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So you have decided to quit your 9-to-5 job in a design agency to build your business. What’s next? Let’s put it straight — building a WordPress design business that brings more money than a well-paid position is not easy. When starting from scratch, you must prepare a solid strategy and stick to it. You can think — easier said than done. But don’t you worry — in this article, we will walk you through the process of starting a profitable design business from A to Z. Getting StartedGrowing a design business from zero is a challenging task. You should be prepared to manage many business aspects that exceed design work, at least in the beginning. Accountancy, legal procedures, and lead generation are just a few of your new responsibilities, and the list is long. To deal better with new challenges and responsibilities, follow these seven steps. Choose Your NicheFocusing on one industry or client type helps designers stand out among competitors. Just think about it — would you choose a designer who knows the specifics of your field and has worked with similar projects in the past or a generalist designer? By choosing to serve one market niche, your clients will see you as a more experienced and professional expert compared to other designers who pick any project they can. You don’t limit your selling opportunities despite selling to a smaller market. On the contrary, by choosing to work with a specific niche, you can convince more clients to buy your services and close more deals. So how to choose the right niche? Start by thinking about your previous experience — what projects have inspired you the most, what clients you have found the easiest to work with, and where you have the most experience. Once you have picked a niche, it’s time to start the research phase. When starting your own consulting business, you should learn if your target market needs your services and is ready to pay the price you ask. If that’s not the case for your niche, it’s worth reconsidering your assumptions and, perhaps, picking a different industry. Define Your RatesYou have quitted your 9-to-5 job to have more freedom and control over your life and finances, and you can’t achieve this goal without making your design agency profitable. Setting the right rates for your services lays the foundations for building a profitable business. Creating a price list is not easy for beginning freelancers and business owners — you don’t know yet how much clients can pay for your services and how to prepare project estimates the right way. To ensure your prices are competitive, analyze how much your competitors charge their clients for similar services. Once you know the average price people pay for design services, it’s time to benchmark your rates. There are a few factors that affect price. Let’s check them out.
Cooperate With Other CompaniesWhen preparing layouts for a new website, there is a high chance that your clients will need help adjusting the design — copywriting, web development, and website optimization. You can hire a UI developer and other external service providers to expand your offering. You can increase your client's lifetime value by offering more services other than design. To do it, you don’t need to learn SEO or copywriting. Instead, you can cooperate with other freelancers and companies who you can refer to clients. Make sure they don’t offer competitive services but complement your service offering. Take your time to check their work and understand if they do a great job with their projects. To make the referral process work smoothly with partners, you should define conditions for cooperation and create a contract for clients to sign. Set Up Your CompanyOnce you have set up all business aspects, it’s time to create a legal entity — your company. Start with choosing a name for your consulting business that is easy to remember and pronounce. Make sure your company name somehow relates to your industry. To get some ideas for a business name, you can shortlist company names and ask the people who can potentially become your clients to pick their favorite. You can ask in person or search for a Facebook group representing your niche. Create a poll to learn what name your potential clients find the most attractive and suitable for your business niche. Once you have a name for your company, cover all legal aspects of doing business in your country. Research the requirements for setting up a company and ensure you comply with them. To run your business smoothly, find a reliable accountant and a convenient accounting software, so you can create and send invoices with just a few clicks. Make sure you outsource most non-design aspects, so you can focus on what you can do the best — designing. Build Your WebsiteYour website is where clients find you — it can make a great first impression or put clients off. That’s because when looking at your website, clients also judge your skills. While you might prioritize paid projects and client work, building a great website to show your portfolio is key to getting more leads online. Having no website can even harm your image. Just imagine your prospects thinking of you as a shoemaker who walks without shoes. Add your portfolio projects and client testimonials to develop a website that builds trust. Visually showcase your projects instead of describing them in words. If you run your website on WordPress, choose a WordPress theme that is dedicated to design agencies presenting images the right way. Remember that in this industry, it’s the visual form that sells, not text. When you have already built designs for your website and proceed with development, introduce contact forms to make it easy for clients to get in touch with you. While you should invest more time in creating a concept for a great personal website, running it shouldn’t be complicated. Invest in managed hosting for a design agency so you don’t have to go through time-consuming activities such as updating plugins or running backups manually. Get New ClientsEnsuring a steady flow of clients is equally essential to building your brand identity and setting up a business entity. Getting new clients, in the beginning, is hard, but you will get the ball rolling once you finish a couple of projects. Your happy clients will want to refer you to their network. To grow beyond referrals, you can also consider investing in other channels. Some of them will bring results fast but will involve more expenses. Others — will require more time and effort but will help you grow organically over the following years. Here are just a few channels that can help you grow:
