Below is an excerpt of my latest article, written for the EverClients blog. It’s the third in a series I’m roughly calling “Hacking Freelance”, and it goes in to the detail of why we should all track our time at a computer, and how!

Why Should Freelancers Track Their Time?

Freelancing is more connected to time than any other type of business. A lost hour freelancing affects your weekly earnings directly. Luckily, as freelancing continues to grow across the US and Europe, a stable of software is being built to assist solo-workers and small businesses.

Arguably we all benefit from better time management, but this post focuses on the currently available time-tracking software specifically targeted at freelancers, ultimately ending in my review of the top five time-tracking options.

On top of lost billable time, (and therefor money), working time as a solo-worker can easily get messy. Twenty minutes on an email to a prospect, fifteen on a skype call to a client, 47 minutes finishing off a deliverable, (if you get to finish it.) Then your significant other walks in and asks you to put up a shelf or take the dog for a walk…

Read the full article

The post Do you track your time? first appeared on Woody Hayday | Blog.

A fantastic side-benefit I never expected EverClients to provide is that it actually builds a habit out of bidding on new work/finding new clients. By building the process into your freelancer day, customers have told me that it gets done way more regularly than usual. It becomes “Check email, bid for 30 minutes on select work from EverClients, get on with billable hours.” – Where before it would be easy to forget for a few days and then be high and dry once your current job finishes.

I’ll also be writing a collection of articles for freelancers over at the EverClients blog, I’ve started with Why do freelancers get droughts and will cover most of the topics that I know plague freelancers. Ultimately I hope to write up into a useful e-book for Freelancers everywhere, as I’ve seen that the number of us freelancing each year is hugely rising.

EverClients – Never Search for Freelance Leads Again

http://www.everclients.com

The post EverClients – More Work For Freelancers first appeared on Woody Hayday | Blog.

Freelancing is hitting new heights. More people than ever are leaving traditional employment in search of self-directed consulting. Whether you freelance or hire this can have profound effects on the way you do business.

Freelancing can open up new markets, change prices and costs. Freelancing can develop much more talent, talent which can be easily accessed and verified through growing marketplaces.

I’ve spent time on both ends of the client-freelancer relationship. I’ve hired freelancers and I’ve freelanced, I still freelance at StormGate for a portion of my time.

Freelancing is becoming a career choice; lots of people are breaking off and setting up shop, but whether you’re a veteran consultant or you’re just starting out, if you approach freelance work with a youthful exploration you will uncover fruitful connections. Likewise as clients, freelancers can be more than just hires; they are often hard working entrepreneurs and can offer other business value.

As a freelancer you have decided to offer a boutique service. What you are producing may be boring business logic or beautiful branding; whatever it is there is a very distinct value beyond its delivery.

Your customers have come to you for an exceptional reason. They like what you’ve done before. They have chosen you over others. Winning freelance jobs has become like battling through an interview process and successful freelancers must win jobs week after week.

In a way freelancers are employees of multiple companies, but far from the traditional, 9-5 sense. The bond between freelancer and client is tenable, once established it’s often as strong as any employment contract. Freelancers can feel an affinity with a company; arguably they represent a new form of stakeholder. As freelancers and as clients we are a lot more connected than we think.

My piece ends with a call for freelancers to play their position, the word Free in Freelance is integral!

As clients self-starting freelancers are invaluable, what’s more they could become employees, partners or students.

As freelancers we can be flexible where big companies can’t, we can care more about progress than profit, we can invest in ourselves and we can freelance for happiness.

There is flexibility in freelance.

Follow me on Twitter @woodyhayday to read more stuff like this in future, I’ll also refresh this blog soon so it might move to a new home

The post The Flexibility of Freelance: Web Designer Magazine first appeared on Woody Hayday | Blog.

It was a busy November, but it paid off – completed a good few projects for some great clients, and whats more I won no# 1 Top Freelancer @ people per hour!

You can read more about some of my recent projects here, although there’s only a few case studies up, the most public of the projects was a great life planning app that I built to first iteration, you can check it out (DO IT NOW!) @ 5years.me – built in the cloud on PaaS, behind the scenes I have also helped develop a social media analytics platform that is a marketeers wet dream, maybe as it gets properly released I will divulge more on that. Needless to say November was a great month of good work for great clients – off the radar now until my big project in early 2012

The post Recent Projects, Top Freelancer People Per Hour first appeared on Woody Hayday | Blog.