You may or may not have noticed that recently this blog has been dead. Dead like a donkey that’s rotting into the ground. But less smelly. So I hereby wish to make a pledge to you, a fellow freelancer (perhaps in the making).
At some point over Christmas, I am going to revamp this site. I [...]
I left full-time employment over 2 years ago now to work freelance. Since then I’ve worked in pretty much every room in our house, the dining room, the guitar room, my bedroom… the list goes on.
I’ve never really worked in a space that I’ve made. Never created an office that is specific and central to [...]
Were here with more links to fill your bookmarks folder.
9 Ways to get your portfolio seen
Your portfolio can be the best in the world, but if no one looks at it, then that’s irrelevant. This post looks at 9 ways to get clients checking you out.
How to Create a Dynamic Design Portfolio with Wordpress
Here’s one [...]
I came across a blog post recently entitled “10 Reasons Why It Rocks To Be A Freelancer”
I thought it was a pretty decent article. However, I also thought the post maybe over hyped freelancing a little. Just a little. Believe it or not, there’s a lot of myths and misconceptions surrounding freelancing. So, I thought I’d step in, and shine a little ‘realism’ on things. I’m good at that 
If your considering becoming a freelancer, I want you to know the whole story. From someone who’s right there, freelancing with the rest of them. Because, the grass usually is greener on the other side! And when you get there, well, you might want to go back. Or, as you’ll hopefully see from this post, you’ll be so happy you never look back!
Last week I was ill. Not badly, but still ill. And so, in my infinite wisdom, it hit me, I’ve never posted about illness + freelancing. A strange combo, but it works. Anyway, here’s what to do if you get ill, or before you get ill again.
1. Get some insurance
In case of long term medical issues, you may wish to get some life insurance out for these emergencies. If your out of action of any length of time, your income will be effected, so money spent here may be a lifesaver (no pun intended)
2. Consider buying a laptop
Sometimes, when we are ill its a total waste of time. Sitting around doing nothing because you have a cold or swine flu isn’t helping anyone. So, consider buying yourself (or using your existing laptop). Now you can snuggle up in bed, feeling all ill, but still keep up with your emails, any writing you have (and if you have a powerful enough laptop, you can work as normal with all your normal software such as Photoshop e.t.c).
3. Plan out an ill plan
Spend 5 minutes thinking of tasks you could do when your ill. These might be emailing some of your old clients to check in and see how things are going, it might be to set-up a blog. Whatever you chose to do, try and stick to it, to use this ‘free’ day to the maximum.
4. Don’t stress out!
Stressing out when your poorly is not good! It will make you more ill! So keep calm, and remember, your only human, and your clients expect nothing else. So stop pretending like your a titanium clad robot.
Sometimes, I really wonder, if to be successful in business, you have to nasty. Not just a little bit, but ruthless. Look at Bill Gates. He seems as nice as a mill pond on the surface. But, anyone remember the browser wars? Gates tweaked and altered the cards by signing secret deals with hardware manufacturers to distribute systems with Internet explorer pre-installed on the hard disks. Steve Jobs, the much loved Apple King, has the mentality, or atleast Apple has the mentality, of slamming down on anything remotely anti-apple with a heavy lawsuit threat.
Just a quick note to let you all know I’ve started writing a guide for freelancers on weathering the recession. The book aims to help every freelancer cut down running costs, and maximize profitability. I started writing last month, so as you may imagine, I’m only at the early stages. There will be a site [...]
I love Coffee, Coca Cola and Red Bull. Unfortunately, these items are typically laced with caffeine. For those of you who don’t know, caffeine is the ingredient in these drinks that actually stimulates your brain (a psychoactive stimulant drug or central nervous system (CNS) stimulant) into giving off the effect of temporarily warding off [...]
Minisode 7 is now live:
http://audioboo.fm/boos/26565-7-cashflow
Enjoy!
Every so often, an app comes along that everyone needs. Sort of like Basecamp. Everyone seems to have it. As a freelance dedicated blog, we felt it was time to have a crack at making an app (and that there was a gap in the market for our unique approach). Our app is Penguin. Penguin [...]
