Three Year Anniversary

The end of this week marks my third anniversary of being a freelancer. Woo hoo!

I remember, back when I first started out, reading a post on a forum detailing some guy's hours worked, money earned and percentage increase on last year. Why would someone want to read all that (he also regularly posts his marketing strategies as in 'today I sent out 500 letters advertising my services - I'll let you know if I get any work from it' - he didn't ... get any work that is, he did in fact tell us all about it)? What's the point of noting it all down? Isn't it a pointless exercise?

But I must have taken something from it as I did start to note down my hours and the page count of projects - which has proved invaluable in quoting for new projects.

So why am I about to do to you now what he did back then (and I'm expecting him to do again in a couple of weeks time)? Because it IS a worthwhile exercise - I'll try not to do it in an 'hey look at me aren't I great' way. It has helped me to judge where my priorities are, where my weaknesses are and what to improve on in the future. Most importantly it helps me to prove to the OH that this freelancing lark is better than minimum wage down the supermarket - just.

In short this year I have worked 90 hours less than last year - understandable as I've had a week in hospital, a week cut off by flooding AND 3 weeks holiday. But still 150 hours more than I worked in the first year - with a newish baby and a house move.

My income has increased 12% on last year - so despite working less hours I have taken more money, this is due to rising to advanced membership of the SfEP and working for more varied clients. Overall it is a 23% increase on the first year.

I have yet to work out my outgoings but expect that my increased advertising and society membership costs will even out against the conference and courses I attended last year.

My hourly rate dropped by £2 last year but has increased by £3 this year - again this is due to clients - last year I did a lot of 'test' work for new clients who then turned out to have a really poor rate after the test was over. It's still not in the realms of where I would like to be but I've had better paying clients this year and now know what I CAN achieve.

My average number of hours a week is 20 - which as a part-timer is just about right - but bearing in mind the amount of time I've had off this year and the dry spells I've had this has meant several weeks have been closer to full time hours (a few weeks saw me log over 40 hours). This year I have also made more of an effort to work during the day in my child free hours and spend family time in the evenings - though some days I work right through.

For me this is a worthwhile exercise as although I know I just about scrape to pay the bills each month it is nice to know that my little fledgling business is going in the right direction.

This year is the first time I've logged my hours week by week and this has led to a surprising outcome - it has become very clear that traditional 'holidays' are very busy for me - my busiest months were August, November and January (with December coming a close second) my leanest months were April and June. It will be interesting to see if this is a trend in the following years - I always suspected that it was the case that desk editors ship everything out before they go away so that it will be 'miraculously' finished for them by the time they get back (I used to be one so I know that it is true ;-)).

If you are still with me - well done for hanging on in there! I promise I wont bore you with my tax return ... much.

A Black Wednesday

Ever have one of those days? Today has been one I wish I'd slept through to be honest.

It was never going to be good when my OH returned last night from 'a quick pint' as late in the day as he possibly could (aka close to midnight). I left him drunkenly boxing the Wii and crawled into bed (my excuse being that once I am 'working' I rarely stop unless I am interrupted - so if he'd gone onto a club I'd have happily worked into the early hours).

The toddler decided that 3am was a good time to get up and strongly proclaim that he was 'NOT tired' whilst walking into furniture. He got to the point that he was SO TIRED he couldn't sleep and made visits to our room at 10 minute intervals until about 6am when DH lost his temper and stormed out to work (in truth he should have left at 5.30am - so after only 2 hours sleep he was already late).

After this outburst peace was restored and I managed to get an hour of shut eye before we suffered a power cut which caused our house alarm to sound - the alarm which just happens to be situated on the other side of the wall from my pillow. This was then accompanied by the toddler screaming at me to stop the noise. Easier said than done as in the 2 years we've been in the house we've set the alarm only once (whereby we discovered that we couldn't turn rooms off so the cats would set it off) and have looked on smugly during other power cuts (there have been several) as other houses suffered the inconvenience of an incessant alarm. After explaining for the 100th time that, no, the TV wouldn't come on 'because we have no power' the tv did spring into life but the alarm kept on ringing. I frantically typed in all the codes I could find. All telephone calls to my OH were thwarted -forgot to charge the battery in my phone yesterday and the house phone is connected to the mains so was still 'resetting' then remembered that OH had changed locations and I didn't have the new number. Eventually got enough power in my mobile to text him to call home urgently as he isn't allowed to carry his phone with him but would have a break at some point and might just check his phone. Then suddenly the noise stopped.


