The Healing Power of Narrative

I’ve been going through a difficult time in my personal life lately. To keep myself on an upward path, I’ve been doing everything one is supposed to do: work out, spend time with friends, get enough sleep, find distractions (fortunately, I like my work).

A few months ago, I made a resolution to add one more item to

Thanks, Johannes.

Thanks, Johannes.

the list: read long-form fiction or nonfiction every morning. Over my coffee, I have been curled up on the couch or relaxed at the kitchen table with my Nook. No headlines. Instead, I’ve been dipping in and out of Middlemarch, The Gutenberg Elegies, The Things They Carried, Truman Capote – and occasionally, The Wilson Quarterly, my favorite journal.

I like yoga, but reading centers me more. Not just any reading, however: reading of pieces with multiple themes, woven together, and a point. Narrative, in short. Nonfiction or fiction, I like them both.

I believe (I’m borrowing from the many writers who are considering the impact of technology on our brains) that focusing on long-form writing helps relieve the mind of the stress induced by multi-tasking and Internet-surfing – and, in my case, the crazy burdens of a being a working, single mom.

Here’s a lovely passage from The Gutenberg Elegies:

I believe what distinguishes us as a species is not our technological prowess, but rather our extraordinary ability to confer meaning on our experience and to search for clues about our purpose from the world around us. I believe, too, that meaning of this kind — call it existential meaning — has from the beginning been the product of our other great distinguishing aptitude: the ability to communicate symbolically through language. Indeed, language is the soil, the seedbed, of meaning.

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Posted on January 17, 2013 by Elizabeth MacBride Comments Off on The Healing Power of Narrative

Start Your Engines

January is often a big month for freelancers. Clients are at the start of their budget year, so it’s a good time to pitch new projects.

It’s also a good time to win new clients and reconnect with old ones. If you’ve been looking to expand, make sure to build some time for new business development into your schedule every week–and send out those pitches. In one of my freelancing editing gigs, the budget was tight in the last quarter, and now I’m finally able to give the green light to pitches that arrived in November and December. I have to assume that many of my clients, who work in the same niche in journalism, faced the same situation.

You’ve probably seen headlines about ongoing and upcoming layoffs in the media. If you’re a journalist, this is a good reminder to try to build as many contacts as possible within each client organization. Otherwise, if your main contact leaves, you may find yourself scrambling to reestablish your relationship with a particular client. Don’t neglect to get to know interns, administrative assistants and people from other departments who work on projects alongside of you–and to help them out when you can. It’ll make your projects go more smoothly–and they can be a vital resource in reestablishing your relationship with the company if your main contact moves on.

If you are experiencing any churn in your clients, it’s not a bad idea to reach out to “dormant” clients to reconnect. I’ve started to keep track of all of my assignments in an excel spreadsheet, listing them by client and date. Sometimes, I get so busy week to week that I’ll look at the chart and realize that five or six months have passed–and I haven’t sent a pitch to some of my favorite clients.  I’m busy reconnecting with some of them this week. Freelancing is much more fun if you plan your business so that you’re doing the work that is most meaningful for you–but that doesn’t happen by accident.

 

 

 

 

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Posted on January 17, 2013 by Elaine Pofeldt Comments Off on Start Your Engines

Too Late for Flu Shots

In the middle of last week, my daughter told me she wasn’t feeling well. It turned out she had a fever of almost 105–so I rushed her to the doctor’s office. I have a notoriously bad sense of direction, so I used our GPS to get there. Our doctor is now about a 45-minute drive away, and I’m still getting used to the new route.

“Mommy, I think I’m going to get sick to my stomach,” my daughter said as we headed down the Garden State Parkway. I pulled into the parking lot of a McDonald’s. Moments later, we discovered that the only plastic bag in the car had a hole in it–and my daughter was now a mess, with no change of clothes available. As I pulled back out onto the highway, the GPS got stuck in the middle of saying “Turn right.” All we could hear was a piercing “Ay, ay, ay.”

The “off” button was stuck, and slamming it against the dashboard didn’t help. I was hesitant to pull of the road again and drop it into a garbage can because it sounded like an alarm. I worried that a passerby who could not see it might call the police, thinking someone had put a suspicious package in there. “Can’t you throw it out the window?” my daughter asked. I was tempted, but envisioned it flying into the windshield of the car behind me and thought better of the idea.

