Get Help When You Need It

When you’re starting out as a freelancer, you pretty much have to do everything yourself. You don’t have extra money around to hire people to help you with things, so you have to make the time to get things done.

I’ve often said that, as soon as you think you can afford it (and that happens sooner than you might think if you shop around a bit) a freelancer’s first “hire” should be an accountant. Having someone else in charge of making sure my taxes are prepared correctly takes a huge load off my mind each spring (though I’d love it if he e-mailed me a reminder to pay my quarterly taxes!)

Who Else Can Help?

In time, though, you might find that other professionals are a big help to you as you can afford them. When it’s time to move from a blog hosted on WordPress to your own domain, or when you want to set up your own website, hire a pro if at all possible.

Even if you have the skills or think you can figure it out, pay someone to do it for you. It’s a business expense, for one, but you can be assured that things are being done the right way, the site will probably be less buggy and it will get to the point where you want it to be a lot faster than if you do it yourself.

There may come a time when you want to have a newsletter and you might hire people to write articles for you. You may have improvements you want to make to your website or content you want to add that you’re just not getting to on your own that you could hire someone to create.

Ultimately you may end up with so much work that you have to hire out some of your jobs, or there may be parts of the work that you don’t enjoy (like initial research) that you could pay someone else to do.

With What Money?

I know right now most of you are thinking “but I’m freelancing to make extra money; why would I want to pay someone to help me?”

Good question. And I don’t mean to suggest that you would do such a thing right away or early on in your career.

The main point is to know that it’s possible to hire people to help you out with all sorts of different jobs, and that there’s no shame in having people help you when you get overwhelmed or have things to do that you never get to because you don’t like that kind of work.

Freeing yourself up to do the work you like to do means in the end you’ll make more money because you’ll be able to focus on projects you’re really excited about, but the less-fun stuff will get done, too.

Why I’m Thinking About This

This article is as much for me as it is for you. As you might have noticed, I’ve been struggling to get regular content onto this site, and I can’t even remember the last time I had a newsletter out!

I have an ebook that’s days away from completion if I get someone else to format it and prepare it for sale. If I tried to find the time to do it myself, it would be months longer.

I’ve been thinking about getting help for a long time now, and I’m finally taking the steps I need to take to get some. (For my other site, I already have a little extra help, and so far, so good.) I hope for you all this will mean a better experience with more helpful tips and resources for you, and a little less stress for me.

If you’ve outsourced part of your work (or the necessary drudgery of being a freelance professional) in the past, I’d love to hear what you did and how it worked out for you!

Quick Tip: Schedule Your Sending

Yesterday I wrote about the fact that I have a whole lot of queries sitting around that really need to be sent. I’m sure I’m not the only one.

What I — and, maybe, you — need to do is to actually put some time into my schedule that’s just for writing, refining and sending queries. As it is right now I’ll get an idea, write a draft of a query on a piece of paper while I keep an eye on the little one, and then it usually never makes it onto the computer or into the inbox of an editor who might be interested.

This could even have a cute name like Work Out Wednesday (getting the work out of the house) or Finish it Up Friday, or it could just be Tuesdays because you have more time on Tuesdays. Whatever.

The point is that if you work getting queries out into your schedule, you’ll get more queries out (surprise!) and have more success.

When Will You Work?

I’m having a bit of a time management problem right now. Well, it’s not so much that I’m not managing time well, it’s more that I don’t have a lot of time in the first place.

Work-at-homers with bigger kids are sure to understand the situation of being excited when summer comes because of the break from routine and the ability to spend more time with the kids. That lasts for a few weeks until suddenly you’re wishing you just had a few uninterrupted hours to get some work done.

For those of us with smaller kids, this is a year-round problem. We want to work at home so that we can be with our kids, but we can’t actually get a lot of work done because the kids need all our attention.

That’s certainly the case with my very active almost-11-month-old. She doesn’t want to hang out in my office while I work, so other than the briefest spells (or sometimes when her daddy is home) I only work during naps. Which gives me maybe 2.5 to 3.5 hours a day to work and do household chores that need to be done when the baby isn’t underfoot.

So, clearly, I’m not getting a lot done.

Setting a Work Schedule

I bring this all up because knowing when you’ll work and how much time you have to devote to work each day is an important consideration for freelancers who are already home and those who are freelancing on the side. If you don’t know where you’ll find the time (and don’t want to get creative about making the time), you aren’t likely to succeed.

I am in no way a morning person. I will tell you, if you ask, that the worst thing about being a parent is not having control over when, how long and where you sleep. Right now I’m unwilling to give up any of my precious shut-eye to work, though I know that would be the best time of day to work if I could get out of bed (my husband would still be home to take care of the wee one if she woke up, for example).

I could probably work more in the evenings than I do, but of course I want to see my husband and I don’t want to saddle him with baby duty when he needs some down time, too.

I know all of this will get easier when the kiddo’s older (and I am planning to use at least some daycare/preschool when she’s a little older) and I just have to be patient with myself and know this is not a period for a lot of growth or change in my businesses. I just don’t have a lot of time to be innovative or start new projects.

