1. We are all Hired Guns now.
You are the master of your own career. It’s no secret that company loyalty is dead. Along with it died the notion that someone else was going to take care of us. For the last 50 years employees have outsourced career ownership to their bosses; the trade seemed fair when security was on offer. Without that available, there’s a trade imbalance between employees and companies, which is why everything is out of whack.

It’s time to reclaim the management of your own career. This includes setting your course, getting the training you need (on your company’s dime if you can, on your own if you have to), enhancing your personal brand, and building a network of colleagues and mentors — your “people.” And most important, be extremely aware of what your competition’s up to.

2. Be ready to be your own boss.
If you had to, would you be ready to go freelance at a moment’s notice? From where I sit, most people are not. This should terrify you. The more senior you get, the harder it is to land that next full-time job. According to a recent New York Times op-ed (“The Disaster of Human Unemployment“), a “worker between ages 50 and 61 who has been unemployed for 17 months has only about a 9 percent chance of finding a new job in the next three months.” And given the speed at which skills in the tech industry become obsolete, you can bet that the age range for most of us is much, much lower.

Consulting fills gaps and enhances expertise. Instead of shaking in your boots, put your fear to good use and do the up-front work before you actually lose your job. Consider how you would package your skills into a consulting offering. And ask yourself if that’s what the market needs. If not, you may need to adapt your expertise, which could take a matter of months or years. Career management takes planning and purpose.

Unlike full-time hires, which companies generally fill with people who can do a lot of different things, consultants are usually hired as experts. Put yourself on a path to building a framework around your expertise. This includes understanding any skill gaps that would prevent you from being a top-notch consultant on the free market. And even if you don’t need to hang out your own shingle immediately, you’ll still be able to start freelancing at a moment’s notice. This will both help preserve your income-earning potential and (more important) keep your skills relevant and intact.

3. Moonlighting: back with a vengeance.
Speaking of expertise and income, a great way to super-size both is to take on a gig while you’re still at a full-time job. This is exactly what more and more workers are doing. Doing so allows you to test the free-agency waters without the risks inherent in quitting.

Not sure how you’d go about creating a consulting career of your own, or even how to start thinking about it? Join us at The Hired Guns Academy this Wednesday, May 16, for Freelance Success: Independence, Not Insecurity. In this info-packed class, the seasoned digital strategist Beth Temple will break down all the hard-won tips she knows for making self-employment sustainable and fun (as well as lucrative).

Are you thinking about taking the freelance plunge yourself? Or are you already freelancing, and looking for strategies to grow the number of your clients — and your bank account? Our Hired Gun Coach, the digital strategist Beth Temple, will be teaching a class this Wednesday, May 16, for freelancers at all stages of their career: Freelance Success: Independence, Not Insecurity.

Previous freelancing tips from Beth:

• Show Me the Money: How to Price Your Work (and Get Paid for It)
• Flextime: How to Bend (Not Break!) in Today’s Turbulent Workplace
• Why I Went Out on My Own

It’s no surprise that the two most common questions I get in my class are about how to price yourself and how to get paid. Although we are in it for the love, love can’t buy food and shelter, or a ticket to a movie now and again.

Let’s start with how to price your work. There are three main ways to price: by hour, by project, or via a retainer. There are reasons to use each of them, but it often comes down to how your client wants to pay. I find that out of the three, usually the most comfortable for both parties is a project fee, in which the project itself is very definable by time, effort, and deliverable.

We know the hard part is actually getting a number to put on the page. There are calculations you can do that equate an hourly rate to your most recent salary and also include a percentage for benefit costs (i.e., paying for your own health care). If you don’t know what your salary would be, Salary.com has a great calculator that takes into account your profession and regional factors. There is also a longer form to vet out what your hourly rate would be at FreelanceSwitch. Another informal way is to ask friends who may have already hired people with jobs similar to yours: what do they typically pay for your level of talent?

