Tag Archive for 'projects'

How to Enliven your Creative Spirit?

Juice up your creative abilities!

Creative freelance professionals such as writers, designers etc., many a times, feel that their creativity has stagnated and they’re no longer able to come up with innovative ideas. There are some common factors, which if avoided, can help freelancers in enlivening their Creative Spirits and delivering top-grade results in their freelance career.

Let us take a look at the some of those creativity killers, which you should certainly avoid to stay focused and productive:

Monotonous Work Regime

Working in isolation away from colleagues and professional environment often fosters monotony and despair in a freelancer’s life and one feels like going stir crazy. monotonous schedule

Networking with other freelancers via social networking tools is recommended as it would bring a feeling of companionship and help you to stay motivated and deliver excellent work results. Play around with ideas that come to your mind to make your freelance work interesting. Take frequent breaks to avoid this monotonous schedule and let creative juices flow with full velocity.

Over-committing deliverables

Always under-promise and over-deliver! Clients sometimes pose big challenges for you by setting strict time lines for the projects they want you to execute. However, the capacity to face this challenge varies from freelancer to freelancer, and the creativity is one important aspect that needs to be paid attention to for delivering excellent project results.work pressure

Some freelancers stay calm and composed when they hear about the deliverables & time frames set for the same, whereas some freelancers start panicking on just the mention of strict time frames and work stress. So in those circumstances, it’s always better to take some extra time in advance so that your creative juices can keep flowing and you’re able to plan and execute your project efficiently.

Real-world difficulties

Freelancers often come across real-world difficulties such as handling their finances, managing software, dealing with bad clients, paying their credit card bills, petrol bills, mortgages, repair work etc. It then becomes a cumbersome task for a freelancer to focus on his work and come up with impressive work results owing to the day-to-day problems that surface.monetary insecurity

A freelance writer, graphic designer, web designer etc. who earn their bread and butter owing to the creative abilities they possess cannot come up with good write-ups & visually enticing graphics & designs in case they’re worried about handling these unfortunate real-world challenges. So the best way you can gear up your creativity is keeping this distress aside and then work on the projects.

Freelancers’ effective marketing tool is the quality of their work and hence put in your best possible endeavor to deliver these results as only this would bring you great appreciation and personal freedom as a freelancer.

Cluttered Work Environment

Creativity gets easily disrupted by unhealthy work environment. As a freelancer, you work from home but it is equally important to keep your place of work clean just like in office environment. Keep your desk clutter-free as dirty work environment is a serious creativity killer. Remove all the loose stationery, kids clothes lying around as a clean professional environment would open the creative doors of your mind and fresh ideas will flow out, which would certainly reflect in your work.work environment

Stay organized and keep all necessary items of use such as pens, calculators, paper clips etc at your arm’s length. As a freelancer, you own the project from scratch to end. Hence, you need to think, concentrate, plan and then execute the project. So, you need to have your creativity in action. Try to keep your desk in front of the window that opens to a garden or park. The view would keep you rejuvenated and refreshed.

Multi-Jobbing & Multi-tasking

A part-time freelancer might be tempted to do some ‘freelance work’ during his office duty hours and simultaneously doing regular office duties such as answering clients’ calls or emails, or executing Boss’ instructions. This is the biggest catch involved as this way you won’t be able to come up with innovative ideas and integrate them in your freelance work.multitask

Some people are good at multi-jobbing and multi-tasking but working on numerous things at a time is a tedious task and can adversely affect project execution. Most of the freelancers when do multi-tasking (such as emailing, chatting on different messengers, talking on phone, executing a freelance project) cannot stay focused and it’s then when their creativity takes a back seat and they end up doing a mediocre job.

To keep your creative instincts alive, you need to be attentive and devoted in execution of your freelance project. During project execution time avoid using your phone, chatting on messengers so that nothing can distract you.

Interrupted Work Schedule

Frequent interruptions by kids or family members, phone calls, relatives’ visits etc. can seriously kill your creativity. Such fragmented work schedule can sabotage your creativity and drain out all your energy and inspiration.work schedule

Make a work schedule and stick to it. Try to stay away from the factors which can prevent your innovative ideas from germinating and getting you involved in your work.

