freelancing

Freelancers: How Do You Make Sure You Get Paid?

Allison Hemming on February 9, 2012

Freelancer Payment Protection Act, Freelancer's Union, freelancers, freelancing Comment

Earlier this week we asked you to familiarize yourself with the Freelancer Payment Protection Act and the Freelancers Union’s petition in support of it.

We ended up getting some great comments about it, and also got a whole lotta Twitter love. It seemed as if just about all of you had a story about getting stiffed as a freelancer — unfortunately, it almost goes with the territory. On the plus side, you’ve also given us some great ideas about how to avoid ever getting stiffed again, from basics about knowing your client to more advanced methods involving loan documents and copyright law (more on those later).

We’re not done yet, though — we also want ideas from The Hired Guns community-at-large. After all, it’s a pretty sure bet that all of us are going to spend some time in the free agent seat if we haven’t already. So let us know in the comments below, or on Facebook or Twitter:

What tactics do you use to make sure you get paid for the work you do as a freelancer?

Please take a minute to post your best-kept secret for how to get paid by a client who’s holding back the Benjamins and keeping you from putting food on the table. We’ll review the results and post a story that features the very best ideas!

What You Need to Know About the Freelancer Payment Protection Act

The Hired Guns on February 6, 2012

Freelancer Payment Protection Act, Freelancer's Union, freelancers, freelancing Comment

If you’re a freelancer and you don’t get paid, just about your only recourse (after the phone calls and emails and maybe even in-person visits) is small claims court — a time-consuming, frustrating place.

Our pals at the Freelancers Union hope to change that with the Freelancer Payment Protection Act, which would extend to independent contractors in New York State the protections and rights that those on salary already get from the Department of Labor.

The law, which passed New York assembly last June, still needs the state Senate’s approval and governor’s signature. If it passes, it will be the first such law in the U.S.

Freelancers: Just Where Did the Year Go? And What Are You Planning for 2012?

Beth Temple on December 21, 2011

freelancers, freelancing Comment

If you are like me, a solopreneuer, you get to the end of the year and wonder where where it all went. Hopefully you’ve been busy doing great work and enjoying making and keeping in touch with new connections, but you probably haven’t been thinking about how to wrap up the year. You’re not alone!

Here are four things you can do now to end the year on a high note:

Taxes: This is the time of the year you really need to start planning for your 2011 taxes. It’s best if you do it year-round, but we’re busy and often don’t keep up. Be sure you have all your receipts in order and you’ve got all your billings tallied. If you work with an accountant, be sure to schedule a December checkup to do some taxes preplanning. For instance, it may make sense to pay your state taxes for 2011 before January 15 in order to relieve some tax burden come April.

Freelancing in 2012? Here’s How to Get Started.

Beth Temple on December 1, 2011

Be Your Own Boss, freelancing Comment

The New Year is approaching, and it’s a perfect time to make a change. If the change you have in mind is from “corporate life” to “freelance life,” then you’ve stumbled on the right post to get you started.

Let’s start with the mechanics. Know who you are and what you are selling. Design. Marketing. Sales. It doesn’t matter what skill you are taking to market (and that is what you are doing) — you have to be sure you are exact in the telling. It has to be short and easy to transfer from human to human – this kind of selling is called referral sourcing. For example: “I specialize in SEO” is easy for people you meet to remember and to tell others about. “I specialize in SEO for big companies who are selling imported goods” is a lot harder. Take any leads you can get in your area of expertise — it’s better to be the filter than the drain.

To Stay Creative, Let “Preciousness” Go

Noah Scalin on September 26, 2011

creativity, perfectionism, productivity Comment

Next Monday, October 3, Noah Scalin will teach a Hired Guns Academy class on ways to stay creatively productive.

Are you a perfectionist like me? If you aren’t, I can almost guarantee your company or boss would like you to be one. This is a shame, because perfectionism is probably the biggest roadblock to innovation that you will ever encounter. In fact, letting go of perfectionism, or as I like to call it, preciousness, is the key to unlocking your creative potential.

Over the years we’ve been taught that it’s unacceptable to try out new things that could potentially fail because they will:
A. Waste Time
B. Waste Money
C. Get You Fired
D. All of The Above

So we’ve gotten into the habit of working safely within our comfort zones in order to avoid creating anything that’s less than perfect. This is fine for just getting by, but terrible for moving forward.

Bullet Points: Suboptimal Bosses and Clients; Making Time for Vacation

The Hired Guns on August 4, 2011

bullet points, design, freelancing, work politics Comment

Are you a freelancer? Mashable talks about how to deal with bad clients. On staff? The Vault has some tips on bad bosses.
Core 77 taps $7 tool for carrying heavy loads as the year’s best product design. [FastCo Design]
“Hooray! I’ve been exposed to this message enough to move from awareness to consideration” and other Things Real People Don’t Say About Advertising.
Have you gone on vacation this summer or are you about to? Our pals at The Energy Project are running a campaign to encourage folks to use all their vacation days. By merely committing to take time off, you can win a coaching session with TEP’s founder, Tony Schwartz. Head to the The Energy Project’s Facebook page to enter.
Utilizing the power of recycling in web design. [Smashing Mag.]
“Can freelancers be friends?” “No. Warriors don’t befriend enemies on the battlefield, do they?” says Susannah Breslin.
A headline we didn’t think we’d read today (or any day): “Stoned wallabies blamed for crop circles. More at the BBC. [Alltop]

Google’s Eight Best Tools for Online Creators

Daryl Lang on July 1, 2011

Google, SEO, technology, websites Comment

At Google, some very bright engineers are working tirelessly to make sure everything you do all day somehow involves one of their products. It’s a little bit scary. Fortunately, lots of Google’s valuable tools are available for free, to help anybody learn from the vast volumes of data the company collects. So if you’re working on an online marketing campaign, building a blog, or just maintaining your personal website, you should put Google to work for you.

