School Days

During my early years, I would frequently take things apart. As a curious child, you can find me behind the TV taking the phone apart because I wanted to know how it worked. I feel that at was the turning point in becoming an entrepreneur; I wanted to know how the world works! One thing at a time.

Getting candies, toys, and small trinkets is every child’s dream, and it certainly didn’t pass me by either. I started to paying attention to how much things might cost and how to then get that amount to buy my own candy and toys. I didn’t want to wait for mom or dad to reluctantly buy me something.

I raided my parent pockets for coins! I raided the seat cushions, the dresser, the cup holders in the car. I was relentless.

I saw an opportunity to help my parents just give me their spare change. To them, it was low value, but to me, it was very high value. Creating a system where they could just put their spare change in allowed me to efficiently collect them. Collecting that spare change was my goal, and I made it easy for my parents to fork it over.

High School

By my high school years, I expanded my efforts to get actual dollar bills. I started to look around the neighborhood to see what we could do as kids. Raking leave, mowing the grass, taking out trash, or whatever menial job that kids could do. I wanted to start doing that for pay because I was already doing that for my parents.

So I started going door-to-door and offering lawn service to people in the neighborhood and signing up work. From there, I would recruit my friends to work with me and split some of that profit. I would keep 60% of the payment and they would be paid out 40%. It worked well that way because I was the one finding the work, locking in the agreement, and paying out my friends.

I learned from that experience that partnering up with people and taking a smaller cut can still make you money. You don’t have to take it all on yourself and think you need to take on the world solo.

Time @ INPO

INPO stands for Institute of Nuclear Power Operations. We helped regulate the nuclear power industry here in North America. Similar to how the NRC inspects and verifies the operations of power plants, INPO does that but kicks it up a notch.

INPO was during my college internship days and I worked on the help desk. I was the first level support and picked up the phones or answered the phone calls for any problem. We were the first line of defense. Then I started to notice patterns that we were having.

From there, I trained myself to become the subject matter expert for that specific problem. With time, I became the ‘SharePoint’ guy for our 400 people strong company. I became more senior and was able to sit with Project Managers and other experts to learn how to manage projects, have conversations about the budget, and direct technology in a way to meet the goals of the project.

The employees at INPO had specific roles that they performed when they went out to inspect these power plants. You had the woman looking at the chemistry of the plant because she was the “Chemistry Woman”. The gentleman focusing on the auxiliary pumps because he was the “Pump Man”. They were very specialized…..and VERY well paid..

I learned that specializing in a specific field can help you become the expert in the room a lot quicker and command higher compensation. From observation, I realized it the power of specialization.

My First Company

When I was getting more senior at INPO, I would be approached to work on personal computers and devices. This lead me to start offering that as a service on the side to work on peoples machines.

A friend of mine at INPO was in the same boat as me. We would both be approached, but we would often share customers if we could not work on them ourselves. We also both had that entrepreneur spirit with finding and acting on opportunities if we found any. His family ran and operated a public gymnastics gym in North Georgia.

We started a company installing public access points in public locations. The first (and only) location that we were able to start with was his family gym. We had an inside track with the operating team, and installed the internet, access point, and configured everything. We then started shopping this idea around to other gyms, locations, and other public locations.

In the end, we folded the company because we realized we wanted to focus on graduating more than driving around everywhere fixing issues. This was also in the time before smart phones were super popular, so WiFi was slow and unreliable. Which was a huge headache when trying to get dozens of people on a single access point.

We both learned how to create an MVP, shop it around, and what to do WHEN things go wrong. It took a lot of patience, determination, and elbow grease to just get things started. We grew a lot while we operated that company!

Setting Out on My Own

During my time an INPO, I also started to expand my Rolodex and circle of influence. I wanted to keep people around me that I felt that I could help and grow with. I knew that I wanted to eventually work for myself and felt that keeping up with potential clients and past clients would work out in the long run.

I started moonlighting on the side and slowly built up my experience and confidence in working with strangers. I used these opportunities to start saving in my warchest for emergencies and backup income for when I DO step out on my own.

That war chest enabled me to take on more risk, be patient and picky about the clients I wanted to take on and find quality work. As I grew into freelancing, I increased my rates and kept evolving. Word of mouth and Referrals started to work for me and allowed me to step further and further into working for myself.

I fell upon a W-2 job that luckily allows me to currently work both Freelance and have clients. The catch is that that single W-2 job is good bulk of my income at the moment and that makes me worry. That is a single point of failure if I am let go.

Whats Next?