Expand Your Skills and KnowledgeDesign is the industry that changes fast — new trends appear together with new technologies and tools. To stay competitive, you have to upskill yourself all the time and follow the latest trends. To grow as a designer, consider creating a budget you can dedicate to buying UX books, online courses, and masterclasses. Surround yourself with the best experts who you can learn from. Use free resources available online — subscribe to respected design newsletters, read new blog articles on top design blogs, and follow Instagram profiles of peer designers. By creating more learning opportunities for yourself, you will become more consistent in learning a few new design tricks every day, even if your schedule is packed with design work. Wrapping upBuilding a successful design business takes time and effort — it’s rarely an overnight success. However, by setting the right strategy for building your brand and attracting new clients, you can reach your growth goals fast. The tips we have shared in this article will make this process more manageable, even for a beginner. via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2022/09/28/how-to-start-your-own-wordpress-design-agency/
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Can you have TOO much work? If you’re a freelancer, you’ve probably been conditioned to believe there’s no such thing as too much work. We’ve been taught to adopt a scarcity mindset and believe we’d better take it while it’s coming, because who knows when the next client or job will come along. More is better, right? So, you say “yes” to it all. The good, the bad, and the meh. Before you know it, you’re underwater working for clients you don’t like, on projects that bore you, and for rates determined by someone else. It’s a cycle that’s easy to fall into and hard to get out of. You know you need to do something, but you’re so darn busy you don’t have time to get out of the weeds and figure out what. Ughhh! I’m betting this is not why you decided to become a creative freelancer. But I have good news. You can change this dynamic and design your ideal client, project type, workload, and team (yes, team!). It’s going to involve some intentional and courageous choices, but I’ve got your back! If you’re ready to break the unsustainable cycle and grow your creative business, here are 3 ways you can shift from an overworked freelancer to a large and in charge business owner. Step One: Decide Who and What Needs to GoEntrepreneurs are an optimistic bunch and our magical thinking doesn’t end at capacity and time. We tell ourselves we’ll take a good, hard look at our business “when things calm down.” From personal experience, I can tell you that an extended period of free time is never going to magically appear. You’re going to have to create it. Action Step:Go through ALL your clients and projects for the last year or two and grade them using criteria that matter to you. An example of those criteria might be:
Capture your insights in a simple Google sheet or doc and look for patterns. It will likely be clear who you can let go of (coincidentally, they’re usually the ones who pay the least, have the most boring work, and are most time-consuming/annoying.) Step Two: Identify the Role You Want to Have In Your BusinessI love this step because the default role is “all the roles.” It’s why you feel like the chief creative, operations person, and bottle washer at any given time. Action Step:Review the key roles graphic below and list ALL the activities that fall within those roles. This can totally be a down-and-dirty exercise – literally draw the circles on a large piece of paper and scribble all the activities you do (or need to do) for each. Next, circle the ones that you are excellent at doing and want to do. You’re going to want to check your ego here because you’re going to think only YOU can do it right! Challenge that assumption. Step Three: Create a Job Description (Even if You’re Not Even Close to Hiring/Outsourcing Yet)You probably have a much clearer idea of your zone of genius work and what someone else could absolutely be doing for you. Remember, the stuff you hate/aren’t great at is someone else’s zone of genius. Write a job description for that person and role. Are you ready to shift from an overworked freelancer to an empowered business owner? If you’re feeling the urge to grow, these are some great first steps. I’m rooting for you! via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2022/09/26/when-not-enough-work-isnt-your-problem/
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This article is posted with permission from our partner IRS and originally appeared on the IRS blog at: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/1-point-2-billion-dollars-in-irs-penalty-relief-refunds-coming-for-certain-2019-and-2020-tax-returns Subscribe to IRS tax tips here. To help struggling taxpayers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the IRS recently issued Notice 2022-36, which provides penalty relief to most people and businesses who filed certain 2019 or 2020 returns late. To qualify for this relief, any eligible income tax return, not already filed, must be filed on or before September 30, 2022The agency is also taking an additional step to help those who paid these penalties already. Nearly 1.6 million taxpayers will automatically receive more than $1.2 billion in refunds or credits. Many of these payments will go out by the end of September. Which returns are eligibleThe relief applies to the failure to file penalty. The penalty is typically assessed at a rate of 5% per month, up to 25% of the unpaid tax when a federal income tax return is filed late. It applies to forms in both the 1040 and 1120 series, as well as others listed in the notice. Small businesses, employers and other businesses may also be eligibleIn addition, the IRS is providing penalty relief to small businesses, employers and other businesses required to file various information returns, such as those in the 1099 series. To qualify for relief, eligible 2019 returns must have been filed by August 1, 2020, and eligible 2020 returns must have been filed by August 1, 2021. A 2019 return will be considered timely for purposes of relief if it was filed by August 3, 2020, and a 2020 return, if it was filed by August 2, 2021. Taxpayers should review notice 2022-36 for full details on the information returns that are eligible for relief. The notice also provides details on relief for certain international information return penalties that are assessed systemically or during return processing. To qualify, any eligible tax return must be filed on or before September 30, 2022. However, this relief does not apply if the penalty was assessed as part of an examination. Which tax returns are not eligiblePenalty relief is not available in all situations, such as where a fraudulent return was filed, where the penalties are part of an accepted offer in compromise or a closing agreement, or where the penalties were finally determined by a court. For complete details, taxpayers should read Notice 2022-36, available on IRS.gov. Other penalties, such as the failure to pay penalty, are not eligible. However, taxpayers may use existing penalty relief procedures for penalties not eligible under Notice 2022-36. More information about existing procedures is available on the Penalty Relief page of IRS.gov. via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2022/09/22/1-2-billion-in-irs-penalty-relief-refunds-coming-for-certain-2019-and-2020-tax-returns/
