Category — Career

Flexible work hours,flexible work location, constant improvement of skills, no uniforms and being in charge. Wow, that would be life at it’s best. Wouldn’t it be great if you can just fire your boss and call it ‘quits’?

Freelancing is defined as selling a service to clients without an employment contract. Most of the jobs are short term arrangements.

Freelancing has recently boomed in cyberspace giving birth to blogs and sites namely, freelanceswitch and freelancefolder. Both teach and guide freelancers on pricing, attitude, and everything about the business that is freelancing.

It has been so popular recently that almost everyone I know is doing freelancing on the side. I, myself, started freelancing while in college, developing websites and applications for a few companies.

Doing freelancer on the side is easy. With just a little time management you could easily put it off. But what if you want to live the freelance life. No full-time job and no ‘boss’.

You’ll need a lot more than time management to pull this off.

Technical Skills – You should be skilled in the area you want to specialize in. It’s a requirement if you want to be a freelancer.

Negotiation Skills – You should learn to negotiate your price. Pricing is very important. Since you’re trading your skills and time for money and your livelihood could depend on it, you’d better have the guts to say what your time is worth.

Time Management Skills – You can choose to work when you want as long as you meet deadlines. Just beware of Murphy.

Communication Skills – You should be able to get the right information from your client no matter what. Remember that you want to deliver what they want.

Freelancing is a really good alternative to office work but there’s much to be considered. You may find that you like the so-called financial security that an 9-6 job gives.You may also find that you miss your company’s health benefits and a lot more.

Freelancing is not for everyone. If you ever think of working freelance, test the waters first by doing it as a side business instead of doing it full-time.

Photo by redshift27

Last week, my contract with my current company was renewed. This means that I am now a regular employee and have a much stable job in the company I am in.

Here’s the list of my favorite blog posts from last week:

I really liked this talk. After watching the video, I actually started to teach myself the japanese language from various and will probably learn more when I think I’m ready for classes.

Amazing Video. This is truly the best time to become an entrepreneur.

I am planning to start a business later this year or probably early next year. Hopefully, with all the information I’ve been gathering, I will be pretty ready for the challenge of entrepreneurship.

Here are some thoughts from the great book, Escape from Cubicle Nation. It lists down what affects how we feel (alive, passionate, relaxed, happy) at work:

Physical work environment: type of building, color scheme, how desks are laid out, natural vs. artificial lights, etc.

Type of business: for-profit, nonprofit, established, start-up, your own business

Business culture: how people treat each other, values displayed by actions of all employees (not just words), policies and procedures or lack of thereof

Communication styles of managers, clients, and coworkers: direct or indirect, confrontational vs. relaxed and open

Size of business: number of employees

Type of work content: what the company is in the business fo selling, e.g. financial services, retail, consulting, consumer products, software, etc.

Skills and talents used in work: which skills you are using in your day-to-day work activities

Here’s my take on the following:

• I had once worked in a start up company that started its operations at the condominium of the COO. Seeing the sofa and the television on only made us think of home and rest. I think you know how that worked (hint: sleepiness)
• I’m almost never going to work for a non start-up company. I just hate it. It must be a good thing for others. It’s just not something for me. I’d tell you about it later.
• I recently resigned from a company that vulgar words were spoken in almost every sentence when my co-workers spoke. I resigned two months later.
• The last one is a no-brainer. If you aren’t doing something you generally like doing, you’ll be miserable.
• I should probably add that salary also sometimes affect how we feel at work

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What do you want to grow up to be? I’m sure we’ve all heard of this question in one way or the other.

E-Myth Revisited, a book I’ve been reading lately with regards to my building of a home business.

The first step of building a Business Plan was to create your primary goal.

What is a primary goal? What would you want to be put on your tombstone, best describes what Gerber wants to tell us.

In Business, it’s the same thing. What do you want your business to achieve? Are its goals congruent with your personal value (or want you want to have on your tombstone)?

Most business owners go into business for a lot of reasons. It could be money, tired of having a job, being envious of a friend’s business and many other things.

While these may or may not be great reasons, most importantly they should congruent with your goals and life plan.

Here are a few things you’d want to think about:

• I want to build a home business so that I can stay at home and have the time take care of my children.
• I want to build a school business so that I can help in nurturing children’s education.
• I want to open a bakery so that I can share with my neighbors and friends the tastiest pies in the world.
• I want to build a business renting out apartments so that I can contribute to better housing for my fellowmen.
• I want to build a computer shop to serve those that don’t have the benefit of a home internet connection.

Aren’t those great reasons? Depending on what you want, you’d find the best reasons to get into business and these things can motivate you into achieving success.

Related Post:
Foundations of a Solid Business – You should read about THE MISSION part. Henry Ford’s mission—one he fulfilled with messianic fervor—was to make the automobile available to the masses. Hence his mission statement, “Democratize the automobile.” It was Ford’s ability to maintain his focus on this mission that helped fuel his financial success.

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