That said, I still have goals and new things on the horizon. They just will come more slowly than I would have hoped. And the key is just to know what you can do, when you can do, having a scheduled time when you’ll work and actually working during that time (rather than, say, reading e-mail or catching up on Facebook).

How I Used to Work

When I was working full-time and freelancing nearly full-time, I didn’t have a child. I actually got a lot of freelance work done at my day job (which I don’t really recommend, unless you can get away from the office and work on your lunch break), and I’d work an hour or two in the evening and half a day on the weekends (usually Sundays; I had a strict rule against working on Saturdays that I still usually abide by).

I worked a lot. I was knitting most of the time I wasn’t on the computer (that’s still true, when I’m not deep in playtime mode), and I was always thinking about all the things that needed to be done (also still true). It was exhausting, but in a completely different way from having an infant who needs constant attention, affection and regular entertainment.

I honestly don’t know how I would do it if I were trying to start my freelance career now. I guess that’s why I planned to do it before we had kids!

How Do You Deal?

I’d love to know when you work, whether you’re a full-time or part-time freelancer, and about how much work time you get each day. If you have any tricks for working around kids or squeezing more work time into the day, I’d love to hear them, too!

Quick Tip: Try a New To-Do

If you’re getting hung up on how much (or how little!) you’re getting done each day, it may be time to rethink your to-do list.

I used to like to write down everything I hoped I could accomplish in a given day, meaning that I never actually got everything marked off.

Lately I’ve been trying to keep my to-dos to just three or four a day. That way I’m focusing on the things that really are priorities, and it’s a lot more likely I can get a handful of things done than it is that I can get a dozen things done.

So far I haven’t been able to mark everything off every day (yesterday, for instance, was bad, but there’s a sickish/teething baby in my house), but it does make me feel better even to get closer to marking off everything than I used to.

And with that, I’ve already got three out of four off the list for today. Try it and see if it doesn’t at least make you feel like you’re getting more done.

Ways to Get Work Done

One of my major aims with this site is to help people who have day jobs transition to becoming full-time freelancers, or to learn how to better juggle both having a day job and doing freelance work.

One of the hardest parts of doing both is finding the time for freelance writing (or any other kind of moonlighting) when you’re already working all day. I remember this being a constant struggle. I wanted to work but I also wanted to spend time with my husband and our friends.

Getting More Done

I don’t think any of my suggestions are going to strike you as revolutionary, but the main thing you need to remember about freelancing while you have a day job is that you have to do what you have to do.

If you’ve promised someone a freelance project, you have to deliver, no matter how much strain it puts on you. If you want to continue in this business, you don’t want to get a reputation for being unreliable.

But once you get in the habit of working your freelancing into your schedule, it does get a little easier, even if it’s still a lot of work.

Making Time

The most important thing you can do as a freelancer looking for more time to ply your trade is to develop the mindset that this is something you want to do (and, when you have assignments, that you have to do). Most of the time most of us can make time for things we really want to do.

If you enjoy your morning run, for instance, you’re a lot more likely to do it than if you think of it as a long, hard slog.

It’s the same with freelancing. That’s why it’s so important to go after projects you actually want to do and are excited about — it makes getting to your desk when you’d much rather be in bed that much easier.

Of course that’s a major recommendation of all time management gurus: wake up earlier or go to bed later. I’ve argued before about the importance of sleep, but it really is a good tip if you can manage it.

I advocate using pockets of time whenever and wherever you happen to find them, even at your day job, though this can be very problematic if you ever get caught. Take a notebook wherever you go and at least you can brainstorm or draft out an article on paper to be typed up later that day.

Leave your office and get a little work done — on paper or online — on your lunch break. Try to get in an hour of work when you get home before you eat dinner. If you don’t have kids and your spouse will tolerate it, add in another hour after your evening meal (and after the kids go to bed if you do have kids).

I will admit that when I had a day job I would occasionally call in sick or take a vacation day to do freelance work, and I always used built-in holidays as work days for my freelance work. These days are a great test of whether you’ll really enjoy freelancing full time and whether you can manage to get any work done (because as a full-time freelancer, you’re likely to work at least some holidays).

You certainly don’t want to make a habit of such things, and don’t tell anyone that’s what you’re doing.

If You Want it to Work, it Will Work

If you really want your freelancing career to be successful, the odds are good you’ll be able to find the time and motivation to get the work done that you need to get done. If you’re having trouble meeting your commitments or even getting started looking for freelance work, it’s likely that you aren’t sufficiently motivated to make freelancing your career (or you may have overcommitted yourself, in which case you need to take a step back and evaluate which projects you really want to do and have time for).

It’s all a balancing act, but if you want to be a success as a freelancer, I promise you that you’ll figure out a way to make it happen. I’m living proof that it can be done.

Quick Tip: Meet a Tiny Goal

This has been rather a crazy week for me. Things I thought I would be able to get done haven’t gotten done nearly as quickly as I would have liked. On the upside, I’ve been spending a lot of quality time with the little one.

But this week has reminded me that, important as it is to have big, scary, fun, challenging goals, it’s also good to have itty, bitty, teeny, easily accomplished goals.