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We should also add to each disclaimer that includes the link for these partners. Here's an example with Lili: This article is posted with permission from our partner Lili and originally appeared on the Lili blog at: https://lili.co/blog/business-goals Get the digital bank account designed for freelancers with Lili and manage your business expenses, estimate your taxes, and save for a rainy day all with zero account fees. Start a Lili account today. Do you have a business plan ready to go but are unsure where to begin and how to get your team on the same page? Or have you already begun executing on your business plan but feel like you’re flailing and lack focus? Think of your business plan as your dream vacation. You wouldn’t book your dream vacation without an itinerary, right? Defining and setting business goals is the itinerary to your business plan. Setting these overall company goals is the key to successfully ensuring you achieve the business objectives you’ve laid out in your business plan. What is a business goal?A business goal or company goal takes the business objectives outlined in your business plan and breaks them down into clear and focused segments that respect your two most valuable resources: time and money. Every business plan is unique in that certain pieces will take longer to complete than others. To accommodate for this, there are two types of business goals: short-term goals and long-term goals. Short-term business goalsShort-term goals are typically achieved in the near future, within 3 to 6 months, but not more than one year. Examples of short-term business goals are:
Short-term goals are important and useful because they help with making important company decisions, can be used for performance reviews, and support long-term business goals. Long-term business goalsLong-term goals are high level strategic goals that are typically achieved in 1 to 3 years. Examples of long-term business goals are:
Long-term goals are what you and your team are aiming for when thinking about the future of your business or start up. Some businesses go as far as putting pen to paper while asking the lofty question, “what do we want our business to look like in 10 years and how will we get there?” What is the difference between short-term and long-term business goals?The difference between short- term and long-term business goals is bigger than you might think. As business owners and entrepreneurs we need to train ourselves to keep one eye in the present and one eye on the future. This is a challenge. Setting both short and long-term business goals allows us to do in the present while keeping an eye on the future. Imagine a tree. Your business plan is the foundation or the roots of the tree. The long-term goals are the trunk. They hold up the short-term goals which are the branches and leaves. Like leaves and branches, the short-term goals change and grow a lot faster than the trunk does. But they all work together in an ecosystem, similar to your business. Does my business need both short-term and long-term business goals?In order for your business to grow and achieve what you’ve laid out in your business plan, your business absolutely needs both short-term and long-term goals. Everyone who operates within your business needs to know and understand what they need to focus on now, which are the short-term goals and where the company is going, which are the long-term goals. A tree wouldn’t be a tree without a trunk or branches and leaves. It needs both. How do you set business goals?Setting both short-term business goals, and long-term business goals, takes time. Plan to spend a few hours on this project. Remember, time is one of your most valuable resources. Be sure to use your calendar to find a time that makes sense for your business. You likely won’t have time for goal setting when a big launch is about to happen. Where appropriate, invite key stakeholders (investors, leadership, team members) to be a part of this undertaking. Inviting these stakeholders gives you opportunities to increase buy-in and understand where there is excitement and/or concerns about objectives laid out in your business plan. One great approach for setting business goals is to use the “FAST” goal setting technique created by MIT’s Sloan School of management for setting both long-term goals and short-term goals. Here’s a brief breakdown of FAST goals that you can easily apply to your own goal setting:Frequently Discussed. Discussion of goals gives leadership and management insights to team member performance and progress. Discussing your business goals also provides a decision making foundation. If you set them and fail to revisit them, time and money will be wasted and morale will plummet. Ambitious. Short-term and long-term business goals should be achievable and should also push your team. Remember to celebrate the wins and understand the losses. No doubt, you’ll have several in both categories. With clear goals you’ll be able to know why a win was a win and a loss was a loss. Leave nothing to chance. Specific. Each goal should be tied to a metric with a set due date so that progress is easily measured and everyone knows how long they have to work on the goal. When the metric and timeline are clear, course correcting is simple. If there is no time set from the start, teams will have a hard time prioritizing their day-to-day work. Transparent. Short-term goals and long-term goals should be visible to everyone in the company. You can keep it simple in an excel spreadsheet or use a product where you can customize a dashboard. This shows that every team member is an integral part of the success of your company. Examples of how to set short-term business goalsUsing the examples of short-term goals from earlier, it’s time to make them more specific and measurable.
