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One of the reasons many of us choose to start a freelance business is the option of largely escaping time-based payment. If a task only takes an hour, it takes an hour. People like us get paid the same whether we fill a day with it or not.

While freelancers who’ve made efforts to escape time-based pay get some pretty neat perks, there’s a trade-off: a heightened risk of over-work.

Unless they’re being given more work than they can feasibly do in the time, 20, or 40, or 70-hour per week workers don’t necessarily need to be more productive. For project-paid freelancers, the speed with which we can fly through tasks will dictate how financially successful we are.

And there’s the rub. There’s nobody telling us to go home at the end of the day, there’s no point beyond which our work is unpaid simply because it’s late in the evening, no time when the office lights start to go out, no pre-paid hours. We complete a task, we get paid, and we can complete most tasks at any time of the day or night, on any day of the week. It’s no surprise that many freelancers are overworked. The lure of “one more project, one more invoice” can be hard to resist.

The danger of overwork is compounded because project-paid freelancers have a habit of not keeping accurate tabs on the hours we work. If you enjoy what you do, working out exactly what to track can be a puzzle. Does feed reading count as play, or work-related research? What about answering emails — not all of which are strictly business related? The work-life divide is often a blur.

The problem

The only thing standing between 80 hour weeks is either a) a lack of projects or b) will-power. If you’re feeling overworked, you’ve probably got enough clients. The only variable left is self-control: the ability to say “I’ve worked enough today,” and stop. If you don’t yet have it, how do you get it?

The first question to answer is: do I feel overworked? It’s a gut feeling you get. Not necessarily all the time, but it will rear its head occasionally, maybe at the end of a day when you’ve worked from when you woke up until when you tumbled back into bed, or when you realize that you haven’t seen your best friend in a while. The next variable is how you react to that gut feeling. It’s all too easy to say: “But I need to be working this much right now, because of this, this and that.” In other words, if we overwork now, we can relax later. That ‘relaxed later’ is usually postponed ad-infinitum. Sound familiar?

One solution

This isn’t the only solution and I don’t claim that it will work for everyone. All I can say is that it worked for me, and my freelance routine probably isn’t much different to yours (liaise with clients, do work, invoice, get paid… eventually). Even if this solution won’t work right out of the box for you, it might be made workable with a few adaptations.

The process starts with a calculation: what’s the minimum amount you need to earn in a week in order to live? In other words, to pay rent, bills, buy food and have a little extra spending money left over — let’s say, $50. That’s not your ideal income, of course, but it’s the benchmark for your absolute Minimum Weekly Income (MWI) — the amount you must make to keep your affairs in order. You should only allow yourself to overwork in order to meet your MWI.

The next calculation is your cap: your Target Weekly Income (TWI). The formula is this: your average hourly rate multiplied by the number of hours you’re willing to work. Let’s say you’ve worked out your average hourly rate to be $30 and you want to spend 30 hours a week on paid tasks. Your TWI is $900. When working out the hours you want to work each week, I’d always suggest subtracting roughly 5 hours (or 2 hours for part-timers) to account for non-paid, work-related tasks (like managing accounts, answering email and liaising with clients). In this example, the person would be working 35 hours, and get paid for 30.

If you’re not sure of your average hourly rate, take the last month’s worth of jobs (or the last two-weeks worth if your memory is as bad as mine) and divide how much you got paid for each job by roughly how many hours the job took. Then add up the average hourly incomes for each job and divide by the total number of jobs over the time period. The result is a rough estimate of how much you earned per hour of work last month.

The purpose of the TWI is to establish a ceiling: the point where you stop working or accepting new jobs, even if you haven’t reached the maximum amount of hours you want to work in a week. Sometimes you will work less than full-time hours, but this is to balance out those weeks where you have to struggle and over-work just to meet your Minimum Weekly Income. Alternately, you can keep working past your TWI until your reach your work-cap for the week, but you should claim the time back as earned vacation time, or raise your TWI if you over-earn consistently.

