Tag: Gig Economy

Freelancing, Work

When YOU are the brand: Tips for sovereign professionals and micro-agencies

(I wrote this for my Burning Pine site, but then realised it belongs on here, too.)

When you’re a small business, a micro business or a freelancer, it’s different.

Whatever you do centres on you. That’s not an ego thing. It’s just that clients are buying “you” – the unique blend of experience, skills, understanding and relationship you bring.

Here are a few tips and reminders for those who find they’ve inadvertently become their own brand.

Understand your USP

It’s probably not your professional skill. If you are a designer, writer or accountant, your clients are probably not (just) buying pictures, words and numbers. You may be an average financial adviser or marketer who is exceptionally good at listening and empathising. You may be an SEO expert or trainer on the invoice, but your value is in being a sounding-board, informal coach or counsellor. It can be hard, but you need to understand what the client is buying, as well as what you’re selling. That’s not easy to put in a brochure, but it’s what drives loyalty, repeat business and referrals.

Make your client look great

That’s your job. Leave your ego at the door and make your client look great to their boss or the board. That’s what pulls you up through their organisation and across the organisations of their career path, building a network of contacts and new clients as you go.

Always be professional

Get up, get dressed, be at your desk. Even though “dressed” is seldom a suit and tie. Even though “desk” isn’t in an office with a PA. Written back when Blackberry was still a thing, there’s a lot of value in Nicholas Bate’s Professionalism 101 (here as a handy download). Nicholas is now at Hunter Gatherer 21C.

And, always be tolerant, patient and resilient

What do you think? What have I missed?

Photo by Marcus Neto on Unsplash

Work

The Stoic and the sale – Kasey Pierce

This is good. Stoicism and salesmanship, especially as it relates to creatives and reluctant sellers.

Being published in indie publishing is a lot like starting in acting, none of us are experts, everyone is trying to get noticed, and it’s not at all glamorous. Although it is an honor and privilege to be published, to get your book in the hands of the people, to find your readers, takes some elbow grease. This means…you become a salesperson.

Photo by Ethan Hu on Unsplash

Tools
Tools & kit

New tools for timesheets and blogs – @TimeCamp and @NewsBlur

I have new tools to play with.

Timesheets

I’m a writer and I work, almost exclusively, on a value basis: we agree a price and I deliver.

Charging by the hour/day or, worse, per word is a killer for both quality and trust.

However, I’ve always kept timesheets for my own analysis, so that I can see how much those value-based projects actually cost me in bloody, sweaty, teary hours. They used to be simple Excel spreadsheets, one for every project, so I could work out the actual cost per hour arising from either my poor estimating or delightful rat-holing. But, I always knew that created hidden gaps.

Continue reading “New tools for timesheets and blogs – @TimeCamp and @NewsBlur” →
Work

Take time to think big – @DanielPink

Harried by the relentless, depthless demands of email, social media, Zoom, phone and Slack?

Here’s a great idea from author Daniel Pink, originating with statesman George Schultz – the Schultz Hour.

Pinkcast 4.07. This is how to carve out an hour a week to think big. | Daniel H. Pink

Image: Claudine Gossett Photography (via UChicago News)

Freelancing

On Indies and little breaks – @ThisIsSeth

Seth Godin is always worth reading.

Here he is on the importance of recognising what type of indie (independent, i.e. sovereign professional) you really are…

Independent workers, founders, creators and organizers are often lumped together with a simple term, but that one-size-fits-all model fits no one.

Read, and select, here.

Continue reading “On Indies and little breaks – @ThisIsSeth” →
Freelancing

Craftspeople, paths and time – @thisisseth

Seth Godin posts a couple of considerations for independents.

Firstly, on time and deadlines…

It’s amazing how much slack people will give you if you’re proactive about what you see and what you know. No need to make promises you can’t keep, and no need to hide from the promises you’ve made.

Secondly on the different strategies available, along with the consequences…

1. Honor the noise in your head.

2. Embrace your market.

3. Stay busy.

Two pithy posts worth a deep ponder. Read them here and here.

Photo by Nicolas Hoizey on Unsplash

Echoes through time

Echoes through time: Give your heart to your trade

Give your heart to the trade you have learnt, and draw refreshment from it. Let the rest of your days be spent as one who has wholeheartedly committed his all to the gods, and is thenceforth no man’s master or slave.

Marcus Aurelius (AD 120 – 180), Meditations (4.31)

Uncategorized

What’s your métier?

This from chef Rick Stein’s Secret France.

In passing Stein remarks that in France, rather than asking “What do you do?”, people ask “What’s your métier?”—literally, what are you master of?

We should all aspire to be masters of our chosen profession.

I’m pretty sure it was episode 2: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000b8sb .

The book’s here, but I suspect, it won’t help. Great recipes, though.

Image: BBC