As someone who writes a blog about copywriting, I find Google beyond helpful in tracking how people use language. Here’s a list of my eight favorite Google bookmarks, going from serious and pragmatic on to fun and frivolous.

Google Analytics

Thanks to its longevity, reliability, and unbeatable price (free), Google Analytics is the standard way that many of us measure website traffic. It takes some technical aptitude to set it up, but when you get it humming, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

Google Webmaster Tools

This is Google’s way of showing you how its search engine analyzes and crawls your site. Again, it takes a little bit of technical work to set it up. But if you’re trying to attract search engine traffic, it’s worth your time to understand Google Webmaster Tools.

Working Girl: Why I Returned to Full Time

Homegirl on June 9, 2011

freelancing, work/life balance Comment

After getting through the Game of Thrones winter we just had, I didn’t really care that I was broke and with no prospects. As long as I had my bike and enough money for rent, cable, electricity, and dog food, I was good to go. I wanted out of my apartment. I wanted to burn my winter clothes on the beach, in a huge effigy to the evil god of winter.

Yet just as the days got longer and warm enough to hint that it actually may not snow again, I got a job offer. A full-time job offer from a very generous friend who owns a digital design agency. The fact is, I didn’t really have the money to pay the aforementioned bills, so this offer couldn’t have come at a better time, financially speaking. (But summer, my sweet summer!) I took the job. Alas, the dog has to eat. And I have to watch Game of Thrones.

Freelancing? Get Some Stability with a Portfolio Career

David Holloway on May 23, 2011

career management, freelancing, portfolio careers Comment

This Wednesday, May 25, David Holloway will be teaching a Hired Guns Academy class on How to Develop a Portfolio Career. Below he explains how this method can remove the ups and downs that come with a typical freelance career.

“Freelancing” is one of those amorphous terms that mean different things to different people. So here’s what I mean when I use the word: Freelancing is where you’re primarily working alone, using one main skill to generate a service offering that you are deploying outside of full-time employment. For example, photographers, graphic designers, social media consultants, and independent marketing professionals are often freelancers.

The freelance career approach can definitely work, and if you’re in a good place with it, more power to you. But in the coaching work I do, I constantly hear about three main challenges with this type of career:

Because freelancers often focus on one main skill area, they are vulnerable to changes in the marketplace–a steep revenue drop or the appearance of a new competitor, for example. When you’re only “eating what you kill” and you only eat one kind of food, some scary scenarios are possible. Consider the vulnerability of freelance writers, already struggling to make sufficient income, who are now being forced to compete with online writers who contribute work for a share of ad revenue–or who even write for free. This challenge seems to be growing by the day, and there’s no end in sight.

Homegirl at Work: The Freaks Come Out at Noon

Homegirl on May 12, 2011

freelancing, work/life balance Comment

When I worked in an office, the commute absolutely killed me. (Let me clarify that my last full-time job was a whopping nine blocks from my apartment.) There was just something so robotic and depressing about riding the elevator with the same sad drones every day. Getting watery coffee from the same cranky deli guy. Seeing the same tired souls dragging their asses to those lonely gray cubicles. Heavy sigh.

Now that I’m a “homey,” I come and go as I please, and I love it. While the rest of you are counting the minutes to your next Starbucks run and fantasizing about what to order from Chipotle for lunch, I get to see who is roaming the city in the light of day. I am always discovering new and interesting people, and let me tell you this–the freaks come out at noon.

Page 1 of 312 3 »

Gunsworthy

The Hired Guns Blog

Topics

Authors

Archive

freelancing

Freelancers: How Do You Make Sure You Get Paid?

What You Need to Know About the Freelancer Payment Protection Act

Freelancers: Just Where Did the Year Go? And What Are You Planning for 2012?

Freelancing in 2012? Here’s How to Get Started.

To Stay Creative, Let “Preciousness” Go

Bullet Points: Suboptimal Bosses and Clients; Making Time for Vacation

Google’s Eight Best Tools for Online Creators

Google Analytics

Google Webmaster Tools

Working Girl: Why I Returned to Full Time

Freelancing? Get Some Stability with a Portfolio Career

Homegirl at Work: The Freaks Come Out at Noon

Gunsworthy

THG @SXSW: Salary Negotiation Secrets No One Ever Taught You
by Jim Hopkinson

Why Modern Marketers Need to Do More Than Just “Love Data”
by Tom Burg

THG @SXSW: Revealing Design’s True Power
by Jeff Gothelf

About The Hired Guns

Press

Contact Us

The Hive