Posts Tagged ‘freelancer’

*NOTE* I fully apologize for this not being posted yesterday, I had something very important that I needed to do right when I was finishing up this post, and I couldn’t get it out. My sincere apologies. *NOTE*

Well, the time has come.

Yes you are reading the fifth and final part of the series “The Freelancer’s Guide”, it’s been over a week and a half since the first part launched, and it’s proved to be a success on the blog.

In the first four parts, there were 30 comments! That’s great for a new blog, and it came to 7.5 comments per post. That’s more than some much larger blogs get! I’m really happy about that, as like I’ve mentioned, I really want to build a strong community here. Let’s just see if we can hit say, 15 comments on this one post. That would be nice.

Anyways, let’s get onto the post.

Today in this part we’re going to talk about “How to create a work flow when you are working with multiple jobs”.

This is something that a lot of freelancers struggle with, including myself! Due to the very nature of freelancing, you sometimes don’t have any work one day, and the next day, a ton of jobs that need to be done the same week! This can be very stressful for any freelancer, including myself. But there are a few ways you can create a work flow when you have multiple jobs that will not only keep your work organized, but at the same time lighten your workload essentially.

1. Use a time management program, such as Fruitful Time
2. Set assigned times to work on each project, not just work on one until it’s done.
3. Set times to take off from work
4. Set reasonable deadlines, and meet them. No need to finish before, but finish on time.

Let’s go into detail with each of these tactics.

Use a Time Management Program

When your working with multiple jobs, it can be tough to keep track of every one, and it’s deadline. Not to mention other things you need to take time for; eating, sleeping, showering (hopefully ) running errands, and this and be something that messes up your schedule and can cause you to lose focus on what you need to do, and you may even totally forget about jobs. That would be horrible. These time management programs, such as Fruitful Time.

Assigned Work Times for Each Project

Something a lot of freelancers do, which is not a very good idea, is take one project, and force themselves to work on it until it’s done. There are two major problems with this.

1. When you work too long or too much on one project, you can lose focus and desire to get it done, and you lose your creativity when you have to work on the same thing for days, or weeks even.
2. When you work so long on one thing, you can in many cases start to forget about your next job! It won’t be fresh in your mind, and thus you won’t do as well on it, almost guaranteed.

If you set aside different times to work on different projects, you really keep the creative juice flowing, an you won’t ever lose your train of though on any of your jobs as long as they are all fresh in your mind. This is something I didn’t start doing until fairly recently, and it’s help me out very much. I see my jobs getting done faster, and of better quality,

Take Time off!

I know a lot of bloggers and freelancers alike don’t ever do this, or don’t want to do this. But in my opinion, it’s absolutely essential. When your a freelancer, your job is sitting in front of a computer, 24/7. Searching for jobs, landing jobs, working on them, communicating with other freelancers. It’s a hard job. Why? Not because of physical reasons, but because your cooped up all day in an office, looking at a computer screen!

It’s been proven that taking time off, maybe just taking a walk, or sleeping in a day, or even going on a vacation to the beach can really help you mentally and physically, as a freelancer or any other job really.

When you take time off, you relax, you recuperate, and it’s just a good experience. In some cases, you can even use nature or something outside to further help you in your work! Whether it be the way you see some trees in the wind that helps you on a web design project, or two birds in a bird bath that helps you visualize a logo your working on, all these things can be of great benefit. That and there’s no better medicine than taking a walk I think.

Setting Reasonable Deadlines

Now, I’m the kind of person that always wants things done, and done now. But when it comes to freelancing, you should never have that pompous attitude.

When your working on a job, or even two or three, you need to have deadlines. You want things done by a certain time, and clients need things done. The problem is that a lot of freelancers just work, work, work until everything is done. Now this is very ambitious, but your deadlines need to be reasonable. You need to budget your time correctly to get things done on time, and with the highest of quality. But there’s no reason for it to be done three days before it needs to be.

See, what I mean here is that if you rush a project, or set unreasonable deadlines, like saying you have to finish a whole web development job in one day, that’s just crazy, and even if you do finish it by that time, the quality will not be anywhere near as good as it should be, or as good as you know you can make it.

I personally set deadlines maybe one to two days further in time than I know I will probably have it done. Why? So that I can make sure everything is perfect, and if time and unforeseen occurrences befall me, I’ll be ready, and I’ll have that extra day as a cushion to fall back on.

Well, I know it’s sad to say, but this will conclude the series, “The Freelancer’s Guide”

I think it’s been a pretty good one, and I hope it helps a lot of you in your online ventures. Let’s just go ahead and recap what we’ve gone over, shall we?

The Freelancer’s Guide

• Part One: Where to find Work
• Part Two: How to Land a Job
• Part Three: Gaining Repeat Clients
• Part Four: How to Deal with Clients
• Part Five: Creating a Work Flow for Multiple Jobs

Well, I guess that’s it. I really, honestly, do hope that you all learned something in this series, and I hope it benefits you greatly in your online ventures.

Hey guys, and welcome to Part four of this series!

I’m really happy with the feedback and response I’ve gotten so far with this series. The first three parts have generated 22 comments! That’s pretty darn good for a new blog. (In my opinion at least)

So without further adieu, let’s introduce Part Four.

In this part of the series “The Freelancer’s Guide”, we are going to discuss How To Deal With Clients, basically just some tips to deal with clients.

This is extremely important when freelancing. One thing I should mention though, is don’t be too nice. Now, I’m not a mean person by any means, but hear me out.

In some cases, when you are too nice, and too giving with a client, they may try and walk all over you. They might try and get you to work cheaper than you can, and don’t let this happen. If you decide you can’t work for less than a certain price, than stick to it!

With that said, on with part four.

When dealing with clients, once you already have the job, (Part two ) you need to deal with your clients in a respectful manner.

Slang

This is so unprofessional in my opinion. When your speaking with a client, be it over the phone, through email, or on instant messenger, you should never use words like “yo” or “dogg” or “omg”, “lol” or whatnot. Speak with good English, and have good grammar, as well as put stress on your spelling.

Attitude

When dealing with a client, you need to have a good attitude about the job you are doing. Don’t be a “You get what you get” freelancer, and work with the client to achieve the best results.

If your a jerk, and don’t reply to emails, don’t work with the client, you’ll do two things.

1. You won’t satisfy exactly what they need/want.
2. You will most likely never work with them again.

These are just a few things that you need to remember when working with a client. It’s important because not only does decide whether you will ever work with a client again, it will also trash your reputation, and that will only hurt you.

Well, that’s pretty much it for this part, it’s a short one, but it’s full of some great information that as a freelancer you need to use. Stick around for the last (but not least) part in this series, where we’ll cover How to Create a Workflow when you have multiple clients.