Freelancer tips to increase your productivity

September 20, 2009 By 1 Comment

There is nothing better for designers or programmers to be Freelancer, working freely, you have great pressure, have your own workspace and all reasons that makes everything look very attractive, but the freedom to do things alone does not always work, you must be organized and have a clear work plan for if you do not have discipline then started to have problems every time will be larger.

That’s why I offer some tips to optimize your time and be more productive, of course that you are master of your time and know the best way to be more productive, but if you’re looking for ideas I present below few.

The first step to being organized is to define what is the working time, so it’s important to have a work schedule, the first thing to do is to clearly define how many hours you devote to work and what is the best time to work defined that is important that you respect the times.

Using task lists will help you be more productive, as is the case with us the use Blogger task lists helps us to be always in order and it helps us not to overlook anything, for this way of working Freelancers also is very useful to help organize time well and helps you be more productive.

Keeping track of time you use in performing the different tasks helps you evaluate your performance and think well how to work more productively while always taking time for everything, better quality than quantity.

Organize your email, if you have multiple accounts unificalas all, in this case the best email service Gmail is it possible to organize your mail with filters that work with labels instead of folders and the ability to handle multiple email accounts email without fuss.

Those are some very basic tips to keep your time organized and be more productive, you can see in detail all these points here.

Filed Under: Job advice

How to organize freelancer work space – home office

September 20, 2009 By 3 Comments

When one is employed and must travel to the office every day,  day-dreaming with the idea of working from home and without leaders. In the head we Freelancer represents the image of successful, young, paid his own house and has a respectable car. Very American Dream. The reality of the young man began working independently in the third world, is another.

In Argentina, especially Buenos Aires, is very normal that children live with parents until well into the 30 years age when leaving the nest to start a family is living, or at worst, get married . This situation arises from the difficulties of financing a rental with current salaries and the lack of access to a mortgage as our parents did.

This situation, coupled with enforced idleness, unemployment, leads to a lot of young independent job search, where he covets a gain higher than the salaries offered by slave labor, adorned by a lack of pressure to meet a schedule and leave the suit for jeans that we love so much. The reality is that the beginning of a personal venture is very hard if it lacks a certain discipline. So here are some tips to help you start preparing your workspace.

Having a whole room for office use, would be ideal. But if you’re not so lucky, enough to define a particular space can be a corner, a desk, a corner as far as possible the natural bustle of a family home. Search any unused space that can be recycled.

Avoid places of transition from home to away with distractions that our family is going to generate involuntarily. Let’s talk to our family of our plans and explicitly agree some small patterns of coexistence around this new space, all designed to not interrupt your work and the solidarity with you when you receive calls, receive mail, or attend a client.
Prepare the furniture

We need a desk or table as broad as possible, we must locate our computer so you can work with the papers to us. Let’s install some shelves near or we use a library if space allows. Economize by building us all we can!

For example, on a visit to the timber we can see that there are tables of pine or other wood supply. Make the cut in the measures we need and there he bought a hardware store or metal brackets, screws 8mm and fishers. Make borrowed a hole if we do not have one, not worth buying it, and install! If the wood seems very clear, we can buy some paint to make them a patina.

Lacking a desk, we can choose the “assemble furniture that sell in wholesale channels such as Easy – Jumbo, although we can not rule out the furniture go looking for deals and even buy a slightly damaged furniture (with corresponding price reduction ) and repair it ourselves. Used furniture are generally very expensive, but you can look and see if you have luck finding one that suits your space and your pocket.

Animate to do things for yourself, you save lots of money, learn new things and you can customize to taste the place. Do not feel embarrassed to go to websites with guides on how to “desk” or the like, all ideas that you can rescue can help.

A tip: in a house with electricity or a hardware store, buy cable seals. With that will keep out the spaghetti of wires that results from the computer and other electrical pots.

If it is necessary to paint the room, look for it in white or a very clear tone, thereby making better use of light. You have good prices acrylics, you need a roller, a brush for detail, a bottle of turpentine and win.

Then adorn with pictures conveniently to your liking. Take care to illuminate the area very well be where you go if you have natural light and exploit it ran up the curtains or blinds while you’re there. Have good lighting helps to combat lethargy.

Loud music is not recommended for this new space. On one hand it is inevitable to be distracted by what we hear, well more than to stop and search new each time to get down to music or internet download. We hear the phone or doorbell and with that we are making it difficult to contact a potential client, and add to our parents, siblings or neighbors at some point will be upset.