Find the right software for project management, tax management, invoicing etc. becomes:
Fix client onboarding becomes:
Examples of how to set long-term business goalsUsing the examples of long-term goals from earlier, it’s time to make them more specific and measurable. Significant increase in revenue becomes:
Acquire a competitor becomes:
Expand into a new market becomes:
Three notes when goal setting:1) When it comes to the “responsible person and team” be sure to assign a team member to take ownership of each goal. There will likely be multiple teams and people working on a short-term goal and/or long-term goal at any given time. Naming one specific person to each goal means that the entire company knows who to approach for questions or updates. 2) Once a person and team knows which goals they’re responsible for, these teams will need to create a plan for how they are going to complete the goal on time. 3) Remember: make sure that the process of achieving these goals is transparent. Short-term goals and long-term goals should be accessible via a simple spreadsheet or dashboard that anyone in the company can easily find. Why is setting business goals important?Remember your two most valuable resources, time and money? When goals are set and the team has bought into who is responsible for a particular goal(s), your budget is well spent as everyone knows what they need to be working on and when the work is due. Every team member has a purpose and is engaged in their work. Because your goals are derived directly from your business plan, team members know that if they don’t work toward the company goal that is assigned to them, then other company goals will likely fail. Company morale will also be impacted. Knowing what you’re working toward will increase employee engagement for some and reveal less-engaged team members. It’ll be easy to decide if the team members with lower engagement should move to another team or project, or even move on from your company. Avoid risk, start setting goals nowIf you fail to set business goals, you risk losing time, money and seeing company morale suffer. So make sure you avoid this and start now! Set clear short-term and long-term goals using the FAST business goal setting method. As you set your goals, remember why you set out to start your business in the first place. Setting short-term goals and long-term goals allows you to run and manage your business with clarity and consistency. One bonus result of having transparent short-term and long-term business goals? Your company will be a place where people like to work and want to work. via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2022/09/20/how-to-set-business-goals-and-objectives/
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WELCOME BACK EVERYONE! We are so excited to be open again and to see friendly faces (and hopefully new faces) at Freelancers Hub, located in Industry City at 241 37th Street, Suite A326 Brooklyn, NY 11232. We are back providing free co-working and free workshops for members, and a couple new things. If you are interested in booking a co-working desk, you can do so through Simplybook.me. As always, it is completely free to create a membership with us. With your membership, you will still get 8 days of FREE coworking, but we’ve now added some new options. Members can book a block of the day - Morning (9AM-1PM) or Afternoon (1PM - 5PM), or the entire day to co-work (9AM-5PM). This way it gives more members a chance to visit us and take advantage of our resources. But now, if you’ve used up your 8 free days, you can book extra days for $2 per session. We will continue to provide free workshops for all members with a mix of in-person and online events. Majority of our in-person events will be live streamed so members can still attend if they are out of state. Our classroom can fit about 30-35 folks comfortably and will also be available for members to book to use for their own meetings or small events. The classroom/meeting room bookings will be at a rate of $60/hour. For rules regarding conduct in the Freelancers Hub and our offered amenities:
We cannot wait to see you back in our space! If you have any questions, feel free to email us at [email protected] via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2022/09/19/welcome-back-to-the-freelancers-hub/
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Trading in your nine-to-five for the perks of the freelance life has significantly become normalized in the past few years as more and more people are making the switch after Covid-19. Unfortunately, not every occupation offers the opportunity to choose between traditional employment or freelancing due to freelance work mainly being limited to digital services like tech, marketing, consulting, accounting, and others. Being in control of your projects, working from anywhere in the world, and not being confined to an office or company are only a handful of the advantages of freelancing. With all of this in mind, however, many popular myths exist about freelancing. Let’s debunk some of the most notable ones together to make your decision to switch to freelancing, or try it out, easier and more informed. Myth: You work without a bossTruth: It’s a common misconception that freelancers are exempt from the idea of having a “boss”. You may no longer have a direct boss or manager(s), but you still must maintain communication with your clients. It’s essential to keep in mind that your clients are often executives, project managers, or heads of departments in their own companies who have their expectations and requirements for projects. So, it will still be your duty as a freelancer to maintain efficient communication with them and meet their project requirements. Depending on the complexity and duration of your projects, you may undertake several at once, which means you’ll essentially have several “bosses” at once. With that in mind, it’s still necessary to find the balance between keeping your clients satisfied and not letting them take complete control of your work methods. Myth: It gets lonelyTruth: Being a freelancer is often a lot like being in a one-person marching band, but it’s not all that bad regarding socialization. Sure, it’s not for everyone and may not be a great suit for extroverts who thrive off of socializing with coworkers, but freelancers can still get their source of socialization from many places. That includes, but is not limited to, other freelancers you can pass on clients