To show you a working model, here’s my overwork safety net:

1. MWI = $300 (If I have to, I’ll exceed my work-cap to meet this minimum earn).
2. Work-cap = 10 hours (I’m finishing a communications degree and have a lot of other projects going on — I don’t want to do more than ten hours freelancing a week).
3. TWI = $500 (The weekly earn I aim for — I can stop working once I reach it even if I haven’t reached my work-cap).
4. Average hourly rate: $50 (I work fast, and I won’t accept jobs with a lower estimated hourly rate unless my MWI is in danger).

If you feel like you’re regularly exceeding your TWI while staying within your work-cap, it’s time to raise your TWI by increments.

As you can probably guess, this model does require some rough time-keeping but your career is still defined by income rather than hours. If we’re to be honest, we can’t avoid overworking unless we define what overwork means for us.

If you want to get started now and don’t mind sharing, you’re welcome to list your MWI, Work-cap, TWI and rough hourly rate in the comments section. I’d also be interested to hear your experiences with over-work. If you’ve conquered it, what was your strategy?

Original post by FreelanceSwitch.com

Because most freelancers love what they do, it can often seem acceptable to work 80+ hours in a single week. While sometimes you really do need to kick out some work, overall it’s not a positive thing to be that unbalanced. In the past months, we have added a few company rules.

I wanted to jot down some things I practice to keep personal life in balance with work. I hope they help you too:

1. No one is productive for +80 hours a week

   With very few exceptions, I’ve never seen anyone who can work more than 80 hours. Besides something isn’t right if you spend that much time working. If you can’t make a living working less than 80 hours a week, you need to change careers.

2. Around 5pm you must be looking for a place to pause work.

   Many of us have small kids and they go to bed early. If you must finish a task do it once they’re in bed. During evening hours, family time is #1, work is far down the list of priorities. We usually do three to five hours of more work after the kids go to sleep

3. Dinner time is important.

   This follows the first rule of stopping around 5pm, take a few hours, play with your kids, interact with them. Talk to your wife, family, parents, something but get away from the computer and be social with the people important to you.

4. Leave the house.

   Its imperative that you get out of the house/office or place you work. Personally I have been trying to go to beautiful places, parks, lakes, any place I can take pictures of. Its another form of creativity that lets my mind feel free. Creativity isn’t something I can turn off but I can be creative without staring at pixels.

5. Try to do something to get the blood pumping.

   I’m not the slimmest person in the world, and I often feel lazy but nonetheless, I try to ride my bike around the neighborhood while pulling my son in his baby trailer. This is a time that I can have complete silence and clear my thoughts, plus sweat a little.

Remember that work is your tool to make money, its not your life. Money is only a temporary justification for not being there for the people you love. Time is fleeting, memories are priceless, choose life over work any chance you get. As long as you get your work done.

This post is a guest post from Allan Branch, a one time freelancer who created LessAccounting for freelancers who need to keep track of money or send invoices.

Original post by FreelanceSwitch.com

We all know that giving is fantastic. Give great customer service; give great rates, and always give your best. But, what about getting? What kinds of things should you expect from your clients? Asking is also a great marketing strategy! Here is a list of 25 things you can (and should!) ask for when working with a client.

1. Ask for a down payment - Just like there are flaky freelancers out there, there are flaky clients as well. It’s completely okay to protect yourself and your time. Ask for a down payment, and make it fully refundable if you don’t do your share. Most clients will be happy to oblige.

2. Ask for more time if you need it - Sometimes your creative genius self needs time, and who can blame you? Between Twitter, and Facebook and well… clients, it’s a busy life! So, feel free to ask for more time if you need it. Just don’t go overboard.

3. Ask for clear directions - If a client wants exactly what they have in mind, they have to be able to communicate those thoughts. Help them along. Make sure to ask for clear directions and double check.

4. Ask for consistent expectations – It is okay to ask for consistent expectations on projects. If the client feels your work seems “fantastic” one day, and “not up to par” the next, and given that your quality has stayed the same-bring it up with the client. One caveat: this may require that you have some sort of quality check system in place to ensure the consistency of your work product.

