Freelance designers, programmers and copywriters all face the same problems:
§ customer acquisition and retention
§ conveying their true work value
§ dealing with non-payers
§ keeping income and expense accounts
§ re-using previous work effectively
§ contingency planning
§ finding time to grow their businesses
In order for us all to stay in business we inevitably have to be creative in our use of limited marketing budgets, time and connections. Some of the most successful freelancers to be found online actually offer advice from their experience quite openly. This is a practice that can be useful in many ways, as we’ll see. They often share extremely valuable strategies that can work in any market. These generous souls can be found in many places, and are often the ones in the various freelance blogs and communities with the facts, figures and case studies to back up their assertions.
What you have in this book, then, is much of the best, most provably useful advice I’ve gathered over the last decade, having had many chances to test it on my own translation practice. The roadmap at the end can be used to make sure you systematically cover as many points as are relevant to your situation. It will help you to drive growth, or to make your business more efficient, giving you more time to live.