Welcome to the last FWJ post for 2007. My New Year wish for all of you is for a happy and productive 2008. May all of your dreams come true!
I’d like to offer a little end of year link love so I can turn you on to some wonderful blogs you may not be aware of, and also to say thank you to those of you who visit every day.
Please help keep us going.I’m about to make myself unpopular again.
I’ve been following a situation with interest. A few weeks ago at a message board for Work at Home Moms, the WAHM writers became incensed after learning of a report that listed work at home moms as being the source to go to for $3 per article writing gigs. In fact, the discussion stemmed around a marketing report in which a gentleman, who paid $50 to stock his website with content , turned around and sold said website for $12,000. It may have made the WAHMs angry, but it’s the truth. I’m forever seeing content seekers throwing out insulting offers and believe me, there are plenty of takers. If WAHMs don’t want to be seen as cheap labor, they need to stop accepting these offers.
Please help keep us going.I want to take a minute to wish everyone a Happy and Prosperous New Year in 2008!
Leads…
Good Luck!
Jodee
Please help keep us going.Last week our web developing and designing readers had their Firefoxes pimped with 12 essential extensions. This week we’ll be unlocking Firefox’s web writer capabilities with a set of 9 crucial extensions for freelance writers.
From gaining complete control of your text to keeping your work safe and sound, all the essentials are here. No filler. Just really good tools.
What would you add to the list?
Seldom do you meet a veteran graphic designer that’s done more than create stunning visuals. But Jeff Fisher has managed to maintain a highly successful career while positioning himself as an industry expert—and author.
Hailing from Oregon, this savvy designer has a knack for business development, promotion—and Friday’s off. Read on to find out the secrets to Jeff’s continuing achievements.
Kristen Fischer: Tell us a little about how you got started as a designer.
Jeff Fisher: As a kid I was always artistic—and the one told “you will never make a living as an artist.” Still, art was a major part of my early education and I got a great deal of support from teachers and others in the community. In 1974, as a senior in high school I saw Milton Glaser’s book Graphic Design at the public library and knew that is what I wanted to do for a living.
I went to college to study graphic design and detested the program offered through the Fine Arts School. A friend suggested taking the coursework taught by Roy Paul Nelson in the Journalism School. It involved publication design, advertising design, type design, and all of the requirements of the journalism program including copywriting, public relations and marketing classes.
When I got out of school in 1980 I had no intention of working independently. I wanted to work in a large design firm or advertising agency, but there were no jobs to be had. I spend a lot of time doing informational interviews and talking with anyone who would take the time. That investment in time and energy led to a lot referrals for contract design work.
KF: You’ve taken your expertise in design and gone above and beyond, turning into an industry expert. How’d you do it?
JF: A large part of that success is due to understanding the importance of marketing and promoting oneself. I come from a family of public relations professionals, so perhaps part of my success is genetic. I always sign off my press release with “If I don’t ‘toot! my own horn, no one else will!” and I think it is important for designers to understand that there is a difference between the bragging we were scolded about a kids and effective self-promotion efforts.
KF: Great point! Do you think that’s a vital step for designers?
JF: I don’t think it is vital for all designers to establish themselves as an “industry expert.” However, I do think they have an obligation to themselves to learn and understand as much as possible about the business of graphic design. Sharing that knowledge with those coming up in the industry helps define and maintain graphic design as a valid and healthy profession option.
KF: Again, your reach has gone beyond client work–and into books, too. What’s the gist behind Identity Crisis? Did you come up with all of the branding yourself? How did you find contributors for the book?
JF: In 2004, my first book The Savvy Designer’s Guide to Success was published. At the time it wasn’t really the book I wanted to write—but it was what I was asked to write. When I felt I was ready to take on another book project, I proposed writing a volume about the redesign of business and organization identities. I wanted to showcase the efforts of one-person design firms to major design entities, with projects from start-ups to major corporations. That proposal was approved by my publisher HOW Books and Identity Crisis! was the result.