If it is your first pricing out of the box, know that you’ll get it wrong. It takes some time to really have a sense of what the right price is and how much time you actually are working for that price. The one thing I have found to be the most helpful is to keep track of the hours I work on a daily basis. I separate the hours by client and I take notes not just of the time spent but what I’ve done during that time (i.e., answering email, preparing the deck).

In the 14 years I’ve been my own boss I haven’t stopped doing this, and every time I learn something new that helps with the next proposal.

Once you have a price and are putting it into some type of an agreement (I usually present a “scope of work” and then put a final version into contract form), you should set the terms of the payment so you know when you’ll get paid. It is customary to ask for anything from 30% to 50% up front, at the signing of the contract (this may be the first 30 days of projected hourly work). For bigger contracts, which use project fees, you may want to break up payments by key deliverables at midway (25%) and at closing (25%). If you are billing by the hour, invoice at least every 30 days and note on the billing that the amount is due in 30 days.

Sounds easy, right? What you really want to know is what do you do when you actually don’t get paid. For most contractors, this is a risk we take. To lower the risk, talk up front at the contract signing about the expectations of payment. Granted, this can be hard and uncomfortable at first, but it is worth it in the long run. The professionalism you put forth in the beginning is your best defense. For some of us, money is hard to talk about — you have to get over that mental hurdle (usually losing some money is the best elixir).

There will be times, of course, when payments don’t come in at the 30-day mark –- address it immediately (give or take 3–5 days past). If it goes to 45 days, I usually have a conversation about stopping my work. After 60 days my client is usually in violation of the contract, and I have to make the decision of whether or not to use a collector to go after them once 90 days have gone by. This is a personal decision — you need to weigh the time and effort required, and the likely return.

Having said all this, the threat of not getting paid shouldn’t stop you from reaping all the benefits of being out on your own. Yes, it happens. No, it is not fun. But the best tools to work with are being up-front about expectations, being professional about your requests, and working in a manner that creates the value you are receiving.

(It’s impossible to get everything into one blog post. So here is what’s not in this post, but is covered in my class next week….)

1) The different variables that go into pricing.
2) The other ways to price your work (i.e., day rates, etc.).
3) When to use hourly vs. project vs. retainer fees.
4) Working as part of a team, as a subcontractor.
5) How to write a detailed agreement to mitigate time overruns.
6) What benefit costs to factor into your fees.

[Photo: Nic McPhee/Flickr]

Becoming a mom is a pivot point in many women’s careers. We believe that through great coaching, mentorship, and community, career missteps can be averted in favor of successful work/life balance. At tonight’s event, we’re hoping that our panelists will help unlock some smart strategies for getting ahead — at whatever stage you are on on your working-mom journey.

To find out about the event panelists and the full agenda, and to register yourself, head here:
Hired Guns Panel: How Does She Do It? Hope to see you there!

It’s been a few months since Fast Company’s much talked- and tweeted-about cover story on Generation Flux. The title’s been bothering me ever since I read it. The magazine had it wrong by a vowel! We don’t need a generation in flux (which sounds negative and unstable), we need one that has flex (which is much more agile and proactive).

Flexibility is going to be the key to the next few decades for every business, big and small. It is also going to be the defining characteristic for those individuals who want to thrive in the next few decades.

Let’s start with how companies can be more flexible. I tell companies that I work with that they need to have a plan, but that they should write it in pencil. I think that they need to institute three core principles:

1) Expect there to be constant change. Don’t assume long-term dominance or market share. The cycle of change is speeding up; there’s little time to rest on your laurels. Kudos to Andy Grove, the co-founder and CEO, who realized back in 1996 that “only the paranoid survive.”

2) Have a clear vision — but don’t be afraid to readjust its execution. The best example of having a clear vision is IBM, founded back in 1911. From the beginning its strategy was to package technology for use by businesses. They started out with punch-card tabulators and ended up as technology consultants. As business needs changed, so did IBM. If that isn’t flexible I don’t know what is!