But the total lack of music can sometimes hurt us too. A little background music helps us to not be distracted by the noise of our own home, such as the sound of television, the talk of our families, and so on. We must find the right balance.
Other important details

Keep well ventilated environment will help you stay awake, and using air fresheners that have a pleasant aroma is an extra point to give you that pleasure to work there. They come in a multitude of presentations, from aerosols to ornaments fragrance gel ranging firing all day and changed once a month.

The incense sticks are nice but I consider unfit for office because the aroma spreads through which generate smoke, which thins the air. If you’re going to use them, encendelos at times that you have to go to aromatize the site.

If you like by placing a plant. The potus, for example, are indoor plants that do not require great care of you and give life to your place. You may prefer one of these ornamental fountains or any of those small greenhouses that sell ornamental nurseries.

Shape the place to eventually receive a visit and feel that really came into an office and not in a Sucucho in your old house:-P. But mainly, you have to feel yourself in a room intended to work a bit to deceive abstraerte the site you really are.

And when you start to stay boy …

Over time people may start to get known and be uncomfortable for you to be your home address. There are customers who once they know where you live, do not respect your working days and go to ask things on Sundays and holidays, regardless of time. Men can also stay in your home space, or decide that it would be better to be closer to the center or elsewhere.

You can rent an office you alone if you get income. If you do not get, consider joining with friends who share your standards of work but not working for the same. You can create a studio where cost sharing but separate spaces very well. You can use this space exclusively to service clients but working from home.

It spread the word to your friends, many people are looking to share costs for their ventures are more profitable.

Can you think of some more tips?

Filed Under: Freelancer job news

5 excellent ways to ruin a presentation – freelancer work tips

September 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

presentation_delivery_tutorialDid you get a chance to present one of your products or services and do not know how to ruin? Well, take note.

Guy Kawasaki reminds us 5 things NOT to do if you want your customers to pay attention to what you’re offering.

1. Definitely do not take into account the real needs of the client

Whenever possible, make the presentation without preparation and “biliary sludge”, thinking that “with a little luck, attendees will find something interesting.”

With this method, very typical of the trade with little experience, you can be sure that the meeting will not serve for anything.

ANTIDOTE before work begins. Investigates and analyzes the available information, see the website of the company, ask your contacts “to know what your customers need. And the demo focused there, with a clear idea of what you offer and what you get.

2. Start with a good dose of information “corporate” about your business or company

Start the meeting with a presentation of at least 20 minutes on your business or enterprise: data, office numbers, mission and vision …. Your audience will start to yawn in the first minute. Guaranteed. And it is easy for people who really want to go leave the room before you could tackle the really important issue.

Antidote for losing your time or the hearing, go straight to my message. Start with a fact or a suggestive proposal. If you engage people from the beginning, you’ve lost your chance.

3. Make a linear or chronological presentation that goes from beginning to end

There is nothing worse than starting a long history that we do not know where it leads: “At first I …, then … later …”

If after some minutes the client still does not know what they want, and why you’re there, you’ve managed to ruin all your chances of success.

ANTIDOTE First, it shows customers what is the benefit or advantage your product or service that will provide them, and then explains, in summary, how easy it is to get that benefit (you, of course).

4. Try to show absolutely everything

It’s your chance. Do not let go. Grab the mic, aduéñate of the screen or monitor and do not let go until you’ve got to explain absolutely everything all services, all products, all your previous projects … Comment to the last image in the presentation.

If you are presenting a demo of a software application, review until the last menu item and every one of the features, like a prototype test. Attendees will see how slyly open the room window and look down with suicidal gesture.

ANTIDOTE The presentation has to be a synthesis, a concentrated sample that succeed in attracting the attention of your potential customers. To achieve this, you do not need too long. If your potential customers take the bait, immediately they will contact you to ask more information.

5. Always use the same presentation

Have no matter who is in the room. It does not matter if it is the company president, team marketing, technical systems or art director.

ANTIDOTE Think about who makes up your audience, and which of these profiles are really going to decide to engage or not your service. If they’re managers, it’s easy to be interested only in a very brief presentation. If, however, you meet with professionals who are directly involved in the project, will surely want to reach a level of detail a little higher.

Determine what your target audience and tailor the message and how to communicate.
More than a missed opportunity …

Should not be exaggerated. For very bad things come out, the world will not collapse under your feet. But if you think about it, when you get to ruin a presentation, your situation is not the same as at first, but far worse.

The explanation is simple: your chance to get a new project has become a real hassle for attendees. Before, you might not know who you were. Now that you know and know how bored you can become, almost certainly you will NOT …

Therefore, among other things, it is worth spending a little effort into our communications.

