May 03, 2017
Weekly Newsletter for Freelancers
Freelancer or Entrepreneur or Both?
Do you consider yourself part entrepreneur and part freelancer? It is a mindset that is required nowadays because there is so much to know and so much to do know that it is very easy to become overwhelmed by information in the digital age. However, if you are an entrepreneur you can think proactively and be constantly be on the lookout for ways to improve your business and cross sell products and services.
I probably could not be considered a traditional freelancer because I have diverse interests some aiming to generate income, but at the same time others promoting causes that I am interested in. that clearly will not generate income. One of these causes is here.
Do you have causes that you are passionate about that absorb considerable chunks of time that you could use to make money? That is where having some passive income from being entrepreneurial and automating processes can give you some passive income so you do not have to be strictly task oriented.
Alice Clarke has written an article called How to shift your mindset from ‘freelancer’ to ‘entrepreneur’. You can read Alice’s article in the Freelancers Union Blog from here.
Motivate Yourself!
“Intellectual property is a key aspect for economic development.”
— Craig Venter.
Preservation Of Assets – A Great Motivation Force For Freelancers!
Did you know that by 2019 that the losses from cybercrime are expected to top 2 trillion dollars! That is bigger than the GDP of a lot of the OECD member countries, including Australia where I live. Clearly, there are serious organized crime syndicates involved here.
These criminals are often after your identity and through that your money. If you have intellectual property, they will take that too. You can see the article by Jana Rooheart for Business.com here.
What does that have to do with freelancers, you may well ask! A lot, because in many respects your assets are on the line if you are involved in membership websites , writing articles, taking photographs, graphic design, you name many freelancing activities and you will find a potential liability.
The question is, what can you do about it? This was the question that I asked myself when I was developing Identity Theft Scout and promoting Robert Siciliano‘s work which features at the bottom of this newsletter each week. I am more vulnerable than most freelancers to all types of fraud and criminal activities, the least of which is click hijacking and traffic diversion to force me out of business.
As a freelancer with vulnerabilities I investigated what I could do to protect myself and my assets. After careful research I became a member of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance in Australia (MEAA) as a freelance journalist. MEAA is, of course, a union and has a Multimedia Liability Policy to protect their members. You can read about MEAA here. Does your country have a freelancers union?
P.S. The good news is that the European Union is taken on organized cyber criminals with the tightening of cybersecurity and it will make the world a safer place. You can read about it here.
Productivity Tip Of The Week
IT Professionals And Work-Life Balance
When Upwork released its first quarter list of the fastest growing skills for freelancing I was not surprised to see that tech skills dominated the list. The top of the list was natural language processing. You can read the list here.
Tech skills require a lot of concentrated effort in my opinion because there is a very low tolerance for making a mistake in a computer
program. I am currently getting some excel work done by an excel specialist in New York and I have found that making errors (mine) is very easy to do. The consequences of making a mistake or leaving an opportunity for a hacker to gain access to a computer system can be very costly.
It is the intense effort of concentration that makes the work-life balance of IT Professionals particularly important. This quote is very appropriate:
“IT professionals have a responsibility to understand the use of standards and the importance of making Web applications that work with any kind of device.” — Tim Berners-Lee
Ben Weiss has written an article for the Infusive Solutions Blog entitled The Secret To Work-Life Balance For Information Technology Professionals. You can read Ben’s article here.
Work-Life Balance Tip Of The Week
Designers Need Creativity, Innovation and Productivity
Why are designers more creative than other people? Have you thought about this? I have. I have often wondered whether they are blessed by having a few more cells or chemicals in their brain then we have.
What is clear is that some people are more creative than others and it is often designers that show this tendency whether they are graphic designers, artists, sculptors or painters.
If you are a designer of any category you will find that this quote has an element of truth in it:
“I strive for two things in design: simplicity and clarity. Great design is born of those two things.” Lindon Leader
Great designers often share some attributes that make them more productive and successful successful. Katharine Schwab has written an article for Co.Design entitled 32 Productivity Tips From The World’s Top Designers. You can read Katharine’s article here.
Financial Tip Of The Week
What Is Your Emergency Fund?
Lean times will happen in your freelancing career! You can count on it, and you should plan for it. I know people who own their own home have an undrawn line of credit by way of an equity access loan secured by a mortgage over their home. This means that they can draw on this in case of emergency.
However, our financial planner would not recommend it! If you are like me
I prefer to have an emergency fund in a separate account. The amount that you should have put away varies on your circumstances. However, this quote is very appropriate for all of:
“Smart financial planning – such as budgeting, saving for emergencies, and preparing for retirement – can help households enjoy better lives while weathering financial shocks. Financial education can play a key role in getting to these outcomes.” Ben Bernanke
In the Due Blog Eric Rosenberg has written an article entitled Why freelancers need more savings than everyone else. You can read Eric’s article here.
Freelancers And Cyber Security
We have gained approval from Robert Siciliano to bring you extracts from his books related to cyber security for freelancers. Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert and consultant. He also gives self defense and personal safety seminars. Robert provides safety and identity theft fraud prevention tips and advice on multimedia channels in the United States. We have his approval to bring you weekly extracts from his books:
