Even though some months are painful to review, I’m glad I do monthly assessments. It’s so much easier to pull myself back on track monthly rather than trying to recoup tons of lost dollars and clients 8 months or so out. So now to the recouping part. My usual methods have fallen flat with just…
Monthly Assessment – June
Oh yes it is that time again. Time for all of us to let the mothballs out of the Excel program and share how the month has been. Want me to start? Where to start? How about at the beginning? Queries –I burned up the bandwidth this month. I put out at least 5 new…
New Week, New Perspective
If I could bottle last week, I’d secure it in indestructible plastic lined with asbestos, wrap it in material fit to withstand nuclear blasts, label it poisonous, and wail it off the tail end of a fast-moving jet from 30,000 feet. Yea, that bad. It seems the conflicts were everywhere. Home life was a lesson…
The Return of the Low-ballers
A Twitter acquaintance got in touch with me recently to get some suggestions/feedback/potential help on a project. He and I hit it off and we were both excited about this potential new project. Then we gave the client the price, which was more than fair and probably a bit on the low side, gauging the…
Free? Right.
On a client project recently I received a file that had to be opened via a program called eFax viewer. How to get this? Simple. Go to the eFax website and download it for free. Okay, I started to, got sidetracked and forgot. Wait! There came an email from the company reminding me to complete…
Bonus!
All this talk this week about the lack of perks and stationary pay rates comes with a little good news – two writers I’ve talked with this month have reported getting bonuses. Can you imagine that? Someone actually paid these folks more than they were billed because they were pleased with the results. As Paula…
Perks Are More Than Just Coffee
Working off Paula Hendrickson’s post yesterday, I want ask: when you left that 9-to-5 or opted to leap straight from school into freelancing, how well did you weigh that decision? If you were leaving a full-time job, you probably spent more time considering the things you’d lose – 401(k), paid vacations, paid health care, paid…
The Good Old Days?
Remember when you first started freelancing, when 10 cents a word was the first offer of payment, when writing something for the local newspaper meant an extra 20 bucks in your pocket? It’s too bad that here you are, years, decades later, making the exact same amount. Writer Paula Hendrickson penned an article 11 years…
UFOs and Vacations
I woke this morning to the strangest sight – the sun. It’s what they call a UFO in Scotland, it happens so rarely. Yes, I can still see it. I had forgotten what it looked like! I’m sure it’s short-lived, but I’ll take it, humidity and all. I can’t help getting that uneasy feeling that…
Getting Motivated
Has anyone else started construction on an ark? It’s rained here in southeastern PA for so long I’m beginning to see the animals pairing up. I planted seeds on one of the sunny mornings (which of course turned into maelstrom afternoons). I’m sure they’re either rotting in the excess water or floating down near Delaware…