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If you want to work for yourself from home and have a special talent or skill that you think others would be prepared to pay for on an hourly or per-project basis, why not stop thinking in terms of the traditional 'home business' paradigm and start thinking in terms of freelancing instead? WHAT IS A FREELANCER? Quite simply, a freelancer is an independent contractor who earns his or her living by contracting for projects on a project by project basis. A freelancer is not an employee of anyone and so he or she must actively seek out work, negotiate the terms and conditions of the project (the contract) and complete the work to the satisfaction of the client. Once the project is complete, the freelancer seeks out and enters into another contract for another project. Alternatively, the freelancer may have obligations under a number of different contracts with different clients at the one time. Another variation involves the freelancer producing work and then seeking buyers for that work. This is often the case where the work in question is spasmodic or ad hoc and the company cannot justify hiring an employee for such work. Hiring a freelance website designer for such a project makes more sense than hiring a website designer as an employee since once the website is complete, the function will no longer be Article: What's the difference needle running your own home-based business and freelancing? (tick, tick, tick ...) Give up? Me too. If you want to work for yourself from home and have a special talent or skill that you think others would be prepared to pay for on an hourly or per-project basis, why not stop thinking in terms of the traditional 'home business' paradigm and start thinking in terms of freelancing instead? WHAT IS A FREELANCER? Quite simply, a freelancer is an independent contractor who earns his or her living by contracting for projects on a project by project basis. A freelancer is not an employee of anyone and so he or she must full tilt seek out work, negotiate the terms and conditions of the project (the contract) and complete the work to the satisfaction of the client. Once the project is complete, the freelancer seeks out and enters into another contract for project. Alternatively, the freelancer may have obligations under a number of different contracts with different clients at the one time. Another variation involves the freelancer producing work and then seeking buyers for that work. A freelance writer of magazine articles, for example, would fall into this category. WHO HIRES A FREELANCER? Those who hire freelancers are as diverse as freelancers themselves. In some cases, companies will hire freelancers to complete a short-term project as an change to hiring a new employee. This is often the case where the work in question is spasmodic or ad hoc and the institution cannot justify hiring an employee for such work. Companies also hire freelancers to help smooth out the peaks and troughs of workload. Again, where there is a temporary oversupply of work, the cartel will hire the freelancer on a short-term basis to help cope with the backlog. In other cases, companies hire freelancers for their special expertise in a written area. A uninvited guest may want to create a new website, for example. Hiring a freelance website designer for such a project makes more sense than hiring a website designer as an employee since once the website is complete, the function will no longer be required. Magazine and newspaper editors also hire freelancers or, more precisely, buy rights to freelancers' work. A freelancer in this type of situation may write a piece and submit it to a number of different editors in the hope that his or her work will be 'picked up' by that editor and published, in return for which the freelancer receives payment. By its nature, such an concentrate is speculative since the freelancer can't be sure that anyone will indubitably buy the work. Of course, once the freelancer has been published, it is relatively easier to get the editor to buy the freelancer's work in the future and, as the freelancer's reputation grows, so too do the opportunities for future business. WHAT QUALIFICATIONS DOES A FREELANCER NEED? To be financially successful, a freelancer obviously needs marketable skills. A freelancer therefore needs the same qualifications, skills and talents as someone who had been hired as an employee to do the job would need. In other words, if you are seeking work as a freelance website designer, you must possess the same skills and qualifications that a full-time employee website designer would possess. IS A FREELANCER RUNNING A BUSINESS? In short, yes. If you do not have an employer, if you have to source your own work and negotiate your own terms, if you have to trail after payment, if you have to pay your own taxes (i.e. no one is withholding them from your check), you are, in essence, self-employed. Ergo, you are running your own business. There are a number of consequences you need to think about. The first is taxation. You need to set injection from every payment you receive an burden sufficient to cover your state and federal taxes on the income you receive. Likewise, you need to keep proper account and records so you can equity the deductions and expenses you are entitled to as a self-employed person. As a freelancer, like any independent contractor, you will also be expected to provide your own equipment and supplies. If you are a website designer, you need to have your own computer, software and other tools of the trade. The party hiring you will not provide this stuff for you. Similarly, if you are a freelance editor, you will be expected to have all the reference materials and style books, word processing programs and other sundry items any editor would need to do the job. From a legal point of view, you should also give some thought to the legal entity of your business. Will you be a sole proprietor or will you incorporate? If you incorporate, will you choose S-corporation status? There are important tax consequences of each of these alternatives so be sure to get advice from your comptroller previously starting. Think also all round what licenses you may need as well as insurance (health, life and liability depending on the nature of the work). WHERE DOES A FREELANCER FIND WORK? OK, onto the nitty gritty. You've decided to start work as a freelance website designer. You have the appropriate qualifications, training, experience and equipment and you've consulted your reckoner to determine the most tax-effective business structure and your lawyer to set up your new company and give word you in relation to issues such as function licenses and fictitious proposition names. You're ready to hang out your shingle. Now what? => immediacy Your Warm Market Start with who you know. Where did you get your website design experience? If it was with an employer, consider whether that employer may not be a source of ethics for you. That will obviously depend on the run of things under which you parted ruck but if you left on good terms and didn't burn any bridges on your way out, by all means contact your former employer and let him or her know that you are now in traffic for yourself and ready, willing and able to take on new projects. If possible, get a reference or testimonial too. That will come in handy when it comes to touting for new business from strangers. Next, turn to your network of impersonation entourage you developed while working for your former employer. Note, we're NOT