It was hard to think clearly at all with the noise in the background, so I just kept driving, trying to muffle the GPS with my leg.

I tried to look on the bright side of our situation: It was much easier to bring my daughter to a doctor’s appointment as a freelancer than it would have been when I worked in a corporate job in New York. I didn’t have to explain where I was going to a boss and worry that there was going to be some subtle demerit for it.

When we got to the doctor’s office, it took just a few minutes to get the diagnosis. My daughter had the flu. Last year, I came down with it (for two weeks!) from a flu shot, so I put off getting my family vaccinated this year. I guess there’s no way to outguess the flu.

I had my two-year-old son vaccinated while we were there. Meanwhile, my two other daughters were in school, missing their chance. I tried not to think about the ramifications, such as the flu making its way through my family gradually, over the next month, one person at a time.

On the way back, I picked up a 30-pack of Oscillococcinum, a homeopathic remedy that is supposed to help your body fight off the flu, if you take it when you first start feeling ill.  The battery of the GPS finally died in the Rite Aid parking lot, about a mile from our home. I’m holding out hope that Oscillo will keep us all from getting sick. It’s one thing to work in your PJs because you want to, but quite another if you are too sick to get out of bed.

I’m ready for spring!

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Posted on January 13, 2013 by Elaine Pofeldt Comments Off on Too Late for Flu Shots

First-Time Hiring? Here Are Some Tips.

The 200kfreelancer’s latest post is live on the AARP’s Work Reimagined site.

Successful freelancing comes in levels: you pick where you want to go. Some people are satisfied entirely as a solo operation. Others aim to build a whole business where they hire full-time employees. (Here’s an interview with one freelancer who used Google AdWords to build a million-dollar business). You might settle somewhere in the middle, creating a team of partners, contractors and part-time employees that come together for particular projects.

Whatever your path, you might end up hiring someone, and it’s best to treat that decision just as seriously as you would if you were as a corporate hiring manager.

Here are the four tips contained in the post: Know Your Own Values; Interview Carefully; Don’t Hire Your Friends; Give Feedback Early; and Don’t Wait To Cut the Tie.

 

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Posted on January 10, 2013 by Elizabeth MacBride Comments Off on First-Time Hiring? Here Are Some Tips.

5 ways to build your social media following

Guest post by Clifford Blodgett

In the eighties hit movie Can’t Buy Me Love, the outcast Ronald Miller (played by Patrick Dempsey) tries to get popular by paying the queen bee at the school $1,000 to be his girl friend.

Using social media can make you feel like he did, wishing for a quick move that will bring you the recognition you deserve.  Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube all have millions of users, but followers, likes, and retweets don’t come easy.  You will still need some productive strategies to attract them and get the most out of your social networks.

Here are five tips to help you promote yourself through social media.

1. Find your personality

There are plenty of people who are trying to do what you are trying to do right now. Everyone knows that you are essentially competing against each other. You need to find your own voice to get attention. The Internet is mostly a means of spreading content, with videos slowly catching up, but people still get most of their information through text-based formats. Think about the sites that are capturing your attention. What kind of voice do they have? Analyzing their success may help you find your own voice. Let people know you are different.

2. Interact

Okay, so you have a few fans on Facebook, a few followers on Twitter, and a few subscribers on YouTube. It’s time to start posting content and doing some self-promotion. Meanwhile, keep in close touch with your core followers. They are your first audience, and you need to treat them like they are your golden ticket because, well, they are. They are the ones that will tell their friends, they are the ones that will stick around, share and retweet.

3. Stay relevant and become an authority

You need to stick with your niche. Perhaps, you are an entertainer. Well, find new and interesting ways to entertain your audience. Perhaps, you are an author. Then plug your books whenever you offer a piece of advice. Sign up as a contributor through Google+ and link your site, which will start exposing your brand to followers while establishing you as an authority on the subject.

