Category: Business
Are you a poor carpenter like me and blame your tools?
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I wrote before about digital TO-DO lists failing me but as I’ve been reading through GTD again, I’ve been realizing that the carpenter has been blaming his tools. My main complaints about software GTD/TO-DO tools were that they allowed me to put 10,000 things in them on any given day. There was never a good
Evernote as my GTD tickler
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I like GTD methodology. For a long time OmniFocus was my go to tool for my main list. Now I’ve switched to Redbooth (topic for another post) but I’ve never talked about my ‘tickler’ file. Let’s start by defining what a tickler file is. A tickler file is a collection of date-labeled file folders organized
Have these questions answered before each project!
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The 2 questions I get most from freelancer’s are: How do I charge more? How do I find/win better clients? I talked about pricing in my series on pricing but I haven’t talked much yet about finding the right clients. I’ve always tried to answer these questions for my client and for myself but more
So you’re having trouble with contractors, it’s probably your fault
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My friend Angie asked freelancers/business owners what their biggest struggle was. One of the issues that came up a few times was finding reliable contractors for projects. I get it, I’ve struggled with contractors as well which has been a solid portion my own poor management. The fact that someone got on your team who
Math can trick you if you’re not being careful
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Last week I talked a bit about Michael Hyatt’s book The Virtual Assistant Solution. His fifth of six points to help you be more productive asks you to do some math. It goes something like this. If you make $50 an hour you save money if you outsource a task to someone that you pay
Identify your core business strengths or be ready to be overwhelmed
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What are you highest payoff activities? What is it in your business that you do that earns you the most money? What is it that only you can do? What is actually important and not just urgent? In The Virtual Assistant Solution, Micheal Hyatt quite quickly asks these questions while he defines 6 steps to
Have you set up sub-contractors for failure?
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I’ve tried to hire out work a number of times and it’s really been a 50/50 split about it going well. Even many of the jobs that have gone well haven’t truly lived up to my expectations 100%. As usual the problem is me. I used to think as a young leader that I was
Identify the cause of your freelance insanity
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A few days ago I wrote 5 Sanity Tips for Overworked Consultants where I told you to take some time for yourself. I realize that many freelancer’s/consultants have already worked themselves in to an untennable situation. You’re already way over committed. You feel like you’re drowning. You’re all work with no margin for life or
Extra project pricing considerations
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The thing that really used to kill me on flat rate projects was project management time. One client would take little hand holding, but I’d have charged a lot. Then the next client would want me on the phone daily and I’d have charged too little. It seemed like something I almost never got right.
Answering Questions about Weekly Pricing
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Yesterday I talked about how I think you should price your services. Weekly pricing rocks and long ago I wrote about why it rocks. On episode 97 of the Freelancer’s Show I answered question on weekly pricing from my co-hosts. I think that you should go listen to the episode but I’m going to hit