talking about clients of your former employer, rather your own network of colleagues. Contact them and let them know relative to your new venture and your practicality for project work. Be extremely judicious as to mutually approaching clients of your former employer if your current line of duty puts you in even indirect competition with that employer. You may be constrained from oncoming former clients if you signed a non-compete covenant in your employment contract, for example. => Create Brochure/Resume Go to the time and expense at this stage to prepare some sort of resume of your experience and services. Get this professionally printed as a tract and send it, together with your line card, to your former employer and colleagues as a follow-up to your conversation. By giving them something tangible on you, it is more likely that you will come to mind when next they have a need for your services. If you've already provided them with your brochure/resume, when the time comes, the person concerned will think 'hey, Joe's doing this sort of thing now. Where's that information he sent? Oh, here it is. I'll give him a call and see if it's something he might be able to do for us.' => be fated Your Cold Market Once you've approached your so-called 'warm market', it's time to start on the cold. Start by gathering up a list of businesses in your local area or industry that you think would have use of your services. Prepare a letter of introduction and send it, together with your trade card, to your list of prospects. Your letter of introduction should make if very clear why you are writing. Identify yourself and the specific skills that may invocation to the reader and why. Follow up in a week with a telephone call to make sure the materials arrived safely. If the other person is approachable, try and strike up a conversation in the vicinity what you could do for the business. Otherwise, thank the person for their time, ask them to keep you in mind for future work and almanac to contact them again in 30 days' time. Continue to work your market like this. Remember, persistence pays off. Don't be discouraged if you receive little warmth or interest in response to your sea lane to your cold market. It takes time and persistence. Just don't take it personally. A good way to run after it is to tackle a fixed number per day. Start out by making a list of, say, 300 businesses you want to approach. Develop your list from the Yellow Pages, local library and the web to start with. enter to draw on 10 businesses a day for the next 30 days. That means ten calls a day, followed by 10 letters of introduction (together with a copy of your brochure/resume and specialization card) and a follow up phone call a week later. Where there is interest, you may be able to schedule a meeting. Where there is no interest, schedule for a further follow up call in 30 days. If there is still no interest, schedule for a further call in 90 days. Or maybe you would prefer to do something else to stay in contact. A good way is to publish a newsletter for your clients and colleagues. Make it relevant to the recipient and it's a good way of keeping your name in front of your prospects. A quarterly newsletter is probably frequent enough. Send it, with another of your walk of life cards, to your list and, over time, you will see that it will start paying off in the form of business. => Samples Another idea to think roughly is to produce a set of samples of your work; a portfolio if you will. Make 8.5 x 11 copies of your work and keep them in an artist's portfolio for presentations when you're able to concert face to face meetings with potential clients. => publicity and Promotion Next comes advertising. If you're a website designer, possibly your best broadcast is your own website. But don't stop there. impart in the publications your target market reads. Another good way to generate lookout is to join associations and groups associate with your industry. executive office of Commerce are a good place to make handy contacts. You will probably find that in the early stages of your freelance career you spend more time marketing yourself and your services than you spend verily working. There's a financial cost to that, of course. How do you finance your marketing if you don't have any money menacing in? For this reason, the early days will be lean and mean. Make sure you have the financial wherewithall to survive this period. HOW DOES A FREELANCER MAKE MONEY? You will only make money as a freelancer if you commission more that it costs you to do the work in terms of your time, expenses and materials. Factor in a profit component to every job you quote for and make sure that that profit component is in hookup to an alimony for your time. For more on pricing your services, see 'Pricing Yourself To Get and Stay In Business', at http://www.ahbbo.com/pricing.html . Some freelancers ermine by the hour and others by the project. In reality, you will probably use a college of both methods depending on the nature of the job and the client. You can get an idea of current market rates by surveying your competitors. Don't be obvious in the air it though; competitors are, naturally enough, reluctant to divulge information approximately their businesses to their competitors. So you'll probably need to employ a bit of subterfuge here by posing as a potential customer, for example. In fact, it's in your legal interests that your competition doesn't give you pricing information if it knows you're a competitor. Such conduct can be construed as price fixing which can land both of you in extremely hot water. So, keep it safe and use circular methods of obtaining pricing information from competitors. PROTECTING YOURSELF A question often asked by freelancers is 'do I need a contract?'. Well, to start with, once you've negotiated a deal with a new client you have a contract. The question is whether it's oral or in writing. An oral contact is just as enforceable as a written one but the problem becomes one of proof. How do you prove the terms of your contract if all you have is one person's word against another's? For this reason, a written contract is without letup a good idea. It needn't be somewhat too elaborate. In fact, even an exchange of letters will do. Just be sure to include the basic terms: => Describe the job What must you do to perform the contract? Be as specific as possible here and try not to be open-ended. 'Create a website for client' is too vague. What would you do if the encumbrance came back after you'd finished and said, 'but there's no shopping cart, there's no feedback form?' and you hadn't quoted your time for these things in striking the price? transcendental to say, 'Create website at client's direction consisting of (a) home page; (b) products and services page; (c) order page; (d) shopping cart and (e) feedback form'. By requiring the mark to be very specific pertaining to what it is they want from their website, how they want it to look etc. you can go a long way to avoiding misunderstandings by vagueness. => Set the price State in unequivocal terms the price you are to receive for the job. This can be either a project cost such as $5,000 or an hourly rate such as '$150 hour or part thereof; minimum of ten (10) hours' or whatever. => State time for performance Performance means not only when you will complete your part of the valid contract (i.e. delivering the completed website to the client) but when the prospect must complete his or hers (i.e. by paying you).
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