to (and vice versa) if you don’t have availability now, other workers from coworking spaces, people from cafes, people you network with at events, and more! Myth: Your schedule is absolutely flexibleTruth: While it is true that freelancers certainly have more flexibility in where and when they work, that doesn’t mean that every element of your work is constantly changing or inconsistent each day. For one, you will still have deadlines to meet. Thus, to complete a project in a set amount of time, you must decide how many days you can spend on it and how many hours a day. Additionally, you might need to schedule regular calls with your client, which may mean accommodating different people's calendars, thus, limiting your flexibility because your calls need to comply with your client’s timetable too. Didn’t have a chance to finish something during the week? You’ll need to work over the weekend to make your deadline. Especially if you want to freelance full-time, you can expect no shortage of being busy. Myth: You get paid lessTruth: It’s important to differentiate unstable payment from insufficient payment — they are commonly confused with one another in the context of freelancing. It’s true that your finances will be unstable and inconsistent, depending on the number of active projects, duration of those projects, and varying price points of each project. However, that doesn’t mean that you will be making any less than a full-time office job. For example, when a client opts for digital marketing services from agencies, a percentage of the project proceeds go to the company and then a certain part to the employee on the project. With freelancing, you discuss the fee with the client directly for the budget, without cuts. Myth: It’s less stressful than working in an officeTruth: Where there are projects, deadlines, calls, reports, and of course, work, there will be stress to some extent. Combine that with the fact that you primarily work independently and need to manage all your operations and processes — from organizing your day-to-day work to client calls, deadlines, and logistics like finances, vacations, taxes, etc. You have to be your own employee, boss, human resource manager, accountant, and so on! That can be stressful for someone who doesn’t like multitasking compared to having the majority of that handled for you in an in-house environment. Happy freelancing! via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2022/09/19/reality-check-5-myths-about-freelancing/
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Have you ever counted the time you are spending on managing work that you don’t get paid for? Of course, managing invoices, responding to clients’ emails, and outreaching new leads are crucial to keeping your business afloat. However, these tasks can quickly become major time sinks. So how can you free up more time for project work and, as a result, earn more as a freelancer? We are sharing some tips in this article. How to Automate Repetitive Tasks?Solopreneurs often juggle a lot of tasks ranging from business development to accountancy. Fortunately, you can use various strategies and tools to automate many of them these days. Let’s check them out. 1. Use Professional Invoicing SoftwareCreating invoices manually using Excel or Word documents is a time-consuming process that often results in many errors. To spend less time on invoicing, consider using invoicing tools. By relying on software rather than spreadsheets, you can create invoices much faster by pre-populating fields such as invoice number and client details. Two other key features also help send invoices and get paid faster: invoice reminders and recurring invoicing. These features make it much more likely that you won’t be chasing overdue invoices. Thanks to invoice reminders, you no longer have to write emails and remember to send them to clients manually. Most invoicing tools help you set up email reminders that are sent automatically to clients. You can use your favorite invoice reminder template — the invoicing software does the rest. It fills in the fields with invoice and client information before automatically sending it to a client’s address. With the other feature — recurring invoicing — you no longer have to duplicate your invoice to change the invoice number and due date for payment. This tool automates the process by updating key fields and sending the invoice to your client. This feature is especially useful for freelancers who work on a retainer basis. 2. Hire a Virtual AssistantFreelancers often have to deal with a few time-consuming tasks that can be easily outsourced. Virtual assistants are perfect at dealing with them, and their hourly rate is often reasonable. Lessening the burden from the more tedious work allows you to focus on the critical aspects of a project and boost your productivity. You can outsource many tasks to a virtual assistant — email outreach, basic marketing projects, customer service, and even sending thank-you cards to your loyal clients. Hiring a professional VA can free up more time to work on well-paid projects and manage your billable time more effectively. 3. Integrate Inbox with an Email ClientJuggling multiple inboxes and productivity apps can quickly lead to losing focus and burnout. This effect is usually caused by switching between the numerous tabs when you have to access various tools and research information online– let alone getting distracted by hundreds of ads that bombard you online when you are doing it. Imagine how much easier it would be if you could do all your work from one dashboard without switching your browser tabs. Currently, email clients help you bring all your email accounts and the most popular productivity tools under one roof. When using an email client such as Mailbird, you can manage multiple mailboxes from one place — your unified mailbox and integrate with over 30 productivity tools. This way, you have everything in one dashboard and can remove major distractions that result in getting less work done. Check out how integrated apps work together in the screenshot below. 