5. Ask for recommendations- You kicked butt on the last project. The client is thrilled. Now, strike while the iron is hot, and ask for the recommendation. (i.e. - “I appreciate your confidence in me, and I will deliver my best to you always. Since I know you are enthusiastic about working with me, do you think you could please recommend me to your friends? I’d really appreciate it tremendously.”).

6. Ask for referrals - It can go something like this- “Who else in your network could use my services? Would it be okay if I contacted them and introduced myself?”

7. Ask for testimonials - So many freelancers forget about this wonderful marketing tool. It’s called “social proof.” People like people who are liked by other people. At the very least, they are usually intrigued. Simply stated - Ask for your clients’ good words on paper.

8. Ask for suggestions - A client-freelancer relationships works best when it is mutually helpful/beneficial (…like most relationships it seems). Ask for your clients’ suggestions when it comes to your goods or services …and/or your business in general.

9. Ask for alone-time - Some need to be in “the zone” to get their clients’ work done, but they can’t get in “the zone” until they’re get off the phone. Feel free to ask your clients’ for some alone time to work on their project; that is, so you can deliver spectacular results, of course!

10. Ask for their business! - I see too many freelancers miss out on this one! Imagine a guy in the Starbucks line says to you, “I really need to get some content going for my site. I suck as a writer, but perhaps the coffee will help.” You are a freelancing writer. How do you respond: A) Nod your head and say, “Understandably, I feel ya.” B) “I am a writer.” C) “Perhaps I can help! I am a freelance writer, and I specialize in helping those who can’t write. And you can save on that coffee bill too!” Please tell me you were thinking option C.

11. Ask for feedback -Always get feedback from a client. Try getting it in writing, if at all possible. One great way to do this is by creating a survey that you present to all your clients at the end of each project. At the end of each year, you may notice some real patterns emerging.

12. Ask for your payment - Your client has accepted your product, said thank you and… forgotten payment. Ask for it. You did the work and there is no reason to shy away. Obviously, you should approach this with some tact. I don’t recommend, a “Hey Jerk, -you owe me money” approach. I would try a more- “I am so glad you liked my work. Here is an invoice reminder” angle.

13. Ask for their Linked-In Add -Linked-In is a great professional network building tool. If you don’t already have a profile, I suggest you create one and keep racking up those contacts. BONUS: Your contacts (including clients) can leave testimonials about you on your profile page!

14. Ask for a bonus - Here is how this dialogue should go — “Let me ask you Jim. If I absolutely BLOW you away with my work. And I mean, this is better than sliced bread, -would you consider a bonus?”

15. Ask for future contracts - Your work has been beautiful. So, don’t walk away empty handed. “Sally, I really enjoyed working on this project. Can I now consider myself your go-to guy for design?”

16. Ask for their email address - It’s a simple request, but it’s always best to have your client’s email address handy.

17. Ask for references - Yes, ask your CLIENT for references. Do they seem the slightest bit shady? Does your intuition feel a little wobbly?” Ask them if they have worked with any other freelancers before and how their experience was. If they give you a long list with awful reasons, think twice before accepting their work.

18. Ask for a “shout-out” - Does your client have an e-Zine or a newsletter? Perhaps they have a blog? Ask for a shout-out to on their list. If they liked your work, most will be happy to comply.

19. Ask for tips - Let’s say your client is a successful business owner. You admire their work. Now, ask them for tips on how to do the same for your business. Most clients will be flattered.

20. Ask for a better time-frame - So, you know from the get-go that a 500 page manual is not happening in 3 days. Ask the client for a better time-frame. In the end, you will be judged more on the quality of your work and your candidness than anything else.

21. Ask for their card to give out to your own network – Sometimes, you have to ask before you can give. Always ask for their business card. “Joe, can I please have 2 copies of your business card. I would also love to know who your ideal clients are so that I can recognize them when I see them.”

22. Ask for a phone number - Emails bounce, get lost, and end up in the spam folder. It happens. It’s always best to ask for a phone number in case of emergencies. Skype is also an alternative.

23. Ask for reconsideration - Let’s say you are a designer, and the client asks you for a logo with all the colors of the rainbow. As a designer, you can see what a crash and burn situation that would be. Ask them to reconsider. If you can find out their original goal for the logo, you may be able to help them from making a mistake.

