Weekly Newsletter for The Freelancers: Here is the latest newsletter of the week starting on 23rd of April 2018.
It does not matter in which country you live or what your government policy says, the reality is that it is harder to find employment when you are over 55. There are plenty of examples telling the same story:
- Australia: Age discrimination: older Australian workers viewed as slow to learn.
- United Kingdom: Finished at fifty? Join the debate.
- United States: Over 50, Female and Jobless Even as Others Return to Work.
Here is a success story of Katherine Andes who went freelancing at age 54 which you can read here.
The world’s leading authority on retiring part time is Kerry Hannon and she has written an article for AARP entitled 5 Great Flexible Jobs which you can read here.
If, like me, you are a fan of Kerry Hannon’s work and are determined to get freelancing work to make your money last longer, have a look inside her book below (you will find chapter 6 interesting):
Motivate Yourself!
“I knew credibility would come only in time and through
earnest performances.”
– Dwayne Johnson
How To Build Your Credibility As A Freelancer!
Credibility matters as a freelancer not only to yourself, but also to your clients. If you have been following the previous posts here you will know that we have talked about the impostor syndrome in a previous posts (see Productivity Tip of the Week section).
For those who have not been following the storyline, Cat DiStasio explains what the impostor syndrome is in this post entitled What freelancers need to know about impostor syndrome for Medium.com which can be read here.
The first step solution is to moonlight as a freelancer in your chosen niche to build your personal credibility.
Before starting out solely as a freelancer, you should be motivated to think about how to build your credibility with your clients. We have done the research for you on this subject and here is some help from around the world:
- Neil Kokemuller How to gain credibility as a freelancer for the Payoneer.com blog which you can read
here. - Abdullah Muhammed 7 ways to boost your credibility as a freelancer for Forbes.com which you can read
here. - Jason Faber How freelancers can build credibility and grow their business with a strong personal brand for Circa.ca blog which you can read
here.
Productivity Tip of the Week
How To Overcome Procrastination To Increase Your Productivity?
Procrastination can steal your most productive time and make you lose money by wasting your time on jobs that do not produce income. Often it can be mistaken for laziness but it is not the same and it is important that you understand this.
Neel Burton MD has written What’s the Difference Between Procrastination and Laziness? for Psychology Today and you can read his article here. It can be tricky to identify procrastination and its impact on your productivity.
An example of procrastination can be in the simple disguise of when you schedule tasks on your ToDoList. I found that I had been shifting my creative work to the afternoon in preference to doing my social media and emails in the morning which is usually my most productive time.
I have now corrected this by moving my creative work back to the morning. In many cases, it is about being self-aware and the carrying forward of items on your ToDoList is a good indication of this. It is something to monitor!
Work-Life Balance Tip of the Week
Meditation Can Help Millennials With Work-Life Balance
Have you ever heard the expression “get more done by slowing down”? It seems hard to believe that this could work, but somehow it does!
The only way that I believe it could, is by making you re-prioritize your ToDoList subconsciously so that you focus on what is important to get done. The items that were not essential will drop off your ToDoList or get a lower ranking.
Lori Deschene has written 10 ways to slow down and get things done for TinyBudda.com which you can read here. The secret that Lori is sharing is, I believe, that if you are calm and focused you will get more done than being hectic and multi-tasking.
There is research that shows that constant multitasking and stress can damage millennials’ brains and you can read about it here.
It is against the background of the search for better work-life balance and fewer stress levels that millennials are turning to meditation to open the door for them. Jules Schroeder has written Why Millennials Are Turning to Meditation for Work-Life Balance for Forbes.com.
If you are interested in exploring meditation further you can start here with the Amazon best seller on mindfulness:
Financial Tip of the Week
Should You Tell Your Boss That You Are Going To Moonlight As A Freelancer?
Should you tell the boss that you are going to moonlight as a freelancer is a critical issue that you need to think through before you start moonlighting.
In my view, the short answer is: yes! The reason is fairly straight forward and it is because in all likelihood your 9 to 5 job will be your main source of income.
If are dismissed because you were moonlighting as a freelancer because it was in breach of your employment conditions, you will not have a case for unfair dismissal.
The first step in the moonlighting project is to read your employment contract and if you don’t have one get professional advice.
Michelle Goodman for ABCNews.go.com has looked at this issue with her article: Moonlighting: Should You Tell Your Boss? which can be read here.
What is clear is that you have to be careful in your plan to boost your income by moonlighting as a freelancer.
Lance Cothern has written the article Freelancing and Moonlighting Can Get You Fired for the Moneymanifesto.com which you can read here. Lance’s article tells you what to do. If there is any doubt get professional advice and ask your employer’s permission in writing.
Amazon Associates Website Case Study and Amazon News
Amazon Prime membership program continues to expand globally and now has 100 million members. You can read BusinessInsider.com’s article here.
For those freelancers interested in Amazon Web Services as a freelancing opportunity this is the latest weekly news from the aCloud.Guru here.
This is the updated position of Amazon’s launch into Australia from Lifehacker which you can read here.
The history of the Case Study can be read at links to the previous newsletter issues (there is no change for this week).
We have stopped showing the links for new articles as we have discovered that it could be having adverse impacts on the search engine optimization of the website Best Sellers Hourly.
We will advise you when new articles are added. They are currently being worked on.
By this time you can check our social media:
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:
What is Account Takeover Fraud? (Part-2)