I initially invited about 200 designers and firms to participate in the book (Crisis) project. Nearly 100 expressed interest in submitting case studies to the book. In the end about 60 firms actually made submissions to the book. My editor Amy Schell and I made the final selections as the book concept was altered from 100 case studies to the 50 included in the final volume.
My major contribution to the branding of the book was the addition of the exclamation point to the title. I wanted the book’s title on the spine to scream from shelves—and it does. HOW Books designer Grace Ring did an incredible job of designing the book cover and content.
With my first book project, author Ilise Benun told me that, even with access to the marketing department of a major publisher, an author is going to need to do a major portion of a book’s promotion themselves. I took what was created by the publisher and created my own marketing program for the book, including the Identity Crisis! blog. In doing so, I have created a very strong brand for the book itself. Designers, and book reviewers, are already suggesting that Identity Crisis! become a series of future books.
KF: Why do you think redesigning existing identities is so fundamental for designers, and what tips do you have when clients need this service?
BF: Designers are constantly facing the challenges of recreating, revamping or re-energizing existing business or organization identities. The process can be much more intense than creating a new business image from scratch. When taking on such a redesign effort, I always suggest that designers consider the historical aspects of the existing logo; give thought to the emotional attachment of owners, employees and the customer base; and determine if existing design elements are appropriate to include in the new identity as part of a seemingly natural design evolution. The first thing I usually say to a designer about such projects is “Never tell your client their logo sucks.” If you make that statement you can be assured that the logo was created by the client, their spouse, their child, or the kid next door—and your potential business relationship with that client is already damaged.
KF: So, when it comes to designing logos, what do you think are the biggest mistakes a designer can make?
JF: The vast majority of designers forget to incorporate basic design principles when creating logos. In many cases those designing logos have never been taught design basics and it shows in the final work. The most successful and memorable logos are most often the simplest designs. Many designers try to convey too much information in a logo design. I like designing images that make the viewer want to know more information about a business, organization or event.
I recently posted the following on a design forum:
The personal computer and the accompanying software programs have been incredibly detrimental to identity design over the past two decades. Anyone with a computer, Photoshop, Comic Sans and Papyrus, a clip art book, and someone willing to pay for work, now calls themselves a “professional logo designer.” The primary things missing are often talent, true design skills and an understanding of basic design principles.
Software “special effects” seldom add much to a logo design. Instead, distractions are created that get in the way of the message the logo needs to communicate.
Following design industry trends is another mistake made by many logo creators. By the time something is declared a trend it has usually already been seen too much. A logo making use of trends will soon be dated.
KF: You’ve gotten tons of awards in addition to positioning yourself as an industry expert. How can designers (and other freelancers in general) get out there and do the same?
JF: In 1995, I realized that most of my traditional paid advertising and marketing was ineffective. I decided to invest my money, time and energy into participating in respected industry design competitions. The awards, and publication in design annuals, provided worldwide exposure to my work and gave me the added bonus of opportunities to promote myself via press releases announcing the award news. There are many online resources, including my own bLog-oMotives, that publish international calls for entries for such competitions—and some charge no entry fees at all.
KF: You’re also featured in a slew of books. How did those opportunities come about?
JF: Exposure begets exposure. Publication in books results in requests for work examples to be included in additional books. Sending out press releases about one’s accomplishments brings about the publication of such information on websites and in magazines. That media coverage results in other writers and authors making contact for editorial content, quotes or illustrative submissions.
I also write a great deal myself. The journalism training I had in high school and college has been very helpful when writing articles, reviews, blogs, and books. My own writing then creates additional marketing and promotion opportunities. At some point, it all seems to take on a life of its own.
KF: Tell us how you feel about the jump from a creative career in design into publishing. How has this helped your business, and what has it done for you personally? How do you like the overall vibe of publishing?
JF: For me, there has not been a major “jump” from one to the other. As far back as high school, when I was designing and editing the high schools newspaper, my design and writing efforts have co-existed. Throughout my career I have written and designed ads, brochures and other materials. The progression into writing design articles seemed very natural to me. Writing books was just the next step in my career.
I truly enjoy writing, and the results have given much greater exposure to my design work. Incredible opportunities have come my way as a result. I appreciate the fact that I don’t have to choose one over the other. I assume that I will continue to do both for many years.
