Freelance By Design

Freelance By Design

By Alvalyn LundgrenBusinessEntrepreneurship
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Freelance By Design episodes

  • Detours Are Not Your Destiny
    Many freelance creatives deal with having to do things to pay the bills while we're developing our freelance careers. The usual thinking is that these jobs are holding us back from doing our preferred work, stepping into our callings, and reaching our destinies. Rather than being deterrents, detours can be useful in a variety of ways, actually preparing and training us to do our best work.
    25 min
  • How To Write Your Business Plan
    You may not need a business plan to start your freelance business, but once you get a few clients under your belt you'll want to create one. A business plan acts as compass to keep you focused on the important things. It helps you control and manage outcomes. It helps you make good business decisions. Your business plan doesn't need to be a lengthy doc. I outline what to include in your plan and how those elements support your decisions and long-term success.
    29 min
  • How To Care For Your Suppliers
    No freelancer ever does a project entirely on their own. A reliable support network is crucial to getting the job done. Freelance creatives focus more on attracting and working with clients but often neglect to invest the same level of relational care into their supplier network. In this episode I share why we need to apply the "Golden Rule" with our suppliers, a couple true stories from my own experience, and unpack specific areas to watch out for in keeping those relationships respectful and mutually beneficial.
    27 min
  • Why Strategy Trumps Tactics
    Independent creatives are known to seek out quick-win tips and tactics to fix their immediate problems. But if you want to build a sustainable business around your creative work, you need a strategic plan that acts as both a compass and an anchor. While both strategy and tactics are necessary and useful. This episode introduces the concept of strategic thinking connected to your larger purpose, and attaching your goals and action steps.
    19 min
  • Your Client Is Not Your Enemy
    Ever have a client relationship turn sideways or go south? If you've been freelancing awhile you've likely experienced when a client shifts expectations or makes an odd request. Poor relationships with your clients can affect not just your freelance business, but your creative drive, your household, your friendships, your loved ones, and even your future success. Using a true story shared by a fellow freelancer, I unpack a strategy and share what, in my experience, is the number on reason why good working relationships take a wrong turn and freelancers find themselves fighting their clients rather than partnering with them to achieve a good result.
    21 min
  • 5 Practical Steps To Shift From Artist To Owner

    The allure of freelancing... Why do we do it? And then, how do we do it? The freelance economy is growing across all sectors. According to a Gallup–Upwork poll, there are around 57M independent contractors in the US currently. The majority of those is creatives. To freelance successfully means you're taking care of business so that you are free to focus on your creative work. How can you avoid fizzling out and having to return to a soul-crushing day job that's not a good fit for your creativepreneurial spirit? There are 5 steps you can take that will empower you to shift from "artist" to "owner", starting with your portfolio.

    23 min
  • Use Creative Briefs To Build Trust
    Are you using a creative brief, also know as assignment or design brief, in your project development process? A brief can help you build trust with your clients for a variety of reasons. In this episode I share what a brief is and how your client relationships and freelance business as a whole can benefit by using them.
    23 min
  • Cultivating Limitless Success

    How you think affects how well you do creatively and business-wise. What you think either hinders or promotes. We all struggle with limiting beliefs and negative thinking, but we don't have to embrace them. In this episode I share for your consideration a mindset shift through the analogy of gardening and farming. This may make a difference for you if you're struggling as a freelance creative.

    32 min
  • How The PRO Act Will Make Life Worse For Freelancers
    The PRO Act, which is now included in the massive infrastructure bill, and the Worker Flexibility and Small business Protection Act, will make things very difficult for freelance creatives if it becomes law with the ABC test intact. If freelancing and independent contracting is no longer considered legitimate, and we all have to be employees, what do we lose? Whether or not an employer is a union shop or not, what do we lose? Don't take this discussion as a rant against unions or the trades, but as a genuine concern for the fallout we get to deal with if the government forces every working pro into W2-based employee status.
    31 min
  • Budgeting Smarts For Freelancers
    Money is a necessary tool in business and life, and freelancers can embrace the budgeting process creatively. Budgeting is good stewardship, and enables you to maintain momentum when your income fluctuates month to month. A spending plan can help you become more profitable because it gives you more control. I share an approach to your spending plan that's flexible, practical, and immediately actionable. Feast or famine income isn't an excuse to not have a budget.
    26 min

About Freelance By Design

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The intersection of inspired creativity and common business sense. We talk about everything you didn't learn in design school, but should have if you want to build a career and a life as an…