Archive for the ‘Freelance’ Category
Becoming a Virtual Assistant: FreelanceSwitch Interviews a VA
Meet Jennifer Gallagher, a Virtual Assistant (VA) living her dream by working from home helping clients be incredibly successful. Since March of this year Jennifer has been working as a freelance VA through Contemporary-VA. Was becoming a virtual assistant what she planned on? No, but the benefits outweigh any obstacles she thought she had. It might, possibly, be the most fun she has had working in a long time.
What were you doing before you became a VA? I was a Supervisor for a Training Department at an International Aerospace Company. I wrote, designed and sold training course for aerospace quality professionals all over the world. I traveled throughout the US, Europe and Asia and managed a staff and budget, I eventually grew the department over 150%.
That was a big job; what does a typical workday look like now? It depends on the day. Typically I log on each morning around 8AM, I look at my calendar and see what tasks I have scheduled and plan out the work for all of my clients. I check in with all clients regularly, to update the status of various tasks, and typically block time out for each client to perform work for them. Of course, I also answer their emails and take phone calls throughout the day too.
What do you have the most fun doing for your virtual assistant clients? I love collaborating with them to help them grow their business. Whether it’s brainstorming ideas on ways to improve their website, new ways to market their product, or writing marketing campaigns, etc., I love knowing that I can make a real difference in the business of my clients and give them ideas they may have not thought about before, plus implement them on their behalf so they can focus on other things.
What challenges do you face working from home? The only real challenge I have working from home, is actually taking a break! It’s very easy to just go online in the evenings and weekends, to check just “one” thing and then find yourself 3 hours later still working.
What has been the greatest reward? I have had the great opportunity to work with a supporting staff and team through C-VA and my clients are truly inspiring. By freelancing with C-VA I have had the opportunity to access free training, learn with other VA’s and develop my own skills as a VA. I love learning and this work is a constant schoolroom of new ideas, products, and contacts. These are skills that I will use throughout my career and you can’t put a price on that.
If someone wanted to leave their corporate job and become a VA do you have any words of wisdom to get started? Make sure you have the support of your family first, they need to know you are doing something real and not just goofing off in your sweats all day. Learn as much as you can about software programs, websites, WordPress, marketing, etc. The more you can build your skills before becoming a VA the better.
What has made you proudest about your work? This is a tough one because I’m not one to pat myself on the back. I guess I’d have to say that I have happy clients! I still have a lot of newer clients but they’ve already seen a difference in their business and this makes me really happy. Plus, now I’m able to “give back” and I’m training a new VA and once she is off and running that will make me proud too.
When you tell people what you do for a living what do they say? Hmmm….that’s a hard one because not many people understand what a VA is. When I say virtual assistant they look at me like I made it up! Sometimes I say administrative consultant – that I work with clients virtually to help them with administrative and marketing tasks.
What three things make your job the best freelance job on the planet? Using social media – everything from Twitter to Facebook for my clients, handling customer service emails for all clients – you never know what situations are going to come up and you get to be flexible and solve problems, and making sure my clients are happy bunnies!
Getting Paid: 6 Standards to Set for Your Freelance Business
Credit: stevendepolo@Flickr
One of the joys of having your own business is that you get to set the standards. And if you’re interested in getting paid, I’d advise you to start setting them as soon as possible.
Why? Because there are a lot of people who are constantly thinking of new ways to take advantage of freelancers. Here are six recommended standards for your freelance business:
- Speculative work. Requests for you to do speculative projects seem to be as old as freelancing itself. Simply put, this is being asked to work for free in hopes of landing paying work down the road. Unfortunately, that paying work seldom materializes. So, it’s best to avoid falling into the spec work trap in the first place. Learn how at the NO!SPEC website.
- Pro bono work. While there are plenty of noble causes that are in need of your time and money, be careful about the amount of pro bono work that you do. After all, you do have bills to pay, even if you’re a very frugal freelancer. And you can’t pay them with the photographic work you just donated to the ABC Foundation. So, next time you’re asked to be the ABC Foundation’s volunteer photographer, why not make referrals to paying clients part of the deal?