3) Hire “Swiss Army knives.” Companies can’t be flexible if their hiring is rigid. With every year, it’s becoming more and more important for employees to be adaptable and self-directed. No company should allow anyone to say “this is the way we’ve always done it.” As Fast Company’s article put it, “You do not have to be a jack-of-all-trades to flourish in the age of flux, but you do need to be open-minded.”

Speaking of those hires … both full-time professionals and consultants need to get flexible, too. I know for myself it has been imperative to be flexible with the type of businesses I work with and what I offer them. It has also meant usually being a consultant, but working full-time when necessary. (By the way, this idea of rethinking your career is a big part of “The Start-up Is You,” the new book by Reid Hoffman (the cofounder of LinkedIn) and the entrepreneur Ben Casnocha.)

I’ve seen the desire to be flexible come up in my BYOB (Be Your Own Boss) class. Rarely is there a person who isn’t zigging and zagging through a career, trying to optimize opportunities, find great career challenges, or try something different. Sometimes those attending the class are only “thinking” about going out on their own — knowing that having the skills and ability to do so can pay dividends in this more flexible economy.

So how can you become more flexible?

1) Broaden your definition of “you.” If you are a writer, maybe you could also be a content strategist, helping companies systematize the articles, stories, graphics, and other content they intend to create or publish. If you’re in media now, maybe a jump to retail is just the new twist your career needs (many retailers are adopting content — see Amazon’s recent flexing — it plans on producing its own series).

2) Don’t say “no” too quickly. We too often hear of an opportunity and assume we are not qualified (I hear this a lot in my class!). Sometimes an outlier opportunity is just what you need to put an exciting detour into your career path.

3) Watch for trends. New industries or sectors, along with new careers pop up all the time — think clean tech, social media, iOS. Ten years ago no one planned a career around any of them. Now all those areas are looking for talent.

Find out more about Beth’s May 16 Academy course, Freelance Success: Independence, Not Insecurity

[Photo: Marcin Wichary/Flickr]

Chances are that whatever you’re doing is a lot better than Ask A Manager’s examples of what NOT to write, such as “You’re making a mistake; I’d be a great candidate.” Or the equally pushy “I’d think I’m at least worth an interview.”

Of course, rejected applicants really do write back things like that, or worse, especially in the heat of the moment. Ask A Manager makes a good case for a cooling-off period: wait a day or so before writing back: a simple thanks for letting you know might be enough.

But be sure to do it. It’s in your own best interests to write back in an positive way, if only to keep the lines of communication open. That company may not be a job for you now — they’ve been so busy hiring the wrong people! But there just might be a job there for you in the future, as long as you don’t come across as a pushy brat after this first disappointment.

Do you have any advice for working women who are about to be moms? What should they be doing NOW if they plan on going back to work later?
People will ask if you plan on coming back immediately. Say yes, even if you aren’t sure. You may decide to stay home for a while. You may go back right away. Don’t play your hand. You want to have the option, not them.

Before you take maternity leave, transfer all email contacts to your home computer. Be sure to put them in a “@company.com” format, not in the internal-address format. Bulk up your Linkedin profile with recommendations, if you can do so without being obvious. Follow your industry news, and if you see something, send a few key emails mentioning it.

The onus will be on you to stay in touch. For your colleagues, you are truly gone once you leave the reservation. For starters, they won’t want to bother you out of respect. You might be really glad. On the other hand, you might miss the contact.

Take all your best work with you if you can.  Join the most important professional associations while you are still employed. You’ll still be able to list your work title and responsibilities in your bio. If you wait until you leave, you’ll feel it’s a misrepresentation.

HR is your frenemy. Use them wisely.  All conversations have to be in confidence, and they will help you with policies. However, they will also tell you that you cannot take the email addresses and that the company owns everything you’ve ever done while employed. Take your notes and awards. If there is work you are especially proud of, make copies before you walk out the door.

What advice do you have for moms not currently working outside the home who are thinking about heading back to work?
You are your own personal brand. Sounds so hokey, but it’s true. Whatever you do, be professional.
Having said that, keep perspective. There is nothing worse than a mom who treats the second-grade book fair like a life-or-death situation. Trust me, brownies can be baked the night before. The kids will never know if they are not “fresh.”