These coming years, I want to focus on diversifying my income even more. I want to make sure that I don’t have a single point that is getting me the largest ‘operational’ income. I want to ensure that the load is spread out as much as possible.

In the mean time, I am enjoying my W-2 work and I am able to balance this with my clients. I want to work on a few passive income projects, course work, products that you can purchase, and maybe additional client engagements.

We shall see what 2019 and 2020 brings!

The post FHS 41 How I Started appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Make sure you CAN

When you work for an employer, you usually sign agreements stating that you’ll do X, Y, and Z for that company. One of those agreements may be to
take on side work or projects outside of the scope of your existing day job. Make sure you CAN work on side projects and moonlight by going over your agreements that you signed.

You don’t to put yourself in a position where all your hard work could get you in trouble with your current employer. MOST companies wouldn’t care what you’re doing in your off time. As long as you don’t compete with them.

Do Not Compete

The biggest no-no that you can do when starting to Moonlight is to start competing with your employer. This can land you in a WORLD of trouble.

When you are finding clients, make sure they are not clients you are taking away from your existing employers. You are being paid to be your employer’s resource and they’re not going to be too keen on you taking their clients. Do not work on the clock when you are supposed to be working with your employer. This is basic wage theft and can face jail time…

If you offer the same services that your employer does, then you’re just asking for trouble. Don’t poach or skim work from your main job and take it for yourself. You more than likely signed a non-compete or something stating that you won’t take work from your employer. Your services should compliment or gap-fill what your employer cant do.

Make a Deal with your Employer

If you feel comfortable approaching your employer to work on the side, by all means do it. Pay attention to the workload that your employer is having and offer to offset some of the tasks that are normally going to contractors, consultants, or outside help. You may be able to work after hours as a contractor yourself for the same company.

There is nothing wrong with approaching your employer with a proposal for alterations to your time or your total compensation.

Time – You can ask for more time for yourself to work on your moonlighting jobs. Make a deal with your employer about the number of hours you are working on your main job. Be upfront with them and ask for a few hours a week to work on your own stuff. It doesn’t hurt to request this as part of your compensation package.

Ask to have a few hours to yourself on a Friday in exchange for additional hours during the other days of the week. Ask to have every 3rd Monday off to attend community events. Ask to leave work early on Tuesdays if you can come in earlier on Wednesday because you’ve got a product to deliver. You have the ability to present options to your employer that benefits both parties.

Total Compensation – Your total compensation could be lowered if you negotiate for increase time to work on your own business in exchange. You have the power to ask for the rights to work on client work outside of your regular job if your job doesn’t normally allow it. Propose a lowered compensation package if they waive that limitation.

Work under a Brand vs your Name

If you are feeling iffy about stepping out while you’re also working for someone else, consider working under a brand instead of your real name. Your employer may have a stronger indication that you’re stepping out if you promote under your own name versus a company name.

You will get to a level where you’re needing to promote yourself as the expert in your field and using your company as a front-man/woman may not cut it anymore. Your clients are going to see you as another employee or help instead of the expert who can give them a return on their investment.

Start with working under a company name, then look into promoting work and being seen as the actual expert.

Finding Work

In Episode 2, we chatted about finding and researching potential clients.

http://www.Reddit.com

Reddit is a forum style website that has millions of users and thousands of communities. One of these communities are going to be exactly your client base. On Reddit’s homepage in the upper right corner, you can search for what’s called subreddits. These are the specific communities where your clients and customers live. For example, if you were a web developer who works with non-profit animal shelters, you would want to more than likely search for the ‘animal shelter’ subreddit. Within a few days or hours of using Reddit, you’re be able to identify at least 3-5 subreddits that focus on your niche. This may be one of the easiest places you’ll use when finding and researching your customers.

http://www.meetup.com

Meetup.com is a site that lists communities that line up with who your customers are. You can even find people who have similar tastes, ideas, or industries. Let’s say you’re that web developer that wants to find non-profit animal shelters. You could search “animal adoption drives” or “animal lovers of Atlanta” to find people who have similar interests. Then you can hone in on where and when they congregate. There are dozens of topics or groups or industries that meet all over the world and the States.

http://www.LinkedIn.com

You can think of LinkedIn as a social network for professionals. You can join specific communities within LinkedIn, connect with similar professionals, or target specific people in specific companies. LinkedIn has a very extensive search option that lets you find almost exactly who you’re looking for. You can pay for their premium level account and open up even more options for finding that specific client or audience. 

