Day to Day Realities of an Independent Worker
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While on my second year of being a full-time independent worker, I conducted a personal retrospective. This presentation sums up the results. This talk was given at: - Indieconf 2010 (Nov 13, 2010) - RefreshNYC (Nov 30, 2010)
![AboutYour Presenter
• Seasoned [grizzled] programmer of 11
years
• Second-year full-time independent worker
• Owner of two businesses:
MigiMedia: Content Management & E Commerce Group
Ashcroft Eyewear: Independent Boutique Eyewear Brand
• Organizer of Refresh NYC](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
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Day to Day Realities of an Independent Worker
- 1. Day to Day Realities Honest Observations of a Full-time Independent Worker Michael Girouard — RefreshNYC — Nov 30 2010
- 2. AboutYour Presenter • Seasoned [grizzled] programmer of 11 years • Second-year full-time independent worker • Owner of two businesses: MigiMedia: Content Management & E Commerce Group Ashcroft Eyewear: Independent Boutique Eyewear Brand • Organizer of Refresh NYC
- 3. What AboutYou? • How many people are full time independent workers? • How many people are full time employees? • How many people are just dipping their toes in? •Why are you here?
- 4. A Quick Warning I will recommend you read two very different books. This is intentional.
- 6. Work sucks whether you’re independent or not.http://www.flickr.com/photos/michelhrv/2299050033/
- 8. Being free is not a license to be lazy.http://www.flickr.com/photos/frosted_peppercorn/2411572004/
- 9. http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidpbrown/1922428299/ Just because you can work from anywhere… …does not make it a good idea :)
- 11. My Schedule
- 12. The Average Week Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Weekly Planning Client Work — Ashcroft Client Work — Ashcroft Client Work — Ashcroft Client Work — Ashcroft Client Work — Ashcroft Spillover — Leasure
- 13. The Average Day TOD Task 9:30 – 10:30 ✓ Planning & Pipeline Review 11:00 – 1:30 ✓ Quick Tasks / One Offs 1:30 – 2:00 ✓ Feeding Time 2:15 – 6:00 ✓ Project-Related Work 6:00 – 7:00 ✓Work Overspill 9:00 – 1:30 ✓Ashcroft Web Work
- 14. Planning
- 15. Warning: Planning strategies are mostly snake oil. Possibly this one as well. Use at your own risk. http://www.flickr.com/photos/invis/4252924872/
- 16. How not to Plan • Take all the things you need to get done an put them in a todo list. • Map out every possible task you need to do on your calendar. • Plan your day to the minute. Leave no room for interruptions.
- 17. A Better Method • What are your roles in life? • What are your goals with each role? • Every week identify your needs and schedule accordingly.
- 18. My Roles/Goals
- 19. Pipeline
- 20. Pipeline management is easily the most under appreciated areas of the freelance workflow. http://www.flickr.com/photos/baggis/225007470/
- 21. A well defined pipeline • Tells you what your opportunities are. Opportunities are to be followed up on. • Tells you what your projects are. Projects are your main income source. • Calculates your efficiency for a given time range. Efficiency is your benchmark for improvement.
- 22. My Pipeline
- 23. Projects
- 24. Project Management • Is easily the most complicated area of freelance work • You should strongly consider outsourcing (management, development, etc) • Be selective, not picky when choosing projects
- 27. Other Considerations How about plain-old WordPress? http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/selfhosted-wordpress-blog-project-management/ P2 GTD
- 28. Key Functions of PM • Projects (note: plural) • Milestones • Tasks • Teams • Time } These are all moving targets. You and your tools must be able to handle change of all kinds.
- 29. Finances
- 30. The Income Dance Quote 1. Invoice 2. Payment 3. Receipt 4. • Opportunity arises. • RFP comes in. • Proposal goes out.
- 31. The Income Dance Quote 1. Invoice 2. Payment 3. Receipt 4. • Bid is approved. • Project is awarded. • Quote is converted to an invoice. • Invoice goes out.
- 32. The Income Dance Quote 1. Invoice 2. Payment 3. Receipt 4. • Ideally paid w/in agreed upon terms. • Oftentimes partial payments are made to begin the work.
- 33. The Income Dance Quote 1. Invoice 2. Payment 3. Receipt 4. • Receipt goes out upon payment. • Oftentimes overlooked by freelancers. • This may also be a reminder if the payment is late. • Valuable time to upsell if this is a final receipt.
- 34. The Income Dance Quote 1. Invoice 2. Payment 3. Receipt 4. • Process repeats as necessary until project is complete.
- 36. The Taxman Cometh http://www.waywardirregular.com/?p=59 The way I pay my taxes is quarterly, and this is definitely an unpleasant process, but makes the yearly tax-time a little less daunting. It’s like getting stabbed in the kidney once versus getting stabbed in the kidney fifteen times – the first one is all scary and hurts like hell, but number sixteen is just old hat and you’re ready for it. “ • Track Income/Expenses. • Don’t do it yourself. • Don’t wait until the last minute. • Educate yourself. Just keep it simple… Recommended Reading
- 38. Information Addiction • How many feeds are in your reader? • How many times to you go to Facebook/Twitter/Delicious per day? • How long do you stay on the site?
- 39. Outsource. Please. The smartest thing you can do for your business is to remove yourself from it.
- 40. “No” • Is the second most important word in a freelancer’s vocabulary. • Yes, turning down work can actually be profitable in the long run.
- 41. Personal Projects • …are just as important as client projects. • These are areas where you can safely experiment with new technologies and platforms • This is where the most important learning comes from.
- 42. Questions?