As it was now 9.30am and I expected some emails from I client I powered up the computer - not connected to the Internet. This involved an expedition to the study/box room/general dumping ground - to find the BT hub. Very proud of myself as I managed to navigate it and press the reset button then fire up the ancient (circa 2003) PC to find out why it wasn't connecting. 'Please type in your user name and password' ermm - after trying every possible combination of our names and relevant dates, and anything else I could think of that the OH might have used, I was sitting with my head in my hands when OH rang. He directed me to a box in the 'dumping area' which had the codes in. It turned out that the only codes were the ones for the wireless connection so took the bull by the horns and reset it from scratch. I am now in BIG TROUBLE for messing with the equipment. Even so it still took me till nearly lunch time to get my laptop to agree with the home hub and check my emails.

This was all undertaken with constant demands to play the Thomas the Tank Engine game and supply a never ending stream of toast, juice and chocolate chip weetabix (my son is like a Hobbit - always has at least 3 breakfasts). PLUS endless enquiries as to when daddy would be home as one of the promises made at 4am was that daddy would play with the train set if HE WENT TO SLEEP!

Then to top it all once I did get the laptop to work one of my colleagues had pointed out that I can't retire until I'm 67! I didn't even have the stomach to ring my mother today (to take off the heat of the constant demands of her 'adorable grandchild') as she takes great delight in reminding me that as she is now over 60 she could retire 'at any moment' she just chooses to work until she's 65 and can change her mind 'whenever'. ggrrrr!

I've a headache from the many battles we've had with the naughty step - no treats were allowed due to our sleep deprivation over the last week (that included Easter eggs which seem to be breeding in our house). I'm in trouble for messing with the hub and, to top it all in my list of crimes, the alarm (WHICH WE NEVER USE) is no longer working.

Thank goodness the toddler is booked into nursery tomorrow and OH is at work so that I can enjoy some peace and quiet and, more importantly, get some work done.

Handy tips on motivation and the long weekend

In my search for motivation - you may have guessed I've spent a bit of time 'playing around' on the Internet (basically avoiding the work I need to get motivated about).

I've discovered that I'm not the only one out there: Lorna and Tamara from Freelance Parent have recently blogged about it too.

Bootstrapper has '50 ways to create a motivational workspace' and Cheryl Wright has detailed instructions on how to motivate yourself to achieve your goals.

It seems there are a few others out there with motivational problems!

My distractions this week have been: searching the web for posts on motivation :-), adding blogs to my bloglines account, Facebook, knitting a jumper for my god daughter, making an Easter hat for the toddler, playing on our new Wii and finally cleaning the house for my in-laws visit this weekend! However there has been some work done and I'm sure (I hope) that my motivation will return with a vengeance once I wave them off on Monday night.

Happy long (very, very, long) weekend - whether you are working, playing or biting your tongue over the amount of chocolate being shovelled into your kids.

I've found my motivation!

Having a little look on YouTube I found my motivation for doing my job!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjhOBiSk8Gg

Now, must get back to work.

Motivation's what I need

I've definitely left the holiday feeling behind with an urgent and taxing job during my first week back at my desk.

Since then though, well lets say I need a good swift kick up the proverbial. It may be that there was three weeks worth of Sky+ to watch (and that the box kept breaking down as it doesn't seem to be able to cope with being more than 40% full) or just the first signs of Spring but I just keep finding that the day has passed and I've done virtually nothing on the work front). I can't even say I've been doing much on the home front either - the dust that we left at the end of January is still evident (though if the in-laws decide that they are coming for Easter after all I'll have to get myself into gear on that too).



