Freelance Bootcamp #1: Are You Really Ready for Full Time Freelancing?

Welcome to our new series of articles militantly titled Freelance Bootcamp! In this series we will take you through the entire process of becoming a full time freelancer. From finally ditching that 9 – 5 to getting down to the nitty gritty of income, personal productivity, and what to (really) expect out of all of this in the end. This is a start to finish process that is by no means sugar coated! If you’re really ready to become a serious freelancer then you’ve come to the right place! We hope this will give you a “cut the crap and get to the point” type of experience while covering all the important aspects of freelancing.

In this edition we ask the question “Are you really ready for full-time freelancing?.” If you’ve been day dreaming at your desk all day about joining the work-at-home generation while wondering what it would be like with that much freedom in your life then it’s time to get serious about it! No more wondering! We’re going to find out if you are really ready for full time freelancing…
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The Giant List of Wordpress Hacks

Here at FreelancerMagazine, we’re trying to do more then general advice for our fellow freelancers. We’re trying to give you some tutorials, resources, and actual tools that you can use in “the field.” Wordpress is quite popular and getting more popular by the day! I myself work with wordpress on a daily basis and enjoy the experience as it provides a really simple but elegant way to publish content on the web. It can do a bit more then one might think with a little ingenuity and know-how. It has done everything from Marketplaces to a Twitter-Clone.

Here at FreelancerMagazine we can also be pretty lazy (I prefer to say busy). So instead of writing up a giant list of our own hacks, that are already out on the web somewhere, we compiled a list of other lists of hacks. Silly? maybe, Good idea? Definitely!
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10 Common Mistakes of The Beginning Freelancer…

We’ve all made mistakes… some of us more than others! The point is to learn from these mistakes, reconfigure yourself and get back out there! Those on top of their game were once beginners and made all the same mistakes just like the rest of us. If you’re just starting out maybe we can help you avoid some of these and if not, no problem, experience is the greatest teacher!

On to the list!

#1 Not using contracts

Most beginning freelancers fail to utilize contracts due to the fact that they believe clients will shy away from them. This is (in my experience) untrue! Many clients appretiate the professionalism and will let out a sigh of relief once they see you are a legitimate businessman (or woman!). Once you go through that one bad experience with a client, you will of wished you had the contract to fall back upon!

Or maybe new freelancers just don’t know to construct one or what to include. If you have not constructed your contract template, sit down and make a list of everything you want your client to know. Set your boundaries, your pay rate, and limits. Be detailed but don’t overload the clients with useless information! Keep it to the point!

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5 Online Tools For Dealing With Clients in Other Time Zones…

Whether you’re in the U.S. dealing with clients in some place like Russia, or in the U.K. dealing with clients in some place like the U.S., you’re going to have to work around scheduling at one point. Time zones can make it hard to reach your client or for your client to reach you at an optimal time. At other times you might run into problems when a foreign holiday arrives (what exactly is Sadé anyway??) that you, or your client, is un-aware of, and one of you isn’t going to be available. We’ll some free online applications and services have done their best for you to get around this problem! Check out the top 5 of these free online services any freelancer should be using:
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Freelance Rockstars: Don’t Let it Get To Your Head!

You’ve come a long way and now its your time to shine. Your name almost becomes a buzzword around the blogosphere. Your prices go up, but is your work that much better now then it was before you found stardom? Or are your clients really only paying for your name? This is a call to all you “Freelance Rockstars” out there… don’t let it get to your head!
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Scope Creep: How to Deal With It Now, and Learn To Love It Later…

What the heck is this “Scope Creep” you speak of? Quite simply scope creep refers to uncontrolled changes in a clients project’s scope. You’ve finished the clients project to the original specifications but they just dumped a load of emails in your inbox with 20 more features, changes, ideas, and so on. It never seems to end! Most clients don’t know exactly what they want until the project is almost complete. Have you ever heard something like “Now that i see it, i think it might be better to do this…” or “I think it would be perfect if we could add this feature…” and of course its no simple task and definitely not outlined in their specifications… and its another 2 days of work!

Did you prepare for this inevitable outcome? If not then this is a good chance to learn a valuable lesson in real world freelancing. If you have taken all the necessary precautions then congratulations.. you have learned to get the most out of your clients… and yes, this also means money wise!

Learning to prepare for this can greatly increase the income for any project in which suffers from the “scope creep syndrome.” You will soon learn to love it, and so will your bank account! Not to sound like this is taking something from your client- it’s only fair that if you need to do more work then they specified then it will also cost them more. But what if you didn’t prepare for this outcome? How do you handle the clients needs with no extra income then you both originally agreed upon? Read more

How To Survive “The Dip”

“The Dip” happens to everyone sooner or later and learning how to avoid it can single handedly save your freelance career! What is the dip? Well it could mean a couple of things:

1. You have no incoming projects at this time and it may be awhile before you have more

2. You have many projects, none of which are completed, and have no cash coming in within the near future!

Sometimes as freelancers our projects come in waves. We can take on 5 – 10 projects one week but by the time we complete them, we have nothing else lined up! Or quite possibly we have those 5 – 10 projects half-finished and the rest of our income relies on the completion of those projects… all of which could take 2 more weeks! On top of that, we’re broke!

This could spell certain disaster for some freelancers, especially those committed to so many financial strains that just can’t handle a week or more of no income! Learning to avoid this is one skill all freelancers should learn if they want to survive this line of work. Its no joke as I’ve witnessed many freelancers having to abandon they’re entire freelancing career to go back to the steady pay of that other line of work.

If this hasn’t happened to you yet, it will! Even those at the top of their field find themselves in the dip, usually do to poor planning! Below you will find some steps and precautions to take to better avoid this problem.
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