Don’t get me wrong. I like gorillas and monkeys too, but when it comes to business, it’s smart to keep a close eye on how your gross profits are divided up amongst your client roster. Any client that is 20% or more of your gross profits (fee + mark up) is a gorilla client. A...
Freelance Design Work & How to Freelance
Your First Promotional Materials as a Freelancer
There’s so much you don’t know when you first start your own creative business, whether you dive in with a plan (or without) or are nudged by outside forces. Beyond the nuts and bolts of running a business, you don’t know whether you have hidden talents for managing others or whether dormant genes for...
Want a rockin’ contact form? Here’s how…
photo from Shutterstock A good contact form can do so much more than get a prospect’s name and phone number. It can help determine if a client and project are a good fit—and reinforce your idealness for the job. On my contact page, I ask (and provide answer choices) for the following questions: What...
Saying No to “Monkey Mind”
In Tai Chi practice, there’s a concept called "monkey mind." It’s the little voice in the back of your head that nags you about your every flaw. Learn how to conquer it.
How to Work with Friends as Clients
As a creative professional, it is inevitable that at some point in our career, we'll have to work with our friends as clients. Here's how.
How to Work Remotely and Reinvent Your Life (Part 2)
This is part 2 of a post by Jake Jorgovan on “how to work remotely and reinvent your life.” (In Part 1, he stated that the one thing you must have to do this is the ability to earn an income without being physically present….read on if that sounds good to you! Now this...
How to work remotely and reinvent your life
I’m working from the road this week so this guest post from Jake Jorgovan, who last wrote about how to get your freelance business started with a “freelance marketplace” like oDesk-Elance, is especially apt! We are in the emergence of a new age. The age of the remote worker. 10 years ago tools like...
The thrills and risks of freelancing — in the media again!
In honor of Labor Day, there are lots of articles about the new way people are working — although it’s not all that “new” to those of us who’ve been freelancing for YEARS, right? This insight I definitely see evidence of: ‘Many late-career freelancers are the most successful at it because they have years’ worth of...
[Video] Do You Have “Chaotic” or “Clueless” Clients (or both)?
If you’re battling big egos and unfair deadlines, you’re not alone. But for freelancers, solopreneurs and small agencies especially, one bad client can mean big problems, draining your resources and even harming your carefully built culture. In this presentation, given at Ad Age’s Small Agency Conference (2014 in Austin), I identified 4 red flags to...
4 Personality Traits of Successful Freelancers
Discover the top 4 traits that are inherent to successful freelancing.
