- Get money up front! More than a few of us have learned that promises to pay for a completed project are just that – promises. And you can’t pay your bills with promises. So, don’t get burned. Get a 50% deposit up front, then start. The exception to this rule applies when a) you’re working with an established client who you can trust to pay in full when the job is done, and b) the job doesn’t drag on for months.
- There’s a good reason for overtime pay. Ever had one of those jobs that ate your evenings and weekends? And, when it ended, did you feel like it devoured you too? That’s what overtime pay is for. If the job is a big rush that needs to be done by Monday – and it’s Friday afternoon – double or triple your usual rate. If nothing else, it will get your clients thinking about better time management.
- No, I don’t get paid when you get paid. Pay me now. This one seems to happen to freelancers who take subcontract work from advertising agencies. They do it super-fast, their contact at the agency is delighted, and then they wait for a whole year before the client gets around to paying the agency. Sound like a scenario worth avoiding? Add this verbiage to your subcontracting agreements: “Client’s obligation to pay [name of your business] when payments are due is independent of Client receiving payment from the Client’s Customer.”
- Define the jobs you won’t take. Are there businesses and industries so abhorrent that you refuse to work with them? You may decide that doing work for entities involved in gambling, pornography, or tobacco don’t square with your values. If that’s the case, then make it your business policy.
The point of setting freelancing business standards isn’t to put you back in that straightjacket that confined you during your employment days. It’s to make your business easier and more fun. So, what are you doing to set some standards around your place?
Photo credit: stevendepolo@Flickr
Linkswitch #39: Volunteering, Video Blogging, & Inbox Management
The User Is The Anonymous Web Designer
We invest time, money and effort into understanding our audience, and the movement toward a more socially networked Web has made us realize the power that visitors have over how our designs are engineered; and we try to meet their ever-growing needs. Community is integral to the evolution and functioning of a website, and visitors and website owners have become dependent on each other. This reflects a change in the industry: the user has turned into an anonymous designer.
Have you ever sat down at your desk and dreaded opening your email inbox, knowing that an endless barrage of tasks waited there, ready to pounce on the things you already had intended to accomplish? If you said yes, you probably need to upgrade your inbox practices.
These days Tumblr has turned the question, “What can it do?” to “What can’t it do?”. Tumblr’s simplicity, refined user interface and streamlined approach are some of the reasons for its skyrocketing popularity among geeks and the masses alike.
5 Ways to Make Your Blog Posts Outstanding
Are your blog posts just “okay”? Want to make them great? If so, keep reading.
A great blog post respects the needs of three distinct entities. It educates and informs your audience (your subscribers and visitors), optimizes for the search engines and sufficiently energizes you so that you do a good job creating it.
Freelancers and Volunteering: Waste of Time or Valuable Marketing Strategy?
Some freelancers swear by volunteering as a way to start getting paying clients. On the other hand, some freelancers say volunteering has been a huge waste of time, that they felt taken advantage of, and had nothing to show for it.
7 Amazing Success Lessons from Thomas Edison
Thomas Edison was a very successful inventor, scientist, and businessman whose inventions significantly impacted the world. Inventions such as the phonograph, the motion picture camera, and a long-lasting everyday electric light bulb were all the result of Edison’s work.
How to Get Noticed – and Get Hired!
If you want to get hired, you have to position yourself. When you clearly communicate what makes you different, you make it easier to get noticed by your prospects.
Strong and relevant differentiation greatly increases the number of inquiries you get. It also helps you land a larger percentage of the prospects who contact you. Differentiation is especially important when you provide services that are more transactional in nature. In other words, services that companies in your target market are already buying.
10 Steps to Successful Video Blogging
Have you considered video blogging?
In the age where online reality is replacing actual reality in every facet of our lives, having YOUR face behind YOUR virtual real estate is paramount for people to feel close(er) to you.
Charging Per Hour vs. Per Project
If you’re a corporate designer, you don’t have to worry about things like how to bill your clients, as you’re likely either on salary or have a predetermined hourly rate and regular work schedule.
