[thelist] again - How to work freelance on a global scale.

Joan Olivé M. jolive at tinet.org
Mon Oct 24 09:52:57 CDT 2005


Good afternoon from Barcelona,

I've have quite good experience in enterpreneurshipness, in both senses, 
some time with succes, but one time finishing the project in a fiasco.

Let me give my points of view:

>I hate tying ties :) I don't like working from 9am to 6pm five days on a 
>regular basis....  I don't like being routine (If you've grasped the air of 
>corporate culture you know what I mean). I want to research, apply new (and 
>sometimes dangerous things), which the top level managers would not 
>disagree because it's risky, it has not been tried by other apriori,  it is 
>not "what they have been doing for years".

ok. Firstable, you must think that working for oneselve has nothing to do 
with "days of wine and roses", it's quite similar to a long journey across a 
desert (Thirsty, tiredness, etc) If you have succes, you should arrive to a 
nice oasys, but you have gread possibilities of failure. In any case, it 
seems you are quite young, so wasting some effort years, considered into a 
"all a life scale" can be assumed.

You could work in the morning or in the night, but you must have a weekly 
plan, in order to control that you work an ammount of hours. In my case, I 
use a Excel sheet to control when starting and when finishing my work

Perhaps you hate tying ties, but if you must visit a client...

What are the pros and cons of being a freelancer / small business owner ?

Pros: Great auto-satisfaction when achieving some objectives, feeling you 
are working for your own future, not for the "others future"

Cons: Fisrt, I think solitude, the other one is that you ought to have good 
mental ressistence, as during the long desert journey, only if counting with 
a steel willpower you could arrive till the succes. Finally, things are 
allways more difficult than it seems. In other words: The desert to be 
crossed is going to be 2 or 3 times wider than you are foreseening

> 5. How are the legal issues overcomed? (say my client refuses to pay 
> money, but I have half the work done to them, how can I claim my money)

In this point, my advise is that you ought to divide your work in many 
clients, being sure that, that if one of them don't pay you, this ammount 
don't mean more than your 20 - 25% montly invoicing

> 6. Is it a good decision to reduce the risk by starting up 2-3 colleagues 
> rather than taking my lance and fighting alone.

START ALONE. You must start under humble premises, controlling each cent. of 
expenditures (Office, etc.) I think there is no other way to start.

> 7. Anything else that I forgot?

Think about your Marketing Positionment. I mean that you must offer your 
service focusing in being specialized in something, you must sale yourself 
as excellent in a determined area, clearly identifying the marketing segment 
where you should focuse.

The market and the proof-error should point you in the right direction you 
must follow. You must consider that is the market who makes the rule, not 
you. So, you must understand what the market demands and adjust your 
offer/services to the market needs.

Finally, think that a chain is no stronger than his weakest link, so you 
must think about your own strongness and waekness in order to balance it 
with outsourcing, external job, etc.

Good luck and don't hesitate in reaching me again.

Joan Olivé i Mallafrè
Barcelona [Catalonia]
jolive at tinet.org





More information about the thelist mailing list