Other locations where you’re going to find customers include…

• http://www.hunter.io Hunter.io is a researching site that lets you know emails of companies. If you already have a name of someone in a company, you can grab their email address.
• http://www.slack.com – You can join a Slack channel specific to your targeted industry and jump in on the conversation
• https://angel.co/job-collections/remote – A job listing of startup companies looking for help
• Referrals – If you’ve already worked for/with (including professors) someone TELL them that you’d love for them to refer you in the future. Be specific about what type of client you’d like to be referred to.
• Networking Face-to-Face – Go to free trade shows or join an organization that has your target clients. It’s gonna take some practice doing face-to-face conversations, so don’t feel like you’ve failed your first time out.
• Guest Posts – Contact blogs that you follow and offer to guest post. It’s a win-win for both as you get to show what you can do and they get additional content. Finding and researching your customers may become easier after guest posting because they will start coming to you.
• Contact people/organizations/business direct – Use LinkedIn to search for people in a particular field or matches your criteria. Use your local Chamber of Commerce to find companies in your area or demographics. Heck, even looking at Google search results for contact information may work.

When to Make the Switch

Only you can really decide when to make that switch over. A good rule of thumb would be to wait until you have about 3-6 months of your income in a war chest before you step out. Having that safety net can sometimes make a difference in how you pursue and take on work.

Stepping out on your own is a big step and moonlighting is that slow and steady pace that can get you going to 100% self employed. Build up your Rolodex of customers/clients while you’re working for someone. Start small and you’ll grow big!

The post FHS 37 How to Moonlight appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Know When to Cut the Cord

Its hard to know when to let a client go, but its easier to make that decision when red flags start to pop up. Those red flags can sneak up on you or be super obvious.

A few examples of Red Flags that pop up could be:

• Red–Flag 1: “I don’t know what i want, but i’ll know it when i see it”
• Red–Flag 2: Money is stressed more than the outcome
• Red–Flag 3: Why deposits are important
• Red–Flag 4: “I don’t really have a budget right now”
• Red–Flag 5: Low to no communication
• Red–Flag 6: Sporadic Payments

In FHS 17 (Click here to listen), we chat about the red flags that we come across every once in a while.

Sometimes you come to a point where you can’t provide the services that your clients hired your for. Your skills may not be up to par or your availability changed dramatically.

Sometimes you may need to go in a separate direction. Did you decide to stop providing that service? Are you evolving your business to keep with the times? Your growth is more important than holding back and pleasing your client.

Sometimes you have to raise your rates which will then price your clients out. Don’t limit your income by keeping clients that wont move with you. The goal of every engagement is to help your clients gain a positive return in your services. There will be a few clients that you’ll hold on to at your old rate, but you should slowly plan on moving them up to your new rates.

But if you’re reached a point where you need to let them go, be specific about it. Don’t beat around the bush. Don’t lie about it. Be the professional in the relationship and let that client go!

Be SPECIFIC

Don’t be timid or vague about why you’re letting them go. At this point, you should have already had communication about changes you’ve needed to implement.

Maybe the client is unaware of able to resolve the issue. You can never really know what is going on with the client and having that open communication can move things along. A lot of times in your favor. You should have had open communication with your client when problems popped up. From there you may have been able to resolve the issues.

Let the client know specifically why you have to go in a different direction. Don’t be rude or curt, but be professional and firm with the reasons.

Leave on Good Terms (If Possible)

You never know when or if you will circle back to the client. You may have a reason to leave the client because your services outgrew their budget. Or you’re taking on different types of work.

Leave with a good taste in their mouth and help them transition (as much as possible) to an alternative. You never know how they may referrer you to other work.

If you DO want to burn your bridges, make sure this is a bridge worth burning. Don’t let your emotions take over and do a “scorched earth” type of scenario.

Stop Working on Work

Regardless of how you are letting the client go, you still need to stop all work for that client. Do not drag on additional tasks as “favors” or “to help them out”. It is not fair to you or the client if you keep sticking around and working on their tasks.

If you let the client go, that also means you let the work go. There is no obligation to keep working for free….and you should not be working for free!

Don’t Be Shy About It

Being firm and assertive when letting the client go is similar to ripping off the bandage. Its gonna hurt…but only for a little bit.

