This post will help you with Phase 1 of your freelance workbook. My first Internet business was impressively exhausting. I built it while working full-time in a job I hated, so naturally, it sucked up every extra bit of energy and time I had. It amounted to a part-time job (at LEAST) on top […]
How I Coped With Burnout As a New Freelancer
I didn’t start my freelance career on my own terms. Whenever you hear me say that it’s best to transition slowly into freelancing and build a client base before you make any kinda jumps or leaps, that’s me talking in hindsight. I ended up in a do-or-die situation with my freelance business, meaning after I […]
Freelance Mistake: Pretending to Be an Agency
This post will help you complete Phase 2 in your Profile Workbook. My freelance website is a tribute to corporate business. Muted blues, stock photos of White men in suits, big glass buildings, and three-dimensional charts that would make any sales person proud…and ya know what? It was all a mistake. It’s a decent site, even […]
4 Years Later and I’m Still Dealing with Burnout
*This post will help you complete Phase 1 in your freelance workbook. Last week, I missed a call with a client. There wasn’t an emergency or anything, I just kept working, ignored reminders, and completely blew past the meeting. It wasn’t like me at all, but I know exactly why it happened. During my […]
People Want to Pay You…You Just Have to Know Where to Look.
When I got laid off? I was relieved. It reminded of the time a boyfriend I didn’t really like all that much broke up with me…a wash of obligatory sadness that just stopped in a moment of. ”Hold up…” I’d worked for over a decade, and even though my career was going well by most […]
Your Freelance Profile is More Important Than Your Resume (Sample Included)
I’d probably been freelancing full time for a good year before I came to the dreadful realization that I might need to create a resume. My first full-on job involved sifting through thousands of resumes, and I was jaded by years of sorting through piles internet resume-writing advice. Putting together another one, especially from scratch, […]
What Choosing a Niche Really Looks Like
This post applies mostly to B2B freelancers (that’s most of us.) B2C freelancers like makeup artists, trainers, and personal chefs can definitely benefit from niching (and reading this post), but the process will look a bit different…it will also help you with Phase 2 in your Freelance Profile Workbook. Sometimes I think folks around here […]
B2B vs. B2C (and Why Freelancers Can’t Afford to Miss the Difference)
I think I was in about 2nd grade when I realized that teachers learned too. I knew teachers had gone to school…my mother was teaching freshman English at the time, and my family was full of teachers and school administrators, so that wasn’t new. What I didn’t understand was that teachers went to school…workshops really, […]
A Note on Freelance Skillsets
While it’s not the first question you should be answering when considering freelancing, the skillset question is one of the most difficult. Part of that is because the language that some of us use around skillsets is a little imprecise. For example, you’ll hear me call myself a “freelance writer”. While we both use words, […]
Mid-Career and Considering Freelancing? Start Here.
I’m a bit biased, but I think mid-career (i.e. after several years of employment) is one of the best times to start freelancing full-time. Of course, it’s beneficial to everyone to learn the skills needed to freelance as early as possible, but spending time in the employment world, even with all its issues, brings along […]