4. Create Recurring TasksCreating Instagram posts, responding to blog comments, or checking KPIs are the tasks that never disappear from a freelancer’s task list. Despite their recurring nature, these tasks are easy to forget. Instead of jotting down these tasks on a piece of paper, use a popular task management tool that offers a function of setting tasks to repeat. For example, when using Asana for task automation, you can set your tasks to repeat on specific days. After configuring tasks as recurring, you shouldn’t worry that your continuous reminder will disappear from the dashboard. You can check them as complete, and they will reappear in your dashboard again according to your scheduled time. 5. Track Project Time OnlineTracking time is crucial to give clients precise project estimates before you start work. After kicking off the project, you often have to create weekly or monthly time reports to inform a client about the work progress. However, it’s easy to forget about switching on the timer when doing work and switching it off when you move to a different project or just want to surf the Internet. With time-tracking tools such as Hive or ClickUp, you can make time-tracking a more controlled process. Some of the programs can automatically record time and assign recorded hours to a specific project. They also let you generate reports for each project or client with just a few clicks. For example, in Toggl, you can export a timesheet in PDF format for a specific time range. 6. Pre-schedule Social Media PostsWhether you are managing your clients’ social media or your own, creating, scheduling, or tracking social media metrics, time can add up and become consuming. You can use social media scheduling tools to automate social media management from A to Z. These tools help you schedule your social media posts for all channels from one dashboard and generate reports with a 360-degree audience overview. Here is how these reports look in Sprout Social, a tool for social media management. If you manage multiple sizeable social media accounts and are responsible for comment moderation, managing all comments from one place becomes a real time-saver. 7. Simplify Event SchedulingKeeping clients in the loop about their project progress is one of the vital daily tasks of a freelancer, and no channel can help do it better than a video conference. The same applies to prospects — arranging a call to discuss possible cooperation options is often the first step to signing a contract. In both cases, finding an available time slot can result in a long email conversation. To arrange calls faster, it’s worth using event scheduling tools. For example, by using Calendly, you can send a client a link to your calendar with available slots. By checking all your available time slots, a client or prospect can choose the one suiting their schedule quicker. 8. Showcase Your PortfolioBefore starting work with a freelancer, clients usually ask candidates to send some examples of their previous work or share a portfolio. Describing previous projects may require writing a long email and adding multiple links to your public projects. Instead of repeatedly writing such emails every time you have to showcase your work, publish your portfolio on a website or a dedicated portfolio platform. For example, you can use Contently or another one of the various platforms if you are a content creator. Adding links to your previous articles is the only thing you have to do to create a visually appealing portfolio online. If you are a graphic designer, you can create a portfolio project using Dribbble or Behance. You can attract new clients looking through candidates by publishing your portfolio on these portals. Additionally, you can link to your Behance or Dribbble portfolio in emails to clients coming from your website contact form or social media. 9. Send NPS surveysCollecting feedback about your work from clients using online surveys is a great way to discover your customer loyalty and learn how you can improve as a freelancer professional. NPS surveys are one of the tools you can use to predict if a client wants to work with you regularly. This survey type shows a scale from 0 to 10, where 10 is the highest score. Typically, these forms include an open-ended question, letting clients provide more written feedback. Creating NPS surveys and analyzing the results using an email editor is time-consuming, but you can use survey tools to automate this process. They offer visually-appealing templates of surveys that you can easily integrate into your email body. When using these tools, you can modify question blocks using a drag-and-drop editor and copy the HTML code to use in emails. Also, you can send the surveys right from an NPS tool, making collecting feedback even easier. Check out this example of an NPS survey to get an idea of what they can look like in a visual editor. Wrapping upEvery freelancer deals with a lot of repetitive tasks. They can quickly become time sinks taking your time and focus away from billable work. Without automating these tedious tasks, your day can quickly exceed the usual eight hours leading to burnout. Fortunately, by implementing the strategies and using the tools recommended in this article, you can free up more time to focus on existing and new projects. via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2022/09/15/9-tricks-to-automate-tedious-freelancer-tasks/
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This article is posted with permission from our partner IRS and originally appeared on the IRS blog at: https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/aspiring-entrepreneurs-learn-the-basics-of-setting-up-a-business Subscribe to IRS tax tips here. New entrepreneurs can start out on the right foot by making sure they understand the tax responsibilities of running a business. The process can seem daunting, but IRS.gov has resources to help new business owners. Here are a few things new entrepreneurs need to do when starting their business. Choose a business structureThe form of business determines which income tax return a business taxpayer needs to file. The most common business structures are:
Choose a tax yearA tax year is an annual accounting period for keeping records and reporting income and expenses. A new business owner must choose either:
Apply for an employer identification numberAn EIN is also called a federal tax identification number. It's used to identify a business. Most businesses need one of these numbers. It's important for a business with an EIN to keep the business mailing address, location and responsible party up to date. IRS regulations require EIN holders to report changes in the responsible party within 60 days. They do this by completing Form 8822-B, Change of Address or Responsible Party and mailing it to the address on the form. Have all employees complete these formsPay business taxesThe form of business determines what taxes must be paid and how to pay them. Visit state's websiteProspective business owners should visit their state's website for info about state requirements. via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2022/09/14/aspiring-entrepreneurs-learn-the-basics-of-setting-up-a-business/
