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Category: Reviews

Advantages and Disadvantages of Freelancer’s Working from Home

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By on Jan 13th, 2012

This article will aim to make your mind up between working at home and renting office space. There are two types of freelancers, the first who work from home and the second those who rent office space and go out to work.  Lets Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of freelancer working from home.

Advantages

Control of environment

By working at home you have absolute control over how your office looks, to the extent that you can even have extensive building work done to your office at your own discretion. You can paint, build or destroy anything you wish and you do not have to ask permission or have your idea rejected. You are your own boss.

Traveling

If you rent an office space which is even a five minute walk away, you will still have to travel. A home office is in your home and no travelling time is lost, so this means that once you are done with your work you can go home to your loving families in an instant.

Cost

One of the greatest advantages of working from home is cost efficiency. If you work from home, gas and electric bills along with rental costs will all be minimal. This is because the heating you will have probably been on at home anyway, so to heat a new room in your new office would cost more. Similarly all other costs which exist from an office would be significantly less because of working from home.

Disadvantages

Noise

Usually rented office space will probably be in or close to a business district. Your home will be in a residential area. In a business district you will be pushed to find teenagers playing football, dogs barking and the general sort of noise pollution which you find in some residential areas. This of course depends on where you live, because the description sound like down-town Detroit.

People

People visit your home and if they have come to your home you will be obliged to sit with them. This may not be a serious problem but it can be and regardless if you are the only person at home then cold callers (on the phone or on your doorstep) will get the best of you. In a rented office, this may not be the case.

Family

If you have children, then when they come home from school they will probably want to see you and play with you. If you happen to be more productive around that time you will lose out on good work.
If you do not have kids, your partner or parents (depending on who you live with) can have distractions of their own. Sometimes it can be difficult for younger freelancers to explain to their parents that being home does not mean that they are free to do chores, but they are working in the same way they would if they had rented office space.

Procrastination

It is significantly easier to procrastinate at home since all it takes is a walk to the other room to start watching TV. It’s very easy to get distracted with anything. Also, the idea of being at home can make you feel lazy and therefore cause you to procrastinate. Especially since you may be using the same computer which you work on during the day, to socialise on during the night. This will make it easier for you to load up Facebook and waste your life telling people what you ate for breakfast in the morning.
Working in an External Office.

Final Point

It is possible to work from home in such a way that you remove the above disadvantages and it is possible to work from an external office and manage to turn the advantages into disadvantages. This depends on the type of person.

 

GTime Tracking for Freelancers

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By on Jan 12th, 2012

Today we look at the most valuable tools out there to help freelancers manage project hours and billing, one of the effective, low-cost solutions.

How It Works

Install is a quick and painlessly delivered through the Adobe AIR system. GTime asks you to enter your Google account login credentials. From there onward you can create new timesheets or access existing ones. This timesheet is stored on Google’s servers as a spreadsheet, and its individual records are accessible either through the GTime software or direct on the web in your Google account.

There are two options for creating and categorizing a timed task, the first option and easiest for my style is to use GTime’s simple start / pause / stop timer. The ‘start task’ button helps you track timed tasks as you work on them, and immediately lets you enter that time record into your timesheet when you click ‘stop’. The entry I made showed the date, hours spent (1.45), and let me add a category (Graphic Design) and a task note (logo redesign for client X). The second option is to view all task records for a timesheet, and manually create and/or update the record of your choice. This works well for recording time spent away from your computer, like at a client meeting.

Recommendation

Overall, this utility does the trick for me – it saves me time from my current spreadsheet-input process, and is much cheaper than the competition at $20 USD for a single lifetime license.
I definitely recommend this tool for the individual freelancer who needs a better way to manage their time. Whether you’re billing clients by hour, or merely want to see an overview of where your time is spent in a given week, the 14-day trial of GTime is definitely worth a shot. You can download the free trial at http://gtimetracking.com and give it a whirl.