4. Connect your accounts

It’ll help you expand your reach. Linking your Twitter and Facebook is pretty simple. You can use Networked Blogs to auto-post your newest blog feeds directly to your Twitter and Facebook. You can also use Tweetdeck to track trends as well as create a dashboard for multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts.

5. Team up

Establish relationships with other professionals who do what you do. They may end up helping you find more followers for your own page. They may also extend an offer to collaborate on a YouTube video.

Follow these tips and find other ways to promote yourself. If you can be creative, you can always find new ways to find fans.

Clifford Blodgett is the editor for a number of career focused websites. His advice pieces have appeared all over the internet and you can follow him on Twitter or Google+.

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Posted on January 9, 2013 by admin Comments Off on 5 ways to build your social media following

The Simple Way To This Assigning Editor’s Heart

A couple of weeks ago I was thinking about whether to approve a writer’s pitch. It lacked one crucial element. If it had been present, it would have been a sure-fire win in my book.

Numbers.

If a writer’s pitch contains numbers that establish a trend, or establish that someone or something is worth a feature story, I am much more apt to approve the story. That’s because numbers are a near failsafe. Even if the story comes in under par, I know I’ll be able to rewrite it into something decent if there are numbers.

“Numbers” for me can mean a study (when I’m on the ball I’m apt to check a study’s size and methodology), or a conclusion that seems well established. Is a grocery store the only one of its kind in Brooklyn? I’d quiz the writer on how he or she knew.

Numbers could also represent change: a company’s growth, or a neighborhood’s development, for instance.

Numbers not only give me a feeling of security as an editor, they are a sign that a writer has put some effort into the pitch. That’s double security: I can rewrite the story if I have to, and it seems fairly unlikely that I will, because the writer is a professional.

Truthfully, I recognize that numbers are also a shortcut that writers and editors rely on too much, in lieu of the real analysis and reasoning. But a fact is a fact: In a week where I have a scant amount of time to make decisions about which pitches to approve, and which to delete, numbers often put one writer’s idea right over the top.

 

 

 

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Posted on January 3, 2013 by admin Comments Off on The Simple Way To This Assigning Editor’s Heart

Review: The Book Every Freelancer Should Read in 2013

I’m not a big fan of most how-to books on business that cross my desk, but  The Freelancers Bible, by Freelancers Union founder and executive director and MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellow Sara Horowitz, with Toni Sciarra Poynter, is the exception. I can’t stop re-reading it.

Whether you are a seasoned freelancer or considering quitting your job to go independent, this book will give you frank, honest advice on how to build the freelance life you want.

What excited me is the visionary approach that Horowitz takes to freelancing. As she sees it, freelancing isn’t just about stringing projects together and working 24/7 to pay the bills. It’s about building a business around challenging, exciting, meaningful projects–work that is sustainable over a long career and part of a rich personal life. It’s not about isolation, as many people fear, but about being part of a community that includes other freelancers, clients, and worthy organizations that need pro-bono help. She’s found that the most successful freelancers are “givers,” willing to extend themselves to help both clients and fellow freelancers. “[B]eing a good freelancer is really about bringing your higher self to your work,” she writes.

The book is filled with practical advice that will help you avoid rookie mistakes, like weighting your workload too heavily toward projects that are fun but don’t pay the bills. To build a steady income, she recommends aiming for a freelance portfolio that includes several types of clients, such as major blue chip ones whose business helps keep the lights on, one-shot projects to fill income gaps, customers who offer opportunities that might grow into something bigger and new ventures that might take some time to come to fruition (like doing more public speaking).

She also recommends a pragmatic approach to selling your services–one that’s based on what clients need, not just on what you want to do for them. “If your specialty is ‘I’m the most detail-oriented freelance animator in town, but your customer’s need is `We need it fast, not perfect,'” you’ll quickly become the most detail-oriented, unemployed freelancer in town,'” she writes.

Horowitz has a way of sparking enthusiasm about freelancing even while dishing out tips on matters like handling your taxes or deciding whether to incorporate. And she offers plenty of useful info for established freelancers. There’s a very helpful discussion of how to set freelance rates (delving into the tricky subject of when it may be worthwhile to work for free) and valuable tips on how to grow a freelance business through subcontracting and teaming with other freelancers.

