Infographic: the Freelancer’s Game of Life

The folks at FreshBooks posted this infographic on their blog.

Infographic: the Freelancer’s Game of Life

Of course it is fun to imagine that freelancing is all rainbows and kittens, but in the game of life there are often more pitfalls than the few move back # spaces possible landing areas.

• You realize that taking vacation is the same as UNEMPLOYMENT lose 2 moves
• Selling time for money means you never have any time move back 3
• There are 24 billable hours in each day, land overseas account, tele-presence and move forward
• Tax deductible is not the same as free, pay the bank $2000
• Your non-equity partners make off with your account, move back 1 space
• You finished the job, now get them to pay you, sit out next round
• You need find a contract house to manage the project move forward 5 spaces

Being successful as a freelancer is still something that eludes most who try. I doubt there are stats out there, but I would not be surprised if more than 75% of freelancers have to resort to going native after the first 2 years. Having survived 7 myself before getting a J.O.B. it is not always a sunny as this infographic makes it sound. First of all, i don't know many freelancers that even know the meaning of retirement.

Streetwalking, trolling and phishing: Getting the freelance gig

Getting yourself out "there" is a constant challenge for the full-time Techni-HO. Sure there are Social Media outlets like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. And of course we keep up blogs, journal articles, and public speaking events. But for day-to-day promoting yourself or finding other like minded "HOs" where can we go? In the realm of selling your time for money--Techni-ho fashion--word of mouth alone will not put food on the table.

Elance provides ways to create and manage your "e-presence" team

Elance offers a solution-and I hope they don't mind the allusion-to become your TechniPimp. As mentioned in earlier blog posts one of the downsides of going fully Freelance is not only finding the work and doing the work, but getting paid for the work. This also means negotiating and collecting fees.
Elance offers an online solution to many of those growing pains.

By offering a single storefront wherein "Johns" can cruise for talent, and the "Hos" can show their wares. Elance provides a method by which Techni-Hos and Johns can meet up, set up the commercial aspects of the job, and even ways to manage the project-by allowing for reviews of "Work-in-progress".

Start by creating a Free Account and first Free Job posting.

Looking for work? Sign up at Elance and search over 30,000 jobs today.
Find a world of talent online at Elance. Post your job today.

From there you can access all the of the services that Elance offers. As a contractor all the fees will be paid by the Johns as is right. The fees for the Johns to pay are very reasonable for role that they pay-as far as techni-pimps go very reasonable. 6.75%-8.75% as far as mark-ups go is very reasonable.




Unlike many contract houses they are not trying to get ungodly mark-ups on the talent the offer, after off the value-add for most contract houses is exceptionally disproportionate to the mark-up factors. I once worked with a Pimp who charged a 3x markup for a proposal that I wrote, filling a niche that I uniquely fit, with 0-zip-nil value add; when the client puked on the price they had the gall to tell me that my rate was too high.