Publishing is a totally unique beast. Again, my marketing, promotion and public relation skills have come in very handy in regards to my books. Still, I think success in publishing requires the cultivation of successful, and valuable, personal and professional relationships. With publishing relationships going back only seven or eight years I suppose I’m still a newbie. Design relationships of over 20 years probably qualifies me as a design-o-saur.
KF: Because you have all this other stuff going on, in addition to your business, do you find that you spend less time with clients now? Are you more selective in choosing clients?
JF: After 30 years as a professional designer, I have reached a point where I can usually pick and choose clients. I get to take on projects that are truly of interest to me, rather than absolutely everything that comes my way.
I spend very little face-to-face time with clients. Most of my client projects are conducted almost entirely by email. Very little time is spent in client meetings with even local clients.
I also have no client contact at all on Fridays. My office hours are Monday through Thursday, 8:00 to 5:00. Fridays are usually spent on marketing efforts of doing work-related paper work.
KF: Brilliant idea. So who is your biggest source of inspiration?
JF: There really is no one “who.” Milton Glaser has always been the person who inspired me to be a designer. However, designers, artists, and writers in general provide me constant and varied inspiration. Having the support of my partner of 17.5 years, Ed, is a major source of inspiration.
My work inspiration seldom comes from sitting at my desk in my home-based studio. Pushing myself away from the computer and getting out in the world provides inspiration. Gardening, travel, time with my friends, reading everything I can get my hands on, and “creative field trips” to galleries, museums and great retail establishments all provide inspiration for my design efforts.
Kristen Fischer is a copywriter and author living in New Jersey. Check out more on her copywriting business at http://www.kristenfischer.com.
The new year is always a good time to set goals for the next 12 months. As a freelance developer, at least some of them should focus on how to stay on top of your game.
Today I’ve written out my ten resolutions for 2008. Some of these apply not just to developers, some are especially important for them. Some of them are inspired by one of my favorite books The Pragmatic Programmer. If you haven’t read it yet, I suggest you do it first thing in the new year. The following are things I usually go through over the course of a new year, not one of them, all of them, if it’s possible.
For me, this is one of the most important things to do. Learning a new programming language not only gives you more things to put on your portfolio, it also broadens your knowledge and makes you look differently at things and how you’re doing them right now or have done in the past.
If you’re a web developer and haven’t taken it for a spin yet, check out Ruby on Rails. Even if you don’t pick it up immediately for new projects, I can assure you that it will change your view on how you’ve been doing things in the past, whether you’ve worked with Java or PHP. No matter what language you pick up, there’s only one decent way to really learn it: by putting it to practical use.
Even if it’s just for fun, put your knowledge to some regular use other than your every day work. That way you can learn new techniques, try out new frameworks and tools, and add something to show in your portfolio. You could also become an active member of an open source project - your own or an existing project. Both help you build up reputation, especially if other people actually use your work.
The toolbox is what drives your everyday work. For every task you solve you usually use the right tool that fits the needs as exactly as possible. But what about those tedious tasks you’re still doing by hand over and over again? What if there’s a tool that could take that load off your hands? Identify that task and look for tools that might help you solve it faster. Even if it’ll cost you money, in the end it can save you precious time.
For me reading is a crucial part of expanding my knowledge. The Pragmatic Programmer’s golden rule is to read one book on technical topics each quarter. I try to read more than that, but also to squeeze in a good old novel in between. Reading has never been a waste of time, a good book is still something to be valued, and something the Internet and blogs just can’t give you. They’re perfect to stay up to par, but books give you a bigger picture. Whether you prefer a paperback or an ebook, reading more is one resolution that never goes out of style.
The holidays are a perfect time to look back over the last twelve months. Look at your achievements, your successes, incorporate them into your portfolio if appropriate. But also look at things that went wrong, things that stood in your way, things that slowed you down, or just simply mistakes you made. Jot them down and try to find ways to prevent those mistakes, or to circumvent things that hold you back.
