Visit the Forums


Buy Online

Donation

If you enjoy using our website, please consider making a donation. To donate through PayPal click the link below and then simply select how much you'd like to donate!

Blog »

How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer

Rock Star212 Pages of Expert
Freelancing Advice

Covering everything from getting started to expanding your business, How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer is the official FreelanceSwitch book. Written by Collis & Cyan Ta'eed - the founders of the site - it's packed with new information, advice and insights not covered on the blog.

The book is available now as an eBook for $29 and will shortly be on Lulu as a paperback (Available: Jan 2008).

Contents

Getting Started
1-1. What is Freelancing?
1-2. Your Job and Freelancing on the Side
1-3. Your Financial Situation
1-4. Business, Accounting & Legal Requirements
1-5. Having a Business Plan

Your Brand
2-1. What is Branding for a Freelancer?
2-2. What Can Branding Do For You?
2-3. You as a Brand
2-4. Naming Your Business
2-5. Your Logo, Cards and Materials
2-6. Your Website
2-7. Building a Reputation

The Working Day
3-1. Home vs Office
3-2. An Ergonomic Workplace
3-3. An Environmentally Friendly Workplace
3-4. Staying Organized
3-5. Being Productive
3-6. Dealing with Distraction
3-7. Staying on Top of Your Game
3-8. Managing Work Hours

Getting Your First Jobs
4-1. Your Portfolio
4-2. Your First Leads
4-3. Referrals
4-4. Meeting Your Leads
4-5. Free Pitching
4-6. Steady Income Sources
4-7. Pacing Yourself

Scoping & Timeframes
5-1. Requirements & Briefs
5-2. Estimating Timeframes
5-3. Milestones
5-4. Scopecreep

Pricing Yourself
6-1. Your Costs and Your Break-Even Rate
6-2. Calculating Your Hourly Rate
6-3. Changing Your Price over Time
6-4. Charging for a Job, not an Hour
6-5. Delivering Your Price
6-6. Contracts and Terms & Conditions
6-7. Retainers and Regular Gigs
6-8. Too Cheap, Too Expensive

Doing the Job
7-1. Setting Expectations
7-2. Tracking Your Hours
7-3. Communication
7-4. Being Available and Responsive
7-5. Revisions
7-6. Budget and Timeline Blowouts
7-7. Over-delivering

Clients
8-1. Leads and Clients
8-2. Essential Client Skills
8-3. Relationships
8-4. Educating Clients
8-5 Availability
8-6. Managing Clients, their Jobs & their Assets
8-7. Providing Good Service
8-8. Dealing with Disagreement
8-9. Identifying and Dealing with Problem Clients

Getting Paid
9-1. Invoicing
9-2. Cash Flow
9-3. What to Do When They Won’t Pay
9-4. Recognizing Problem Clients
9-5. How to Take Payment
9-6. International Clients

Marketing Yourself
10-1. Positioning Yourself
10-2. Planning Your Marketing
10-3. Marketing Yourself in Person
10-4. Marketing Yourself Online
10-5. General Marketing Tips
10-6. The Idea Bank

Building a Business
11-1. Subcontracting
11-2. Partnering
11-3. Hiring Staff
11-4. Building a Business
11-5. Freelancing as a Springboard
11-6. Further Reading

Buy Now
 
  Articles