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How to Improve Your Freelancing Productivity

February 9, 2019 by Jessy Troy

I do a lot of my work from home. While this is great in many ways, there is one where I have a lot of trouble: productivity. It is just so easy to lose track of time, or to begin procrastinating. There are some days where you just can’t get started, and before you know it you realize it is one in the afternoon and you are still in your bathrobe, without a single bit of work done.

One of the reasons it is so hard to be productive at home is that it isn’t easy to feel stressed or like there is a time constraint when you aren’t in an office. Some days it is absolutely impossible – which is why making your home a place for relaxed productivity is a great way to fix the problem.

Here are some tips:

Get Quirky With Your Seating Arrangements

Sitting in an office chair all day can be such a pain, whether you are at home or elsewhere. But they are also a necessity, so if you want to mix it up it is better to add another couple of options around you so you can move around, get comfortable, and even improve the look of your work space.

Have a sofa in your office against one wall for breaks. Or get really quirky and throw in a couple of bean bag chairs.

Have a Dedicated Work Space

Have you ever heard people say that if you want to sleep better you should make the bedroom a place only for night activities? That same principle can be applied to your office. Treat your freelancing business as a real business.

Have a place where you always work, whether it is a full room or just a small segment of the house. Only use it for productive things (no playing games or browsing Facebook), and let that association boost your work output. It is a nifty little trick of the mind.

Using a hosted contact center is a good idea if you want to improve your productivity and take your business to the next level.

Surround Yourself With Serenity

A burbling waterfall art piece, a stereo playing gentle music, a couple of house plants, relaxing lighting….all of these can give your workspace a feeling of serenity that improves mood and keeps you loose and happy through the day.

You can even section off a portion of your office for stretching, yoga or workouts to help you de-stress and free your mind of unwanted thoughts.

Decorate With Bright Colors

Bright colors will trigger a reaction in the brain that makes you feel more energized and focused. Red, oranges, yellows and golds are great. So are brighter versions of usually cooler colors, like an electric blue or green.

You don’t necessarily want it to be so busy that it is distracting, but a splash of color can do wonders.

Have Everything You Need Within Reach

A coffee pot, some healthy snacks, your work phone, hand wipes or lotions, chapstick, a sweater or blanket; fantastic items to have on hand just in case you find yourself needing something and don’t want to leave the room.

Having the little things that improve your mood will keep you from getting too tense, of having to go out for something. Try a weekly checklist to make sure before the workweek starts that everything is fully stocked and ready for you.

Create a Schedule

A schedule is your best friend for keeping calm and on track through the day. Set a times for work in blocks through the day, working in any meetings, conference calls or emails you have to do. Add in plenty of breaks, a decent lunch time, and maybe a time for something active like a quick walk or workout. Here are a few cool calendar plugins for WordPress to always keep your schedule handy.

This will keep you at your best. Make sure you also have an end time for the day, and don’t work beyond it. Working from home, it can be really tempting to push things to the end of the day and overshoot our schedule, or just get a few more emails in.

Do you have a tip for making your home a place of relaxed productivity? Let’s discuss!

Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: freelancing, Motivation, stress

How to find freelance work

October 27, 2016 by Rosemary

Are you looking for a “side hustle?”

Perhaps you want to have some cash buffer while your real business ramps up.
Perhaps you just want holiday spending money.

The good news is that it’s easy to find gigs that supplement your primary paycheck.

Some marketplaces are focused on writers, some are focused on design, and some are just for general life tasks, so you can choose the type of work you want to do.

Before you sign up with one of these marketplaces, be sure to investigate. Look at reviews from others who have done work for them, and find out their payment policies, be sure you understand who owns your work product.

Above all, be sure that you’re receiving adequate payment for the work you do. Consider the opportunity cost of accepting the gig vs working on your primary business before you proceed.

Upwork

Upwork offers all types of services, from marketing to IT to translation services. All you need is a computer, Internet access, and your mad skills.

Upwork provides a user-friendly platform to help you communicate with your client, share files and project-related documents, track your time, and get paid. It’s free to join Upwork. Once you begin doing freelance work with a client on the platform, they deduct a percentage fee from each payment. So, be sure to price your services accordingly. Upwork also offers premium membership plans for an additional cost.

Upwork main web page

The Gig Saloon

screenshot - the gig saloon The Gig Saloon is an app for gig workers.

It’s one streamlined place where gig economy workers can go to find new jobs, stay up to date on gigs, and share their experiences.

The app aggregates jobs from across a wide array of sources, so it includes driving and delivery along with general marketplaces like TaskRabbit.