My usual motivation is money or lack of it and that should be the case here - bills to pay at the end of the month and insufficient funds to clear them. So what could it be? - wanting to be back on holiday? no. More pressing social and family matters? no. Boredom? hmm, maybe.



As much as I moaned about my client from another planet their project was the last one I worked on before I went away and another from them was the first one when I came back. It was all high pressure and confusion, frustration and talking at cross purposes - in short a bit like my old in-house job.



But the time has come to give myself a serious talking to. If work was always like that I'd have a serious burn out (been there, done that and got the t-shirt) or I'd blow my client relations by actually saying the things I'm thinking and blogging about. The 'boring' stuff is my bread and butter and something interesting is always waiting in the wings :-) Obviously my timing is as wrong as ever - as the preschooler is now out of nursery for the Easter holidays!



I'd be interested to know how everyone else pulls themselves out of a work rut.

Bullying in the workplace

Does it happen? Of course it does, I've even experienced it in my voluntary work, and it is unacceptable in every case.

One of the key factors about turning freelance when my son was born was that I knew that I didn't have the energy to play the political games needed for a quiet life at work - I knew that I was quite likely to speak my mind and walk out (a reason for limiting my consumption of alcohol over recent years as I seem to spend a lot of time in my personal life biting my tongue!).

So being freelance seemed ideal. I could work my own hours, have the radio on if I wanted to and not worry about who I would meet in the kitchen when it was my turn to do the tea run.

But being freelance can be a bit lonely and, lets face it, we all need a little bit of reassurance from time to time - no matter how experienced we are (and it is nice to pass on our experienced wisdom too). So I joined a few forums which were set up for this reason. But it seems there is no escape from the bullies even when you are working from home.

One forum in particular has become a bit like a soap opera and I skim through the daily digest to see the same names are arguing over the same points just for the sake of arguing and proving they are better than everyone else. As I press delete I sadly reflect that if I did have a problem I would be reluctant to ask about it. The last time I did I was pointedly told to 'search the archive' when it was obvious from my original message that I already had ... Well it was to me, but I suppose that is part of the problem - so much can be read into an email or forum post that wasn't intended. Unfortunately I have heard from colleagues that what appears on the forum is only half of it and that they have had horrendous messages offline. The result is that what was once a useful resource is now failing miserably as members decide enough is enough and leave.

So am I just an oversensitive soul (as an HR manager once labelled me) or are others finding the same thing? How do/did you deal with the bullies in your life?

A Day in my Life ...

This will be a familiar scenario to many of my fellow freelancers but I'm often asked 'How do you do what you do?' or 'What's it like working from home?'. I thought I'd put it down on paper (or in this case blog). So a typical day for dougalfish:

5am kick other half to switch his alarm off.

5.15am kick other half to switch his second alarm off.

5.30am kick other half to switch his mobile phone alarm off.

6-6.30am pretend to sleep whilst other half runs around getting showered and dressed for work and ignore his expletives (he has to be at work for 7am and it's a 45 minute drive away).

6.35am allow the toddler into the space vacated by his father and politely explain that it's too early for cBeebies.

6.40am give in and switch the tv on, hand toddler the remote and go back to sleep.

7am woken by my least favourite song in the world - that's why it's in the cd alarm.

7.20am drag myself out of bed and into the shower.

7.45am shake toddler awake (conveniently fell to sleep as I went into the shower).

7.59am leave the house.

8.02am deposit toddler at nursery.

8.20am extricate myself from toddler's iron clad grip, back out slowly and head to the car (this varies, other times he bounces in without a backward glance - leaving me feeling bereft).

8.25am open kitchen door in need of coffee, discover OH didn't clear up the dinner plates whilst I was putting toddler to bed and then finishing a project before crawling into bed myself in the wee small hours. Ignore dirty plates, make coffee and feed the cats who are now clinging to my leg in demand of food. Put in load of washing 1.