Take a class. Make it relevant to your next career move. This will prove you are serious about work, can handle the stress, and are keeping current. Plus, just being around adults who do not know you as a “mom” will build your confidence.

Volunteer and make it count. If you are in finance, do the organization’s books. If you’re a writer, take on the newsletter. Have something to show for your efforts.

Be patient. The hardest thing of all is that when you are ready to go back, the jobs aren’t there. Volunteering does not result in immediate paid work. However, life is not a straight line. Good work always comes back to help you.

Decide if you want to be a “working mom” or a “mom who works.” This is an important distinction. It’s all about your inner compass.  Sometimes it is easy to see if work or home should come first. But there will be other times when the choice is not clear, or if you chose one you will hurt the other. Knowing which kind of mom you are ahead of time will be your default position when the moment arrives — and it will, time and time again.

However, remember that what you choose to do when the kids are young can change when they are older. No decision is final. In my case, I worked when they were younger and cut back when in high school.

Would you say that things in general have gotten better for working moms in the past five years or so?
There is more flexibility than there used to be. It’s much more acceptable to work at home and that can be a huge bonus. My daughter still sits with her computer on the sofa in my office. We do work together. But it can be a double-edged sword, because in many ways, that means work 24/7. If you’re doing all the home stuff along with all the work, you’ll collapse.

Plus, as my son so presciently observed when he was in seventh grade, “What difference does it make if you are home. You’re on your computer all the time.” Don’t confuse “being home” with parenting. There will still be times when you need that bright, white line between the two.

From what I read, there is more recognition that kids cannot raise themselves and that taking care of them can’t always be outsourced. No one thinks that is a sustainable model for the parent, the kids, or society. Dads are doing more in terms of daily care, but if they are in a high-powered position, it will be hard.

There is a reason moms stay home when dads are in those Type-A jobs; it’s just too stressful. That will probably never change — even if it’s the mom who goes to work and the dad who stays home.

Just about everyone has trouble balancing their home life and their career some of the time. What sort of lessons have you learned that have let you keep on working?
1) Forgive yourself. Mistakes will happen. If your child is safe, and preferably with an adult, you will both survive (and they will have good stories to tell).

One February day, my kids had a two-hour snow delay. I was on a speech deadline, but no problem! I just stayed home and went to work two hours late. The result was that my biological clock was off. I missed lunch and then missed coffee. At what I thought was 4 pm, the phone rang with my home number. But I figured it was my daughter calling to see if she should go to her after-school activity, so I didn’t pick up.

About 45 minutes later the phone rang, displaying the number of where she should have been. Not wanting that to go to voicemail, I answered.

To my amazement and subsequent horror, it was not four, but almost seven o’clock. My nine-year-old daughter was the last kid at her activity. She had been waiting with the security guard in the dark, cold, icy parking lot for 45 minutes. The phone call from home I had ignored was my babysitter calling to see if she should get her, since I had gone in late.

The director of the activity was not happy. The security guard had to go home late. I felt like a terrible mother. Then I realized my daughter was cold, but never unsafe. I brought her an early box of Valentine’s chocolates. We laughed at dinner. Even the director forgave me when I called to apologize the next day.

2) You don’t have to control every aspect of your child’s life to be a good mom.

My son had yet another ear infection. We’d both been up all night. But it was a workday, so his visit to the pediatrician would have to wait. I had made a pact with the other moms I worked with: We were not going to let anyone else take our kids to the doctor! We were not going to be THAT kind of working mom!

On the train ride in, I realized neither he nor I would survive another night of no sleep. And what kind of mom would let her son live in pain for another 24 hours just to appease her own ego about being a good mom? Our pediatrician, a working mom herself, agreed to call me just as soon he’d been seen. The babysitter brought him up. He got antibiotics and by the time I got home, was well on the road to recovery. We both slept that night.