Linkswitch #38: Get Published, Facebook Advertising & Blogging Platforms
In lieu of asking “Are Traditional Offices Dead?“, we decided to round up some inspiring office spaces. The featured companies have decided to leave the cubicle farms behind in favor of creative and offices designs. Companies such as Google and Zappos have been highlighted in the past few years but it is evident that the non-traditional office is being adopted by companies of all sizes and industry.
Retro Video/DOS Games For The Weekend: Take A Stroll Down Memory Lane
We thought we’d do something a bit different for the weekend, because not everybody is actually working for the weekend. And even if we do, we deserve a break from time to time. For just this occasion, we have poured across the four corners of the Web and amassed a collection of retro games to help you make the absolute most of your break time this weekend… and possibly any break time you take from this day forth.
Hi folks, it seems I am writing my last Netsetter post today, as we’ve unfortunately decided to wind this blog up.
We recently tried taking it from solo-Collis blog into multi-author magazine style blog, and while we’ve had some success, it’s been clear from launch onwards that this blog isn’t as useful to the world as some of our other blogs. Utility is something that I think is always evident in the traffic a blog gets. And while there’s been some traffic here, nothing like we’ve had from some of other sites.
The Value of Reducing Stress – And 12 DIY Tactics for Doing So
60% to 80% of job-related accidents are due to employee stress level.
90% of all diseases are caused by or exacerbated by stress.
60% to 90% of doctor visits are caused by or related to stress.
To put it simply, stress is expensive. Very expensive. You pay in the form of lower energy, more illness, more medical visits and procedures, and, frankly, escapism, too.
Why Freelancers Should Get Published
At the recent International Freelancers Day virtual conference, one theme that struck me was the importance of creating and publishing content. Many of the experts discussed, in various angles, why getting published would be good for freelancers.
7 Tips to Mastering Facebook Advertising
Advertising on Facebook can be a cost-effective means of bringing new people to your fan page. To truly harness the value of Facebook advertising, you’ll need to dedicate time and resources to test, analyze, monitor and tweak your ads.
FreelanceSwitch Flickr Contest: Submit Your Photos!
FreelanceSwitch has created our first FreelanceSwitch community Flickr group, and we’re giving away prizes to celebrate! Instead of regular ol’ blog images, we want to feature photos from our community on blog posts. Submit your photos to the Flickr pool, and if we choose your image, you’ll be credited in the article.
The 10 Best Blogging Platforms
Do you want to blog but you don’t know where to start? Or maybe you’re already a blogger and you’d like to check out other platforms and their offerings? Blogging is common place these days but new people are discovering and jumping into platforms like WordPress everyday.
100 Stunning Demonstrations of Light Painting
Light painting is the process of using long camera exposures to create stunning lighting effects.
By having a camera’s shutter open for extended periods of time, often well over a minute, trails of light can be drawn with LEDs, flashlights, or even sparklers.
Get Involved: Blog Action Day is Friday, the 15th of October
Blog Action Day, founded by our own Collis and Cyan Ta’eed and now under the fantastic care of Change.org, is coming. On Friday the 15th of October, countless blogs will take the time to post about one important topic. This year’s topic is water.
As always, all Envato blogs–including FreelanceSwitch and WorkAwesome–will be participating. We hope you’ll head over to the Blog Action Day website and sign your blog up as well!
The Blog Action Day website says:
Right now, almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. That’s one in eight of us who are subject to preventable disease and even death because of something that many of us take for granted.
Access to clean water is not just a human rights issue. It’s an environmental issue. An animal welfare issue. A sustainability issue. Water is a global issue, and it affects all of us.
The site also has a list of issues involved that you might like to choose from if you’re stuck.
6 Ways Freelancers Can Go Green
The theme of this year’s Blog Action Day is water. That means that approximately 2,500 blogs around the world are, in some way, writing about all-precious H20. At FreelanceSwitch, that got us thinking. Aside from not having to drive to work, how can freelancers go green—and fluidly continue doing so?
There are a variety of simple things you can do as a freelancer to go a little easier on Mother Earth.
Choose an eco-friendly printer. You love your business cards and brochures, so why not choose a vendor that respects the globe as well? Some to check out include:
Another way to use eco-friendly printers is to refer your clients to them. And if you are responsible for marketing collateral fulfillment, promote the fact that you use a green printer and let clients know which one.