Learning from mistakes is a technique that’s being used far less than it should be. Things that went wrong can, looked at objectively, teach you a lot. I’d even go as far as saying that you can only learn really valuable lessons from things that went wrong.
The first thing that comes to mind when you think bad habits is to quit smoking. Though I’m not necessarily talking about health issues, this is still a very good resolution. But it can also be a habit that makes you less productive or slows you down. You check your email too often, you let yourself be distracted too much by instant messaging with friends, spend too much time updating your Twitter status, you name it.
All of these are distractions that tend to lure your focus away from the very thing that brings in the money: work. If you can turn all the aforementioned things into money, I salute you. If not, you might want to consider reducing their usage.
Now that you got rid of an old habit, pick up a new one. After all, there’s more time in your life now, right? Actually it’s not that easy. Picking up a new habit can be a dangerous thing, but it can also be useful for your career. Starting to blog would be one example for the latter. Or always using more personal ways than email or instant messaging to stay in touch with your clients.
If you feel like you’re drowning in unorganized work, pick up Getting Things Done, and try to get more organized. While I’m not a religious follower, it has still helped me to stay focussed on tasks and specific actions. And that alone is a huge improvement in productivity.
Isn’t that what teen girls do? Far from it. And it doesn’t have to involve fancy stickers, ponies or unicorns of any kind. At the end of the day, or after you finished a task, just write down what you did, what problems you ran across and how you solved them. Include code snippets for interesting things.
Over time you’ll grow a nice reference of your work, your code, things that went wrong, and, most importantly, your successes. If you want to, include your newly picked up habits. That way you have something to track your progress and something to look through at the end of the year to figure out your resolutions for the following year. Plus, it gives you that warm and fuzzy feeling knowing that you accomplished something during the day.
Even though work’s fun and all, there’s also that world outside. With other people, sun, and lots of things to see. Three dimensions, just waiting to be explored. So why not pick up a camera and start shooting? That’s what I did. Photography is a nice way to get new inspirations, to take your mind off work for a while and most importantly, to take the hands off the computer.
If it’s your thing, pick up a hobby involving crafting. I found cooking and baking to be an almost zen-like experience. Gives you time to think, keeps your hands and mind busy nonetheless, and gets you and your hands out of their daily routine. The latter is something not to be underestimated.
Unless you’re doing workout anyway, just typing and using the mouse all day long will eventually come back and hurt you in your strains. Let me tell you that there are things far more pleasant than that kind of pain. Enjoying fresh cookies is one of them.
Life’s too short for just work. And there’s lots of places to see in the world. Australia, for example. Take time off, plan a holiday, and get away from home and most importantly, don’t take your computer, visit an internet cafe if you must check your email every once in a while. Pick up books instead. When I’m on holidays I read like crazy. I usually need three to four days per book, and the best thing is: I actually enjoy it. It frees the mind, gives new ideas and gives your body time to rest and recreate.
That’s a big list certainly, but it’s nothing to be scared of. Just go through it one by one, take your pick for each one and get going. The best way to start off the new year, in my opinion, is to read a new book. So get to it, set your goals for the next year, and try your best to reach them.
This post is a guest post from Allan Branch, a web designer/entrepreneur who started as a freelancer. After just 4 years Allan’s company has grown to 10 full-time employees and is responsible for the indispensable LessAccounting as well has several other apps still in beta.
Over the past years, my business has grown from a freelancer fresh out of college to a business with employees, constant expenses and payroll. When you’re in the early stages of freelancing accounting is simple. You always know what you have in the bank, you have few expenses and few accounts receivable. As you become more established your accounting needs grow. Things can be easier later if you setup a simple accounting protocol early before these problems arise and take over your life.
Here are some basic accounting steps for a freelancer:
Step 1 - You need a system to bill people.
There are tons of invoicing tools online, (LessAccounting, BlinkSale, FreshBooks). Most have free accounts for you to try out, and it’s worth utilizing these great resources. Web based systems are best, I lost all my 2002 data due to a HD crash and no, I didn’t have backups. It cost $3500 to recover my accounting data for that year.
Step 2 - You need to know who owes you money.