Product Features

Software works on PC, Mac and Linux platforms

Very fast install with no server software

Secure and reliable, with smooth usability

Start / pause / stop tray timer for recording tasks

Immediate and automatic synchronization between Google and GTime

Lowest-cost option vs. the competition

Leverage all the features offered by Google Docs

Export your timesheets from Google to Excel, Open Office, PDF, CSV, HTML, Text

Ability to share timesheets publicly, or privately with other Google users

Automatic timesheet backup and versioning

Why Freelancers Should Blog

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By on Jan 9th, 2012

If you are a freelancer, then one thing you need to keep in mind is that it is perfectly alright to market your own portfolio to various potential clients – and one great way to do this happens to be through blogging. Keep in mind, however, that no one will be able to find your portfolio online if don’t have any content in your blog yet, so you should start soon.

Focus on Social Drizzle

If you really want to, you can start a blog on non-related drizzle, too, and talk about anything under the sun. However, although many freelancers do this, you really shouldn’t attach your blog to your portfolio if you choose this path. That kind of blog doesn’t belong in anyone’s line of work. Think about it: do you think writing about what you drank yesterday is going to get you more clients? Of course not. Social blogs do not belong in anybody’s portfolio – remember that.

Add Tutorials, Articles and Resources

.If you want to target other freelance writers, web designers and programmers, then you probably won’t find any new leads that way since they are your competition. So, if you want to share resources and create tutorials, make sure you think about your target audience first.

If you want web entrepreneurs to visit your blog, for instance, you should share resources and articles on web business law or web business management on your blog.

Write Freelance-Related Content

If you want to start a blog that is relevant to your portfolio, then what’s stopping you? New exposure is always beneficial, right? Not only will it help you spread the word regarding your services, but it will also have several positive effects. This is why it is always smart to start a blog with freelance-related content where you can blog about problems that freelancers experience on a daily basis. You can also do several link exchanges with other famous freelancers out there, so you can get more exposure.

Think Creatively

When it comes to marketing tactics for your portfolio and services, make sure you always think outside of the box. This means that you always have to come up with creative and brand new ways to attract your clients, so you can execute an easy and effective solution in the end. Besides, sticking to regular marketing methods can get boring and repetitive after a while, so diversify the way you gain exposure and traffic whenever you can.

Conclusion

Did you want to be free of societal norms? If so, then why don’t your replicate those feelings in your methods of marketing or come up with creative and brand new marketing methods for your portfolio?

How to Brand Yourself as A Freelancer

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By on Jan 7th, 2012

If you’re a freelancer, you know there’s a lot of competition out there. Regardless of what field you’re in, it’s imperative that you separate yourself from the crowd. Let’s face it, a Fortune 500 company isn’t going to hire just anybody. Something about you needs to grab their attention.
Here is another example, If you met someone in the street and didn’t have a business card or a pen, would they be able to find you based on your name? If you Google yourself, what would you find?
It’s the easiest and fastest way to find information that normally won’t make a resume, which is a document that the person applying has full control over.
If  you want to brand yourself as freelancer then must check out these useful tips given below.

1. Create a website. If possible, yours should be yourname.com. In many cases the domain will rank high in the search engines. Here you can showcase your resume, portfolio, case studies, testimonials and achievements.
Build a blog. Preferably on your site. Write about your ideas, your experiences and your line of work. I’ll explain later how this content can be utilized for business purposes.

2. Join social networks. Linkedin should be the first one you join. Place your resume on it and keep it current. Anyone you’ve done or do business with should be added to your profile. You can then expand your network.

3. Build other profiles such as Twitter and Facebook and keep it professional.

4. Try to use your real name or an understood variation for all social networking accounts. Using your real name in your profiles will help them to show up in the search engines, boosting your visibility.

5. Socially bookmark the content you create on your blog. You can automatically have anything published on your blog sent to your Twitter and Facebook pages, especially if you use WordPress. You can also bookmark your content to other networks like Stumbleupon and Digg for added exposure.

6. Write articles about your area of expertise. You can submit your article to free article sites like ezinearticles. Use your real name so these articles rank for your name as well on the search engines. Try adding 1 unique article per site over a few sites each and every month. The more sites you hit with unique content, the more listings you’ll have under your name.

7. Try doing a podcast or video segments, which are usually free to post and cost little in the way of equipment to create. Share your knowledge by giving tips and advice.

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