Freelance Confidential - Amanda Hackwith [26]
Workspace co-ops – Need a productive place to work and the support of colleagues? Workspace sharing ventures provide just that, and have increased in popularity in large and medium-sized cities. For nominal fees, local co-op working spaces will allow you to "rent" space to work. If you stick to a fairly routine work schedule, you will soon get to know other freelancers in your co-op space.
Local interest groups – If you're looking to meet other professionals in your particular industry and town, check out local interest groups. There's a variety of ways these groups are organized, but a great place to start is to check in with your university's alumni program, the Chamber of Commerce, or an organizing service like Meet-Up.
Create your own – If your network of freelance friends and acquaintances are spread out and not likely to centralize on any one community or site, some services will help you create your own. Yammer, a service that is kind of like a private Twitter, is the personal "water cooler" of choice for my Envato colleagues that I communicate with on a daily basis.
Family and colleagues are only a small portion of the puzzle, of course. Invest in your built-in support system and not only can you enjoy the perks, but you'll have the support for stressful times when you may need it the most.
The Future of Freelancing: An Interview with Collis Ta'eed
Collis Ta'eed will be a familiar name to FreelanceSwitch readers and many web-working entrepreneurs. He founded FreelanceSwitch and his company, Envato, has gone on to build a series of successful sites into a network of blogs, marketplaces, and communities. What started as a small freelance design dream with his friends and family has grown into a successful start-up and matured into a multi-faceted company that employs creative professionals world wide. Collis is the co-author of Rockable's How to Be A Rockstar Freelancer and the author of two other successful books.
In particular, Collis is respected for his approach to building brands, predicting trends, and iterating ideas into successful products. I sat down with Collis to get his thoughts on the state of freelance business, advice for experienced freelancers, and predictions for the future.
AH Hi Collis! Thank you so much for contributing to Freelance Confidential. A lot has happened over the years since you opened FreelanceSwitch and wrote your first book, How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer. To most, you're the face of Envato, the company that runs sites like FreelanceSwitch, Tuts, and the marketplaces. Would you mind giving us some background on your experience as a freelancer?
CT Sure thing! My name is Collis and I'm a web designer. After a couple years doing design work for others, I decided to go rogue and work for myself. I teamed up with my wife Cyan who was a graphic designer and we created a little freelance partnership for ourselves called Good. We decided that we'd do all sorts of design work, and that we'd dedicate a good portion of our time to doing non-profit work (hence the name of the business).
We started by emailing everyone we knew with a little HTML email with an image of a briefcase that was open and some text to the effect of "We're open for business." A couple of leads came in and we chased those down and did the work, quoting and charging an absolute pittance because we were terrified of overcharging. The combination of doing a good job and charging very little meant that we ended up getting a lot of referrals and a lot more work.
Fast forward a year and we'd started to learn the first of many important freelance lessons. Among those were that not all clients are equal,