Making it as a Freelancer
The move from working for someone else to working for yourself can be quite daunting. Not only are you busying yourself securing clients and work, usually from known sources who are familiar with your work, you have to somehow canvas work from new sources who won’t be familiar with your reputation.
You’ll have to answer questions such as:
- How much do I charge? By the hour or by the job?
- Do I sell myself as a specialist or a generalist?
- Should I keep my day job and freelance on the side?
- What is my brand?
- Contracts and Terms and Conditions
The more you start looking at it, the faster your head will spin and unlike a regular job, it’s probably unlikely you’ll be fortunate enough to have a pool of freelancing friends whose brains you can pick, so what does that leave? Hours of online searching in the library or Google? Hmm…suddenly that crap 9-5 job doesn’t sound so bad does it?
Fear not! If you haven’t already found them, visit Rockable Press who have some must read books available, most are in PDF format so you don’t even have to wait for the postman.
Their How to be a Rockstar Freelancer title is a must read which packs in everything you need to know in one handy volume and if you are a web designer you should also read their Rockstar WordPress Designer book which will open your eyes to this open source CMS that people forget is much more than a bloggers tool.