Select green vendors. Your clients probably know that you have low overhead if you work at home and naturally save energy. But you can go above and beyond by choosing an eco-friendly printer above, or working with other vendors. I would try not to go nuts here: your clients won’t care if your desk chair is made from organic cotton, but they may like the fact that you only use recycled paper.
Be aware of your electricity use. If you are working at home, it can be easy to shift from work to other tasks. That’s why it is important to pay attention to how many lights you leave on. If you are like me, you are multitasking, going from your office to other rooms. I often leave the light on my laundry room, and there’s no reason to. By being more aware of using only the lighting that you need, you can conserve energy—and your energy costs. Same thing goes with leaving the computer on when you’re not working. Try to put it on a lower energy setting or shut it down.
Recycle paper. I print out a lot of my content during the proofreading process because I do better checking it when I can hold it in my hand. The result? Well, for a large website that can be 30 to 50 pages of content. Instead, toss the paper in a recycle bin in your office and either reuse it internally or recycle it separately through a local program. Hint: The back of printed-on paper is ideal for a quick fax coversheet. And if you can read on the screen, you won’t have to worry about any of it.
Choose eco-friendly equipment and energy-saving appliances. Even smaller office equipment like printers and fax machines come in energy-saving models. Also, when you are running your equipment, set the power management features to their eco-friendliest (such as choosing standby) to make sure they run efficiently. A Lawrence Berkeley Lab study from 1999 estimated that one computer-and-monitor workstation left on after business hours is responsible for power plants emitting nearly one ton of CO2 per year. If you work at home, selecting smart appliances and a high-efficiency HVAC system can help—not only do you get the perks because you’ll save on your bills and enjoy new items, but you can rest assured that your office is running efficiently. I just replaced my HVAC system because the house needed it, but I feel more comfortable running the air conditioning in the summer if I need to. As a side note, make sure to recycle your computers, batteries and cell phones.
Skip the Starbucks cup—but never the latte. Like many freelancers, you may relish a trip out for coffee everyday—there’s nothing wrong with that. Why not bring a reusable cup? It’s one less thing to throw away and clog up your tiny office trash can. Similarly, if you work at home all day, use your regular dishes. Take time to prepare a meal instead of producing more waste from take-in or eating out. Using paper plates may mean no cleanup, but you may go through a few in addition to cups and utensils. Instead? Take a much-needed break from work to load the dishwasher or scrub the pans. You’ll stay productive and get a rest from work.
By making a few new habits, you can do your part to contribute to the eco-friendly efforts of others. Just because freelancers work solo doesn’t mean one person can’t make a difference!
iPhone App Entrepreneur: Now Available!
It’s been a big day at Envato, first with the launch of Webdesigntuts+ and now we’re pleased to announce the first ever AppStorm book is available to buy for just $ 19. iPhone App Entrepreneur brings together insight and ideas from experienced iPhone developers and users to help you understand how to approach the development of your own app.
Whether you’re an experienced developer or just starting to think about creating an iPhone app, this book will help you make your next release a real success. Read on to find out more, read a few testimonials, and grab a discount!
What to Expect
In iPhone App Entrepreneur, AppStorm manager David Appleyard sheds light on what it takes to get you to iPhone app success!
This book provides you with the knowledge and the techniques you need to spot a great opportunity, get the most from the App Store, make smart decisions about development, craft a stunning interface, and promote your app successfully!
Drawing from the insights and experiences of 16 top-notch app developers, and survey responses from over 1000 iPhone users, David Appleyard equips you with everything you need to successfully become an iPhone app entrepreneur!
Book Contents
Here’s what you can expect from the book.
- Learn how to perfect a killer idea, brainstorm, and spot opportunities
- Find out about how the App Store works, and how to get your app approved
- Different development options and choices
- The importance of simple, sexy interface design
- How you can start simple and iterate
- Learn about how to price your app for the right audience
- Discover new promotion opportunities for your app
- Hundredsof useful development resources and links
- A survey of 80+ iPhone developers – see how they achieved success!
