10 Tips to Successfully Work from Home

Whether you are a free-lancer or have a home-based business, working at home has its peculiarities. As a free-lancer, over the years I´ve learned to adapt to doing my thing in different situations, to include a party during which I wore earplugs and sat at my computer to meet a translation deadline!

It may be difficult for others who hold regular jobs to understand that just because you don´t go to an office you are not always available. This can include members of your own family of course. If you have a home office you can shut the door to, that´s great – I´ve had it and it´s pure bliss – but if you don´t , join the ranks of people determined enough to lie down in bed propped up with pillows, while we get the job done.

1.- Block out hours on your planner during which you need to work

If you´re a freelancer and your work-load and your deadlines fluctuate, you may need to do this on a per-project basis.

2.- Dress the part even if nobody else will see you

While it´s great to be able to work in your PJs I find that I have more drive when I´m dressed and groomed and I'm more assertive when I need to be on the phone for work.

3.- Get out of the house!

Some people prefer to work in the same place because it helps them get in the frame of mind to concentrate. However, at times I prefer to go to the library, a Starbucks or the local bookstore, because there I cannot get side-tracked into cleaning or taking a nap!

4.- Turn off your e-mail and phone alerts. Better yet, turn off the phone!

Checking your e mail and answering the phone can be very distracting, and it takes time to get back into gear every time you take a call.

5.- Schedule breaks during your working time

By scheduling regular brakes every hour or two, I find it easier to stay on task

6.- Schedule free time

“Free” is the whole point of free-lancing. Free-lancers and home-based entrepreneurs may find it difficult to completely shut off work. But it's healthy to take time away from the computer or from your business, so that you can enjoy friends and family and recharge.

7.- Pace yourself

When I was younger, I was afraid of turning down free-lance gigs, so I took them all on and finished them even before deadline, even if it meant no going on little or no sleep. Now I realize that it´s ok to tell a client that I´m booked for the next two weeks. Most of the time, they can wait and I´m less frazzled.

8.- Explain your work to your kids

Your kids may not understand that your work is just as important as that of the other parent who has a regular job. Explain to them what you do for a living and if they are very young and you must work around them, tell them how long you need to be left alone for. When my girls were younger, I would say “Mommy needs to be on the computer (or the phone) for as long as three Dora the Explorer episodes”. Now, they get it.

9.- Work during your peak hours

If you are lucky enough to be able to choose, I suggest you work during your peak hours. I´m not a morning person and I´m a lot more productive later in the day, but I cannot always take advantage of that, being a mom of young kids. I can, however, get twice as much done in the same time if I write or translate starting at around noon.

10.- Keep in touch with other free-lancers or home-based entrepreneurs

And if you have any other tip to add to mine … please share them!

http://www.lorrainecladish.com/

Recession-proof your freelancer status!

A few days ago, someone asked me how I´m able to successfully freelance with two young kids in tow and in the midst of a global recession. Well, in my case, I´ve had to reinvent myself and change the type of services I offer. I used to make a good living as a language interpreter and translator until that field was hit by a struggling economy. Then I wrote for a newspaper for almost four years, until 2008, when newspapers started letting go of freelancers and insiders alike.

I now write content for business websites and I copyedit in English and Spanish, aside from the occasional translation. Writing copy for websites wasn´t my idea. A business owner asked me to write the text for his site. He liked the result, and now I get clients by word of mouth. I have since learned a lot about writing for the web, which is very different from traditional journalism. I still pen books and they are published, although publishers and agents say that the future of books looks bleak. But, they´ve always said that and besides we all know it´s difficult (but not impossible) to live off of royalties, unless you´re a household name, which I am not (yet!).

I am grateful to have enough work to cover expenses in time when my friends are losing their jobs. I don´t work 8 hours a day, because it´s summer and my kids spend more time at home, and this entails more work than work itself. But, at the end of the week, I somehow manage to get projects done so I can take on more. I´m not yet at the level of workload and income that I had before the recession, but I´m slowly getting back on my feet …

My humble suggestions to other freelancing moms and dads during these tough financial times:

- Make a list of all your marketable skills. Look at the market´s needs and tweak the nature of the services you offer based on that. Don´t pigeon-hole yourself from the get-go. I know someone who used to work in a restaurant and is now making good money designing web pages

- If you´re making enough to cover expenses, count your blessings, and enjoy your time off with your kids

- If you aren´t making enough money, then cut back on your expenses and enlist help to care for your kids so that you can spend more time promoting yourself and working

- If you live in the U.S. take advantage of the fact that this really is the land of opportunity. In other countries it is not so easy to change careers, switch gears or temporarily take on menial jobs if that´s all you can get

- Do your best to keep in touch with others in your situation, so that you can support one another and share tips and ideas

If you have any other suggestions, please share!

http://www.lorrainecladish.com/

Succesful freelancing

I´m a die-hard freelancer, and even though I bitch about crazy deadlines and juggling several projects at once or late payments, I would really never trade it for a 9-5 job. I´m probably just wired differently, the kind of person who has tried to have a “secure” job and has quit before they could even consider firing me! Just not cut out for that. I´m a professional gig-hustler and have been so for 27 years. Ouch!