You need to know who is past due, who is paid up. Some of these invoicing apps allow for due date tracking. Or you can use a calendar app (gcal, ical etc) to do that.
Step 3 - Track your expenses with a fine tooth comb.
Tracking business expenses will save you thousands of dollars at the end of the year. Save every receipt - gas, food, mileage on your car, parking fees, computer expenses, phone lines, internet connections anything related to your business. In a future article I will talk about commonly missed business expenses and what you need to record in addition to the receipt. There are several ways to track expenses. Using a shoebox for handling expenses is asking for trouble. There are many expense tracking services online. Or you can use a google spreadsheet and enter them in by hand.
Step 4 - Don’t use your personal bank accounts to make purchase for the business.
Have at least one business bank account and use it exclusively. If you violate this rule you risk “piercing the corporate veil.” Which means you loose your business and your house and your car and money if you got into legal hot waters.
Step 5 - Find a good accountant, preferably someone you feel comfortable with.
Someone who is affordable and will answer your questions. I found an accountant that not only helped me with my books he referred clients to me! Make sure you find out how much it will cost you at the end of the year for his or her services. Be sure to be up front about your expectations as a client, do you need financial planning? Do you need an accountant or just a tax service?
Step 6 - Don’t allow accounting to take over your life, accounting won’t make you money.
If you find yourself too busy to handle it ask your accountant about bookkeeping services. Do what makes you money, you’re not an accountant don’t try to be one. Having a good accountant might cost you money but he or she should be able to save you money every year.
No one likes accounting, designers would rather design and programmers would rather code. But it’s a necessary in the world of freelance and small business.
A few months ago, I was assigned to interview Joel Falconer, a freelance musician in Australia. My first question about that was, “what’s a freelance musician?”
Well, Falconer explained it to me: His band Midnight.Haulkerton, along with developing its own repertoire, also writes and licenses songs for marketing campaigns (Though Falconer stresses that they’re very stringent about choosing which companies and organizations to work with.)
Sounded simple enough, a few e-mails back and forth, we discussed client relations and productivity. But before the interview concluded, contact suddenly ceased.
It turned out Falconer had been involved in a rather nasty intellectual property dispute with a client and eventually resolved it, giving our discussion and entirely new angle on a subject freelancers don’t think about often enough - intellectual property rights.
What follows is a slightly out-of-order e-mail conversation about marketing music and protecting intellectual property.
RJ: How exactly would you define being a freelance musician?
JF: For decades companies have been able to hire a songwriter and some session musicians to write a jingle or theme song of some sort for advertising and marketing. The song is written–usually in haste–and then a bunch of hired musicians go into a studio and put it together.
The song is never publicly attributed to those who wrote it, and the relationship ends there. The copyrights go to the company.
But in our case, being a ‘freelance musician’ means that when you ask us to write a song, we take on the role and we put all that we’d put into any other song, into the song you asked us to write. You don’t pay for some piece of faceless, forgettable music. You pay for a song that’s been written in the style of Midnight.Haulkerton, you pay for the endorsement of the band, and you pay for a song that is as steeped in the ethos and mythos of the band as any other song we’ve written.
Because of this, we keep the copyright and license the rights to the song.
RJ: What kind of clients do you take on?
JF: Because we’re not just pumping out jingles, and crafting real, meaningful songs, we take on clients who we can feel inspired writing for, whom we respect, and who we believe are doing something good for the world. Other than that, we’re pretty much open to anything. Since the band can’t contradict its official stances, we don’t take clients who are leading contributors to global warming or sweatshop manufacturing, or basically in any ethically compromised position.
This maintains our integrity, and boosts the integrity of the clients we do take on.
In the end, it’s a matter of whether the potential client has anything to inspire us with.
RJ: Now, intellectual property issues. Without getting yourself into too much trouble, can you describe the copyright situation?
JF: An organization expressed interest in having Midnight.Haulkerton develop a theme song for their marketing and promotion purposes. They found us through the Sydney Morning Herald and the tunebacks. The cause seemed like a good one, and something that I could easily be inspired to write about and believe in. This is really important to me, and if you dangle a million bucks in front of me to write a song I won’t do it unless I can believe in what I’m creating.
