Freelance

Art of Freelancing

1. Market Yourself

It can be helpful to be a jack-of-all-trades in the freelance industry, but you may have an easier time marketing yourself if you choose a niche within your industry. Personal branding efforts are a must for anyone looking for freelance work. Show your worth: Start a personal website, ramp up your social media presence and start a blog to discuss pressing industry issues and offer new perspectives.

2. Network

Sure, there are plenty of established freelancers who are approached regularly for work. Butfreelancing is also a business, and that means there may be times when the well runs dry. Constant networking is a must for freelancers who desire regular work. Make networking a regular task — use the Web, attend industry events, send out e-newsletters or make cold calls to get new clients.

3. Secure A Contract

This may be the number one rule of successful freelancing: Always write and sign a contract with your clients before completing any work. Check your state laws to determine the appropriate contracts you’ll need to write, and spell out pricing and timelines if necessary. Too often, freelancers get taken advantage of and end up working for free. A contract ensures your client is legally bound to pay you, so don’t skip this step!

4. Stay Organized

Freelancers often juggle multiple projects at once. Determine how long a project will take to complete, to properly block out your time, or set up appointments with clients in your home office or even a local café. Use spreadsheets to track your progress and keep tabs on payments. Freelancers work without the oversight of a boss to keep them on schedule — that means it’s up to you to ensure you’re staying on track.

5. Be Flexible

Being a freelancer means you may not have creative control of your projects. You’re working at the mercy of clients — you know, the people who are paying you — and you have to be flexible to clients’ needs if you want to succeed. Many freelancers struggle to give up creative control of a project; they often feel they know their market or niche well, but hit a brick wall when clients ask for changes. Freelancers need to refine the art of flexibility, offering their expertise and guidance to clients while also taking into account client needs.

Freelancing can be a great way to supplement your existing income or create a new career. Use the skills you already have, and you’ll l be well on your way to creating a thriving personal business.

Via Mashable

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6 Jobs You Can Do Anywhere

Chelsea P. Gladden is the Director of Marketing & PR for FlexJobs, an award-winning service that helps job-seekers find professional opportunities that also offer work flexibility, such as telecommuting, freelance, part-time or alternative schedules. To learn more about Chelsea, visit FlexJobs.com or tweet her @FlexJobsChelsea.

There are some remote jobs that can be accomplished anywhere with Internet access (hello Hawaii!). True, telecommuting has come under fire after CEO Marissa Mayer cut Yahoo’s work-from-home program, but guess what: This policy hardly describes the norm. In fact, virtual jobs continue to rise and many companies take advantage of the benefits, such as overhead cost savings and better morale — which reduces employee turnover.

From small to large companies — like American Express, Xerox, Google, ADP, CapitalOne, Humana, and AT&T — there are more than 50 career fields that offer job flexibility. Here are six examples of jobs you can do anywhere.

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Unemployed? The Right (and Wrong) Way to Brand Yourself

I recently came in contact with a former technology executive turned job seeker. He was navigating a lengthy, frustrating job hunt, and not surprisingly, he was mad, depressed and growing somewhat panicked.

I knew this about him before we’d even talked, because he’d been all over a couple of the LinkedIn Groups I follow, lambasting the world for not realizing how amazing he is.

But interestingly, when I actually talked to him—for as loud as he was coming across via social media—he didn’t seem at all confident in what he had to offer. He wasn’t clear on his target market. And he certainly wasn’t going out of his way to earn favor with the influential technology players in his city.

Instead, the unemployed job seeker was branding himself, all over the Internet, as a difficult, indignant guy who hated recruiters and hiring managers.

This is a prime example of how not to brand yourself when you’re unemployed.

So what does the other end of the spectrum look like? As terrifying as it may be when you’re out of work, this is no time to run for the hills or come undone. Instead, consider these key strategies to help you brand yourself.

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Words to Leave Off Your Resume

When it comes to looking for a job, what you don’t say can be just as important as what you do say. Here are nine phrases and words to leave off your resume.

Try

Try simply shows a lack of belief, passion, commitment and confidence — all the qualities you need to succeed in today’s tight job market, according to Brad Hoover, CEO of Grammarly. While try is the most dangerous word that an employee or job seeker can use in the workplace, there are certainly other danger words that also indicate negativity, uncertainty or controversy at work and can also doom your chances of getting (or keeping) a job.

Clichés

Don’t use common buzzwords such as innovative, team player and results-oriented. These and others are so overused that they’re now seen as clichés and have lost their impact altogether.

Rather, list specific accomplishments. Instead of saying you have extensive experience in sales, note that you’ve worked in sales for 10 years, hit your quota the last 12 quarters and note specific deals you’ve closed. “As a hiring manager I want real details of past jobs, such as how many people you supervised or specific ways you helped increase profitability,” says Darnell Clarke, author of Employmentology: A Practical Systematic Methodology of Finding Employment by a Hiring Manger.

