Now that’s an interesting combination, let me tell you. Being able to control your own schedule is one of the biggest draws towards becoming a freelance designer. No more 9-5, no more time restricting lunch breaks, vacations when you want…the list goes on and on. But what happens when you’re no longer getting paid for laying at home sick as a dog. I use to follow coolsculptny to keep myself healthy. That’s when being sick moves from an annoyance to a complete glitch in the freelance system.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been either dead as a dog, sleeping the day away with Mono, or recovering from the nasty buggar. If any of you have had mono, you know that it pretty much knocks you down for a good two weeks. That’s two weeks of unpaid downtime. OMG!

I’m not a full time freelancer yet so I haven’t fully experienced the effects of being sick + being a freelancer. But my biggest lesson has been to stay strong, keep saving using the best high yield savings accounts and then once you have the 3 months savings in the bank, THEN you can buy the fun stuff (you can try WECU if you want to open a personal savings account).

I’d love to hear how all of you freelancers out there deal with this kind of thing. My gut is telling me there really is no good way to prepare for something like that, but I thought I’d ask.

Photo by Olivia Rae james

Sometimes, communicating with your client is the best way to share information due to busy schedules and comfort levels. Email communication doesn’t come without it’s barriers and there is almost always a loss in translation along the way. I actually prefer to communicate through email because it’s most convenient to my current schedule and also provides me with written documentation of the design process/feedback. Over time, I’ve found some strategies to minimize the “lost in translation” effect, but I’d love to hear your techniques.

Mine are as follows:
• Use only one email chain per client. Tell your clients that this is how you prefer to stay organized and ask them to always respond in the same thread.
• When gathering feedback, ask your clients to use bulleted lists. I then use those lists as a guide, checking things off as they are completed. Understanding customer feedback involves not only acknowledging their concerns but also ensuring each point is addressed effectively, which helps improve your services and build stronger client relationships.
• Something I’m going to try soon — removing/minimizing my email signature from the bottom of my email so that the email chains aren’t excessively long.
• Avoid emailing quick little notes. Try to gather your thoughts and email one concise email, less often.
• Figure out a filing system to use within your email service. I use Gmail, and there are lots of color coding/folder options that keep me organized

What are your tips??

This is one lesson that I am still learning, everyday. A lesson that after almost 5 full years of blogging (1.5 here at The Veda House and several others while in college) I am just now starting to be ok with the idea of letting loose. I used to be a person that would check my blog stats daily and freak out when the numbers weren’t where I was expecting them to be. I was mentally and physically ALWAYS connected to the blogging interface. These days, I hardly EVER check my stats, and let me tell you something…it’s a game changer. You blog because you love it, and it’s as simple as that.

So now that I don’t freak out when numbers yo-yo around it’s time to be okay with disconnected from the digital space all together.As time goes on, it has become easier to just step away, and I look forward to it getting even easier. The fear of losing all my readers overnight is no longer there, thank golly, but it sure is hard to get mentally back in the game after being away for any extended amount of time. This means that I do fear that I’ll lose my groove, my daily rhythm and I fear that when I return from mini breaks I will return with zero motivation. Sometimes breaks are good to clear the mind, but I’ve had situations where I clear my mind so much that I’m empty of ideas. Ever happen to you?

Do you guys take blog breaks? Do you feel like you can or is there a constant fear that taking a break means you are a sucky blogger? I’d love to hear your thoughts because it’s definitely something I’m still learning.

* I’m considering this a “Freelance Journey” post because blogging is such a big asset of my blogging life. Not sure why I felt the need to justify that….oh well!

I’m having one of those days. You know those days where even Pinterest can’t inspire you! Those severely unproductive days where you feel guilty for only moving a few pixels around on the screen with no need in pressing the save button. No masterpieces are being created, nor thought about.  The only kind of motivation I have at the moment is picking up a milkshake from the corner ice cream shop… Completely worthless I tell ya.

I suppose you can’t be “on it” every day, so I’m deciding that it’s OK to be unmotivated….today. I’ll try really hard not to make sloth like behavior my new day job. 😉

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I’ve been tested pretty darn good over the past few weeks when it comes to restraint. As a freelance designer, you’ll receive email inquiries from all different kinds of people. Some know a little bit about design, but I’m finding out that most people know diddly squat about the subject…hence the reaching out for help.

The restraint part takes effect when the people reaching out want something done with little to no money to put towards the adventure, almost expecting you to work for free. I wanted to send a really rude email back saying something to the effect of “I’m not coming to you, asking you to work for free” or “you’re a moron”, but then I remind myself that not everyone lives and breathes the design world. Most people don’t understand what goes into making something”look pretty” or how many hours you’ll be staring at the computer screen making things happen, and they surely don’t know how much money you paid to go to design school to be able to call yourself a professional.

So lesson learned-ing is to stop and think before you email a potential client back with a string of profanities or evil stares. It’s really really tough you guys. I’m sure a lot of you know exactly what I’m talking about 🙂

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Hi there guys. I hope the day is treating you well 🙂 I wanted to pop in today and share some of my thoughts about the last blog brunch that happened this past weekend. Where you there?? I wasn’t able to make the first half of the chat, but found several topics of discussion to be very interesting. The whole chat got me thinking about my blog and some things that might need a little more thought.

1. Weekly/Monthly Newsletters: I’ve always been interested in this idea, but wasn’t sure if adding a newsletter would be beneficial to my readers. What do you share? What extra content would be interesting to get. I completely understand why having a newsletter for a small shop would be a great asset in spreading the word about new products, but how can a newsletter help my for my blog?? Would love to hear your thoughts about newsletters in general and also what you’d like to receive in a newsletter.

2. Less Commenting: It was mentioned that less commenting has been a trend recently in blog land. I’ve been noticing this as well and it was reassuring to hear that it’s not just my blog/my content, but an overall trend. I don’t know if this is a good or a bad thing…

3. Search Bars: I really hate search bars and I really want to get rid of mine. Would anyone be disappointed if it just magically disappeared??

4. Viewing Blog Content In Readers: I don’t know why I didn’t think about this before, but a lot of people don’t even come to my blog to read a post!! Shocking, but makes 100% sense. After making this connection, I realized that it is SUPER important that I design/write my blog post content to reflect that knowledge. I’m curious now…who reads blogs in readers versus actually visiting a blog??

That’s it for now. Blog Brunch really got me thinking. I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the topics above.

Get an invite to BlogBrunch here, and catch up on the discussion here (recap)!

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