After a phone conversation with the project’s founder, I decided it was worth going ahead with. The verbal agreement was that I would write and record a song that they could use in DVDs, offer for download on their website, and so on. They were also interested in having me do some live performances to promote their cause and generate the interest of the target market who normally would not be so interested in what they wanted to do.
The other component of the verbal agreement was that at no point would the intellectual property of the song be transferred. This is band policy. I’ve made legally binding agreements with other members of the band that include clauses that prevent us from giving away those rights when we create something as or for the band, so it was not something I could give away anyway. The plan was that there’d be a basic licensing agreement which granted exclusive commercial use of the song for a period of two years. There was to be no fee, because I believe strongly in the cause they claimed to be representing.
The song was written and turned into a demo. I arranged studio time here in Queensland to get it completed. Personal business had me travelling before we recorded, and as coincidence had it, I was going to the part of the country the organization was based in. So we met and had lunch, and before I knew it the founder had organized for the studio version to be recorded in his musician friend’s studio. Though I did not complain at the time, this decision was made without consulting me to a great degree; I thought it was a good plan and would make for a better song since the studios were supposedly superior.
Not only were they crap studios, but this was one of the biggest mistakes I made.
Several months later, shortly after the final recordings were mastered, I received an email that basically claimed copyright of the works “under Australian copyright law” - which they knew none of and I know quite a lot of. Knowing intellectual property law is essential in this business. They claimed that as they funded the production it was a work for hire and the copyright in the lyrics and music belonged to them. But that’s where they were wrong; they funded the production in a studio, not me. I didn’t get anything from this endeavor; I didn’t charge a single cent. I was doing it only because I believed in the cause.
Not only that, but there was the verbal agreement between myself and the founder that I would retain my rights, and unlike him I had been smart enough to get those verbal agreements witnessed and recorded.
This kind of treatment has been the plight of artists for a damn long time, and it was clearly a malicious, immoral grab at something that was not theirs. They received in response a detached, business-like (but not in any way insulting or derogatory) message that instructed them to revoke their claim, remove the intellectual property from their website and recall any dissemination of the product and refrain from using it until we had a licensing deal in place. It also showed the flaws in their claim of my copyright and asked for evidence to the contrary, such as a work-for-hire agreement.
What ensued was a barrage of childish, misinformed attacks on my management and petty emotional appeals to me to stop being so heartless, when all that my management and I had done was revoked our permission to use the copyright only until such a time as the licensing deal was in place. The licensing deal we had in mind, by the way, was going to be pretty generous and practically give it away for two years anyway.
After about a week we got the organization back to the negotiating table, and we sent some questions because we needed certain information in order to draft an agreement that would serve their interests. Now, this must be clear: we were going to draft a fair agreement, but it was going to be in their favor, and furthermore, the purpose of the questions we sent was to do nothing more than retrieve information to determine which rights we could grant them.
In other words, questions that enabled us to give to them. In response we received vitriolic and insulting responses. For instance, we asked which dates, tentative or not, were planned for live performances so that we could basically sign ourselves over for those days. To that question we were told, “if Midnight.Haulkerton is unavailable, we’ll hire the Rolling Stones instead.” It was the first time I’d ever seen such pathetically childish behaviour in my dealings with other organizations and businesses who were supposedly represented by grown men. These charlatans matched the maturity level of my two year old son.
Shortly after we received this not particularly helpful response to our questions, they sent another message that said something about our attitude (despite being far too generous for these scum) being “prima donna” and that they’d consider terminating the relationship over the weekend. I breathed a sigh of relief at that point, because this organization just didn’t know how to work with intellectual property or the music business and it was becoming too much of a liability.
Of course, before terminating the relationship, they tried to get me to give away those rights yet again. It ended in a checkmate; they couldn’t use the song and we couldn’t use the production they had funded. For a couple of days, while we knew giving our rights away was the wrong move, we regretted not being able to use that recording, but the more we listened to it, we realized they’d overly commercialized it to the point where it no longer embodied the Midnight.Haulkerton sound or spirit. It was much better for us this way.