8.30am log onto computer - slightly disheartened that my inbox is empty but then remember that in the 'real word' people don't start work until 9am or even 9.30am. Have last glance through project and notes before raising an invoice and emailing to client. Update my records.

8.45am log onto facebook and see if anything interesting has been said in the discussion groups overnight, move my cars in the Parking Wars application (give OH a ticket - hah hah!).

9am answer telephone call from author with answers to queries on my next project. Open up the file to make the amendments and check there aren't any outstanding queries.

9.30am email from client to ask if I can fit in a 'quick' proofreading job in the next few days - I can't so I point them in the direction of the SfEP.

10.45am finish checking the project and email the few remaining queries back to the author as I know she is now giving a lecture.

10.50 check on bloglines whether any of my favourite bloggers have made a post: wordsmith always serves as a great professional example, reluctant blogger makes me think and Lemon Drizzle makes me laugh out loud. Put on load of washing 2.

11.20 leave to pick up toddler from nursery and then drive to my parents as my lovely dad has taken 2 afternoons off a week to look after his grandson. Like many working mums I wouldn't be able to manage without the help of my parents. We have the usual 'I don't like Grandad' conversation on the way there - but he loves him really. Decide to stay for a sandwich as all we have at home is some mouldy bread and a lump of cheese - really must fit a shopping trip in.

12.30pm arrive home and decide the smell from the kitchen is really bad so spent 20 minutes emptying and refilling the dishwasher and wiping surfaces - it's amazing how far a child can throw food. Reload tumble dryer as too wet outside to hang it out.

1pm back to work - check emails. Someone has found me on the SfEP directory and would I edit his PhD thesis for a credit in the acknowledgements? - sorry, no, I need to pay my bills. A regular client has an on-screen edit for me - the pay isn't great but they pay promptly and it has a 4 week deadline so I accept.

1.15pm the post finally arrives and contains some proofs for a project I completed about 6 weeks ago. I contact the client who asks for them to be turned around in 2 days - would have been nice to have warning!

1.30pm doorbell rings - would I be interested in a new conservatory?

2.00pm phone rings - could they speak to Mr. Dougalfish? No they couldn't leave a message when would he be home from work? 'Well he leaves the house at 6.30am and we're lucky if we see him before 7pm but if you ring then your call won't be answered as we'll be putting the toddler to bed' - Oh. (9 times out of 10 when they do get hold of him, after twice daily phone conversations with me where they refuse to give a message, the are a sales company and he lets them say their piece and then gives them short shrift for wasting our time).

2.30pm author comes back with answers to the queries so can make my last checks and put the finishing touches to the project.

5pm Power down my laptop, nip to the corner shop for a tin of beans and pick the toddler up from dad's.

5.30pm - give the toddler the beans.

6pm call from OH to say he will be late - instruct him to bring 'something for dinner'.

6.30pm suggest to toddler that perhaps a bath is in order (not an unreasonable request as he's been 'helping' grandad on the allotment).

7pm bribe toddler to get into the bath.

7.30pm drag toddler out of bath, kicking and screaming. Cajole him into PJ's and read several stories.

8pm turn on toddler's favourite bedtime CD - to a specific track (number 32), set the light 'just so' and pretend to fall asleep in his bedroom chair.

8.20pm wake with a start (the CD has finished) to find toddler asleep. Creep out of the room - avoiding the squeaky floorboard - and trip over the cat.

8.25pm feed cat. Welcome OH home who looks at the devastation and asks what I have been doing all day. Predictably he's bought Chinese takeaway (again) - must make time for a shopping trip soon.

8.45pm after wolfing down my egg fried rice settle down to the urgent proofread in the study - muted sound of the TV downstairs. To avoid distractions put my headphones on an listen to a CD.

1.00am finally decide to call it a night. Crawl into portion of bed left vacant by OH (who is inexplicably lying diagonally across it and cannot be roused) as I drift off to sleep I wonder if he's cleared up the dinner plates ... or even brought the clean washing upstairs?

So that's how I do it, not perfect I know!