client? What if you have no idea who the perfect client is and should be? Read on my fellow freelancers!

Read the rest of my post on FreelanceFolder »

It’s really not hard to make it as a freelancer if you’re really set on doing it. Even in the worst part of the recession, there were tons of clients and projects out there and there was, and is, never a shortage of work. The problem really becomes, not can I make it as a freelancer, but can you get the clients to find you?

A Job Is Not As Secure As You Think

A common argument to forgoing freelancing is that a job is secure. Your boss is the one responsible for finding you work and you get to sit around and soak up a paycheck whether you’re working the full eight hours or not. But is placing your livelihood on someone else really more secure than going out there and finding work for yourself?

When you’re in a job, you can’t control the work that is or isn’t coming in. You have no say whether or not to take that project and there’s nothing you can do if your boss sucks at finding work. You can come into work one more thinking everything’s peachy and then find yourself laid off. That never happens in freelancing.

When you freelance, you control everything. You know from the start that work is busy or slow, you control where you look from work and what projects you accept or turn down. You’ll never, ever, be surprised with no jobs.

Taking Your First Steps

Once you’ve made the decision to become a freelancer, it’s time to start acting on it. You need to sit down and have a serious thought about a couple of questions, before you’re able to leave your job and get going:

1. What kind of work do I want to do?
2. What kind of clients do I want to target?
3. How much money do I need to survive?
4. How much money do I want?
5. How many hours do I want to work?

These are the basic questions that help build your business to what you want it to be. Let’s take a look at each of these questions and why they’re important.

What kind of work do I want to do?

You didn’t quit your crappy job to take any and every project that comes around. You want to really think hard about this one. What is it you want to do every day?

Personally, I want to only do front-end development, specifically HTML, CSS, WordPress and a bit of PHP and jQuery. That means I don’t accept design work, backend work or anything else. Front-end development is all I do, and the only thing I want to do.

Think about yourself and decide what it is you want to do. Then make sure the only projects you pitch for and accepts are the ones that fall in that range. Don’t accept development work if you just want to design, or vice-versa. Doing so dilutes your professional skills and positions you in the client’s eyes as being someone who offers those services.

What kind of clients do I want to target?

The kind of client you want to target is almost as important as the kind of work you want to do. The ranges of client choices you have depend on what it is you want to do and you can also choose client specifically on industry (like medical, military, sales, etc). If you’re a designer, you can choose small to large businesses, other freelancers, large companies or design agencies. Being a developer kind of limits your choices, although it is still possible to find normal business clients.

After a few months of freelancing I realized all of my favorite clients were agencies or other freelancers. They didn’t require hand holding and knew what to expect from me. They always paid on time and never asked for out of spec work without first offering to pay for it. So I decided to cut out any kind of client who wasn’t a design agency or another freelancer. Who is it you want to work with?

How much money do I need to survive?

This is an easy question. How much money do you need to survive? By survive, you need to be able to pay all of your bills and have a little extra for saving and spending. Finding this out helps you determine the minimum amount of hours and rates you need to charge.

How much money do I want?

Again, you didn’t become a freelancer to make a measly $30,000 a year like you did in your full-time job. You want to make more, lots more, and heck it’s easily doable if you put in some hard work.

My goal for this year was to make $100,000 before taxes and expenses. How awesome would that be for a freelancer who’s only been freelancing for a year and half to make that much?

While I think I’m going to come up short this year of my goal, it still become the driving factor and pushed me to work harder and smarter, and with that I was able to make a whole lot more than I did at my agency job. Score one for the freelancers.

So how much money do you want to make a year?

How many hours do I want to work?

The last step to starting your freelance business is now to determine how many hours a week you realistically can and want to work. Whether you want to work 20 or 100 hours a week, use that in determining how much you should charge to make your goals above.

What Next?

After you’ve figure out the answers to those five questions, you’re already ahead of the game, and you’re now ready to do what everyone else starting out does – set up your portfolio, get your social media accounts going and start looking for that work!

Your Thoughts

What steps do you think one should take to become a successful freelancer?

If you’re like me, you probably have the tendency to sit around and stare at the computer screen or play on Twitter all day when there’s nothing to work on. However, if you make a plan for your next slow period, you can get ahead for your next work rush and come out better in the long run.

You’ll actually be looking forward to the slow periods!

Let’s take a look at some of the things you can do when there’s no client work to be found.

Read the rest of my post on FreelanceFolder »

I videoed my all-time favorite speaker this year. Be sure to listen to the whole thing, not only is he a great speaker, he’s also very funny. Here’s Justin Davis from Madera Labs speaking on toilet paper and technology silos:

This year’s t-shirt was based on the popular game, Plants vs. Zombies (I really need a pic of this if any of you guys have one, mine’s in the wash!)

Me and the Centresource friendly robot:

The CarlSays squid with Mitch of StudioNashvegas:

And a few other photos from speakers and the attendees. I believe there was over 700 people in attendance!

Did you go?

Who was your favorite speaker?

If you’re looking for work locally, then it’s entirely possible that your market is already overly saturated, but I doubt it. There’s always someone looking for a freelancer. As a matter of fact, I started my own business in the middle of our last recession, and was always scheduled.

When it comes to freelancing, we’re not limited to our own towns or markets. So, your town’s economy is a bit slow? Try New York City. Try another country. The awesome thing about being a freelancer is that you don’t have to meet your clients in person. So, even if there are tons of freelancers, there’s always more work.

Of course, when you’re not having any luck getting work and you’re always competing for work, it may feel like there’s too much competition, but perhaps you’re just looking for work in all of the wrong places.

Read the rest of my article on FreelanceFolder »