Word of warning: even if you have the law on your side when it comes to things like retaining your copyright, if you haven’t got an agreement on paper from the outset, some people will throw a tantrum when they don’t get their way and go home with their toys - no matter how stupid those requests are.
RJ: Ouch. As a result of this experience, have you made any changes to the way you do business?
JF: I always took notes before and after each call so that any verbal agreements would be recorded, and I’d share these with management. Now, we do a follow-up email pretty much straight away with the other party so they have the opportunity to verify details. If they were looking for an easy ’starving artist’ target whose property they could steal with ease, this sends the right message and they think twice about screwing you.
We also get an agreement upfront stating that all intellectual properties will remain ours and that the usage of the song will be governed by a licensing agreement. This usually involves an exclusivity clause for commercial use for some period of time, especially if they are paying customers.
It has also added a degree of cynicism. We’ve been burned in the past, personally and otherwise, but we saw the cause this organization supported as the main reason we wanted to be involved. I think we are now a lot more skeptical of those who say they support a particular cause and even base their entire venture around that lie.
Of course, there are many who are genuine, and they are always easy to pick once you get to know them.
RJ: Are you into hand-signed contracts?
JF: We use digital contracts wherever possible (non-disclosure agreements for example), but for something like a licensing contract, it’s better to get it on paper for safety’s sake - digital agreements are still relatively new in the legal system.
RJ: What advice would you offer other freelancers, particularly those in creative fields, on protecting intellectual property rights?
JF:Study copyright law. Seriously, do a course, memorize the Copyright Act, know those rights like the back of your hand. If you know them, you can protect them pretty easily. The second step - after you’ve learned the law from top to bottom, is to determine at which points in the creative and business process you’ll need legally binding agreements that cover a range of issues. Use and enforce them. Do not back down and never give those rights away.
You should, of course, license them.
RJ: Finally, creative fields like music are hard enough when you aren’t a freelancer. What advice would you give to other creative freelancers
in general?
JF:A lot of musicians run their bands like a lunchtime club. Run it like a business. A truly independent band is near impossible to create success for, because that means acting as your own publisher, printer, distributor, retailer, etc. Run your band like a business that does business with other entities to fulfill functions you don’t want to, or have the resources to worry about.
The Internet is a truly powerful medium which eliminates the need for a lot of the middlemen, but so long as you are willing to work with other businesses and learn how to pitch your own business to them in a way that gets them on board, you’re a step ahead of the game.
Leads…
Good Luck!
Jodee
Please help keep us going.Brumani Marketing is a great company for a home-based worker. The company does outbound calling to set appointments and/or to generate leads for outside sales representatives. This small but rapidly growing company was founded by two “work-at-home mothers”, Nicole Brumfield and Elaine Marks, and truly treats its workers with care and respect.
This is an amazing company to work for! First of all, they do not hold back any pay. You work Monday through Friday, and get paid Friday afternoon for the week that you just completed. How many other companies do that? None that I can think of! The work environment is a lot of fun, and can get giggly as the day progresses. You are on a Skype conference call and chat room while you work for purposes of monitoring. If you have a question or need help, a helping hand is just a few seconds away. You are never thrown into the deep end of the pool, to see if you will sink or swim. You are even allowed to use the rest room if you need to without asking permission first- just let them know that you are going, so that they don’t think something bad happened to you when they hear silence at your station. Don’t laugh- at another company I worked for, you had to ask permission and wait until it was given by one of the “NOCs”- and they would play games with you and tell you that they weren’t the one on duty for your program or they were on break, and you needed to go ask somebody else. A friend of mine in her ninth month of pregnancy was forced to wait 20 minutes before a NOC gave her permission to go. Now, I think that’s obscene! Brumani understands that its workers are human beings with physical needs.
With Brumani Marketing, you work as an independent contractor, and turn in your availability every week. If you want a day off, just don’t schedule yourself as available on that day. One thing that they are very strict on is attendance. If you can’t make a shift, you must call out no less than three hours before the start of the shift and missing three shifts a month will result in termination. This is understandable- they have a business to run.
