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48 Mind-Blowing Ideas and Designs

Posted October 1, 2008 in freelancenews Add Comment »

48 Mind-Blowing Ideas and Designs
We wanted to present innovative designs and concepts that give us an idea of what we should expect from designer’s creative mind over the years to come.

Top 7 Most Cliché Stock Images Used in Web Design

Posted October 1, 2008 in freelancenews Add Comment »

Top 7 Most Cliché Stock Images Used in Web Design
Sometimes clients ask us to implement ‘not-so-unique’ elements into our designs and sometimes it seems almost impossible to convince them otherwise, however, hopefully this post can suggest some reasons why not to use the old web design stock imagery clichés.

Copyrights and Wrongs Part 1: Getting Clients and Creatives On The Same Page

Posted October 1, 2008 in freelancenews Add Comment »

Copyrights and Wrongs Part 1: Getting Clients and Creatives On The Same Page
Copyright law might be one of the most misunderstood areas of creative services, representing a giant hole of knowledge for both the creative and the client.

The Freelancer’s Introduction to CRM

Posted October 1, 2008 in Business, Tools/Resources 12 Rockin' Comments »

It’s a freelancer’s worst nightmare: losing the contact information of a potential customer worth thousands of dollars. No matter how the situation happened, you’ll wind up going crazy trying to track down that info.

It can get worse, too: maybe you had made some notes about the specifics of the project. Maybe they were on the back of the business card you can’t find, but, wherever you are, you’re going to look disorganized when you ask for those details again.

Want to wake up from this nightmare? Want an easy way to keep track of your customers and their information? You need a CRM system — aka Customer Relationship Management.
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How To Get Your Clients To Respect Your Time

Posted September 30, 2008 in Productivity 6 Rockin' Comments »

Last week you discovered the cure for “scope creep” as you learned how to set boundaries with your clients up front (and said goodbye to awkward client conversations forever). 

Now you’re ready to dive into an equally thorny area — how to get your clients to respect your time and honor the boundaries you set on email, phone and in-person communication. 

If you don’t nail this up front, you’re asking for a world of hurt down the road as needy clients suck away more and more of your precious, billable time.  Make sure that never happens again by mastering the basic communication policies that every freelancer should have.  We’ll start with email today.
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Open Thread: How Do You Deal With the Paperwork? (Administrative Stuff)

Posted September 29, 2008 in Business, Lifestyle, Open Thread 20 Rockin' Comments »

A few weeks ago on FreelanceFolder we asked you to tell us about your least favorite part of freelancing. We had a lot of different comments, but the most disliked by far was anything having to do with administration or paperwork.

“invoicing would have to be my least favorite part” — Adelle

“The administrative stuff. Invoicing, taxes, paying contractors, etc. All the awful, horrid, non-billable stuff.” — Tim Grahl

“The admin, the admin - invoicing, chasing clients for payments, renegotiating because the client has changed the specs, and all forms of paperwork.” — Sharon Hurley Hall

Freelancers seem to universally dislike the administrative stuff — but given that it is a necessary evil, how do you make it work? Do you have any tricks or tools that make it easier? Do you just bite the bullet and take care of it manually?

Tell us your paperwork secrets in the comments below, and feel free to pose a specific task or problem and ask for some ideas.

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