A room of your own: The Born Freelancer on the merits of out-of-home offices

This series of posts by the Born Freelancer shares personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? Your input is welcome in the comments. The recent poss.ca article on the benefits of working at home, already recommended on this blog, is excellent. If you haven’t looked at […]

Posted on January 20, 2012 at 9:00 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , , , ,

Get outta here: The Born Freelancer’s top 10 reasons to travel

This series of posts by the Born Freelancer shares personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? Your input is welcome in the comments. The Born Freelancer no longer makes New Year’s resolutions (an almost certain guarantee that they will never be accomplished as a result of […]

Posted on January 6, 2012 at 10:00 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , , ,

Taking stock: The Born Freelancer’s 2011 posts

This series of posts by the Born Freelancer shares personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? Your input is welcome in the comments. A very happy and healthy New Years to you, my fellow freelancer. New Years is always a good time for stocktaking. Looking back […]

Posted on January 6, 2012 at 9:00 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: ,

It’s a small world, after all: The Born Freelancer warns against burning bridges

This series of posts by the Born Freelancer shares personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? Your input is welcome in the comments. A 9-to-5er recently commented to me, “It must be great being freelance. You can always tell your boss where to go if they’re […]

Posted on December 22, 2011 at 8:34 am by editor · 3 Comments · Tagged with: , , ,

Dealing with gig loss: The Born Freelancer’s 10-step program

This series of posts by the Born Freelancer shares personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? Your input is welcome in the comments. Getting that first gig is perhaps the novice freelancer’s hardest obstacle to overcome. But the endless hours of toil, of self-doubt and of […]

Posted on December 8, 2011 at 3:39 pm by editor · 2 Comments · Tagged with: , , , , ,

Gifts that keep on giving: the Born Freelancer’s tips on testimonials

This series of posts by the Born Freelancer shares personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? Your input is welcome in the comments. I was looking at some impressive freelancer websites the other day and noticed a common element on the sites that were the most […]

Posted on November 24, 2011 at 11:53 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , , , , ,

On fear and hunger: the Born Freelancer’s open letter to employers

I was having coffee recently with a colleague. Okay, actually, in my case, it was hot chocolate. Hey, it was cold outside and I needed a sugar hit. But we freelancers haven’t yet come up with a better expression than “having coffee” to denote a casual meeting. “Having tea” sounds too lightweight. “Having hot chocolate” […]

Posted on November 10, 2011 at 1:51 pm by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , , ,

To blog, or not to blog, that is the Born Freelancer’s question

This series of posts by the Born Freelancer will share personal experiences and thoughts on issues relevant to freelancers. Have something to add to the conversation? Your input is welcome in the comments. I’m told that blogging is dead in this era of tweets and retweets. I must respectfully disagree. It may be long dead […]

Posted on October 24, 2011 at 10:00 am by editor · One Comment · Tagged with: , , ,

The Born Freelancer makes a case for business cards

I was at a professional development seminar the other day and doing the  usual networking thing with fellow freelancers. When it came time to exchange contact info, I began to frantically look for a pen and paper. (As an economy measure I’m currently still operating cellphone-less.) One of my new-found colleagues calmly took out his […]

Posted on October 11, 2011 at 11:21 am by editor · One Comment · Tagged with: , , , ,

Freelancer beware: 11 pitfalls of spec “pitches” and how to handle them from the Born Freelancer

Here is a fantastic cartoon that illustrates some of the dilemmas we freelancers face [LINK]. Could anybody who is not a freelancer get it? It is so funny because it is all so sadly true — I’ve seen them all at some point in my career. I guess the freelancing experience is universal. Go over […]

Posted on September 22, 2011 at 9:56 am by editor · LEAVE A COMMENT · Tagged with: , , , , ,