Of course you can look for another job, but in these economic unstable times it’s hard to find a new job. You could also take all your skills and start your own business as a freelancer. In every economic downturn you will see the same thing, people start their own freelance business, because they can’t find a new job or they think — because they are already out of work — that this is the time to for fill their dream.

If you say “yes” to the follow questions than maybe being in freelance business is something for you:

• Do you have a skill that is marketable in today’s economy?
• Do you have potential clients?
• Can you sell yourself?
• Do you have enough money to live on while you market your new business?
• Do you know how to use the Internet as a business tool?
• Do you have perseverance to do what is necessary?

Below you’ll find some tips you should look at if you’re considering a freelance career:

1. Interviewing Skills

You’ll need to brush up on you interviewing skills. Of course you’ve interviewed for jobs before, but this is not just another job interview. In a one-man freelance company you are the sales manager and everything else. Your interview is sales presentations; why should the company hire you to do that job, what skills do you bring, etc and you need to be convincing.

2. Sales Skills are Vital for Business

Everyone who wants to become a freelancer has to recognize that your sales skills are very important. Maybe more important than any other skill! For instance many technical workers would rather sit all day behind a computer rather than networking, meeting people/clients, visit sales event or do other business functions. As a one-man company you can never stop selling, because without it you won’t have any project. Without new projects you won’t have an income. You may not have been born with sales skills, but they can be learned! Check out classes on sales techniques at your nearest university or community college if necessary.

3. Selling while Serving Clients

The freelancers that have new projects lined up after one-project ends will succeed in their business. This means that you can’t ignore your sales role even when you are servicing a client. You do have to do both at the same time!

4. Get a Website

Every freelancer has to have a website, even if you do nothing online or IT related! On this website you place a portfolio of your best work. Also don’t forget to add contact information on this site. (Make sure that you keep the contact information up-to-date, because you don’t want to lose a client because of wrong contact information.) Make sure that the website looks professional!

5. Let People Know

Let everyone know that you are in business for yourself or that you are considering starting a freelance business. Make a business card and hand it out at every opportunity you’ve got (even when the business is not up and running yet.)

6. Community

Make yourself visible in your field and in online communities. Always enter relevant answers and try to become an expert to people. This is a great way to land a new client.

7. Rally Support

Ask your spouse, friends and family for support. You need these people behind you before you start your endeavor, because it can get very lonely as a freelancer.

Original post by MoneyAside.com

Laid-Off Recently? Start your Own Business

There are several online companies that are easing the transition to a freelance economy for workers and employers. Freelancers in a wide range of fields can use sites like Elance or Guru to advertise their work and bid on jobs. Of course, employers also use these sites to find contract workers.

Especially in tough times you will see a steady growth of new freelancers. This is not surprising, because when résumés and applications go unanswered then people have to search something for themselves and become self-employed. You can see them as accidental entrepreneurs.

But not only people that can’t find a “normal job” turn to freelancing. There is also large group of people who have a day job but are looking to make some spare cash in their spare time.

There are also more and more stay-at-home moms who are searching for part-time work to make an additional income for the family and most of them use the Internet to do this.

The Internet has given people an extraordinary tool not just to bid on jobs-sites such Elance or Guru but also to create their own marketing vehicle. For instance with an own website and online portfolio, and to do all kinds of other functions on the cheap: keeping the books, online banking, interacting with customers (email, chat, video chat), etc. These days every freelancer should at least have a website with a portfolio, even if they not use the Internet for their job-search.

To make use of sites like Elance or Guru the employers need to pay them. Most of these freelancer sites take or charge employers a commission, often 5 to 10 percent. Elance deducts between 6.75 and 8.75 percent from the payment, covering both its service fee and credit card costs. Guru charges a 10% fee or 5% fee for premium members (you also need to pay to become a premium member.)

Original post by MoneyAside.com

In tough Times more Freelancers Turn to the Web

Many freelancers dread rejection. There are even freelancers that change their proposal in fear of rejection. Why? Because people take rejections as a personal failure! But you have to remember, the customer doesn’t reject you, they are rejecting your offer. Every freelancer has undergone a rejection, so don’t fear them.

Below you will find 8 common reasons why a business doesn’t want to hire you:

1. There is no budget for the price you are asking.
2. They just found someone else with a simular offer and hired that person.
3. Your offer doesn’t meet their expectations.
4. They don’t know you so they are not sure if they should hire you.
5. They have other priorities for instance buy new office equipment.
6. Someone of the management has promised the account to someone else.
7. They don’t know what to expect from you.
8. There is no click during the interview. That’s why they have the idea you won’t fit in the team.