We hope that these suggestions given by us would help you in identifying your creativity killer and overcoming it thereby enlivening your Creative Spirit, which would certainly help you in carving a niche for yourself in freelance market.

How to find clients in the ongoing financial crisis?

“Successful job seekers know that even in tough economic times, there are opportunities. You just have to dig a bit deeper.”
Roberta Chinsky Matuson, President of Northampton, Massachusetts based Human Resource Solutions.

The current financial storm has adversely affected the economies of almost all the countries across the world. Freelancing has emerged as a good option for many, who wish to play smart in current financial crisis.

The biggest challenge that you may face in freelancing is to find new clients at this hour. As this financial disquiet will take some more time to subside, you must have a well-devised strategy for attracting new clients and orders.

We have listed here some tips that can help you find clients even in today’s economic scenario:

Use social networking tools for marketing

How you choose to market yourself will directly impact how long it will take to find a new job.” — J.T. O’Donnell, a nationally syndicated workplace columnist.

In the existent recession, marketing has to be focused and cost effective. Web gives you adequate social networking tools to market your skill set effectively. social networking You can make a good professional profile on leading social networking websites like LinkedIn, Twitter etc, and collaborate with clients from all parts of the world. This might bring you in contact with a potential client, who may be in look out for a dedicated and competent freelancer like you.

Also, you can register yourself and create an effective portfolio on any online services marketplace like ours. You can get real-time access to projects matching your skill set and get started with making great profits.

Use Word-of-Mouth business strategy

“Customers set up a hierarchy of values, wants, and needs based on empirical data, opinions, word-of-mouth references, and previous experiences with products and services. They use that information to make purchasing decisions.” — Regis McKenna, a well-known marketing guru & Chairman of the Board of the Santa Clara University Center for Science, Technology and Society.

Clients value the feedback that freelancers receive for the quality-backed services they render. Ask the clients, who you have worked with, to post their testimonials and feedback for your work on different forums so that you gain word-of-mouth publicity (a powerful public relations weapon) and gain access to new clients and orders.

The feedback given by the clients that you have already worked with would serve as an index for gaining access to new business opportunities as the work done by you will be recognized by the employers themselves.

Add credibility of your portfolio

If you wish to attract new clients towards your portfolio, you must concentrate on adding credibility to your profile by supporting it with complete description of your skill sets. We would also advise you to prove your credentials to the business community. The best way you can do it is by taking Online Skill Tests and getting a certified seal on your profile.

This strategy can help you reposition yourself in the highly competitive job environment of current times. Further, you can also strengthen your portfolio by getting your credentials verified by an authenticated investigation agency (like Justifacts on LimeExchange). This will serve as a hallmark of trust on your profile and bring you in the front of the queue of bidders.

Stretch your professional limits and competences

Companies have resorted to cost cutting and are on a serious look out for freelancers with multidimensional creative and technical abilities. Pushing your limits can really act as effective ‘gap fillers’ and improve your portfolio. If you’re a freelancer, you need to have more flexibility as compared to full-time employees. Look out for roles that you can play outside your work preferences. money online

“New skills can come from a small part of your job that you most enjoy doing.” – Diane Morgan, Director of Career Services at London Business School.

For example if you are a content writer, you can opt for less-specialized role such as that of a proofreader or an editor. This way you can price your less-specialized role too which you can’t do as a full-time employee as it would fall into your kitty as a part of your overall service.

You may take some time to stretch your professional limits. However, this is not impossible and you should always attempt to learn something new every day to broaden your comfort zone.

Keep in touch with your clients

Always make an effort to remain at the forefront in the minds of clients you’ve worked with so that in future if there comes up an opportunity, it’s your name that certainly comes in the frame instantly. You can stay in touch with your clients and contacts through different means such as emails, calls, social networking tools etc.

business networking You can even post a blog on any theme and send it to your former and future business associates. This can be an effective way to reach out to your clients and keep them interested in your portfolio. You can impress your future clients by sending them updates and latest industry events pertaining to their business domain.

You can further attract your clients by giving them some value-added suggestions regarding their products & services and also recommending them some new features integrating which their business can flourish.

We hope that the above-mentioned practices will help you strengthen your profile as a freelancer and fetch you lucrative projects even in such rough times.