This isn't something that I've talked about a lot, but it's pretty important: When you start freelancing -- or any kind of self-employment -- you have to be careful with your money. Even if you have few enough start-up costs that you can start taking a paycheck right away, you still have to be careful with what you spend. Freelance income is unreliable: one month you may make two or three times your living expenses, another month you may not even make rent. You have to budget carefully and always make sure that you are living below your means so that when those lean months do come around, you are ready for them. ... Read more
The Most Important Skill for the Self-Employed
Good morning adventurers! By the time you read this, I will have packed up my life for three weeks and made my way to Virginia, where I'll be nannying for my niece while her mother returns to work and her father suffers through a multi-week business trip. It's the sort of thing I would never have been able to do with a 9-to-5, and it's making me so grateful for this freelance adventure I'm living. But, of course, it comes with its challenges. ... Read more
Days Full of Work: August Wrap-Up
Do you ever look back on a month and wonder where exactly the time went?
That's August for me.
These past four weeks went by incredibly quickly for me because they were very full. Not busy, but full of work.
Lessons Learned: Days Full of Work
As the first month in a half a year that I didn't have to travel, move, or take care of family obligations, I was looking forward ... Read more
Blast from the Past — Your Clients Should be Worth More Than $5
We're all constantly trying to find more business, but some jobs ads are worth our time... and others are not. Recently, as businesses wind up for the fall, I've seen a lot of very unfortunate ads for freelancers online. So it seemed like an appropriate time to pull something from the archives and remind my fellow freelancers of something important: not only are you worth more than $5, but your clients should be too. *** The other day I saw an ad on Craigslist looking for a freelance writer that included the line, “Keep in mind, when sending your rates, that sites like Fiverr exist.” I literally stopped and stared at it for over a minute. Aside from the obvious reaction – if ... Read more
Living Creatively: One Year of Freelancing
Lately, it feels like there's been a lot of writing going around the internet about creativity, stability, and risk. Most people's opinion seems to be that you can't have the first quality without the third, and you can't have either of them if you want the second. No creativity without risk, no stability if you want to live a creative life. What does that have to do with this little blog I'm writing, this freelance adventure I'm trying to live? Well... everything. ... Read more
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