She also offers great advice on something many of us have trouble doing: taking a vacation, for fear we’ll lose work, fall behind on projects, miss out on new opportunities and all of the other reasons readers know so well. “Oh, please,” she writes. Her recommendation: Set a vacation policy about how often you will take vacations and how long they’ll be–and then make them happen. Thanks to Horowitz, that’s my New Year’s Resolution!

Coming soon: The $200KFreelancer’s interview with Sara Horowitz.

 

 

 

 

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Posted on January 1, 2013 by admin Comments Off on Review: The Book Every Freelancer Should Read in 2013

7 Questions to Help You Build Your Ideal Freelance Business in 2013

One big benefit of freelancing is the control it gives you over all aspects of your life, from the projects you do every day to how you schedule your personal time. But, as I’ve learned in five years of freelancing, running a business you love does not happen by accident.

As freelancers, it’s easy for us to get into short-term thinking, where we’re focused on meeting this week’s deadlines and little else. But to achieve bigger goals, whether it’s writing an important book or building a business that can sustain a family, it’s important to take a breather several times a year to focus on what you want your business and life to look like.

Last year, for instance, some of my work assignments were interrupting time I wanted to spend with my kids. So this year, after asking some of my freelance buddies for ideas, I started getting up at 5 am every day and plunging right into work, so I’d have the majority of my work done by noon. It was something I’d done when I first started freelancing but stopped doing as often after having my son, because I was too tired at dawn to wake up. Now that he’s almost three, it’s possible again (with a strong cup of coffee or two)–and this year has gone much better.

Here are some key questions to ask as you do your planning for 2013.

1. How happy am I with the work I did in the past year? Was it personally meaningful or important to others? Am I proud of the quality? Did I like the mix of projects I did? Do I need to rebalance my portfolio of work next year, so I’m doing more of the work I love? Was there any project that was a big disappointment? If so, why? And how can I avoid that happening again?

2. How do I feel about my clients? Did I enjoy working with them? Did I find that the experience was stimulating and helped me grow professionally? Did our collaboration help me to branch out into new areas I wanted to explore? Did all of my clients do business with me in a way that was above-board, ethical, and fair? Are there any clients whom I should stop working with?

3. How do I feel about the advisors and vendors who helped me? Did they do a good job and help me run my business better? Did they deliver their services in a way that was timely and top-notch? Were their prices fair, relative to the value they provided? Are there any advisors I need to replace this year? If so, what went wrong with the last person I hired and how can I avoid it happening again?

4. Did I achieve my income goals? If so, did I do so in a way that still allowed me to enjoy life–or was I working around the clock? If I didn’t meet my own goals, what was the roadblock? Did I count too heavily on opportunities that did not pan out or  invest too much time in projects that were not profitable enough? Did I diversify my business enough to recover quickly if steady work dried up? Was I doing enough networking and marketing to keep new work coming in?

5. How was my quality of life? Did I take on projects that allowed me to follow a work schedule that I liked–or was I constantly running into scheduling conflicts? Did I set appropriate boundaries with clients so that I was available when they needed me–but not “on call” 24/7? If I had to travel for work, was the travel manageable? Did work commitments allow me enough time to spend with my family and other people I want to see? Was there time for fun, exercise and other things I want to do? How did work affect my overall stress level?

6. Did I manage my time well? Did I treat it as my most precious commodity–or squander it? Did I budget the right amount of time for each project–or did I find myself breathlessly plowing through an overly long to-do list? Do I have any bad habits that are eating up my work time, like surfing the web when I should be working? Do I need to set limits with people who are taking up valuable time I need to work?

If I’m working at home, how is that affecting my time management? Am I overextended in areas outside of work–and cutting into work time to deal with those responsibilities? If so, how can I fix the situation? Do I need to say no to volunteering for a while? Would it make sense to outsource some household tasks that I’m struggling to manage? Do I need more childcare help–or would it make sense to switch to a different kind of childcare that works better for me?

7. What do I want to achieve this year that I didn’t accomplish last year? Should I set the bar higher for the types of clients I win or my income goals? Is it time to take on bigger projects and hire help? What lifestyle goals do I have? Am I happy, overall, with the life I’m leading–or is it time for a big overhaul?