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Freelancers naturally care about the overall success of their clients. We love to solve problems, deliver outstanding products, and bring projects to fruition that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. This dedication to broader success can sometimes come up against our clients’ more significant structural and organizational issues. A freelancer, by definition, is a fractional worker who completes specific tasks or projects for their clients. When you’re “fractional,” you’re contributing a small piece to a larger puzzle that makes up the client’s business. When that puzzle has missing or broken pieces, it can mean that your “fractional” contribution doesn’t have the same impact it would have if everything were functioning efficiently. You can knock your project out of the park, and it still won’t have the intended impact if the overall organization is dysfunctional, if they don’t have the other pieces in place necessary to support your work, or if they can’t embrace the changes that they paid you to implement. This can come back and bite you when the problems outside your control make it look like you didn’t do your job. Here are some real-life examples:
No business is perfect (lord knows mine isn’t), which means that freelancers will always have to navigate how their fractional contributions fit into the bigger picture. Here are a few ways to stay in your lane and manage your sanity accordingly. Assess client readinessMany of the issues that fractional workers encounter can be diagnosed early with an effective client screening process. I have a set of questions I ask every client up front that helps me spot nightmare ones from a mile away. In addition to your client screening questions, think about the other organizational pieces that come before or after your work and will ultimately mean the success or failure of what you were hired to do.
You should also ask questions about whether or not the client knows how to work with freelancers effectively. Many companies don’t understand the difference between a freelancer and an on-call employee, and this distinction can be crucial for an effective engagement. Cover your ass with an air-tight scopeThis is a constant work in progress, even for an experienced freelancer like me. I still have engagements where I look back in hindsight and think about things I should have spelled out more clearly in my scope. With that said, an effective client screening and onboarding process will go a long way toward helping you write a clear and concise proposal/scope that spells out exactly what you’re hired to do. Make sure your scope also outlines what the client is responsible for and the conditions that dictate the success or failure of your work (e.g., if you don’t know what your product is…I can’t build it). Focus on your locus of controlNot my circus, not my monkey, has become a daily mantra for me in work and life. I inherently try to solve problems that are not mine to solve, which leads me to get deeply involved in chaos that is not mine to manage. When you care about the success of your clients’ businesses and your own reputation, it can be hard not to worry about the factors outside of your control that will impact the success of your work. If you’ve done your due diligence upfront, hopefully, your work is clearly spelled out, and it is easy for your client to measure success. There will also be times when you do your thing, knock it out of the park, and it just sits on a shelf and never changes anything for the client. I can’t tell you how many projects, systems, and products I’ve built for people who never use them for various reasons. In these instances, I reflect on what I could have done differently to understand better what they needed or how it would fit into their work. I have also learned to let it go because; I got paid for completed work, and it is up to them to use (or not use) what I made them. Finally, you have to learn when to let clients go. Sometimes the barriers to success are just too high; no matter how good you are at what you do, the mental anguish isn’t worth it. Have a deep bench of partnersIf your client screening questions make it clear that your clients aren’t ready for your work or don’t have the systems in place to put it into action after your job is done, being able to recommend other freelancers to provide wrap-around services is a huge value-add. If you’re a graphic designer, find people who are good at branding and advertising. Find someone good at operations and implementation if you’re a business consultant. Having freelancers adjacent to your work will help you stay in your lane and still get your clients what they need. via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2022/09/08/not-my-circus-how-to-stay-in-your-lane-as-a-freelancer/
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“Life is a matter of choices, and every choice you make makes you.” – John C. Maxwell Decisions, decisions, decisions. Which assignment should I do first today? Is this client someone I want to continue working with? Where do I find new leads? Should I add a new service? Is it time to raise rates? As a freelancer, it is sometimes even hard to decide which decision to tackle first! Often freelancers are one-person businesses, leaving all decisions on one set of shoulders. Becoming more efficient at making decisions can help to make it seem less burdensome- even fun! Although there is an “ideal” method for making decisions, using the process in a different order feels more natural to many of us. That’s OK; sound decisions can be made regardless, as long as all stages of the process are consciously considered when gathering information and vetting options before taking action. This article will first introduce the ideal decision-making steps, then the variety in decision-making styles, and finally, we will look at how this may play out in your decision-making as an individual and within a team. The Steps to Making a DecisionHere are the steps in the order psychologists have deemed to be the most effective. Take in Information