There are many times when no one else can stand in for you. But sometimes, letting someone is in the best interest of you both. In this case, knowing he was being taken care of also made me much more productive at work.

And are any careers better than others, in your experience?
Nope. It depends on the egos of the senior people in the workplace. If they want to believe their function is indispensable and mission critical, they will expect loyalty that supersedes any family requirements. The exact same role can vary from company to company, and in my experience, it does. Marketing or finance at one company may require a “fealty type” of loyalty. At another, shutting down for the night is more accepted. It has nothing to do with company size or headquarters function either.  Sometimes work really is urgent and sometimes family is, the key is looking at what can be expected on a daily basis.

Even President Barack Obama eats with his family when he is home. Yes, it’s true they don’t have to plan, shop, or cook, and they probably don’t do the dishes. But if the leader of the free world can make the time — and his work really is mission critical —  you would think the corporate world would let the rest of us as well.

Working moms, we hope to see you on Tuesday, May 8, for our panel, How Does She Do It!

Do you have any style or fashion advice for working women who are about to be moms?
Look for uncomplicated, fuss-free separates that don’t require much thought in the morning. Go for coordinating colors that make getting dressed really easy. Punch up your “wow!” factor with statement necklaces, scarves, and a great bag rather than over-trendy clothes.

Figure out your body shape first (this is crucial) and invest in well-fitting classics that you can mix and match. For instance, a great-fitting pair of pants to wear with a bright-colored shirt, or a beautifully tailored black jacket that you can wear as a suit or thrown over a white shirt and jeans on the weekend.

What was the biggest mistake or blunder that happened to you while trying to balance your family and work life?
A major miscommunication between my nanny and me about picking up my daughter! I was juggling two meetings and thought I’d be able to get there, so I forgot to remind nanny. Yikes!

What was your biggest triumph?
Succeeding in getting to a TV show at 6.30 am after the nanny called in sick. And still doing the show (complete with my four year old in the greenroom).

If you’re a working mom, we hope to see you next Tuesday, May 8, for our panel, How Does She Do It!

How do you deal with all the business travel you do? How do you make it all work?
I’ve always traveled a lot, so my family is fairly used to it. I work hard to try to condense my trips as much as possible. I (almost) always try to make sure I’m home for the important things — school plays, recitals, etc. And I try to be as engaged with my kids as possible on the weekends, when I am home. I’m also a planner. I make sure that on Sundays everything is ready to go for the week — lunches planned, homework checked, appointments on the calendar, etc., to avoid as much chaos as possible while I’m on the road.

Do you think we’re likely to see more and more dads caring for their kids at home — could that be turning into a trend? Are there any drawbacks to it, from your perspective? 
I’d like to think that it’s a trend! I think it’s great to have dads at home caring for their kids, particularly because it gives kids diverse role models and encourages them to question gender stereotypes. I also think that dads are less uptight about the “rules” for caring for kids, which isn’t always a bad thing. Plenty of moms should learn to lighten up and relax about things, myself included.

The only drawback, in my mind, is that moms in this scenario still often tend to take care of some of the traditional “mom” responsibilities (at least I do!); things like finding the right schools and doctors, cleaning and laundry on the weekends, etc. We’re creating a LOT more work for ourselves!

Do you have any advice for working women who are about to be moms? What should they be doing NOW if they plan on going back to work later? 
Get as far ahead in your career as you possibly can before you have children, but don’t wait forever. You’ll always be waiting for that next promotion if you do. And three months isn’t a long time to be out of the workplace, caring for your child. Once you come back from maternity leave, make sure you have great child care, so that you give your career the time and commitment it deserves, while giving your child the same.

Would you say that things in general have gotten better for working moms in the past five years or so? Are any careers better than others, in your experience? 
I think conditions continue to improve for working moms, all the time. In some ways, while being “always on” means less downtime, the availability of access via mobile devices has made things like flexible hours and telecommuting much more feasible than it was 5-10 years ago. The iPhone is surely every working mom’s best friend these days.

We hope to see you May 8th !