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Posted on December 29, 2012 by Elaine Pofeldt Comments Off on 7 Questions to Help You Build Your Ideal Freelance Business in 2013

Get More Word-of-Mouth Referrals

Research shows that word-of-mouth referrals are the most trusted form of marketing, yet many freelancers don’t make the most of them. One reason is that we tend to leave them to chance, simply hoping that our best customers will rave about us to others.

Seasoned solo professionals know that they will get more word-of-mouth referrals if they actively encourage them. That may mean doing things like making appearances at industry events or simply asking for them. In our latest post for the AARP’s Work Reimagined site, “Grow your business by putting customers to work,” seasoned business owners offer their advice.

You don’t have to have a sales-y personality to get word-of-mouth referrals. The freelancers I know who receive the most business this way are great at execution: They deliver high quality work on time, every time. And they’re consistently professional and personable.

What if you are not getting any word-of-mouth referrals, after several years in business? Now is a good time of year to take honest inventory of how you do business to make sure you are not discouraging referrals inadvertently. No freelancer or business owner is perfect, and we can all improve.

Here are some questions to consider: Do you deliver excellent service to your customers every time–or have you cut some corners lately, in a rush to get things done? Do you give every customer, no matter how small, the same high level of service, or do some get short shrift? Do you say yes to projects that you really shouldn’t take on–and later resent to the point that your feelings are evident to customers? Do you meet deadlines? How do you respond if clients ask for changes to a project or you’ve made a mistake? Are you easily reachable? And how are your relationships with customers? Would they feel comfortable referring you to prized contacts at the highest levels of their field? If you’re having problems in any of these areas, it may be a good time to put an action plan for improvement in place (even if it’s as simple as adding more email reminders to your calendar). If you don’t know how to get better, turning to a trusted colleague or business coach may be a good idea.

The good news: If you’re getting work at all, you know there’s a demand for your services. A nice flow of word-of-mouth referrals will help you build on that demand to take your business to a whole other level–and make the work of marketing yourself a lot easier.

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Posted on December 19, 2012 by Elaine Pofeldt Comments Off on Get More Word-of-Mouth Referrals

Will 2013 Be the Year You Make the Break?

If your early New Year’s resolution is to quit a miserable job you hate, now may be the right time to make a move.

Demand for freelancers seems to be percolating. According to the Global Business Survey by the talent marketplace Elance, the average company hiring on the site predicted that 54% of its workforce would be working online by 2017. Elance is predicting that companies of every size will hire twice as many of these workers in 2013 as last year.

Also fueling the demand is the trend toward “fractional” ownership, according to Elance’s 2013 Online Work Predictions. More of us are gravitating toward services that let us share things instead of owning them in their entirety — from the car sharing service Zipcar for automobiles to airbnb for places to stay.

Employers are thinking along the same lines, according to Elance. Some are realizing that rather than let projects go undone until they have enough work to support hiring a full-time employee, they’re better off contracting with someone reliable for, say, 10 hours a week. When I spoke with Elance CEO Fabio Rosati a few weeks back, he told me that underlying the trend is a flight to quality: More employers are seeing the value of great, reliable freelancers and want to make sure these pros are available when they need them. They don’t want to start over with a brand new freelancer every time. That’s good news for freelancers seeking retainer work to stabilize their income.

With market forces driving demand for freelancers, Elance is bullish that more people will quit their jobs to meet the demand. Interestingly, its predictions note that Obamacare may give them support to make this move. If the health reform works as intended, it will make affordable health plans more accessible to many self-employed people. In my experience, the high cost of health insurance is the number one deterrent to freelancing.

Not everyone is cut out for full-time freelancing, of course. (To find out if you are, check out our article: “Six questions to determine if you are cut out for freelancing.”) Taking on some freelance gigs in your off hours can be a smart way to test the waters. Elance’s Global Business survey found that 40% of respondents held a full-time job and did online work on the side when they first started freelancing.  It’s an ideal way to figure out if you like running your own business, before you take the risk of abandoning a steady paycheck.

 

 

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Posted on December 14, 2012 by Elaine Pofeldt Comments Off on Will 2013 Be the Year You Make the Break?