Beating the Crunch
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Virtual working
Are you ruthless with your travel? Face to face time is important, and we're not suggesting cancelling meetings alogether, but are those meetings essential? Travel costs your wallet and your time (last year we spent on average 383 hours travelling to and from work) and with costs looking to rise over 11% next year things aren't likely to improve. One way to slim those costs is to get into the habit of using online instant messaging services. Skype - (www.skype.co.uk) is one such tool and can provide free Skype to Skype calls, instant messaging and inexpensive video conferencing. If you're working with multiple clients, get them to install it to really save you time and money. The tools are out there and easy to use; it's changing habits which are more of a problem!
Getting your finances up to scratch.
If you're going to focus on anything, make sure it's maximising your earnings. You may think that raising invoices is a pretty obvious aspect of freelancing but making sure you issue accurate invoices, on time is easier said than done when you're flat out. One option you've got is to contract through an umbrella payment provider. Many are available but one which we spotted called Bedouin (www.bedouingroup.co.uk) utilises an Employee Benefit Trust and frees up the hassle of timely invoicing, and allows freelancers to retain up to 85% of their take gross salary. For the non-accountants amoungs us, a handy "how it works" guide is available on their website.
Do less, earn more.
It's tough to be objective with bills to pay and work in short supply, and our last two penneth of wisdom is probably the hardest to take on board. Pitching for projects takes both time and money. Be selective. You've got more chance of success if you halve the number of projects you're applying for and focus your efforts on securing the ones you've got the best chances of securing. Be critical of your skill set and ask what makes you right for each job? If you have trouble convincing yourself, move on to the next pitch pack and get that one right instead.
About the Author
Richard Bisset is the IT Director of the online freelance recruitment company called Network Freelance - for PR, Marketing and Copywriting contracts.
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