Instead of the goal of finishing the sock (which didn’t get accomplished last weekend), I changed my goal to finishing one pattern repeat. When I managed to do that, I felt a lot better, even though I wasn’t where I really wanted to be.

The same works with writing. Instead of writing the whole article, try to write the first two or three paragraphs. Or e-mail one source. Or organize your notes. Or organize your desktop. Any little thing that can make you feel like you’re making progress is a lot of help for those days when you feel less than productive.

Quick Tip: Recycling Research

Sometimes when you’re working on an article you’ll end up with more information than you need for that article. Maybe an interview subject went off on an interesting tangent, but it’s not really appropriate for the article you’re writing. Or you found out way more than you needed to know about a particular aspect of the topic you’re covering that will never make its way into the story you’re writing.

Always save all of this research and information in an accessible place (like your idea file, if you have one) and remember to revisit it when you’re looking for new story ideas. Using information you already have is a great way to make good money writing articles, because a lot of the research is already done when you get the assignment.

Remember, of course, to get back in touch with any sources you plan to use in a new article and make sure it’s OK that you use their quotes and information in a different story. Who knows, they might just give you more information that sets you on the path to yet another story!

Quick Tip: Freewriting is Your Friend

Having trouble coming up with a good way to start an article or feeling overwhelmed by all the information you’ve accumulated? Instead of trying to start writing at the beginning of your article, try freewriting. Open a document on your computer (or grab a notebook and a pen) and write: “What I want readers to know about this topic is…” or “What I want people to take away from my article is…”

Finishing these sentences and writing for 10 or 15 minutes from that starting point can make it easier to focus on the essential points you want to get across in your article, which can give you a better idea of where to start and what information you really want to include and what you can leave out.

(Don’t worry about “wasting” research when you leave information out of an article; you can always use it later for something else!)

Can Parenting and Freelancing Mix?

A recent study has shown that parents these days are spending more time with their kids than the parents of the 1990s did, which sounds like a good thing, until you consider what a USA Today story pointed out: parents may be around their kids more, but thanks to technology like web-browsing, e-mail sending cell phones, kids may actually be getting less attention or true interactive time with their parents than they used to.

This is a hard enough balance to strike for parents who work outside of the home, but what if you work from home and have children? It’s even more difficult to separate work time from family time when the office is in the home.

How it’s Going so Far

I’ve been a living experiment in working at home and parenting for the last seven months. My daughter is here with me all the time, and if I get any childcare at all during the week it’s only for a couple of hours.

Of course she’s still pretty small, she’s napping better than she has since she was very small, and she’s more or less sleeping through the night, so I have energy to work when she’s sleeping (like right now).

I do find that focus is difficult and it goes both ways. When I’m working, even when I know she’s asleep and likely to stay that way for awhile, I’m still thinking about her and listening for her little movements. When I’m with her, sometimes I’m distracted by what I think I ought to be doing or what needs to be accomplished during the day.

Since knitting is actually part of my job, there are times when work and parenting are combined, for instance, she’ll be playing on the floor and I’ll be sitting beside her knitting.

I feel a little guilty about doing it because I know I could be more engaged with her playing, but I also figure it’s a good lesson for her to know that she can play on her own without constant attention, and I do still talk to her and interact even while I’m working.

Can You Have it All?

I’m often reminded these days of the notion that you can have it all, you just can’t have it all at once. I know my career is basically on hold while she’s home all day every day, and I know that’s OK; this is mom time. I’ll never get back these years, and there is nowhere I would rather be.

At the same time, there’s a part of me that thinks she’s going to need to go to day care, probably earlier than I anticipated when she was just an idea. Especially if she’s going to get a sibling and I’m going to keep working.

And then I feel like I’m cheating her of time she could be spending with me just because I’m sure I won’t be able to work normally when she’s a super-active toddler. But another part says “won’t being around other kids do her good?”

There are No Easy Answers

When it comes to parenting and working in the same space, I don’t think there are any easy answers, or any obviously right answers. But the answers are sure to get easier when kids are in school, and there are some free hours in the day for working. It doesn’t make freelancing exactly like having a day job, but more so than when you’re trying to fit work into nap times.

I’m a long way from the time when I’ll have an empty house in the daytime, so right now I’m just doing the best I can, as I’m sure a lot of people who freelance and parent are. The most important thing is that you try to do what’s best for you and your family in that particular moment, while at the same time ensuring that you’re not completely neglecting your work all the time.

Easier said than done, right? Lets all keep trying!

Quick Tip: Stop Putting Something Off

We all tend to put things off that we don’t really want to do. Maybe it’s something you know you have to do, like bookkeeping or your taxes. Maybe it’s something you feel obligated to do but don’t really want to do, or it could even be something you want to do but you think you don’t have time for.

See if you can make the time to either do the thing or delegate the thing some time this week. It’s a great idea to do this thing first thing in the morning, because you’ll feel a huge amount of relief and take that positive momentum into the day with you.

Also, doing it first thing ends the “I’ll just get to it after I do this one thing” cycle. You’ll feel so much better without that thing hanging over you — or, if you’ve been putting off something you really want to do, you’ll be so glad you finally took the time to treat yourself!

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