- A survey of over 1,000 iPhone users – find out what they look for when buying and using iPhone apps
If you’re undecided, you can download the sample pages of the book to get a feel for the layout and style!
Buy Now!
If you’ve heard enough and would like to pick up your own copy, you can buy iPhone Entrepreneur either as a PDF eBook, or in paperback form:
Grab a $ 4 Discount! (7 Days Only!)
If you’re an Envato Marketplace user, the book is available to buy with your marketplace credit. For the first week only, you’ll receive a $ 4 discount by purchasing it through the Tuts+ Marketplace!
Find Out More
If you’d like to read more about iPhone Entrepreneur (and check out a few extra quotes/testimonials), we’ve put together a launch page that should tell you everything you need to know.
How to Get Noticed – and Get Hired!
If you want to get hired, you have to position yourself. When you clearly communicate what makes you different, you make it easier to get noticed by your prospects.
Strong and relevant differentiation greatly increases the number of inquiries you get. It also helps you land a larger percentage of the prospects who contact you. Differentiation is especially important when you provide services that are more transactional in nature. In other words, services that companies in your target market are already buying.
For instance, ad agencies hire freelance copywriters all the time. Most of them need good copy but don’t have copywriters on staff. Similarly, software companies will often hire specialized freelance developers for projects where full-time staff is not justified. And businesses frequently hire freelance photographers for their annual conferences and customer events.
However, many solo professionals have to market their services to companies that:
- don’t recognize they have a problem or need in a particular area, or
- recognize there’s a problem but don’t realize that viable solutions to the problem exist
In these cases, talking all day long about what makes you different won’t do you any good. In fact, it will count against you because your prospects will think that you don’t really understand their business.
Let’s take a freelance marketing consultant who specializes in creating customized lead nurturing programs (programs for staying in touch with prospects who aren’t ready to buy at the moment). Even if she’s the very best at what she does, if she’s talking to companies that don’t even realize they have a problem turning long-term prospects into customers, her message will fall on deaf ears.
Or take a freelance productivity expert who starts knocking on doors and talking about all the benefits of increasing worker productivity. If the people he’s approaching don’t even know they have a productivity problem (or one that’s significant enough to warrant looking into), he’s going to have a very difficult time.
So what’s the answer? What approach should you take if you find yourself in this situation frequently?
Develop a clear value statement
A value statement is simply a message that communicates what you do and whom you do it for. But rather than going into why you’re different, you instead explain what tangible results you deliver.
Whenever possible, those tangible results should focus on business value. Specifically, on factors such as profitability, revenue, costs, time, efficiency, customer satisfaction, market share, inventory, collections and so on.
Just as important, the value statement should explain exactly how you impact those factors. And whenever possible, you should offer some numbers to back up your claim.
Let me give you some sample value statements to better illustrate this concept:
- I help financial services firms increase their lead conversion rates by 48 to 72 percent through customized and automated lead nurturing programs.
- I help regional retailers slash store renovation and retrofit times by up to 23 percent through improved sourcing controls and better material planning. This, in turn, shortens time to revenue by an average of 17 days.
From here, you can then expand on these messages so you can highlight the actual problem and better explain its impact on the business or department. This gives you a more complete statement that will better resonate with prospects who don’t even realize a problem exists:
- Many financial firms struggle to get qualified leads in the door despite spending a fortune on lead generation campaigns and advertising. I help them increase their lead conversion rates by 48 to 72 percent through customized and automated lead nurturing programs that turn more of the leads they already have into qualified opportunities.
- For regional retailers, opening stores on time enables them to generate revenue faster and capitalize on important seasonal shopping activity. I help these retailers slash store renovation and retrofit times by up to 23 percent through improved sourcing controls and better material planning. This, in turn, shortens time to revenue by an average of 17 days.
Could this approach be used by those of us working in more transactional areas? Of course! Especially today, when corporate and nonprofit budgets are getting scrutinized like never before and when value is now a key driver of decisions.
But for those who sell to markets where customers don’t recognize they have a problem in a specific area — or won’t even talk to you unless you can demonstrate tangible value in an area that’s important to them — creating and using value statements in your marketing communications and conversations with prospects is an absolute must.