24. Ask for ideas - Sure, you are the creative mastermind, but often clients also have some pretty snazzy ideas about what they want from their project. Be sure to hear them out before taking over the project.

25. Ask for a comment - Have a blog? Ask them to leave comments. It’s a great way to build community and keep in touch.

Shama Hyder is the chief marketing expert and founder of After The Launch. She helps independent professionals and professional service firms attract more clients. You can visit her website at http://www.AfterTheLaunch.com

Original post by FreelanceSwitch.com

You left the company because you were fed up with the hours, right? You wanted more freedom, more time at home and you didn’t want anyone telling you what to do anymore…so you started freelancing.

And now you spend more hours in front of your computer, constantly think about work and whilst you see the kids or your other half more frequently, you don’t really see them or spend ‘quality time’ with them - you’re too busy keeping clients happy.

Ok, ok - not everyone is in this situation with their freelancing business but I bet some of you are; and the other scenario is that you’re the kind of freelancer who now loves what you do so much, it doesn’t feel like work. You get so absorbed in what you’re doing that time passes in a blur and before you know it, it’s gone midnight; the problem here is that you find it difficult to let go and focus on anything else because it’s your passion.

Investing time in yourself and your wellbeing is a vital strategy for successful freelancers - you are your business. If something happens to you that’s it, there’s usually no back up.

Take a look at yourself right now….

Is your health currently suffering? Perhaps not in a major way but maybe just small niggles that are occurring, problems that have never been problems before. Are your relationships with the people who matter most suffering? Is your business suffering from the lack of time you spend on ‘you’?

If so, here are 12 tips to claw back a good measure of balance between your freelancing life and your other life:

#1 Remember your mission

Most of us go into freelancing to create a better life for ourselves and our families - whatever “better” means. Remembering what your motivation was to begin with can help you get things back in perspective, even if money was the motivator. Surely that money wasn’t for money’s sake but to be able to do something more with it?…Remind yourself what your ‘better’ life is and re-define your priorities if necessary.

#2 Set your boundaries

If you work from home as a freelancer, then you’ll know how easy it can be to let your office stuff creep into the rest of the house or vice versa. Setting physical boundaries for your work can help create psychological boundaries between your home life and your work life.

Once you’ve set them, share them; the boundaries will only work if everyone else is aware of them and sticks to them.

#3 Plan specific activities

It’s easy to say “I’ll just take a bit more time off” or to try to schedule your downtime in your diary but often, unless you have a specific activity planned to do in your downtime, the work will creep into that time and you end up telling yourself “It’s not worth stopping now, I may as well carry on”. Planning specific activities to do in your downtime - especially with other people - is a great way to stick to it.

Usually your work will expand to fill any time you have, scheduling specific activities gives you a deadline hopefully making your more productive knowing you’re going to have to stop at a given time.

#4 Get hired help

If you find yourself bogged down by all the administrative and non-client tasks, then consider getting some help. You can use a virtual assistant or pay someone local to help. Whilst it might seem like an unnecessary expense that you can do yourself, there’s a great thing a mentor once said to me that I always remember: “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”.

It’s a question of resources; you, the freelancer, are the most important resource your business has. Doing tasks which drain and distract you from the business of making money, however necessary the tasks are, is a poor allocation of your resources. Outsource these tasks to free up more of your time for play or to allow you to concentrate on the core activities that make your business tick.

#5 Maximize your efficiency and productivity during your working hours

Each of us has our own favorite productivity or GTD system; it’s a great idea once in a while to review it and see if you can make yourself or your system even more efficient.

I recently realized (and admitted to myself) that I spend far too much time reading through my feeds (all in the name of research, you understand) and checking out all my stats (all in the name of tracking and measuring, of course) which take up far too much of the time I’ve scheduled to write on blogs. As a consequence, I often end up writing blog posts late in the evening when ideally (from a health perspective), I should be winding down.

Identifying your time-wasters and productivity-destroyers is the first step to addressing them - this tool might help.

#6 Say “No!”