On-Point Advocacy is a Virginia-based company that provides a very unique service. Home-based workers that work for the company are engaged making outbound telephone calls to people about current political issues and writing follow-up letters to the appropriate government official on behalf of the person whom they interview. You are an independent contractor with On-Point Advocacy and are paid by either direct deposit or by check if you choose. There is another company with a very similar name that is a blatant scam, so be careful not to confuse the two companies.
The mission of On-Point Advocacy is very noble and the pay is great for an at-home job- $12 an hour! To be hired by this company, you must submit a resume, and then you must successfully complete a writing test. The writing test consists of having you write two letters about a political issue, one for it and the other against it. Be sure to look up how to address the letter, using the information and proper salutation for one of your Congressional representatives. One you have cleared these hurdles, be prepared for a phone call and/or an email requesting a telephone interview. If hired, you will be given a date and time to report to training, which is done via conference call, using your computer. You also should download several documents and pieces of software prior to training, including the time clock software, which is how you get paid. You must commit to working at least 25 hours a week.
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Public Opinion Research is a Maryland-based company that employs home-based workers as Independent Contractors. The work consists of making outbound telephone calls for the purpose of completing market research surveys. Your production determines your pay, along with the amount of money each survey is worth. The more complicated surveys pay more, but it is harder to get people to stay on the phone to take them. The company does random sample call-backs to check and make sure that you really interviewed the people that you are claiming payment for. Dishonest people are soon caught and let go, without pay. You are paid by check, and checks are mailed promptly. I have never had a problem getting paid with this company. Vicky Spiegel, the contact person for the company, is a very nice person who takes a personal interest in you.
The application process is very simple compared to Alpine Access and several other work-at-home companies. You submit your application online, and are then given a telephone number to call to record your voice for a voice quality test. The whole process took only a few days to complete, and then I was hired. The training is self-directed and done completely online. There are no conference calls, meetings to go to, etc. However, you must be self-directed and disciplined to get this done on your own. You also must complete the training before you are allowed to work. The training takes about 20 minutes, and you can repeat it as often as you feel the need to do so.
My only complaint about this company is that they don’t seem to have enough work to go around. It’s a feeding-frenzy whenever there is work. I did manage to make about $50 for three and a half hours work doing a very simple call reminding people about an election, and that money bought our Thanksgiving dinner. But, don’t count on Public Opinion research for steady income to pay the bills. It is easy work for extra money, but you’ll need to have another egg in your basket.
Today I just wanted to pop in to say please dont listen to the television commercials that tell you how easy it is to make money from home. I wouldnt exactly call these commercials scams but they usually run anywhere from paying for otherwise free information and people who just got really lucky at something most can not find luck in.
One of the things that comes to mind is the work at home opportunities, where you do surveys. When you sign up for a site to do this because all you have to do is put in a little bit of money to get started you receive a list of survey sites most times bigger than you can ever hope to go through and subscribe to. This is pay for information that others have put together on otherwise free sites.
Other things are the companies where you get to work on ebay and sell things that are dropshipped. Most of the time these are items that are very difficult to sell on ebay because so many others are selling. Your chances of becoming rich at selling these nik naks among other domestic items is very slim.
So the next time you see a crazy fox on television saying to come visit some website and make 500,000 dollars from home in half an hour, remeber if it sounds too good to be true, it most likely is.
I know I missed a day this week, but here is the good news. We have lots more articles and blog posts coming up so I wont have to miss anymore days for a while, Yea!!!!
My mommy biz is mostly about running your own business from home. What I especially like about this site though is all the goodies that help you run your business from home. If you are in direct sales you can find lots of worksheets on getting leads and there is even a lead program done every few months that can include your business.
You might have to pay for that service, but at least you can write it off. You should keep good records of what you can and cant write off too, so you are ready come tax time.
Another good thing about my mommy biz is that they have lots of ebooks they sell about starting your business from home. I havent bought one but I have to say just looking at the list has given me tons of ideas on working from home. Definately gets your brain going in a profitable way. Here is that list.
See you next week!