So don’t fear rejection, as you can see there are many reasons why a potential customer won’t hire you. You should instead ask yourself the question “What can I change or improve, so the next time the customer will hire me?”

Work on your knowledge, your skills and of course your marketing skills (see number 7 en 8, they have a lot to do with marketing and how you present yourself.)

Remember rejection is almost never personal, just business!

Original post by MoneyAside.com

8 Reasons Why a Business won’t want to Hire You

Wikipedia on Intellectual Property

For a basic introduction on intellectual property law you can look at the intellectual property Wikipedia.

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)

The electronic frontier foundation or EFF in short is one of the organizations that are paying close attention to what’s going on. You’ll find information on copyright, intellectual property law, case law summaries, white paper, news and much more on their website.

Intellectual Property Mall-Pierce Law Center

On this site you can find a huge library of articles and links. They have information on intellectual property, copyrights and many other subjects. They provide also training on Intellectual Property.

United States Patent and Trademark office

The United States Patent and Trademark office has a wealth of information for small businesses that has to deal with trademark, patent, intellectual property issues. A must see!

Findlaw

To find a specific intellectual property law can be a hard task. Take a look at the findlaw website they have a specific page on intellectual property.

Conclusion
This are just a few of the many websites on intellectual property law and patents, they should be able to help you on your way.

Original post by MoneyAside.com

Intellectual Property Resources for Business Owners

Benefits of Expanding
There are some benefits of expanding from a solo freelancer to a team. For instance:

1. Problem solving becomes easier, because there will probably more talent in the team.

2. Your team can probably get nicer projects then before. Most companies won’t give larger projects to a solo freelancer. Projects are normally given to a business that can put more then one person on the project.

3. The head of a team makes probably more money.

4. You can schedule vacations, because there is someone who can take over when you take your vacation.

But the transition from a freelancer to a business owner and head of a team can be very hard. The failure rate of people who made the transition from a solo freelancer to small business owner is very high. A lot of freelancers who are attempting to expand by hiring employees find themselves facing cash-flow problems. The result is most of time that they have to disassemble the team and go back to being a solo freelancer or even worse, going back to work for a company.

Why Does this Happen?
A failure in planning is most of the time the problem. Every time you hire a new employee, you will see a dip in your earnings before you will see a rise. The problem is that most freelancers don’t anticipate and thus don’t plan for this dip. The result is a cash-flow problem.

1. Cash-flow problems start as soon as you hire your first employee, because your overhead increase as you will have to pay this new employee a salary. Most of the time the new employee won’t bring in any money in the first couple of weeks.

2. You also have to train this new employee in your rules, procedures and systems. The result is that you don’t have less time than before. The bad thing is that you needed that time to search for a project for the new employee and do your own projects to bring in money.

Getting Past this Dip
The question is how to get past this dip and how to succeed in turning a freelancing business into successful business. Below you will find some of the solutions.

• A good mindset, a winner’s mentality, is vital. The people who won’t give up are the people who most likely will succeed. You will probably have some problems along the way and may even think about quitting. Only the people who have the right mindset will overcome these problems.

• Training Solution. Planning is everything and you should therefore plan before you hire. Good and early preparation is vital. For instance you should create training material before you hire your first employee. This will save you time, the time you need to get past the first initial dip. Create process maps in a step-by-step format for everything a new employee should do or could come across. Also “how to” videos can help new employees.

• Cash-flow Solution. Again good planning vital. Therefore you should plan ahead to prevent the cash-flow problem. Start saving money before you hire a new employee. Make sure you have enough saving to pay at least six months of salary for the new employee. (A year would be even better.) This will help you get past the dip. Also you should only hire people on a probationary basis. If things don’t work out, you can let them go more easily!

• New Projects. You should also have projects lined up before you hire a new person. Timing is everything. For instance you have done all the things described above and are planning to hire a new employee. Then the time to hire a new employee is for example right after you’ve landed a big project. This way the new employee generates income right away. Don’t see a big project in the future then make sure you have a couple of small projects lined up, at least a months work. This will give you some time to find other work for the new employee.

Once you are past the first dip, things should go better. Remember it’s also a learning process for yourself, so it will take time for you to adjust to being a business owner and being a manager to employees.

Original post by MoneyAside.com

From being a Freelancer to a Business Owner

The Unknown Face
Every client likes to know with whom they are doing business. With a blog or a website you can do just that. Make it easy for the client to find out more about you. A freelance blog is like having your own advertisement space, so put photo of yourself, some relevant information and some work examples on your blog. This way the client can easily find out with whom they are dealing with.

