If you’re in NYC on June 6th and thinking about possibly running a Kickstarter project, come to the second Kickstarter Open House! Kickstarter staff and successful project creators will be around to hang out and chat about whatever project ideas you have, big or small. Our first event in February was a blast, so we’d be thrilled to see you in June!
(via ensignau)
The Yahoo buyout of Tumblr in 5 letters.
What Amy’s Baking Company and Brosie Can Teach You About Conflict
One of the things that makes conflict so darn difficult are all the Feelings.
Anger and fear and embarrassment are strong, visceral emotions. Once introduced, they can easily dominate a situation.
Two very different things happened in the world of Internetlandia this week that highlight the best and worst ways these emotions can serve you in conflicts.
Let’s unpack each so we can understand the difference between using emotions when in conflict and having emotions when in conflict.
Just had a dear friend ask me a question about what an appropriate pay rate should be (aside: When in doubt, ask someone you know. Bouncing a potential pay rate off someone else is a good way to find out if you’re over/underselling), and she made mention of the fact that she was pretty…
Put this under the umbrella of advice that your rates should be based off of how valuable your services are to your client. Something, like your connections, that might not seem valuable or special to you, can be very valuable to your clients.
See you all this weekend in Toronto for TCAF, the Toronto Comics Arts Festival! I’ll be tucked away at table B13 in the Beeton Auditorium on the first floor, this Saturday and Sunday.
If you’re at TCAF go say hi to Dylan for me!
I wish I was joking, but I really did this to poor Myq Kaplan. Thank god he was a comedian who could laugh it off and continue the conversation like nothing happened.
12 lessons for freelancers from the authors of REWORK
I just swallowed this book in a few days of my vacation! It contains valuable advice not only for people who are building their own products but for a broader audience of self-employed entrepreneurs. It is really a handbook, one can read it over and over again.
Here you can find a “mind-mapped” contents of the book for reference.
And below are my shore takedowns in context of building freelance translation business:
1. Planning is guessing
So true! I’m not making some New Year’s resolutions, I just define directions in which I want to work and evolve. Can you remember what you think two years ago about the future and how it turned out to be?
2. Why grow?
We don’t need to be ashamed that we are very small, in many cases 1-person businesses (and don’t have to emulate big respected company), small is actually good, it gives you flexibility and more personal approach.
3. Workaholism is a crime for freelancer, who can know it better than you, who learn things from bitter experience. Prioritize and cut off or outsource unnecessary tasks that take so much of your valuable time.
4. Make a dent in the universe
Don’t be just a replaceable person in the translation chain, provide a value to you clients. Don’t sit and wait for the change – be the change.
“If you’re going to do something, do something that matters.”
As my favorite Gary Vaynerchuk said: “There is no REASON in 2012 to do things you hate. None. NO REASON TO DO WHAT YOU HATE. Promise me you won’t. Because trust me, you can lose just as much money being happy as hell. ;)”
BTW, a great talk, highly recommended to watch.
5. No time is no excuse
Again Gary:
As you know there is never a perfect time, because perfect time is NOW.
6. Less mass
Optimize your processes and workflow. I discovered the power of the cloud: I use Dropbox for sharing and collaborating on files, Freedcamp for time tracking and managing projects, Asana for tasks management, PhraseExpress, TextExpander (for Mac) for frequently used text snippets etc.
7. Making the call is making progress
Don’t postpone. If you started checking email, answer messages right away.
If you’re not sure about some term while translating, don’t put it off, ask the client, PM etc.
Then your brain won’t have to store everything and will be more open for new ideas.
8. Sell your by-products
You can share your experience in a book. You can organize trainings, webinars.
Besides, translators can consider related services that are currently in need, like community management, copyrighting, localization testing, social media management to mention a few.
9. Interruption is the enemy of productivity
That’s why I try to do the most important tasks in the morning when everybody are sleeping and I try to disable all sources of interruptions, like IMs, Facebook, Twitter during daytime work.
10. Go to sleep
Dear friends-freelancers, people really need sleep, believe me :) And money that can be earned instead of sleeping is not worth of it in the end.
Besides, when you cut your sleeping time, your brain become damaged, you get more stubborn and your creativity level is down.
11. Long lists don’t get done
That’s where procrastination and all other no-accomplishment things appear. Break down long lists into a small ones and what is most importantly – prioritize tasks. I’m using Wunderlist to get my tasks sorted and scheduled. I’m reviewing tasks list in the evening and in the morning to see the overall progress and to remember my priorities.
12. Build an audience
This can be applied in terms of networking and marketing.
If you want your clients to knock on your doors, make yourself visible. Twitter and LinkedIn profiles, as well as professional blog with good and regular content, are the “must have”!
So those were my small conclusions after reading Rework. Please share your thoughts on the issues raised and be sure to grab a copy of Rework and dive into reading :)
Lots of interesting and frank commentary has been circling about on the topic of freelancing and money these past few days. After having written far too many words without getting paid for them in the past, my recent stance on this topic has been simple: I won’t write for free for anyone who can afford to pay me. And if they can’t afford to pay me, I will only write for free if I’m super-keen on the piece and would probably have written it for my blog anyway. As an old editor of mine used to say: exposure is nice, but you can’t take that to the grocery.
The latest #realtalk piece by Ann Friedman in the Columbia Journalism Review does however make some good points about the instances where writing for free, just a little bit, may be in your own best interest. Just a little bit.
To establish expertise. Let’s say you’d really like to be a tech reporter, but you’ve got no clips to prove your interest in and knowledge of the subject. Maybe you’re transitioning from another beat or type of journalism. It can be worth writing on spec or for little to no payment in order to build up a few clips that prove to future assigning editors that you know your stuff. […]
Because I was writing it anyway. If you love to write, I’m guessing you find yourself with odd notes and journal entries and weird essays that you wrote just because you felt like it. And maybe you want to find a more public home for some of this work—somewhere that’s bigger than your personal website. I, for example, make these silly, hand-drawn charts, which I publish at The Hairpin. This is something I do for fun, and I’d make these pie charts whether or not anyone wanted to publish them. After I published a few and people seemed to like them, I made it a goal to find a publication to pay me for similar work. And I did—a monthly magazine commissioned me to do a recurring chart feature for its front-of-book. It’s a paid gig I never would have gotten without an unpaid one.
To raise my profile. Some of the lowest rates I accept for reported work are for the Web counterparts of prestigious legacy print publications. I do so because I want to be affiliated with these publications. I want to reach their readers. And I want higher-up editors there to know my name and recognize my voice as one that’s a good fit with their editorial product. At many legacy publications, the website is the farm team for the print product, which has higher barriers to entry but also pays much higher rates. I believe that earning a mere $200 for a piece it took two days to report is an investment in my future—and this is a financial choice that I balance by saying yes to higher-paid assignments that may be less interesting to me or result in less exposure. It’s up to individual writers to determine when “writing for exposure” is a scam and when it’s a career boost. Personally, I play a long game.
“It’s important not to rush through life so much that you don’t find time to do the things you really should be doing.”
“What things do you wish you’d made more time to do?”
“I wish I’d learned to drive a racecar. Learned to cook. Followed up with a certain young lady. I wish I’d read more. I’ve got this stack of books I’m going through now, but I should have read them 50 years ago. I’m even reading Harry Potter!”
Los Angeles, 2012.
