Freelance 101 Part 2
Defining Your Objectives
The objectives of a freelancer are generally universal, regardless of industry, and usually fall into one of two categories.
Gaining Experience.
Working as a freelance designer or developer allows you to build up a portfolio of work that may snag a better job for you down the road. In my personal opinion this is really not the mind set of an entrepreneur, but it shares many of the same qualities of that school of thought. The problem, as I see it, with this framework is that there is no real drive to improve on the efficiency of your business since in the end the overall goal is to NOt have a long term relationship with your clients. This is however a wonderful way to get a feel for what's going on in the real world as opposed to the classroom or trendy blogs.
The experience garnered with working for small clients who have very real and immediate needs is a great place to sharpen your teeth, but at some point you have to decide whether or not you want to move on. Being unsure of your intentions can lead to unexpected results and unhappy customers.
Making a Career of It
The path, slightly, less chosen is becoming more and more prevalent and I couldn't be happier about this. It means that more and more and bigger clients see my business as a viable alternative to outsourcing overseas or hiring an entire firm for large or time-sensitve projects. Who am I? One guy, a couple of computers, a few regular collaborators... that's it.
The benefits of choosing freelance development or design as a career far outweigh the downsides to it.
The benefits include; being your own boss, dictating the type of work you do and the self-satisfaction of a job well done.
The downsides usually revolve around having too much or not enough work.
As with any objectives we set for ourselves the bottom line is getting from Point A to Point B. The important factor with freelancing is that you need to know where Point B is before you start down the wrong path. While it is possible to shift gears, or even find yourself accidentally having a career in freelancing it's usually a much more satisfying experience if you are more in control of the direction you are heading.
So... all you "I just want to build a portfolio" people can stop reading now and those of you who want to work towards an actual future built on freelance work read further.
Short Term Objectives
Your first and foremost short term objective should be to achieve a steady income that pays your bills as well as any job would have based on your current skill set. There are times when this will fluctuate greatly and you may have to make some compromises, but once you start to see ways to regulate the cash flow in and out of your business you'll find that the potential for growth in freelancing is limitless.
So rent, utilities, insurance, transportation, food, etc. figure out what it takes to maintain all that and set your goal to it. honestly it probably took me 2 years to really feel that i had achieved this so-called "short term goal", but in the bigger scheme of things i now realize that it really was just a stepping stone. Achieving this first and foremost will certainly give you the confidence you need to move forward. TThis objective will get all those nay-sayers off your back too. Once your Mother-in-law sees that the bills are paid and the kids are fed she'll shut her trap... or your parents, whatever the case may be.
At this point the monkey is really off your back. But wait... Joe! How do I get to this point? Where's the outline? The roadmap?
We'll get there....
Long Term Objectives
Your long term objective is simple and redundant. I am actually repeating this from Part 1 of this article with a single amendment.
- To increase the number of customers
- To increase the amount of the average order
- To increase the frequency of orders
Amendment
4. To make your time more valuable.
Simply put, Time is not Money. There's a line from a movie, and I don't quite remember which movie, but it goes something like "If you lose money you can get it back, when you lose time it is gone forever."
Say it with me... TIME IS NOT MONEY
Your long term goal is your own. For me, I want to be a superhero. No shit... but I have no superpowers so I am working towards what I call "BatCave Money", and obviously to be a superhero I need to have a lot of free time.... scouring the city for criminals, playing with neat-o gadgets which i have to pay someone to make. This may seem like a silly goal to you, but to me it is very very real... slightly outside of the scope of what I think will happen, but we have to shoot for the stars.
A lot of people ask me how to start a successful small business or how to become entrepreneurial. My answer is almost always the same. Come up with a legitimate and duplicatable process for making 10 cents without hurting anyone. Also, it can take you as long as you need to come up with the idea, but the actual act required to make the 10 cent profit cannot take more than you are willing to put into it, hence the duplication part of the equation. It has to be something you could do over and over again.
Really that's the difference between the two types of freelancers I have been discussing. One is in it for the projects and has a drive that leads into a J.O.B. and the other is about actually making a nice living on this. It requires real customer relationships, residual income, a sense of adventure and the ability to occasionally put your neck on the line for your business. It requires that you be driven by your dreams and that as your success grows your dreams grow as well.
Next: How Not to Waste Time.
Comments
I had to teach myself EDI over the holidays and it has paid off very well.
In the middle of 4 coommercial development projects, one commercial media project.
Just moved into a new home and spending most nights either transporting or building furniture...
Also have a personal music project which I will hopefully release this February...
Launched 4 new Adsense/YPN driven websites.
And decided that one of my goals for 2006 is to have an original piece of literature published in print.
1/10/2006 5:49:10 PM Good luck with all that! We`ve been doing the home thing too. For Christmas we scored about $1000 in Home Depot gift certs. :-)
2/1/2006 6:25:44 AM Yeah good luck with it! I`m currently freelance, though not out of choice, just can`t seem to find a permanant web design job at the moment.
1/6/2006 3:54:25 PM Good stuff. You been busy lately?