Providing Examples
Whether you have your own client list or bid on one of the many freelance exchange sites, many of the new clients want to see some example of your previous work. So make a portfolio on your blog or website with some of your best work. This way you only have to give the ‘new clients’ the URL to your portfolio, if they ask for examples of your work. A good and balanced portfolio can help tremendously in getting that new job!

Hone Writing Skills
In whatever freelance field you’re in, there will come a time that you have to write something for a client, whether it is a technical manual or accompanying letter. Writing regular blog posts will help you to hone your writing skills. Good writing skills will help you communicate more effectively if a client asks you to write something for them.

Knowledge up-to-date
What every freelancer needs is up-to-date knowledge. Of course you could do some regular research on specific topics, but it easier to write some posts about these topics. It not only helps you to keep your knowledge up-to-date, but also helps to hone your writing skills the same time. And lets face, it’s far easier to remember something if you have written about it. So start writing some ‘How to’ posts for your blog!

Establish a Brand
Having a blog or website will help you with establishing a brand, if of course you add new material regularly.  A little example; if you are a programmer and post regularly new ‘How to’ (and they are good of course) people will begin to see you as an expert. Then your brand becomes; expert programmer that you can hire.

Conclusion
So start building your own website or setup your own blog. Make a portfolio and write some ‘How to’ in you freelance field of interest. This way you can establish your self as an expert and land that big new client!

Original post by MoneyAside.com

Why Every Freelancer Should Have a Blog!

1. AutoHotkey
Autohotkey is a free application for Windows that let you assign text to hotkeys. The tool has its own programming language to create macros. For example:

:: br::Best Regards

Every time you type ‘br’ the text will be replaced with ‘Best Regards’. After a while you have your own set of macro’s that makes writing much faster.

2. TextExpander
Textexpander is Mac application that also replaces pieces of text after hitting certain hotkey. Note: this application is not free. They also have a tool Snippetgroups that can be used with HTML and CSS code.

3. Fingertips
Fingertips is also a free Windows application that also replaces pieces of text after hitting certain hotkey.

4. Typeitin
Typeitin is a Windows application that uses button to put in certain text. This application is not free. They have also a pro-version of this software that let you use piece of text over a local network.

5. Activewords
Activewords is also a Windows application that can do many things more than just replacing text. ActiveWords enables you to work faster and more efficiently by turning everything you type in Windows into actions! Teach ActiveWords to assist you in completing all of your most common tasks in record time. Also this application isn’t free ($50), but you can automate almost everything.

Do you use a different or similar tool on Windows that make your writing faster then please leave a comment!

Original post by MoneyAside.com

Write Faster and more Efficiently with these 5 Tools

Today we look at 4 ideas to increase the earnings of a freelancer:

1. Premium
As in every field there is also a group of freelancers that are charging a lot more than everyone else. There are even freelancers that make two or three times more than every other freelancer in the same field. (There are also a lot of freelancers that are asking to little for their work.)

To ask for such premium rate you need of course have the skill level to go with it. This means that you have to ask yourself if you have the required knowledge (and if not what you can do to obtain the necessary knowledge.)

If you think that you possess the necessary knowledge you should determine your new freelance price. Of course you should be careful that you don’t ask too much and drive away customers. (Remember that sometimes loosing a low paying customer isn’t that bad, as long if you find a new one that is willing to pay the new rate. But you need to be careful that you don’t drive all the customers away!)

2. Expand your Business
A good way to increase your income is by expanding your business. We know that for most freelancers expanding is not a priority, but if you want to earn more then this is one option.

Many freelancers don’t have the time to do more work (there are only so much hours in a day), so to take on extra work you need to change your business and hire extra help. You have to be aware of the fact that changing from freelance work (where you are the only employee) to a business with employees is a major step. It will take you a lot of time and effort, but you will normally earn a lot more than the average freelance income, but you have to remember that the risks are also greater. (Write a business plan for the new business and also try to make use of business systems to automate work.)

3. Passive Income
Passive income is the holy grail of the online business world and who wouldn’t have an income without doing much work. (We would!) But of course finding or creating a passive income stream is much more difficult than most people think and for those who think that a passive income stream doesn’t require any work, they are wrong!

For those who don’t know what a passive income stream is, take a look at an example: suppose you have written novel. If you can find a publisher who wants to publish the book, then you have a passive income stream. In most cases you get a percentage of every sale. (As you can see the work that you have to do is of course writing a novel and finding a publisher, but after that you get payed without doing any more work.)

4. Sell Informational Products
Another way to make more money is by selling your knowledge. You could for instance write or create an informational product and try to sell it online (or even better, use affiliates to sell your product for you.)

