Tag Archive: Business


How to Deal With Nightmare Clients

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October 27, 2010

Regardless of how smoothly your business may operate, no one is completely immune to criticism and controversy. With BP’s disastrous oil spill continuing to dominate the headlines almost three months after it took place, it’s becoming alarmingly clear that even the world’s most powerful and formerly respected brands can take a hit online.

But what if you’re not a major brand – just a small online service provider? While failed projects and disastrous clients are unlikely to spread the word as far, they’re just as likely to cause a great deal of damage to your business.

From minor fall outs to projects that didn’t quite go as planned, there are hundreds of reasons for formerly solid client relationships to turn sour.

We’ve prepared this guide to help you respond to such situations. With Google’s dynamic search results pushing “scam” terms to the top of the ranks and speculation-friendly social media outlets giving almost any disgruntled client an outlet, monitoring your online buzz is more important than ever.

The five strategies below can help you keep your name under control, and keep your clients from turning against you.

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Freelancing Competition–Friends or Foes?

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June 27, 2010

Let’s face it. If you’re a freelancer, then you’ve got competition.

Competition means that there is someone else who is also targeting your ideal clients and prospects. They may be applying for the same projects. They may even be getting more of those projects than you are getting.

It’s very easy for a freelancer to get distracted by what their competition is doing.

In this post, we’ll discuss the three possible attitudes you can have towards your competition. We’ll also explain why it’s important not to get too sidetracked by focusing on your competitors.

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What to Do When Constant Client Emails Keep You from Working

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June 16, 2010

I love my clients. They keep me in business and they allow me to have the kind of career and lifestyle I’ve always wanted. However that’s not to say they aren’t without their vices. The busier we get as freelancers, the less time we have to answer emails, yet the more emails we seem to get.

What’s worse is that we often get several clients who seemed to need babysitting on the web. While I don’t mind teaching my clients how to use their new sites, I’ve come across several clients that would literally email me at least 10-15 times a day on every subject from their website, to SEO, to using email, to turning on their computer.

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The Common Sense Post on Building a Freelance Business

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June 7, 2010

New freelancers who have never owned a business before often get overwhelmed after a short while. That’s because there’s much more to running a web design business than designing or to running a writing business than writing.

In short, there’s a business aspect to freelancing that most of us aren’t used to. Even the best designers and programmers often don’t understand some basic business principles when they start. That’s understandable, because running a business is usually not the primary focus of a freelancer. Most of us became freelancers because we love what we do, whether it be writing, programming, or designing.

However, if a freelance business is to succeed eventually the freelancer must learn some basic principles. To an experienced businessperson, these principles may seem like common sense. For that reason, these principles are often overlooked in articles and blog posts.

Here at Freelance Folder we’re not going to overlook these so-called common sense principles. We don’t want anyone to fail at their freelance business. That’s why we’ve created this common sense post on building your freelance business for new freelancers or for those who need a refresher.

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The Importance of Doing What You Say

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June 1, 2010

“I’ll have the final copy for that email to you in an hour and then it will need to be coded immediately,” he said. I made plans to be ready to receive the document and translate it into an email with superhuman customer service strength, satisfying the client’s needs and exceeding his expectations. Four hours later, I was still waiting, my schedule for the day had been turned upside down, and the client had set a precedent that I would pin to him for the remainder of our relationship.

Has something like this ever happened to you?

Even worse, have you ever done it to your clients?

For freelancers, one of the most critical things you can do is exactly what you say you are going to do. To fail to do so will have lasting effects on your business, your reputation and your client relationships. In this post, we will look at reasons this is important, as well as a way to insure that it becomes a consistent element of how you run your business.

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The Care and Keeping of Long-Term Clients

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May 20, 2010

Basically, there are two kinds of clients that a freelancer can have:

  • One-time clients–Clients who need your services a single time
  • Long-term clients–Clients who return frequently to use more of your services

Both types of clients are important for a successful freelancing business. Long-term clients can offer you many benefits that one-time clients cannot.

In this post, we’ll focus on long-term clients and how to keep them happy.

Read the rest of this post on FreelanceFolder.com

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10 Hidden Skills of Successful Freelancers

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May 19, 2010

Anyone who’s spent any time freelancing knows far too well that there is much more to it than simply doing that thing you love whenever you want in your pajamas.

The truth is that a freelancer must become the equivalent of a business owner in many ways, and there are a number of other requirements that extend beyond that job title as well. In this post, I will point out some of the hidden skills that a freelancer must possess or learn in order to fully succeed in their endeavors.

1. Business Owner

Right off the bat, a freelancer in essence becomes the owner of their own business. Whether making it official and incorporating or simply working as a sole proprietor, the responsibility of EVERYTHING that has to do with your business falls squarely on your own shoulders.

On one hand, this is a fantastic amount of freedom and opportunity to build and grow your business as you desire, rather than answering to someone else. On the other hand, this is an immense amount of responsibility that can quickly overwhelm the unprepared. This duty becomes the umbrella that all the other skills in this list fall under, but instead of reporting to the owner as a subo…

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Using Zen Practices to Increase Your Organization & Productivity

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May 14, 2010

There comes a time in every freelancer’s business that they realize the sad truth–that we spend more time answering emails, talking on the phone, sending estimates and invoices and doing generally everything but what we actually went into business for.

I hate, absolutely hate, the management part of projects and of business in general. If I had my way, projects would beam down from the sky on to my desk with perfect budgets and perfectly detailed specs. I would never again have to answer 100 emails about why you can’t do a full site in Flash or why it’s not OK to hand me 100 mockups when they paid for three.

Unfortunately though, that will never happen. So I’ve spent a considerable amount of time reading up on different practices to decrease the amount of time I spend doing something other than development. I’ve found that you can actually apply the basic principles of Zen living to your office to reduce up your management time.

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The Freelancing Success Code

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May 2, 2010

Freelancing is hard work, but it’s not impossible.

While most successful freelancers work extremely hard (which usually means putting a significant effort into their business), those who are serious about freelancing usually find that the effort is well worth it.

Yet, a surprising number of would-be freelancers are stuck. They don’t know how to start freelancing and once started they don’t know how to proceed. It’s almost as though there’s a secret success code that separates the successful freelancers from the rest. It seems like those who know the code succeed and those who don’t know it don’t make it.

Well, there isn’t really a secret freelancing success code (although some “gurus” may try to convince you otherwise). There are, however, some principles that all freelancers must follow if they are to succeed. In this post, I’ll share those principles.

Read the rest of this post on FreelanceFolder.com

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Five Easy Ways to Improve Yourself and Your Business

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April 21, 2010

As an established freelancer it might be easy to stay where and how you are. You’ve got plenty of work and clients, so why do you need to change right? Unfortunately, it’s this mindset that leads to slow downtimes and possibly failure.

The internet and the way we use it changes every day and if you don’t stay on top of this you can quickly become forgotten in this fast pace field. While this may seem like a downside, it isn’t. It forces you to continue to grow, learn and improve. No other industry can really match that!

So what are some things you can do to make sure you stay on top of things?

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