The post FHS 36 Firing Clients appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Bobby Kircher – Digital Marketing Consultant

Bobby Kircher runs Papaya Internet, a digital marketing consultant that helps individuals and small business grow their business online. He has over 15 years of SEO experience, 10 of which include using WordPress! When he’s not figuring out Google, he’s collecting records, hitting the gym, and performing improv around Atlanta. You can find him at https://papayainternet.com and on most social media with the handle @bobbykircher

Website: http://papayainternet.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/BobbyKircher @BobbyKircher

Here are a few points that we talked about:

• What is SEO
• What are some basic mistakes people make
• Strategies for SEO
• How effective would auto-playing ads be?
• Difference between mobile vs desktop vs applications
• Tracking usage in a an app
• Basic SEO strategies

Quick Picks

Bobby

• WordPress Community
  • TONS of WordPress meetups around the area in Atlanta and across many other cities
  • Very helpful and open to new commers
  • Diverse skill sets and levels of expertise

Marion

• Orlando, Fl
  • OMG so much stuff to do besides Disney/Universal Studios
  • Great for families of all ages
  • Beach is 1.25hrs either east or west

The post FHS 33 Optimizing WordPress for SEO ft Bobby Kircher appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Working remote can be a win-win for everyone if done right. Most people rant and rave about how awesome working remotely can be, but few really talk about the reality of working remotely.

When you do get the opportunity to start working without an office, you’ll honestly be glad you can. I just want to make sure you’ve got an eye out for the downsides of working remote.

There are usually three things you’ll want to consider when making your remote workspace easier to work in: Equipment, Software, and Location. Let’s get you set up working outside of an office a little easier.

Benefits

Where do I begin! Working remote is a new level of freedom to get the job done. You’re able to work wherever you’d like and usually whenever you’d like as well. Being a freelancer or Entrepreneur already give you a lot of freedom to make your own rules. Being able to work remotely adds another layer onto that delicious cake.

• You decide WHERE your office is
• You decide your own schedule because you can start and stop when needed
• You save a good amount of money by not having to rent a space
• You can have more effective meetings
• You can network more effectively because you value connections more
• You can become more focused with less distractions that happen within an office
• You can avoid office politics

Drawbacks

You have to also realize that working remote is not 100% roses. With anything that you’ll experience, remote working has a few drawbacks. They honestly are not show stoppers, but you’ll have to be aware of them.

• Sometimes you’ll feel left out but keeping yourself involved helps reduce this feeling
• Networking with other people may be harder and may require you to find other groups
• You’ll have to be a self starter and focused on the task at hand. Distractions are real
• You have to self motivate as there really isn’t anyone checking in on you
• You’ll have to keep up with your own training
• It can get lonely sometimes if you’re a social butterfly

Equipment

Working remotely often means that you’re literally working from anywhere you choose to! You are not tied down to a specific location and can roam wherever you’d like. What type of equipment you’d be looking for almost always boils down to something that is going to power up your different devices.

High Capacity Charger

When out and about, you’ll need to have a way to juice back up your devices. One of my favorite devices to use is the Anker High Capacity Portable Charger ($42 on Amazon.com) to keep your devices charged when need.

Portable/Light Laptop

When you’re on the go, smaller and lighter is better. Ounces add up really quickly and device that can shave off ½ an ounce will be appreciated. Look into getting a light Chromebook such as the Asus Chromebook Flip ($497.50 on Amazon) that can be a table or a laptop when needed to reduce that weight. If you’re a developer, you’ll need a more horsepower to keep your build time down. I personally like the Dell XPS laptops that are carbon fiber bodies.

Check your Sack

Lugging your devices and work around is important when working remotely. Get yourself a backpack or satchel that is comfortable and can carry your work with you. I’ve checked out the 17.3 Inch Laptop Convertible Backpack ($45 on Amazon.com) as a great middle-ground for backpacks or over the shoulder.

Software

When you’re working on the road or if you’re a nomadic worker, there are a plethora of software and apps that you’ll use to keep your day streamline. Since you’ll be working from almost anywhere, your software should be able to be accessible from anywhere as well.

Dropbox – Free for 2GB. Up to 1TB of space on paid plan

Dropbox is a dynamic synchronizing file stored on your devices. It automatically back things up to the cloud and allows you the ability to access the files and content from anywhere you want or need.

Dropbox is my main work space because it allows me grab files, share content, and move things around multiple machines whenever i need. I also use Dropbox to allow my clients a quick and easy way to send me files if needed.

Check it out here: https://db.tt/i1gKYQepsg

Google Drive – Free

Google is my workhorse, honestly. I use Inbox for my emails but Google Drive for my bulk work. I love the integrated office tools such as the ability to create documents, presentations, spreadsheets, and PDFs. All within the cloud.