References Available Upon Request

When it comes to developing a strong resume, there are many words and phrases which shouldn’t be included in this professional document. One of the most outdated happens to be the phrase: “references available by request,” according to Heather Huhman, founder and president of Come Recommended.

You’re not doing yourself a favor by wasting precious space on your resume to include a phrase that is clearly understood by hiring managers and recruiters. If a hiring manager is interested in contacting your references, they will request the information from you.

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How to Solve the Top Pitfalls of Working From Home

This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashableregularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.

The number of Americans working from home has jumped 41% since 1999. As technology continues to evolve (enabling new access on mobile, social and collaboration), we can expect more growth in working from home.

While the work-from-home lifestyle brings significant perks, it’s not without challenges. You may not deal with the daily commute or rush-hour traffic, but there’s a new set of struggles that are unique to the home office. The following is a breakdown of the top four pitfalls associated with working from home and how to overcome them.

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Why 90% of Startups Fail [INFOGRAPHIC]

There’s a hot new startup in the limelight more often than not — but the cold truth is 90% of technology startups fail. Even companies which make it big out of the gate often lose momentum and shift from a potential powerhouse to a thing of the past.

A new inforgraphic from Allmand Law analyzes the successes and failures of well-known tech startups from Zynga and Shopkick to AirTime and MySpace, helping us understand why some companies fall short.

“The successful startups seem to be flexible enough to shift with changes in the tech climate,” an Allmand Law spokesperson told Mashable. “Whereas with the failed startups, some fail due to a lack of vision and others have terrible timing. Ultimately, there is a lack of foresight which might have saved their companies.”

Check out the infographic above for a deeper look at some of the industry’s biggest success stories — and their not so lucky counterparts.

Why do you think some startups succeed while others fail? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Bye Bye Banks

“BYE-BYE banks,” taunts the home page of TransferWise, a London-based startup. “You’ve had your fun.” Taavet Hinrikus, one of the firm’s co-founders, dubs it “the Skype of money transfers”. He should know. He was one of Skype’s first employees and is using the same principle of peer-to-peer networking to slash the rates that people pay to send money abroad.

At Skype, Mr Hinrikus was paid in euros but he would spend his earnings in London where he lived in a rented apartment. A friend, Kristo Käärmann, was paid in pounds but had a mortgage to settle in Estonia. The two worked out an arrangement: Mr Käärmann would cover Mr Hinrikus’s rent and get equivalent euros in return in his Belgian bank account. Instead of turning to banks, which charge a hefty commission of 3-6% for such transfers, the soon-to-be business partners would log on to Reuters and use the mid-market exchange rates to determine how much money should be swapped into their bank accounts.

The pair turned this homespun deal into a proprietary algorithm to connect people wanting to wire money to their home countries. If someone in Britain, say, wants to transfer money to his relative in Spain, he will put the cash in Transferwise’s British account. The algorithm then spots someone in Spain who wants to make a transfer in the other direction, and who deposits funds in the firm’s Spanish account. Rather than crossing borders to reach its destination, money can simply be paid out of the relevant national account.

In 2011, its first year of operation, Transferwise transferred £10m ($16m); it breached the £50m mark in December. It charges a miserly fee of £1 for making transfers up to £300, and a variable charge for transferring larger amounts. Its 10,000-odd customers are spread across Britain, Switzerland, Poland, Sweden and Denmark. They are mostly young working professionals who either have a mortgage to pay or a family to support back home. Retirees with a second home abroad and startups with foreign subsidiaries also use the site.

Critics point to the risk of money-laundering. TransferWise retorts that it is subject to the same “know your customer” rules as any commercial bank. A bigger problem is scaling up in countries that have fewer immigrants than émigrés. The demand for converting Indian rupees, say, into pounds may be less than the demand the other way. That means you still need a bank to stand in the middle of a transaction. Not “bye-bye”, then, but a possible black eye.

How To Guarantee Your Income With Agile Billing

For most creative professionals, this story is a familiar one: A client reaches out to you. They need a name, or a logo, or a website, or an app. Actually, they need it all together, and they need it all in a month — well, maybe a month and a half. The initial meetings go well, and they get you a signed contract and a deposit ASAP. You’re ready to start, and your schedule is clear for the next six weeks. And then you get the call.

“We won’t have the content you requested ready for another month.”

“Oh no,” you think. You were actually counting on that second half to pay your rent next month.

Take Control Of Your Finances

You may not be a sole proprietor. Perhaps you run a small boutique firm, or a large ad agency. Even if that’s the case, we all have similar problems: how do we pay our fixed expenses without knowing for sure when we’ll get paid by our clients?

Cash flow is the single most important thing for your business. Without money to pay rent and bills, the business will quickly spiral into Chapter 11. And if you’re a sole proprietor, the stakes are even higher: getting evicted from your office for a late payment is one thing, but if your business is run from a home office, you face the very real prospect of being homeless.