The cool thing is that you can share your experiences (and read about others’ experiences) in the discussion area. This app is still fairly new, but looks like a promising place to find and apply for jobs across a variety of employers.

 

 

Fiverr

Fiverr is a site where you create your ideal gig based on your own talents, time, and experience. Then people who need what you’re selling can come and hire you through the site.

Fiverr includes worker ratings, and provides a secure transaction service, so you don’t have to directly contact the person hiring you for payment.

Fiverr main page

99designs

99designs is a marketplace for design. Customers upload design briefs for potential projects, choose the “prize” (which is the price level offered for the work), and then designers can submit entries to win the work. Because of the contest format, 99designs could be a way to test the waters if you want to get some real-world feedback on the quality of your design work, or if you’re just getting started as a freelance designer and want to build your portfolio.

There is risk that your design won’t be selected, and you give copyright ownership to the customer, so read the fine print before you join.

99designs website

TaskRabbit

TaskRabbit’s marketplace revolves more around local gigs, and you can do general errands, cleaning, and personal assistance among other specialties.

You decide what you want to do, you decide how much you want to be paid, and TaskRabbit finds you local tasks. Members of TaskRabbit are called “taskers.” There’s a mobile app, and on-boarding/orientation provided by the company.

TaskRabbit main site

Hubstaff Talent

Hubstaff Talent makes it easy for freelancers find quality work, simply create a profile and wait for businesses to start contacting you. It’s an easy to use platform with a clean, professional design. Potential employers are able to reach out to freelancers directly – no middlemen involved, and no fees for either freelancers or the businesses hiring. Hubstaff Talent also recently launched a “Jobs” section on their website where freelancers can search through hundreds of remote jobs to find the right one for them.

Hubstaff Talent

 

Bidvine (NEW)

Bidvine.com is a local services marketplace and covers over 800 services from photography to personal training and handyman services. While some of the services covered by Bidvine require professional qualifications, others, such as furniture assembly or dog walking are available anyone with some previous experience. It’s free to sign up, you can view client inquires for free and you pay a small fee when you want to submit a bid – no commission to pay and all repeat business is yours to keep.

 

Have you used any of these services to supplement your income? Did I miss any great resources?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for Social Strata — makers of the Hoop.la community platform. Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Filed Under: Productivity Tagged With: freelancing, Productivity

Cool Tool Review: Aquent & crowdSPRING

May 20, 2010 by Guest Author

Todd Hoskins Reviews Tools for Small Business

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Todd Hoskins chooses and uses tools and products that could belong in a small business toolkit. He’ll be checking out how useful they are to folks who would be their customers in a form that’s consistent and relevant.

Cool Tool Review: Aquent & crowdSPRING
A Review by Todd Hoskins


(Disclosure: I currently work with Aquent)

The free agent revolution predicted by Fast Company more than a dozen years ago never fully happened. The rising costs of healthcare, along with our collective drive for security as a result of war and economic turmoil made many people choose employment rather than a life of freelancing.

For reasons of choice or necessity, there are still a lot of independent workers looking for the right gig. Large businesses often will use contractors to provide flexibility, cost savings, or to rent skill sets they do not have. Small businesses should use freelancers more often.

I recommend a couple companies that match talented people with organizations in need of help: Aquent and crowdSPRING.

Aquent has been in business for 24 years. With offices around the globe, and specialized practices in online marketing, interactive design, user experience, traditional marketing, and graphic design, they find the best people either offsite or locally to fit your culture and need.

picture-8

It works this way. You have a project, or perhaps someone is taking a one month vacation. You contact Aquent. They assign an agent who will select some candidates from their talent pool based on budget, skill set, and working environment. You interview one or a few, and make a choice. Aquent pays the talent and bills you. The whole process can take less than a week.

For a small business, this gives you access to the most talented designers and marketers for a time period and cost that you dictate, without needing to screen a bunch of people or take on a full-time employee.

crowdSPRING offers logo, graphic design, and writing services, with a much different approach. You post the project on their site, including deadline and a price. Then you wait for the creatives to submit their entries. In addition, crowdSPRING has one of the best small business blogs out there. They are smart people, now with a network of over 60,000 freelancers.

picture-9

Summing Up – Is it worth it?

Enterprise Value: 4/5 – Revive the Free Agent Revolution. There is great talent ready to help. Compelling alternative to paying agencies to do execution work.

Entrepreneur Value: 5/5 – A 2 week SEO engagement, site redesign, or copy rewrite can make a big difference

Personal Value: 2/5 – if you’re a freelancer, these companies can help you

Filed Under: Successful Blog, Tools Tagged With: Aquent, bc, crowdspring, freelancing, LinkedIn, Todd Hoskins

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