Exhilarating. Rewarding. Liberating. Freelancing can be all three. It can also be petrifying, nerve-racking and precarious. Finding the resources to help you develop your freelance business can make all the difference.
At Stranger, we work with freelancers daily. It’s core to the business. We invest in our freelancers by offering regular Feeds that keep inspiration flowing and thinking fresh. As well as the opportunity to work with some amazing clients.
When you’re a freelancer, there’s no one else there to tell you what you ought to be doing and no one telling you whether the choices you’re making are the right ones. So having access to the right resources can be just the boost you need.
Like thousands of others, I subscribe to marketing guru Seth Godin’s posts. It’s part of the small, snatched investment I make in my own development. Three years ago, when I went solo, I regularly received about 20 of these missives daily from different bloggers I followed. And over time, I’ve ditched each one until only the really useful stuff remained.
Godin is one of the ones that made it through. His posts often jog me out of a rut or give me a new perspective. They make me rethink my strategies and question my habitual decisions. So, when he advertised a course on Udemy, specifically for freelancers, I signed up and have spent the last few days considering what it really means to freelance (though the course is arranged into bite size chunks, so you can dip into it whenever you have a few minutes).
As with all of Godin’s advice it’s erudite, effusive and generous. He pulls no punches though, and stresses the huge accompanying responsibilities and the sheer hard work it takes to make it as a freelance professional, as well as the opportunities on offer. It’s as much a wake up call as it is a call to action. And it reminded me of some of the things I love about freelancing. And much of what it revolves around is choice:
- The choice to create great work.
- The choice to turn up and to do work that makes a real difference day in, day out.
- The choice to walk a different path.
There are no easy answers for freelancers, and Godin makes this clear. But this course reminded me there are are some great resources out there to help freelancers invest in their own development, to streamline their thinking and find inspiration. With this in mind, I thought I’d search out and share some of the resources I use to freelance successfully.
A few resources for freelancers:
- First off, though I’ve mentioned it already, I’d encourage you to look at Godin’s Udemy Freelancer Course (even if you’re months or years into your freelancing career).
- Gen up on some of those skills that’ll continually develop you as a freelancer. University websites are great for this. University of the Arts London, for example, has a whole section of their site devoted to advice for freelancers, including networking, how to self-promote, IP and legal advice and finding freelance work. 99U and Fast Company are also well worth delving into.
- Though it’s the dull end of the deal, getting your accounting sorted helps immensely. Freelance accounting sites such as Crunch offer great advice and resources, and there are some lifesaver accounting apps out there including Sage’s Record Keeper.
- If you’re anything like me, you sometimes need a bit of inspiration to get you going in the morning. As long as you don’t spend all day watching them (and it’s tempting sometimes), Do Lectures offers a lot in the way of inspiration from other people who at some point chose to walk a different path. Catching the right one at the right time can remind you why you’re doing it and give you the nudge you need to get on with it.
Got any resources you’d like to share with other freelancers? Essential sites and reads you couldn’t do without? Feel free to share them below.