Filed Under: Freelancer job news, Job advice

Learn to listen to your customers – method to give a boost to your freelance activity

September 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

listen_customerReally listen to your customers remains one of the most revolutionary-and economic-to give a boost to your business. And if you believe, attempts to answer these questions:

- How much time / effort / money you’ve lost correcting wrong things you did not listen carefully to the request?

- How many misunderstandings have been because you have not confirmed which was exactly what customers expect from you?

- How many business opportunities, potential new projects, you have overlooked because you have not paid attention to what your client was telling you?
Benefits of good listening

Play well (really) allows us to move forward with safe passage in our projects, we discover new business opportunities and strengthens our relationships with customers:

CLARITY. Play gives us clarity and avoid misunderstandings with our client. It is the best way to ensure that both are aligned in the project.

NEW OPPORTUNITIES. When you listen carefully, you can discover what your customers think and need. This allows you to detect new needs-projects-often you can solve yourself. May even discover you or your client contact you with new customers. Just watch.

LONG TERM RELATIONSHIPS. A clear and fluid, based on genuine dialogue, has a good chance of staying over time. You can turn it around: it is difficult for someone to want to continue working with you when not even hear …
Listening is not the same as hearing

We tend to think that listening is something very simple we all know and usually do, a reflex that we are accustomed. Not so. Listening is not heard. Is much more:

Empathy. Many times we do not look at what the speaker wants to tell us, and fall into the mistake of staying exclusively with what we want to hear: the part that we like, or reinforces our views and our values. And that is not listening.

Play involves a willingness to understand the other person. If you think there is a lot of empathy in the act of listening, because to understand our partner, we put ourselves in their paper.

The rush does not help. It is becoming increasingly difficult to hear. And this is normal. Every time we have more stimuli, and our attention remains limited. We ran from one place to another, from one activity to another, and finally we are unable to devote our full attention to what someone else has to say. This lack of attention we must add that our memory is weak, and remember that at most get half of what they tell us.

In short, learn to listen a little training required. In FreelanceSwitch offer us some good techniques to improve our ability to listen:
1. Listen also body language

Verbal communication is like the tip of the iceberg of what the speaker is expressing. If only you look at the words, can you’re missing half the message. Notice the gestures, tone of voice, facial expression, movement of hands, speed and emphasis of the speech.

These tracks may tell, even better than words, what is really the frame of mind and intention of the client. Do not forget we are trained enough to say what we mean, but we are not as good control our body language.
2. Responds to the partner knows you’re there, listening to what he says

For there to be communication, there must be at least two actors. If one speaks in a vacuum, that’s a monologue. We are all aware of it, and so grateful for the timely intervention of our interlocutor.

Eye, because in this case, answer is not to offer your view. That we always do well …

This is to check that you have correctly understood the speaker’s viewpoint. And the easiest method is to try to formulate in your own words what the speaker has said, a kind of recapitulation, so that he will confirm that is what he meant.

For example: “From what he says, are worried because you think that I can not deliver work on time.” Or: “It seems that you are not satisfied with the job.”

(Of course, not everything will be negative messages. But it’s good to be alert to items that generate discomfort in our customer, and we often difficult to detect / accept).
3. It raises key questions

To find out, there is nothing better than to ask. After patiently listening to what the customer has to say, you know much more by making the key questions:

- What do you want?
- What can I do for you?
- What do you expect?

If you noticed, all questions are open. This makes seeing our partner we are open to your answers, whatever. It is a way to give freedom and confidence. He sees that we do not try to take a road marked. And that is always appreciated.
4. Do not offer your advice ahead of time

Do not interrupt your partner to offer advice, or to give your opinion. It is very common to fall into this trap. Your involvement may be interpreted as a lack of interest in his views. And though often you’re convinced that the answer even before hearing the entire question-at the end of the day, because you’re a professional consultation “is likely to be mistaken.

Your answer will always be much better when you have all the data that the client wants to communicate.

What is your experience? Think you know a good listener?

Filed Under: Freelancer job news, Job advice

Top 6 freelancer websites for work inspiration

September 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

When I started working as a freelance one of the things that frightened me most was where to find a manual to help me understand the market. The truth is that there is no manual but I did find in the way many reference sites that have marked my work dynamics.

These are 6 sites as sources of inspiration and documentation for those who engage in freelance work or are professional bloggers for inspiration, resources to improve their work and productivity. The main feature of these references is that they are places with a very specific theme and diversity issues.

I consider it a classic in this subject, with varied resources for the needs of freelancers: blog, jobs, directory, forums, resources, podcasts, and helpful advice.

Freelance Switch

With over 70 thousand readers this site is undoubtedly a reference for freelancers with lots of content to learn more about the profession, the challenges and dynamics to improve.

