Do You Understand Freelancers and the Power of Habit

Weekly Newsletter for The Freelancers: Here is the latest newsletter of the week starting on 18th March 2019.

Habits can be powerful. They can make you more productive and successful or they can prevent you achieving your best potential which for a freelancer translates in many cases to money at the bank.

There is a strong self-interest in understanding habits and how to change them.

This often means getting on with the job of being creative when you feel like chilling out watching a baseball or cricket match on television or doing something else when your To-Do-List says that it is time to complete a graphic design.

Image Credit hackernoon.com

This quote from Twyla Tharp appears to have been written with freelancers in mind:

Creativity is a habit and the best creativity is the result of good work habits.

Gwen Moran has written 8 productivity habits of the most successful freelancers for TheFastCompany.com. You can read Gwen’s article here.

When Charles Duhigg wrote The Power of Habit I doubt that he imagined that it was going to be in the New York Times Best Sellers List for 60 weeks, but it was.

There is a good reason for this, it is because it is the secret for better time management and productivity for many people. This is especially true for freelancers.

If you would like to have a look inside the cover click on the icon below:

Motivate Yourself!

“The life of the professional writer – like that of any
freelance, whether she be a plumber or a podiatrist
– is predicated on willpower. Without it, there
simply wouldn’t be any remuneration, period.”

– Will Self

Why New Freelancers Should Know About Consistent Social Groups

When you are starting out as a freelancer it is important that you understand why you should be motivated to find consistent social groups. This can also extend to joining with other new freelancers in co-working groups.

There is an international movement towards co-working spaces for freelancers.

This article Office Inspo: Co-working spaces for freelancers, entrepreneurs and start-ups in Singapore appears as an editorial on the www.thehonecombers.com website which can be read here.

This quote from Dr. Anil Kumar Sinha is very appropriate:

Success breeds success. As you reach your goal, you will build a positive association in your mind & will increase positive feelings about the task. If you don’t meet the goal, move on and don’t dwell on the past.

You have the jewel of a present & a clear future. It is up to you to take control & become a pioneer of tomorrow. It is never too late to jump off to the other side of the fence to grab the opportunity.

Stacey Ashley from The Freelance Collective has written How freelancers can avoid professional loneliness which you can read here.

If you now know how important it is for a freelancer to know about Consistent Social Groups and you feel motivated, which is a key for success as a freelancer, you can read How to create a social circle as a freelancer by Rob Hiker from the Freelancers Union Blog by clicking here and start down the path to success socially as a freelancer.

Productivity Tip Of The Week

Did You Know Critical Information On Email Etiquette Can Help You Win And Keep Clients

In previous articles, we discussed how the valuation of your business is increased by having a newsletter and an email list of clients and prospects.

This was because future purchasers of your business will want to keep your clients and remain in contact with prospects.

It follows that if you have good email techniques and etiquette it will improve your chances of building your client list and business and thereby the valuation of your business.

Of course, this also helps you gain and retain clients which goes straight to increasing your gigs and cashflow.

Here are some examples where it is an obvious need for a professional approach:

Is your email address in your business name e.g. john@freelance-work-guide.com
Don’t have your email tied to an internet service provider, but your domain name in your business name
Have a professional signature e.g.:
  John@freelance-work-guide.com

  https://www.freelance-work-guide.com/

  https://www.facebook.com/FreelanceWorkGuide

  https://twitter.com/frelancewkguide

Jacquelyn Smith has written 15 Email Etiquette Rules Every Professional should Follow for www.inc.com and you can read the article here.

Work-Life Balance Tip Of The Week

Do You Understand How To Moonlight As A Freelancer?

Moonlighting as a freelancer to help balance the family budget is starting to become very popular with the stagnation of wages globally as evidenced by this Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development article Rising employment overshadowed by unprecedented wage stagnation.

You can read the article here. When families come under financial stress they will start to look at their work-life balance and wonder what they can do to increase their income or cut costs to balance the budget without denying their children quality family time.

It is about looking at what moonlighting roles (side hustles) can help the family budget. Arianna O’Dell has written 8 Side Hustles That You Can Turn Into Serious Money for www.inc.com which you can read here.

Balance is not something you find, it’s something you create ― Jana Kingsford, UNJUGGLED: Lessons From a Decade of Blending Business, Babies, Balance and Big Dreams

If you are a sole parent in the situation of having to look at side hustles to keep the family budget balanced it can be a tougher work life balance challenge, but it is doable and here is an article from the UK’s Telegraph Lifestyle segment to show you how.

The article is written by Alice Judge-Talbot and it is entitled How I revolutionized my work-life balance –and you can too. You can read Alice’s article here.

If you too have tips that can help the freelancing community you can send them to me at john@freelance-work-guide.com or share them on our Facebook Page here:
https://www.facebook.com/FreelanceWorkGuide/

Financial Tip of the Week

As a Freelancer You Need to Understand the 80/20 Rule

As a freelancer in charge of your business, you need to understand the Pareto principle because it can have a great impact on how hard you work to produce your income.

It is worth rereading that sentence again. It will make you realize the importance of what the 80/20 rule is (The Pareto principle) which says that eighty percent of your income will come from twenty percent of your clients.

If you have been freelancing for a while and have a number of clients it is a good idea to test this out for yourself and see whether it holds true for your business.

If it does and you are feeling stressed and it is impacting on your work life balance it is time to revisit your strategy and see whether you can work smarter and be more focused on your clients that produce the 80% of your income?

If the Pareto principle holds true for you, this will be 20% of your clients. If this is a moment of revelation to you it is time to read the following article.

John Soares is a writer and owns the website productive writers and has written an article entitled: How the 80-20 Rule Affects Freelance Writers. You can read John’s article here

I think that the Pareto principle is important for all of us in our working and personal lives and can help us a lot as freelancers especially as the lines between work and private lives are blurred.

I am currently reading Perry Marshall’s 80/20 Sales and Marketing and I am looking for tips that will help freelancers.

Drought and Flood News

Image Credit mikeyardley.com

This summer has been the hottest on record for Australia and you can read about it here. Victoria has turned to its desalination plant to increase the water supply for Melbourne.

Kaitlyn Offer’s article Dry Victoria to turn to desalinated water appeared in the Daily Telegraph and you can read here.

I will maintain the links for my opinion of the New Economy and that skills and job focused training is one of the possible solutions for long term structural assistance to rural communities.

This article sets out the reasons: Training choices matter for freelancers and career changers. You can read it by clicking on the link here.

There are now 5,000 skills in 90 categories that the digital economy can offer, according to Upworks 4th quarter 2018 Skills Index which you can read here.

Articles now on our website that are relevant are listed here:

The latest one is here:

https://www.freelance-work-guide.com/millennial-families-pay-energy-bills-by-freelancing.html

Amazon News

The weekly AWS news video link to acloud.guru is here. They are the leading trainers globally for AWS freelancers.

Amazon Associates Website Case Study

We are focussing on the niche website in the future because it is producing better results i.e. sales. Here is a recent article: https://www.pressurewashertoday.com/best-pressure-washer-for-cars/.

You can read the latest article from the niche Amazon website Case Study entitled Best Garage Workbench of 2019: Top 5+ Recommended by clicking here.

Freelancers And Cyber Security

In view of the recent hack of Reddit we have decided to link to the Australian Bankers Association fact sheet entitled Small Business – Protecting Your Business Information Online which you can access here. We urge you look at other Fact Sheets that are available from the Association as well related to business and personal security.

We have gained approval from Robert Siciliano to bring you extracts from his books related to cyber security for freelancers. Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert and consultant. He also runs a cyber security and fraud prevention website which you can see here.