We know that some people have given the info products business a bad name, but if you make sure your product is of a very good product you can make a lot of money online!

Where do you stand?
We have looked at four ideas to increase the earnings of the average freelancer, but there most be many more. Please, share your knowledge and ideas with us and the rest of the readers by leaving a comment!

Original post by MoneyAside.com

Earning More than the Average Freelancer

So if you love photography that much as a hobby, why don’t you try to make a career out of it?

What is Freelance Photography?
This is simple. A freelance photographer is someone who gets paid for the photos that he or she takes. First of all a freelancer is independent and doesn’t have a boss (of course a client can determine some terms, but the freelancer determines if he/she want to take on the project.) A freelancer can do projects for client or take photos and then ask clients if they want to buy them.

Learning to Take Good Photo
The success of your freelance photography career all depends on quality of the photos you take. So, maybe it is wise to take some courses in photography. You could for instance:

• Go to school to get a degree in the art of photography.
• Follow some classes in your local community centre or college.
• Follow an online course.
• Etc

The course you should take will all depend on the level of experience you already have.

Tip: you should follow one of the many groups online dedicated to photography and freelance photography.

Building a Portfolio
A portfolio will show samples of your work and every freelance photographer needs one.

Even if you never have published anything, you still need a set of your best photos in a portfolio.

A portfolio is a dynamic thing; photos are taken out and put in. So, don’t forget to update several times a year, especially if you also have an online portfolio. (The online portfolio and off line portfolio should be the same.) And remember only your best work should be in your portfolio, not only the published once.

How to find work
Because you are a freelancer you have to find your own clients. There are several (parallel) roads you can follow to find some photography work:

• Bid on projects on one of the many freelance job websites.
• Submit photos to your local paper.
• Submit photos to magazines.
• Sell your photos online on your own website.
• Sell your photos online on one of the many photo selling services. Take look at this article Sell your Photos Online for more info.
• Etc.

Note: with parallel we mean that you can do several of the described options above at the same time.

Don’t expect to make it big time right away. Only a few people will make it to the absolute top, but you can still make a nice living from freelance photography.

Original post by MoneyAside.com

How to Begin a Career as a Freelance Photographer

But with the large number of websites that are launched every day the demand for online graphics art and photo’s is also growing. The market is always looking for creative graphic artist and designers. If you are a person that possess the skills of creating and manipulating graphics or photo’s then you can make money online by selling your skills as a freelancer. If you try it (maybe part-time at first) you will see that there is a lot of money to be made on the internet.

There are several types of graphics you can create and make money online with:

1. Banners
Banners are normally image ads. These banner ads are normally used to promote your own website, products or service on other websites (payed links or not.) The size of a banner ad may vary, so the price that you can ask may vary also.

2. Headers
A header is situated at the top of a web page. Most websites owners use them. A header can contain photos, graphics, titles, logos or whatever the website publisher wants. Of course you can make the header yourself, but not all website publishers are as creative as a graphics artist so normally they will out source it. And this is where you can make money online as a graphics artist.

3. Logos
Also the making and selling of logos is a good online business. Normally a logo is situated in the header of the web page or blog. A good logo can determine the strength of a brand, so it is better if it is created by a professional.

4. eBook-Covers
There are many internet marketers that sell information products such as e-books or reports online. As with a normal book it is better that a cover is used for promotion reasons. A good cover can help to sell the information product. As with logos, you make the covers yourself but you better let it created by a professional.

5. Sales Page Graphics
Good graphics can help you sell products, so most businesses use graphics on their sales pages. Examples of graphics used on sales pages are headers, buttons, logos and graphics pictures that enhance the text.

How much can you charge a client?
This is a good question, but the answers that is not that simple. It all depends on the size, complexity of the graphic, your skills, your reputation in the industry or whatever people are willing to pay for it. Normally people pay on per project basis.

Below you will find some amounts you could ask for a specific type of graphic:

• Banners – between $5 and $50
• Header – between $10 and $100
• Cover – between $15 and $100
• Sales page graphics – between $50 and $250 for a set (logo, buttons, supplement graphics)
• Logo – between $50 and $500

Note: that it can be higher or lower then these amounts. See the dependencies described above.

If you have a good reputation in the industry as a very good graphics freelancer you can make more money online then the amounts mention above.

You can find graphics work to make money online on one of the many freelance service website, such as getafreelancer.com, elance.com, guru.com, etc, etc. Tip: take a look at other graphics artist bids before you place a bid, you don’t want to bid to low and do all the hard work and don’t make a profit!

Original post by MoneyAside.com

Creating Graphics for Websites to Make Money Online