Customer Reviews

The Principles of Successful Freelancing

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Being a freelancer is the new black. It's just a crazy fun loving world where nothing can go wrong. Well as a crusty old freelancer I can tell you that's far from the truth.

Well Miles Burke in his new book The Principles of Successful Freelancing discusses just that. Miles is no stranger to making the leap into world of freelancing having done it three times.

When I first picked up this book, I'll be honest, I was a little skeptical. But I found this is a good book. It's well written with an entertaining layback style all it's own. I can just imagine Miles sitting back in a cafe or coffee shop chatting about freelancing. You could easily read this book on 4-5 hour plane flight.

This book is squarely aimed at the person who is considering getting into freelancing or has just started. It covers off all aspects of the freelancers life cycle, such as:

* From starting out and a hard look at oneself, are you cut out to be a freelancer.
* Preparing for the transition from regular work to freelancing, and all the things you really need to think about (but don't).
* Finances, making sure you really do stay in business and keep a positive cash flow.
* Productivity, time tracking, getting into that productivity zone and not being distracted.
* Selling, winning work and understanding how to sell. Something all freelances fear at some stage.
* Customer service, or keeping the client, project management made simple, and dealing with difficult clients.
* Lifestyle, work habits, life balance are discussed, this is huge area that I know freelancers cut corners on.
* Expansion, life beyond freelancing, the final stepping stone on the way for a freelancer, be that back into employment, or expansion using outsourcing or your own staff.

You know what's really good and annoying too (well for me) with this book; it is just full of all those tips and tricks that I just wish some freelancing mentor had told me all those years ago in the previous century when I started freelancing.

I enjoyed this book to the point that I found myself nodding and smiling as Miles waxed on with another aspect of freelancing, pointing out the pitfalls along the way. And sometimes I was wincing as I realised that after 14 years in the game I've still got a few things even I can improve on.

The one thing I didn't like, and this was just me, is it was it had a few too many lists in places. It made me think I was checking off my freelancing skills all the time. But really that was a very minor point.

Overall, highly recommended, if you are a new freelancer, or old one, or maybe just considering freelancing, get this book, read it. Act on it, it's a great reference source, then later on, reread it.

But you know with this book, it's now a little bit easier.

In the past, I have worked for others. More recently, I have run my own business. A few months ago, I closed that business and moved back to the U.S.A. and am currently doing a little bit of freelance work, writing mostly, just until I begin my grad school program.

My experience with freelancing has been mixed, primarily because I have discovered that I have some gaps in my knowledge.

To see if I could get some help, I picked up this book. While the book is focused on working as a website designer, the main principles should apply to most fields. That is good. I have done some website design, but the bulk of my freelance work has been writing for books and magazines, or consulting.

I have enjoyed reading this book. In short, the content is about 20% pep talk, 20% reality check, with the remaining 60% being great advice and useful information.

Obviously, no book will ensure that anyone will be a success at freelancing, but I could have used the information in this book a long time ago, before I started my last business. That business was successful, but I would have benefited greatly from the insights in this book, and in retrospect, I would have done several things differently.

The Principles of Successful Freelancing gives great advice about what is really needed to be successful working for yourself. It starts by having you ask yourself the right questions to determine your attitude, your capabilities, and to make sure your perspective and expectations of the process are realistic. It then moves into practical steps of preparing for the transition from employee to self-employed, managing your finances, preparing your work space, finding and keeping clients, and so on. It even has a great chapter about learning how to find and maintain a healthy work and life balance as well as advice for making the transition in reverse, if you find this isn't the life for you.

At my current stage of life, I don't expect freelance work to be much more than a side project. That doesn't mean I will never go back to working for myself, or starting a business with a partner or two, but for the moment I am content to do a bit of writing here and there to earn some extra income and prepare to do something else as my main source of money. This book has many good tips for freelancing part time as well, and has been well worth the time I spent reading it.

The Principles of Successful Freelancing is a comprehensive introduction if that's not a contradiction of terms) to striking out on your own as a freelancer. This book is perfect for someone who is considering moving to freelancing or possibly for someone just starting out.

