How to be a Rockstar Freelancer

Foreword

Getting Started

1-1.  What is Freelancing? 9

1-2.   Your Job and Freelancing on the Side 10

1-3.   Part-time Work While Freelancing 14

1-4.  Full-time Freelancing 16

1-5.  Quitting Your Job 18

1-6.  Your Financial Situation 19

1-7.  Business, Accounting and Legal Requirements 20

1-8.  Having a Business Plan 24

Your Brand

2-1. What is Branding for a Freelancer? 28

2-2. What Can Branding Do For You? 29

2-3. You as a Brand 30

2-4. Naming Your Business 32

2-5. Your Logo, Business Cards and Materials 35

2-6. Your Website 38

 2-7. Building Your Reputation 41

The Working Day

3-1. Home or Office or... 46

3-2. A Happy Workplace 51

 3-3. Equipment 54

3-4. Avoiding Repetitive Strain Injury 58

 3-5. An Environmentally Friendly Workplace 61

 3-6. Being Productive 62

3-7. Staying on Top of Your Game 66

 3-8. Freelancing Loneliness 68Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com>

Getting Your First Projects

4-1. Your Portfolio 72

4-2. Your First Leads 76

 4-3. Referrals 78

4-4. Meeting Your Leads 82

4-5. Free Pitching 84

4-6. Steady Income Sources 85

4-7. Pacing Yourself 86

Project Scope and Timing

5-1. Taking a Brief 90

5-2. Documenting a Brief 91

5-3. Estimating Timeframes 93

5-4. Large Projects 95

Pricing Yourself

 6-1. Your Costs and Your Break-Even Rate 99

 6-2. Calculating Your Hourly Rate 102

 6-3. Changing Your Price over Time 106

 6-4. Charging for a Job, not by the Hour 107

 6-5. Delivering Your Price 110

6-6. Contracts and Terms & Conditions 113

6-8. Too Cheap, Too Expensive 115

Doing the Project

 7-1. Setting Expectations 121

7-2. Tracking Your Hours 124

7-3. Communication 126

 7-5. Revisions 128

7-6. Handling Budget and Timeline Blowouts 129

 7-7. Over-delivering 131Download from Wow! eBook <www.wowebook.com>

Clients

 8-1. Leads and Clients 135

8-2. Essential Client Skills 136

 8-3. Relationships 140

8-4. Educating Clients 142

8-5 Availability 144

8-6. Managing Clients, their Jobs and their Assets 145

8-7. Providing Good Service 151

 8-8. Dealing with Disagreement 154

8-9. Identifying and Dealing with Problem Clients 156

Getting Paid

 9-1. Invoicing 160

9-2. Cash Flow 164

9-3. Bookkeeping and Accounts 168

 9-4. Taking Payment 170

 9-5. Getting Clients to Pay 174

Marketing Yourself

 10-1. Positioning Yourself 180

10-2. Marketing Cycles 183

10-3. Marketing Yourself in Person 185

 10-6. The Idea Bank 187

Expansion

 11-1. Subcontracting 198

 11-2. Partnerships 204

11-3. Hiring Staff 206

11-4. Building a Business 209

 11-5. Freelancing as a Springboard 210

11-6. Further Reading 211

Conclusion