Make Your Portfolio A Marketing Tool
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Your portfolio is less about you than it is about your clients and how you solve their problems. If you’re a self-employed professional creative, you
Master The Client Discovery Call
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An effective discovery process helps you transition smoothly into a good working relationship with your client. A prospective client discovery session allows you the opportunity
Red Flag Warning Signs Freelancers Should Not Ignore
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Some warning signs freelancers tend to overlook because they want the project. It’s no fun being trapped in a bad working relationship with a difficult
How To Write Your Freelance Business Plan
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A business plan is a contract you make with yourself. You may not need a business plan to start your freelance business, but once you
How To Care For Your Suppliers
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Take the same level of care in nurturing your vendor relationships as you take with your client relationships. No freelancer ever does a project entirely
Why Strategy Trumps Tactics
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Freelance creatives utilize both tactics and strategy to drive their businesses forward. Independent creatives are known to seek out quick-win tips and tactics to fix
Your Client Is Not Your Enemy
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How to navigate the Problem Client Ever have a client relationship turn sideways or go south? If you’ve been freelancing awhile you’ve likely experienced when
A Mindset Reset: Artist To Owner
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Reasons why we choose independence instead of employment, and how to start. How do you start freelancing? A Gallup–Upwork poll discovered there are around 57M
Use Creative Briefs To Build Trust
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Are you using a creative brief in your project development process? The creative brief helps your clients trust you better for a variety of reasons. In this episode I share what a brief is and how your client relationships and freelance business can benefit by using them.
Cultivating Limitless Success
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Succeeding as a freelance creative begins with how you think. How you think affects how well you do creatively and business-wise. What you think either hinders or promotes. We all struggle with limiting beliefs and negative thinking, but we don’t have to embrace them. In this episode I share for your consideration a mindset shift through the analogy of gardening and farming. This may make a difference for you if you’re struggling as a freelance creative.
How The PRO Act Will Make Life Worse For Freelancers
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The hidden costs for freelancers if the ABC test isn’t removed from the PRO Act. The PRO Act, which is now included in the massive
Budgeting Smarts for Freelance Creatives
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How to budget on a feast-or-famine income Money is a necessary tool in business and life, and freelancers can embrace the budgeting process creatively. Budgeting
Contracts, Spec Work and the Friends & Family Plan
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Q&A Session on various topics for freelancers Neither speculative nor pro bono work generate income for you. With each, you’re working for free. In this episode
Does Formal Design Education Matter?
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Do you need a degree to succeed as a freelance creative? A young designer asked me if formal education makes a difference in becoming successful.
Why The PRO Act Should Scare You ( If you’re a freelance creative)
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Freelancers have the right to work. We pray it stays that way. The ABC test to determine independent contractor vs. employee status in CA’s AB5
Things They Don’t Teach You In Design School
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What you need to know to succeed as a creativepreneur Talent, passion and a portfolio will get you through school, but you can’t build a
For Better Results Add Pliability To Your Planning
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Anticipate and plan ahead to respond well in any circumstance. Things don’t always go the way you planned, especially when it’s more than just you
Should Freelancers Work With Friends and Family?
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Balancing business and friendship. Friends and family should not be in your “ideal client” description. Why? Because all sorts of unexpected things happen that can
Better Clients Through Filtering
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How the discriminating freelancer can filter out problem clients before the contract is signed. Do you accept every client and project that comes your way?
Aesthetics, Your Clients, and You
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Book review and remarks about “Aesthetic Intelligence: How To Boost It and Use It in Business and Beyond” by Pauline Brown. A book review and
How Setting Goals Helps You Succeed
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As a freelance creative, you get to design your own success. Your whole life relies on your ability to achieve your professional objectives, so success isn’t optional. Setting significant goals is one of the most powerful things you can do to accelerate your business. Here are essential insights and a strategic approach to goal-setting that can help you ensure success and longevity.
Freelancers, Don’t Fall For This Scam!
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Indy creatives are targeted with projected inquiry scams. Scammers are highly creative in who and how they target. No one is exempt. This -creative project
12 Rules For Freelance Success
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Make your rules before you need them. I share a few of my rules and business policies which have helped me build a successful freelance
7 Things You Must Do To Start Freelancing
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Mechanics of getting your creative business on the road. Do you want to build a business out of your creative work? Stop thinking like an
Alvalyn Lundgren
Hi! I'm Alvalyn. I'm the founder of Freelance Road Trip and host of the Freelance Road Trip podcast. I'm a designer, illustrator and educator. I send out a free newsletter of tips and tools to help creative freelancers build lasting, fulfilling businesses.
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