Sunday, March 22, 2015

Be Careful What You Write

Yesterday I was on Facebook and saw an article from some website (I can't remember) that talked about how freelancers should use an "unschedule." So, basically you would first schedule all the stuff you want to do during the day that isn't work related and then stuff your work in around it. This is maddening and not good advice particularly for new freelancers. All I could think was, "So, how do they pay their bills? Are they trust fund babies?" My other thought while making dinner was that maybe they charge outrageous rates in an effort to put forth as little energy as possible. I'm a big fan of The Four Hour Work Week. However, it's just not something that everyone can do or should do.

Unscheduling is really bad advice for new freelancers or those that have bills. Freelancing is like any other small business. You need to actually put forth a large amount of effort in order to get steady clients and become established. Then you work in some of the fun stuff.

Please don't expect to roller skate and care for prize winning roses for six hours per day and pay your mortgage by blogging only two hours per day. It's unrealistic and you're going to get yourself in a bind.

Experienced freelancers, please be careful about what you write. Remember that new people read what you write and they think it is written for them. You know as well as I do that it takes insane hours to make a decent living of any sort.

New freelancers, don't believe everything you read. Not everything is written for you. Not everything you read online is the norm. You should know by now that the Internet is not full of truth and "your results may vary."