Mr. Burke covers all of the basic areas of starting and running a freelance business. He discusses how to set up your business and your office, how to sell your services, how to manage your money, and how to give good customer service, which is ultimately the most important aspect of a personal freelancing business. He also addresses how to balance work and life beyond work, which is hard in general and specifically hard in a one-man shop. He concludes with something I haven't seen in a "start you own business" book - where to go next. Do you want to remain as a one-man shop, do you want to grow into a "real" business, or do you just want to "retreat" to the old 9-to-5 job? I don't recall a book like this consider the option of going back to the grind.

Each chapter concludes with two "case studies" - Emily and Jacob. These two characters represent two very different people who might want to go into freelancing. The studies at the end of each chapter explain how these personality types might react to the issues and challenges discussed in the chapter. This device helps the reader envision how he or she might deal with the issues discussed.

Early on, I got the mistaken impression that this book was a bit fluffy. The typography has a fair amount of white space, and it looks kinda arty rather than serious and dense. (OK, I grew up with punched cards and line printers. When's Matlock on?) But, by the time I finished the book, as I looked back across it, I really couldn't think of anything that wasn't covered. Sure, there are whole MBAs built around marketing, and this book only has one chapter on it, but the Mr. Burke provides a perfectly reasonable introduction to the subject. I think I got this "fluffy" mis-impression because immediately prior to reading Successful Freelancing I read Eric Sink's The Business of Software, which is very detailed about a few aspects specifically related to running a small software business. Successful Freelancing covers a wider range of topics, and it is not aimed specifically at software freelancers. If anything, it's aimed more at web designers who probably like nicer typography.

To conclude, The Principles of Successful Freelancing is a great first introduction to the idea of freelancing. It covers all the bases to help someone evaluate whether or not to go into business for himself.

Excellent book on what to consider when moving into freelance work. Clear and concise, offering tons of useful advice, aimed squarely at either those new to freelancing or those considering a move.

It asks the reader to consider if they are ready to make the move into freelance work, as well as all the preparation necessary to do it successfully. Some of the advice is aimed more towards the US market, but the core principles apply, and the information is presented in such a way that it's easy to follow. Sections on managing finances (determining costs/charge rates), setting up your business, winning work and managing work/life balance are interlinked with a case study following two typical freelancers.

The book is packed with excellent references to resources on the web, and I spent a fair bit of time flitting between the two.

As Justin said in another review, this book could do with a follow-up volume for those having made the move, at a deeper level.

Highly recommended for those making the switch though.

If you're thinking on freelancing on your own, then THE PRINCIPLES OF SUCCESSFUL FREELANCING is for you. It tells how to transition into freelance work, how to manage money and balance work and living, and how to create a business network of support. Any collection strong in entrepreneurial guides will find this an exceptional pick.

For anyone considering opening a freelance business, or who has recently begun offering consulting/freelance services, this guidebook provides an excellent introduction to the benefits and limitations of going it on your own. It was written by a successful Australian web services consultant and some of its advice is more applicable to web and similar service-based consultancies, than others which have physical deliverables or which offer licensed professional services. Its advice on time and money management, selling of services, living a balanced work/home/play lifestyle, and dealing with problem clients is universally applicable to anyone going it on their own (and is excellent). Certain topics such as business structure, whether to incorporate, accounting issues, professional liability, and the management of multi-person multi-deliverable projects are omitted or less well covered. I certainly would recommend this book to anyone considering going it on their as a sole-practitioner services firm--it effectively conveys the business and personal considerations of this lifestyle/profession. I would also urge those who wish to offer professional services other than web consulting to look at practice management publications in their profession, join trade associations and obtain legally necessary advice. But this book will acquaint anyone who wishes to run their own service business of many necessary considerations and pitfalls. For that purpose it is most valuable.
--Ira Laefsky

I wasn't sure what to expect before receiving the book. I already had ideas about what needed to be done to get into freelancing. Allot of what I already thought was in the book but there were also many ideas I hadn't given any thought.

Miles Burke does a very good job of laying out a freelancing road map without omitting any information and still keeping the book concise. You can read through it on a weekend afternoon without much problem. If you do don't just read through it once and then forget about it, you would be doing yourself a disservice.

this book would help you a lot, it's well written with lots of samples and two interesting case studies.

Also if you are already a freelancer with some years of experience this book could help you, maybe there are some tricks you haven't thought of.