Please help me to gear up for Freelancing

[foozball3000]

Within a month or so, I'll be able to take on full time freelancing.

A lot of the freelance books and articles suggests to start small while still full time employed, but in my current situation I don't have that luxury. Although I've read a few books about it, it's still something I'm feeling uneasy about.

In the Professional (Employed) Industry, being both an artist and a programmer (apparently a rare combination), counted heavily against me. This is one of the main reasons that I'm looking to use Freelancing to make that count in my favour.

The long term goal is to use my artist side to support me while I build some of my larger programming projects.
But here and now, I'm still far from that and I really need some help.

For preparation and as things currently stand:
- I've registered on Freelancer.co.za and I'm still busy putting a profile together.
- I'm planning on making a Demo Reel tonight to show off my 3D and other graphic based skills.
- One of my arts and crafts ideas have been in production for a while now. The prototype was made in December and I'm busy making the full size versions. But it's still some time before there's anything worth selling.
- A game that I've been building just needs about a weekend's worth of work to be posted on SourceForge. The game will be free, but the point of the game is for Marketing and to show that I have some skills.

And that's about as far as my planning goes..

 

[guest2013-1]

Nothing in terms of finances?

Like what your basic costs are just to survive + have the tools available to you to be able to do your job (internet/car/electricity etc)?

 

[cerebus]

Are you married and have a family to support, or single and don't have too many overheads?

 

[spiderz]

3-6 months worth of capital to cover your costs while you get into the freelancing.

 

[foozball3000]

Nothing in terms of finances?

Like what your basic costs are just to survive + have the tools available to you to be able to do your job (internet/car/electricity etc)?

Are you married and have a family to support, or single and don't have too many overheads?

I am indeed single. My ADSL, Medical, housing and food are the only expenses. Around 8k, without Petrol. On the one hand I am thinking of getting out of the city, because living costs here in PTA is expensive. But the City seems to be where business is.

3-6 months worth of capital to cover your costs while you get into the freelancing.

I can probably hold out for 2 months without any income. So, I will have to make a plan regarding that.

 

[Mr Big T]

Suggest you subscribe to Peter Carruthers newsletter and get his free online book descibed below



PetesWeekly
Small Business Ideas

22 January 2013

100,000 half-book giveaway...
10 years ago I wrote the first edition of Crashproof your Business. I'm giving half of it away to 100,000 people gratis. This is the first 70 pages that describe the problems we small business owners face, the ownership stuff that nobody tells you about until it is too late.

Our businesses efforts all have three components:
•what it is that we sell to earn an income, which most of us do pretty well;
•the management of the business, which many of us struggle with;
•the ownership stuff where you stand surety for everything, which is what this book looks at, and which almost nobody knows about until it is too late.
It's all about how tiny mistakes cause many small businesses to close, and what happens to the owners when that firm closes. What happens to their families, their homes, and even the family pets. It's about the things that we sign when we are in business for ourselves, often with little understanding. It's about the way we trust banks, and how that trust is broken. It's also the bestselling book on the subject in South Africa.

The problem is that I don't know 100,000 small-business owners or people who want to go into business for themselves. I'm hoping that you know a few.

My publisher won't allow me to give away the entire book, so I'm giving half of it away. That half contains everything you need to know to understand the ownership risks and problems. If I'd known that stuff just six months before my business closed, I wouldn't have lost my home, car, bike, and all the furniture. I wouldn't have taken judgements way over R2million (for rented premises that were soon filled with other tenants).

Why am I giving it away? Well, 20 years after my business closed in 1992, there are 25,000 small-business owners who have used the ideas in the book (and the seminar that preceded the book).

Every week I get an e-mail from one of them telling me how happy he was to give the Sheriff the finger when he (the Sheriff) visited to collect the furniture after his (the seminar attendee) business closed recently. But that leaves about 200,000 small-business owners in South Africa who have no idea what's really going on behind-the-scenes. 180,000 of those are not going to survive 10 years. Which means it's just a matter of time before they too transfer all of their personal assets to their business creditors.

This means that these ideas work, and work very well. But I am the only person talking about them. (That is because I think they are so crucial.)

So, if you are planning to go into business, or you know anybody who runs their own business, especially newbies, could you please point them at this book giveaway? The book is practical and written in easy-to-read English.

I used to charge more than R1500 per seminar seat, and the book costs about R160. (Which means that this free giveaway is worth somewhere between R80 and R750 per book.) But, when it saves your house, and your marriage, the knowledge is worth much, much more.

I would deeply appreciate you forwarding this to anybody you know that might be interested. (Although I cannot imagine a business owner that would not be.) They can get their copy here

.


All the best

Peter Carruthers

PS: In February I will be in South Africa negotiating vehicle fleet discounts for Business Warriors, as well as meeting as many of them as I can. Can't wait.
Want to get PetesWeekly fresh each week? Go to PetesWeekly

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[R13...]

If you should ever find yourself in a pinch I'll be happy to relieve you of that kindle paper white, huh

 

[krycor]

This is an interesting site Thinking i will do projects via here part time

 

[foozball3000]

So, I've been musing about this all day and I have somewhat of a business plan.
Now it's getting to that first goal... making ends meet while building the first milestone.

Since recent developments left me far less zealous in everything I do, I'll have to take a safer route.
The simple question is, what can I do now that will return an income.

Programming and Art is the short answer. Although I'm working on seeking some clients for both, it's the Programming one that I have trouble with. Does anyone know a freelance programmer that I can sit with and ask some questions?

 

[Bondizzo]

You can ask me.

 

[zll]

Uh, what kind of art is it that you do? Very few people I know make a living from freelancing as an artist.

A buddy of mine earns a crappy salary as a full time animator and buffs that up by doing commissions.
Another friend freelances as a digital painter but when he's busy, he's BUSY, and when he's not, well, there's a reason he studies so much
Another friend is actually making a decent living as a storyboard artist from what I've heard.
Another friend of mine moved to NZ to work as an artist at a indie game company.
Another friend of mine is the art director at a games company, so she makes a decent living, but then again, I don't think she freelances any more.

Most people I know who are in a "creative" field, such as acting, or writing (including myself), have something regular to balance out their freelance work.

The only people I know who are successful as full time freelancers are people in film and advertising, and their work hours and lifestyle are crazy during peak season. They then sit around on their asses for the rest of the time, waiting for peak season to come along again.

 

[MagicDude4Eva]

I would honestly make sure that you support your lifestyle for at 6 months on cash reserves if you get into freelancing. Depending on the work you do (especially programming) you might find that short tasks (i.e. a few days to a few weeks) are difficult to get (especially on the freelancing sites where you compete with guys with reputation). In most cases you will have quite a lot of back-and-forth as well which can eat into your time and then affect cashflow.

I would approach it via two angles: (1) use your artist skills to establish a constant revenue stream - look at cookie-cutter jobs like fiverr.com and others where you offer something unique and can customize with little effort (2) get your programming work going - this will be a lot more laborious and the cookie-cutter-revenue will be able to sustain you for much longer.