Running my own full-time freelance business taught me a lot of things—especially how to save money. Granted, I knew how to conserve finances before, but there’s nothing like not knowing when your next assignment is coming in the door or whether your clients are going to pay on time to kick that saving habit into much higher gear.
Several years of working as a reporter also helped prepare me for running a lean full-time freelance operation. Because as some of you may know, reporting jobs generally don’t pay well. So in addition to learning how to write and report during my …read more

In big business, there’s a practice called Lean manufacturing that makes companies more efficient and profitable. And while your business may only employ one person, there are some valuable lessons that a business of any size can learn from this philosophy.
Often referred to as Lean, the goal in very simple terms is to create more value with less work, fewer resources, and less waste. In other words, the goal of Lean is to find efficiencies and eliminate any practices or resources that do not help create value for the customer or client. This management philosophy comes primarily from the Toyota …read more

There’s nothing like a little play to unleash your creative side, and nothing like tapping your inner child to get you there.
Do you remember what it was like to sit outside in your sandbox and build sand castles? What about the smell from a box of 64 Crayola crayons, and afternoons you spent coloring in a new coloring book? Or all the buildings you used to build with Legos and Lincoln Logs—remember those?
Just thinking about these things conjures up so many fond memories of my childhood. What about you?

By now, I bet you’re wondering what all this has to do …read more

I’ve come to see a schedule as the backbone of every project. Because if you forge ahead without some kind of timeline, isn’t successfully completing your goal just a shot in the dark?

Sunday I talked about utilizing a planner. And for any project that contains more than a step or two, I’ve learned it’s vital to break the big picture down into segments that can be estimated in terms of time, energy, and resources. Without doing that, I suppose it’ll get done eventually. But will it be done on time? And will it be a good product?

In industries such as …read more

Call me strange, but I love crossing items off my to-do lists. In fact, I’ve been a list person for as long as I can remember.
I suppose I might have picked this up from my mother, who has always carried one of those small notebooks in her purse wherever she goes. For jotting down lists, thoughts, and things she doesn’t want to forget. Later, my training as a newspaper reporter reinforced what I’d already observed my mother doing when I was growing up. As a reporter, I always carried a stash of pens and at least two notebooks in my …read more

 
If you missed Jenny’s great post about the Power of 15, or if you don’t remember reading it in December, I highly recommend you give it a second read.
As I prepared to write my post for today, I was struck with an acute case of stage fright. I mean, this is a big job. Bizzia.com is about to revolutionize the blogosphere, Jenny’s regular readers adore her, and then there’s me.
I am talking blank Word doc, staring back at me, blinking with an unsympathetic eye of a cursor. What do I have to say? Who am I to be writing this …read more

“To survive and succeed, every organization will have to turn itself into a change agent. The most effective way to manage change is to create it.”
—Peter Drucker
The creator and inventor of modern management had it right about change—the best way to manage change is to create it.
Of course, I believe Drucker was talking about larger organizations when he offered that very sage advice. But I think the same advice can helpful to one-person businesses and independent contractors. If you create change for yourself, it’s easier to manage when it comes along—even when the change is not something you initiated. And …read more

Is fear ever a good thing?
Absolutely. Fear can help you move off dead center and take positive action. And if used in the right way, it can save you and your business from going belly up. Fear is natural, and it’s there for a reason. But when that natural instinct is overdeveloped, it becomes an issue—especially if you remain stuck in the problem and don’t move toward a solution.

In my book, inaction is the biggest thing to fear about fear.
The other day, I talked about taking action to face your freelance fears—those things that you tend to put off or …read more

What’s the one thing that you’re afraid to do as a freelancer?
Are you afraid to send off a query to a new-to-you editor or publication? Are you afraid to get more assertive with a client about collecting late payment? Are you afraid to fire a deadbeat or slow-paying client? Are you afraid to delve into social media or learn a new skill? What is the one area where you feel stuck?

If you don’t have any active freelance fears (that you’re aware of anyway), congratulations. And please tell the rest of us how you managed to accomplish that. But if you’re …read more

Have you ever written a story, blog post, or any other piece of writing, and even after spending hours crafting your prose, you keep combing through your words over and over and over again?
How do you know when enough is enough? How do you know when your best efforts are okay? How do you know when you can give yourself a pat on the back, tell yourself “Good job,” and move on to the next thing?

The other day, I wrote a post asking people to consider whether they had editor’s brain or writer’s brain. Boy did I ever touch a …read more