Evaluate Information
In reality, once it gets going, the decision-making process is looping and cyclical; not quite as linear as the list suggests. We are curious, clever humans, after all. It’s natural for the mind to bounce back and forth throughout all steps as cross-checks along the way while a solution takes form. This is healthy and ensures that early assumptions do not become hard-and-fast premises. It leaves room for new ideas once other insights have been processed. Few of us are masters of all things business, so If you feel like you are over your head in taking on some subjects, ask your qualified friends and peers to help you think it through or hire a professional to help with the relevant stage. Make a Decision
There may be cases where you can try out two decisions and settle on the best one later. In the marketing world, this is called an A/B test. Or sometimes, the best decision is not to make a change at all. “Deciding not to decide” is, well, procrastination. Look into why you are stuck at this point in time. Revisit the steps. Is more information needed? Do the possibilities not quite align with the goal? Or are you grappling with a fear of change? Once identified, you can address the issue and regain momentum. Spending time in step 5 helps give you confidence in your decision, and that confidence can generate motivating excitement to take action. Act upon the Decision
There are various styles when it comes to this step. Some people prefer to jump in and get the ball (any ball) rolling and find it exciting to handle situations as they unfold. Others prefer to have a detailed plan to follow step-by-step before taking any action. Some like to sit on a decision for a while, just in case they get new ideas or new options come along. The trick here is to check in with yourself to ensure you are not acting too hastily or becoming victim to analysis paralysis. Things may not go exactly as planned anyway. Expecting a bit of wiggliness can help avoid frustration and keep you positive and productive. When diversions appear, refer back to your written challenge, goal and decision and use them as your guideposts. What's your Decision-Making Style?Mix up steps 1 – 4 in the list. Each possible order is a different decision-making style. Each of us has a natural, default starting point at one of the four steps (it's not necessarily going to be the ideal Step 1). Although a professional assessment is recommended for identifying your decision-making style for real, here is a quick exercise for illustrative purposes right now. Think of an issue that needs resolving. Assuming that you are already settled on the goal, what’s the nature of the first questions your mind tends to serve up? Which step do the questions and concerns align with? Where is your attention? What seems to really matter? Once those questions are answered, what is the next thing you want to know? Which step does that align with? Keep going until you feel you have the four steps in the order that feels right to you. The Benefits of Knowing your Decision-Making StyleYou may be wondering why it is essential to know your decision-making style and not just the four steps.
“Our life is the sum total of all the decisions we make every day, and those decisions are determined by our priorities.” – Myles Munroe Team DecisionsOf course, you are not always working alone in your day-to-day work. Awareness of the various decision-making styles can help you recognize and tolerate frustrating situations when other people’s minds are actively working away on different “first steps” that seem not yet relevant to you. As noted before, the mind cannot be in two places simultaneously. At any point in time, it is either focused on information gathering, option generating, logical assessment, value-based assessment, or acting on the information. And so, for example, a person whose mind is running at top speed in “option-generating” mode may not have the capacity to consider input from someone in “logical assessment” mode (and visa versa). Each person’s ideas are swirling in their head and commanding attention. Until the mind starts running out of steam in one category, it is hard to get it to focus on another category. During a brainstorming session, when it seems like contributions are being ignored or dismissed, it may be more the result of unfortunate timing than disrespect. All too often, a conversation can start with multiple people, each compelled to delve into a different problem-solving step first, excited to share their brilliant and helpful first thoughts, only to leave them feeling unheard, unrecognized, or sidelined by others (all the while inadvertently not hearing, not recognizing and sidelining other people’s first thoughts!). Until the primary concern is satisfied, the underlying question remains, “what’s the point of participating in this exercise?” and it may be like moving mountains to get someone to converse about (or even tolerate) any of the other perspectives before there is “good reason” to do so. This is not conscious or manipulative; it’s a natural side effect of how the human mind works. When a meeting starting with proactive energy devolves into a battle of priorities, it’s really a shame since, during the first step of problem-solving, a person’s top mental perspective revs up in full gear; it’s the one that they are best at, and the most creative with, so a good percentage of the results can be gems. This stage can be a fun, exhilarating flow state, totally “In the Zone.” Interrupting the flow is both a buzz-kill and counterproductive to solving the problem at hand. With your new insights on decision-making, you may even be able to put a meeting back on track by validating each person’s perspective, encouraging non-judgmental brainstorming, and taking detailed and inclusive notes. After the flurry dies down, it can help to order the notes into the four decision-making steps (in the original ideal order presented above) for determining the next steps for taking in and evaluating the information so that you can all arrive at a decision that is better than the sum of its parts. via Freelancers Union Blog https://blog.freelancersunion.org/2022/09/07/decide-to-make-better-decisions/ |
AuthorI have 5+ years experience working as a medical transcriptionist. When I am not working, I enjoy sports like playing basketball or judo. I love making friends and connections. Archives
April 2023
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