HOW WE USUALLY DEAL WITH THE CASH FLOW PROBLEM

The most common way of dealing with uncertain revenue is to start with a lot of money in the bank, or enough credit to take out a loan if necessary. Angel investors, friends and family can help with the former. As designers and developers, we can also create things that bring us passive revenue, although that can become a full-time job in itself — and not necessarily a lucrative one.

Different billing practices require different approaches to ensure cash flow. Some of us charge hourly, while others do fixed per-project fees. The former need to estimate as accurately as possible in order to book enough hours to pay the bills, and some of them end up “churning,” or billing extra hours even if no substantial work is done. The latter must base their estimates on the assumption that every job will take the maximum amount of time possible, and try to work as efficiently as possible.

There’s a serious problem with both of these approaches, however: jobs almost always occupy more of our schedule than we expected.

5 Trends Entrepreneurs Will See in 2013

Entrepreneurs are in for some big changes in 2013. That’s the prediction of Ingrid Vanderveldt, Dell’s “entrepreneur in residence” who works with the Dell Center for Entrepreneurs. Here are the rest of Vanderveldt’s predictions for this year.

  • Alternative financing strategies: Most businesses are still bootstrapping, but are encouraged by alternative funding options as more borrowers and lenders are getting creative. Crowdfunding (i.e. Kickstarter), peer-to-peer lending sites and Dell Innovators Credit Fund are just a few examples of innovative funding tools increasingly available to business leaders.
  • Scalable technology: With the explosion of big data (predicted to increase 43% over the next 10 years) and accelerated adoption of the cloud, more and more companies will look to technology as a strategic advantage to scaling successfully. As budgets remain tight, business owners will increasingly look to outside tech vendors to serve as advisers and will expect them to provide IT services and tailored recommendations to meet their specific business needs.
  • The human capital problem: One key finding from Dell’s “Go Local” nine-city tour was that entrepreneurs struggle with accessing good talent. A lot can be gained by understanding how to maximize current and potential human capital within a business and extended entrepreneurial ecosystem. Online and in-person networking opportunities have never been so valuable.
  • Entrepreneurs are getting younger: Blogging, launching apps, publishing magazines and creating social networks, kids like author Adora Svitak, 15, and app-builder Robert Nay, 16, have created empires before they hit college. In light of this growing trend, Dell will sponsor this year’s Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U) and support millennial entrepreneurship at CGI U 2013, providing students with opportunities to learn about the multifaceted risks and opportunities involved with launching, running and growing a business.
  • Social entrepreneurship: The concept of doing well by doing good has caught fire in a time where economic, social and environmental sustainability are more meaningful than ever. Strong focus on positive social and environmental impacthas spurred contests, scholarships and even best business practices to be centered around the concept of giving to a global community.

5 Top Pick-Me-Up Movies for the Job Search Blues

Things you never hear in life: “No, I don’t want a raise,” “I wish I had less vacation time” and “Job searching is fun.” In fact, the latter can take a toll on your self esteem at a time when you need all the confidence you can get. If you happen to be looking for a job right now (or want to keep this in mind for the future), here are five job-related movies that will offer you up some laughs, as your hunt for the perfect career continues.

1. Office Space: Mike Judge’s cult classic has more quotable lines than I can count. Starring Jennifer Aniston and Ron Livingston, it’s actually Gary Cole who stole the show for me as the boss with his line, “I’m going to have to ask you to come in on Saturday.” And then there’s the gangster-style takedown of the copy machine — a priceless reminder that there are upsides to not being in the office every day.

2. 9 to 5: Talk about a nightmare boss! There’s only so much Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda’s characters could take before finally kidnapping their sexist manager. The hilarity that ensues landed this gem at 74 on the American Film Institute’s “100 Funniest Movies.”

3. Working Girl: After Sigourney Weaver’s character steals her secretary’s (played by Melanie Griffith) idea — pretending it’s her own — the working girl exacts revenge in the most clever of ways: pretending she is the boss. Cheering for the underdog seeking justice at work has never been so fun.

4. Clerks: If you feel defeated sending out yet another resume, just watch this film and know that your competition might not be as fierce as you fear. Kevin Smith’s shopkeepers, who spend their day annoying customers and slacking off, are bound to cheer you up with their ridiculously funny antics.

5. Jerry Maguire: Watching Tom Cruise’s sports-agent character throw it all away, and hustle to start his own venture, is motivating and will likely get you fired up, too. Showing how hard it can be to branch out on your own, and the toll that can take on your self-confidence, this movie demonstrates that if you really believe in your goals and keep plugging away, great things can happen. Not to mention, there are some great one-liners in there!

Remember, everyone hates trying to find a job, but these workplace films will help you keep your sense of humor through it all. As Jerry Maguire said, “Help me help you” by adding some of these to your movie queue.