I know uncertainty, high demands and sometimes poor pay, tight deadlines, sleepless nights and sleeping in. But freelancing has always given me the flexibility, especially since the Big Bang of this brave new world - the Internet - of taking my work wherever I go. I remember the days of couriers who delivered manuscripts to my home, where I started out translating and adapting scripts of TV sitcoms many a year ago. I would – get this – type the adaptation on a manual typewriter. Eek! If I made mistakes, I used white-out and sometimes had to re-type a whole page out AND use carbon paper for copies. When I was done, I would jump in the car, public transportation or walk to the production company with a box filled with hard copies of my work and hand over my invoice. If I survived that, freelancing in an Internet era is a walk in the park, really!

My point is you can make a living freelancing. Of course since this nice recession caught us all with our pants down, it´s been a tad challenging, and that´s a huge understatement. Yet, with a little help from my friends and family, big guts, and the disposition to be as flexible as a circus acrobat, I´ve managed to keep on truckin´ solo, which helps me be closer to my kids and feel happier than if I had to clock in at a job every day.

Some tips for others out there doing this freelancing dance:

- Underpromise and overdeliver. I used to be the one who met the craziest deadlines, and one day I realized I didn´t really HAVE to. I´m fast, but now I keep that a secret.

- Be willing to adapt your skills to new markets. I have translated scripts, adapted scripts, written articles for magazines, freelanced as a journalist, ghostwritten, coached people in writing, conducted writing workshops and seminars, worked as an interpreter, written blogs for pay, text for websites, you name it. If my skills allow for it and that´s what the market needs … I will do it.

- Before you are done with a project, let your clients know that you are about to be available. Do not assume they will call you when they need you. People forget. That kind of regular contact has procured me work.

- If you cannot or won´t do a certain gig, pass it on to a colleague. Your client will thank you and so will your colleague who will hopefully sometime return the favor. It usually happens that way, or at least in my case it does.

- Don´t undersell yourself (I´ve been guilty of that one, and lived to regret it). A job well done deserves to be well-paid. If you want to do a favor, fine, but don´t work yourself to death for peanuts. It really is not worth the drain, trust me. The energy you waste with this, you can put into finding better paid gigs or catching up on sleep!

- Give people a hand. Don´t put on airs, and don´t be cut-throat. There really is room for everyone and if you are good at what you do, it will show. Besides, if you are a nice person, you will get more work than those who will kill for a gig.

- Understand free-lancing is a lifestyle. You really have to be self-motivated and dig it. For me the alternative (a regular job) is so unpleasant, that I have no choice!

Any other ideas?

http://www.lorrainecladish.com/

The Myth of Job Security

Having made a living as a freelancer for the larger part of my life, I am frequently asked if I am not stressed by the uncertainty of my work and income. Oddly, even though I am faced with this uncertainty every single month, and have done so for more years than I'd like to admit to,  I would never trade it for a "secure" 9 to 5 job. That would be the death of my soul and the end of time spent with my kids when they come home from school, the end of my freedom to manage my own schedule, to be able to relocate, or take a vacation on a whim. 

I am by no means suggesting that everyone should trade in their 9 to 5  job for a lifetime of hustling for odd jobs, of course not. What I am trying to convey is that during a world-wid

e financial crisis such as the one we ar

e living now, most people would feel better if they adapted their mindset to the current times, so they could dispel the anxiety that comes with fear of losing their jobs or not securing a new one when they are laid off. 

Nowadays, job security is a joke, and most of my friends and people I know are not happy with their "secure" jobs to begin with. They complain 

every Monday morning and arrive at Friday happy the week is over, only to Spend Sunday night dreading the beginning of another week at the office. BUT they have a paycheck to take home and cover their bills.

On the other hand, those of us who have spent our lives riding the wave of opportunity and uncertainty are less fazed by the generally daunting prospect of not knowing where our income will come from next month.

Speaking strictly for myself, I have learned to put my skills to use writing, translating, helping others be fit, selling, and adapt to the circumstances and often make the circumstances work in my favor. 

Because of personal circumstances that I will blog about in a different post, I am not well-off by any means, and I'm still working on that one, but I am rich in the sense that I love the work I do, I am able to spend unstructured time with my kids, I can take walks on the beach when everyone else is in the office, and then I am able to work at night, which is when I am most creative, while I snuggle next to my kids.

If you have a 9 to 5  job and that is what you want, by all means enjoy it. If you have been laid off, or are afraid of that, rest assured that there are people out there such as myself, who have never had a "secure" job and have been able to survive without having to live in a shelter.

Security is a mindset, and nothing and nobody can give it to you other than yourself.

www.lorrainecladish.com