Smashing Magazine has a nice little list of how freelancers can increase their productivity. While all of the tips are very good, I find Making a Plan really helps, and I need to limit the amount of time surfing the web. Seriously, I do that entirely too much. It’s a good list that is definitely worth checking out!

(link to post)Visit 6 Ways Freelancers Can Increase Productivity

As a freelancer, chances are you spend most of your days working from home. This makes a comfortable home office crucial. Unplggd has 8 great tips to make your home office the best it can be, not the least of which being:

A Great Chair: In our many years of computer usage, we’ve discovered one thing is true. You can have the best job in the world, but if your chair is uncomfortable, you spend your day slightly annoyed, frustrated and achy! Office chairs can range from high to low, but no matter what the price point, all that matters is that you can sit in it for more than an hour or two. We’ve had some well loved Steelcase chairs and some higher end chairs that have worked beautifully, it really depends on the person, how they’re built, and how they’ll be using the space. But comfort, hands down, starts here.

So check it out; and if you some inspirtation, LifeHacker has some cool home office resources.

(h/t: @freelancesw)

(link to post)Visit 8 Ways to Make Your Home Office Comfortable

Smashing Magazine’s Roadmap To Becoming A Professional Freelance Web Designer is the cliffs notes of almost everything I’ve learned about freelancing since high school. They cover everything from the leg work you need to do to branding, and of-course, pricing. Well worth the read, especially if you haven’t taken the plunge yet.

(link to post)Visit Smashing’s Roadmap to Freelancing

About two weeks ago I posed my question sheet for clients as a resource for thise who might find it useful. Today’s resouces comes from Smashing Magazine, who posted a list for 45 Lists and Questionnaires for web designers. They range from client focused stuff like the question sheet I posted to checklists about the design process. Definitely a set of resources that are helpful throughout the entire process of web design.

(link to post)Visit 45 Useful Lists & Questionnaires

As per usual, FreelanceSwitch has published a great article, this time regarding college freelancers. As someone who up until a couple of weeks ago has been exclusively a student freelancer, this stuff really rings true. Especially this little number:

Try to keep your student status out of it

Words cannot describe how frustrating a client can be pre-contract when they find out you’re a student. I do feel however, that once you’ve developed a rapport it’s ok to mention- my clients have been very understanding, especially when it came to crunch time in the semester.

So go ahead and check out the other 4 tips. All really great adivce if you’re a student looking to freelance.

(link to post)Visit 5 Tips for College Freelancers

A couple of weeks ago I decided to sign up for FreshBooks, the online book keeping software. I was originally using Less Accounting, but was not of fan of it for several reasons. FreshBooks on the other hand, is clean, organized, user friendly, and convenient. It has invoicing and expense tracking, time tracking, report generation, and it creates a username and password for your clients when you invoice them so they can log-in, pay the invoice though whatever online gateways you set up, and it automatically marks the invoice as paid. It makes my life 100 times easier. I’ll be doing a full write up on my other blog, but I did want to recommend it here. I’m not a huge fan of paying a monthly subscription for software, but the $14/month I pay to FreshBooks is well worth it.

(link to post)Visit FreshBooks