Too many clients, multiple offers to work on exciting projects, a list as long as your arm of your own pet projects…there is always something a freelancer can be working on. Learn how to be more selective about what you do and say “no” to everything else.

After realising I had over 7 rather large projects on my plate, I re-assessed, decided what I thought would be most fun to work on and ruthlessly cut them down to 3. Traveling the world as I do, means I often have far more exciting things I could be doing with my time that working; which means that the projects I do take on had better be even more exciting and inspiring than shark diving, lazing on a beach or wine tasting in South Africa’s wine region!

#7 Don’t dwell

The psychological impact of freelancing often means you’re constantly thinking about your work. It becomes much more of a personal thing (”your baby”) that it can be hard to switch off - especially when things have gone wrong. As a freelancer, even when you’re not actually working you may catch yourself dwelling on a mistake you’ve made, a missed opportunity that’s passsed or the next big project coming up.

Don’t dwell, identify what your ‘off’ switch is and use it….frequently. Maybe it’s exercise, maybe it’s a drink with a friend (just the one, mind you!) - whatever it is that helps you turn off the thoughts about work, do it and stop dwelling.

#8 Define the values in your life

What are the key things that mean the most to you in life? What do you value? If you’re not sure how to answer this, then try it this way: what would you miss the most if it were gone? Your answers might include health, family, your partner, your kids, your money, your home, your business.

Now if you were to prioritize them, what would your list look like? How much time do you spend nurturing and paying attention to the top few things on your list? Is the way you spend your time currently balanced to reflect the main priorities on your list?

#9 Sort your processes out

Inefficient business processes - the bane of many a freelancer’s life but what to do? Check out this post to make a start. Creating a standardised approach to do the most common tasks in your business is not only a great way to cut down wasted time in your business, it’s also a way of laying the foundations for getting in some help.

#10 Schedule family time

Like scheduling specific activities to do in your downtime, scheduling specific family time and activities is a good way to set more boundaries and be accountable to your family. This doesn’t have to be complicated, even sitting down for your evening meal together is enough.

#11 Practice extreme self-care

Taking care of yourself as a freelancer should be one of your top priorities. You are the most important asset your business has and if anything happens to you, your business is screwed. Extreme self care is a life coaching term and it’s basically a way of ‘topping up your well’ on a regular basis and creating an environment that nurtures you and your soul.

Extreme self care can mean choosing to do something on a regular basis that you might usually consider a luxury or a treat (a massage, a facial, a poker night) or it can mean doing something on a daily basis that you know energizes, inspires and nurtures you like calling your best friend for a good old chin wag or taking 10 minutes out to just sit in the sun (or wrapped up enjoying the frosty air) every day. It’s about building an activity into your routine that regularly energizes and inspires you.

#12 Know the signs and symptoms - prioritize your health before you lose it

The life of a freelancer can be a particularly unhealthy one with irregular routines, challenging deadlines, demanding clients and a general lack of focus on your health.

As a former health coach and personal trainer, I realized that the reason most people don’t focus on their health is that you never fully appreciate it until it’s gone and you’re suffering. The question is, how much do you have to suffer and how many signs and symptoms does your body need to give you before you’ll listen and take action?

If you suffer from any of these symptoms, then it’s a sign your body is not a happy bunny and you should start focusing more on your health:

• Fuzzy head and spacey feelings
• Needing coffee to get you going every day
• Cravings
• Poor sleep
• Niggling aches and pains
• Constant headaches
• Digestive problems
• Unwanted weight gain or weight loss

It’s an age old battle - getting the balance in your work and life that creates the optimum experience for everyone.

These tips mean nothing if two things aren’t in place: your acknowledgment that you don’t currently have balance in your life and your desire to create it. Work on those first and then try out the above and let us know how you get on…

Original post by FreelanceSwitch.com

With the start of the New Year upon us, the likelihood of you deciding to head off into Freelancing full-time may be tickling your senses. We understand your passion to make it on your own, and present our Top 10 Freelance Resolutions for this coming year. Already freelancing? Hopefully some of these concepts will help you recommit to your endeavor, and subsequently bring you success in the years to come.