Freelancer Magazine

As its name suggests is a magazine devoted to the topic of freelancer with tips for bloggers, designers, developers and more. His themes are varied around the theme of work as a freelance.

Freelance Folder

With over 16 thousand suscriptires is another popular sites on the subject freelance. It has several sections, books, inspiration, marketing, promoting your work and to invite you to join our team.

Freelance Apple

A new site just follow and that is dedicated to publish content to help freelancers. It has several sections including I must stress that it is again on the subject, will be to see how content evolves.

Allfreelance

A site that I do not like the saturation of images, content and distribution of elements. But I must admit that it is also a useful resource for learning about the issue of being freelance in the amount of content umbrella.

These are some of freeds I have in my reader in relation to the subject of freelance, I hope you find it useful to continue learning the subject. They have also been a source of inspiration for my articles on the topic of freelance work.

Filed Under: Freelancer job news

False job offers – tip for job seekers

September 3, 2009 By Leave a Comment

For sometime now, certain areas we want to show the benefits of Internet job search and, of course, is, however, do not forget the faults of those who are suffering.

According to recent studies, 80% of actual job offers come to light not because they are covered by the “word of mouth” of a lifetime, now called “Networking”.

The remaining 20% of jobs come in different media such as press, job portals, public employment services, human resource consultants, temporary work, etc..

What I show is that the Internet is a tool in job search, however, not use it we are guaranteed to find work and must dispose of other means. We must complement each other.

Then let us not forget that the Internet is a business that specialized employment websites are making money as a priority objective of its biggest customers: the “Business”.

Nobody can deny that such sites are not as idyllic as they seem and accumulated job “hook” on which the job offered is a chimera to attract candidates.

Do not forget that in the selection process, the major premise is speed: since it is launched until you close and try to have the best. Is it not to suspect these jobs a month are displayed in a job portal and offers the same two months in a company do temporary work, lingering on both without justification? Maybe not exist? Or those offerings are not current or a future?

Candidates do not know the back of the job portals because as you know are not involved in the selection process and perhaps, therefore, the problems begin. That yes, they are aware of these tricks of the companies in which it plays with people’s expectations. All portals of employment without exception act the same way, to a greater or lesser extent. But how can it be that many candidates who meet the prerequisites for the position are discarded without at least be making contact with the company? Other times, those same candidates, for the same offer, but on the other channel, are in process or runner without even having had any contact with companies. Clearly, however, in this case at least the job is real.

Not too long ago, one of my surroundings opted for a position as counselor to work out on a job portal and enrolled are waiting. Met all the requirements. They spent days, weeks and months and never heard. That yes, about a month ago found in public service employment that same offer from same company. He wrote to the corresponding INAEM office to show interest and was shown the email address where I should send your resume and a phone number to contact the person in charge of the process. He said that he did that day because he was going to make your selection immediately. He made both and the contact person told him that this would take long and that, if fit, would be contacting him. That yes, he received the letter from INAEM for the company seal was in another province. He rang the company and was told they did not take charge of that process and to get in touch with his office that was what solved the issue. Of course, the offer was never heard, nor will know and you wonder what they do with those resumes?

Tenders have no truth to all types, from the generic, which do nothing until too specific, which give too much data.

Many companies insert job “just in case” comes a project that will require staff to specify a particular profile and make up the interviews but delay the selection process and these candidates will never know of that offer. You can even lead to psychological problems because you can even get one to think that the problem is in yourself. It is difficult to realize that the problem is that this work does not exist.

However, the profiles that we inserted in job portals have much to do to where it comes within the process or simply that you discard. Oddly enough, it is proven that the more general and indeterminate to be the best profile. Test but may you put two different profiles with your data.

But I do not want to generalize. Of course there are many other offers that are true and that many people, on occasion, found jobs through the job portals and many others do not.

Such portals must be designed primarily to make money and then worry about whether a platform that creates an incentive to find work. That is, it is used by companies to select the staff they need and not to advertise themselves or their activities by inserting non-existent jobs.

Both employment portals, such as public employment services should be able to require companies to justify the very existence of these jobs and not giving carte blanche to do and undo. Of course, I refer to the apparent controls that are so soft that seem nonexistent.
Only transparency should be asked. Because they are the first to recommend candidates that they should not cheat on their resumes. When candidates are that crafty and makeup of the truth are the ones who are getting results, make that, sooner or later be passed to this game in which all parties involved actors in the job search.

I think it’s time for the job seekers to see the reality and know what lies behind so much silence in their quest, not because they are all fit the profile but because some of these deals are mountains of smoke.

Filed Under: Job advice
« Older Posts