1. Know Your Market

So you know what you like to do. Great. And you’ve put together a contract, and a list of contacts to help generate leads. But do you really know your market? Market research is an important aspect of getting your business rolling, but even more importantly, it is vital for future of your freelance career. If you don’t know your market, you don’t know what your competition is up to, or even who your potential customers are or will be. Do yourself a big favor and make this a priority.

2. Find a Mentor

The value of a business mentor is vastly underrated in the freelance world. In the corporate world, a good manager can serve as the mentor, providing tips, growth ideas, and support. As an entrepreneur, you need a mentor too. Who would this person be? A trusted business person who you want to develop a close (and free) relationship with in order to help develop your business and personal growth.

It is easy to believe that we are the only ones dealing with a specific issue, but a mentor can help you realize that the issue isn’t unique, and help you create a resolution. They’ve been there, done that, and have a network of contacts which can be a real life saver. Many local small business associations (SCORE, for a US example) provide this service if you are having trouble finding someone.

3. Set Small Goals

Your business plan helps to outline your overall goals. And you probably have some big goals in mind when it comes to your business. But did you know that by thinking about your goals, and then breaking them into a series of smaller goals that lead to the result, that you are more likely to succeed? This is true for a couple of reasons. First, it will make the tasks seem less intimidating. And if you aren’t intimidated, then you are less likely to make excuses for not completing said steps. Second, by creating a list of small goals, you are outlining the overall steps needed, and can check off those items as you make progress. In this fashion, just like packing for a long trip, you are unlikely to forget an important stage. Don’t be afraid to post these small goals where you, your family (and friends), and even mentor can see them. We’ll explain why in just a moment.

4. Listen More (Talk Less)

We all love to talk about our hopes, dreams, and accomplishments. But we can also provide so much information to a potential customer, that they lose track of what you are trying to express to them. Think about your business line and capabilities, and distill this into a 60 second blurb. Memorize, print out, and even post the blurb. Next time you have an opportunity to talk about your business, share this with the lead and then listen very carefully. If you’ve done things right, your future client will start telling you their hopes, dreams, and accomplishments, and will start thinking of ways that you can help them.

5. Treat Yourself

Have you met a goal? Did you bring on a new client? Be sure to treat yourself! It doesn’t need to be anything fancy or expensive, but make sure you reward your success. Positive reinforcement will help drive you on, and keep you passionate about what you are trying to do. If you are feeling down, and thinking about giving up on freelancing, consider what you’ve done in the past, and ask yourself if you made YOU happy during this process. If not, take a small break, get back into a positive mode, and then take another look at your freelancing career. We often spend so much time thinking about our customers and clients, that we neglect ourselves.

6. Don’t Dream of Success (Be a Success)

This one is simple: Stop dreaming of success and go be a success. Having your dreams is great, but if you aren’t doing anything about them, you won’t ever start achieving these wonderful passions. This is another great reason to have a mentor, as they can help keep you grounded so that your true potential can fly.

7. Find Inspiration

Jack London once said, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” In other words, find (or make) your own inspiration. Whether it be the art (audio or visual), a particular blogger or writer, or even something as simple as a goldfish in a bowl, create a list of things that drive you to continue, and when you are feel like you are stuck in a rut, pick an inspiration and use it to move yourself again.

8. Be Accountable

One of the hardest things, even for me, is accountability. You need to be accountable not just in business (such as the 60 second spot you need to create), but also in our personal lives. But once you’ve broken the barrier of potential embarrassment or shame, you will be a much stronger for the effort. Optimally, one would use both a spouse and mentor to act as accountability partners. A lot of churches can also help with the personal side too. Not married? Then use your mentor! Believe me, this sort of deep accountability will turn you into a more trustful and trustworthy individual, and will help provide a strong foundation for life as a whole.

9. Focus

After you’ve considered all the latter points, it is now time to focus. Hone your thoughts, actions, and passions so that you are living, breathing, and accomplishing your freelance dreams. Set aside an area through which you can focus on your list of small goals, and go after them. We want you to succeed - shouldn’t you want you to succeed too?

10. Quality of Living vs Quantity in Life

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