If I need to send or create a document on the go, Google Drive a quick solution for me.

SharePoint – ~$5/month

SharePoint is another workhorse that can get a lot of things done for you. It’s a platform built by Microsoft that allows you to use almost any Microsoft Office program you need. You can configure and manage SharePoint to do almost any business operations you need to do. It does take a little bit of configuration to get done, but SharePoint is my go-to for behind the scenes business processes.

Need a way to streamline our social media postings? Bam, SharePoint can do it for you. Have clients you need to keep track of? SharePoint. Keeping track of your expense and taxes a pain in the butt? SharePoints got your back.  

Evernote – Free

Evernote is an awesome note taking solution that allows you to save all of your notes online. You can jump onto your phone, laptop, tablet, or whatever device you choose. You can easily do search across all of your notes to find that information you’ve been looking for. For the paid version, you’ll have the option of OCR (optical character recognition; fancy way of saying it reads your handwriting)

Rescue Time – Free

Rescue Time is a tool i use to help me focus on my day. You install it on your computer or phone and it keeps track of the things you do. You have two main categories: Work and Entertainment. You get graded for how long you work versus play. You can set goals for yourself and RescueTime will keep track of what you’re actually doing.

It can measure how long you play games on your computer, how long you’re on Netflix, on Reddit, or any other sites. You can also set parameters such as your working hours and what programs constitute as “fun” versus “work”.

I love metrics and what better way to see where you’re leaking productivity than RescueTime.

Slack – Free

Slack is a collaborative chatroom for your workspace. You can create private chat rooms for your productivity team to talk about your project, deadlines, or general information. You can also create or join groups that have different topics or ideas. Create your own or join in on an existing group.

I use it to keep tab of my industry, connect with colleagues, or chit-chat with friends. Slack is great for working on and keeping tabs on projects that take a lot of people and a lot of moving parts. The ability to communicate in a chat room setting, and have offshoot private conversations, is what won me over.

Skype – Free Skype-to-Skype

If you’ve never heard of Skype, then I feel bad for you. Skype is a great video and chat took that you can use to conduct conference calls. You can have a lot of people on a single call and see little to no degradation of performance. The ability to join from any device such as your phone, laptop, or table is a great way to let you work from anywhere.

Just slap in some headphones and you can jump into the call anywhere you want!

Locations

Don’t discount the notion of working in a shared work space with other Freelancers or professionals. You have the options of working for anywhere you choose from. The major point that I learned when it comes to working remotely is to make sure that you keep your work location separate from your fun location.

If you play video games, don’t work in the same location you have your game system. If you’re a book lover, work in a separate location from where you love to read.

Its very easy to blur the lines and get distracted by the “fun” activities. You’ll also notice that your productivity increase and distractions decrease if you keep the two locations separate.

Suggested places to work to reduce distractions:

• CoOp work space
• Library study rooms
• Coffee house (headphones)
• Home Office
• Desk in your bedroom
• Front porch or back deck

The post FHS 18 Working Remote appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

When looking up Impostor syndrome, you can find the definition from Wikipedia: Impostor Syndrome (also known as impostor phenomenon, fraud syndrome or the impostor experience) is a concept describing individuals who are marked by an inability to internalize their accomplishments and a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud”.

Simply put, Impostor Syndrome is that feeling that you get when you think you’re a fraud or don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. Hey, it happens to everyone! The trick is to identify WHEN its happening and then you’re able to slowly overcome it. There dozens of examples and ample evidence that indicate that you’re actually a skilled person and quiet accomplished already.

Book Recommendation

We Are Legion (We Are Bob): Bobiverse, Book 1 – Dennis E. Taylor

Bob Johansson has just sold his software company and is looking forward to a life of leisure. There are places to go, books to read, and movies to watch. So it’s a little unfair when he gets himself killed crossing the street.

Bob wakes up a century later to find that corpsicles have been declared to be without rights, and he is now the property of the state. He has been uploaded into computer hardware and is slated to be the controlling AI in an interstellar probe looking for habitable planets. The stakes are high: no less than the first claim to entire worlds. If he declines the honor, he’ll be switched off, and they’ll try again with someone else. If he accepts, he becomes a prime target. There are at least three other countries trying to get their own probes launched first, and they play dirty.

The safest place for Bob is in space, heading away from Earth at top speed. Or so he thinks. Because the universe is full of nasties, and trespassers make them mad – very mad.

Click Here for Your Free 30 Day Trial and a FREE Audio Book with Audible

What Type of Impostor Are You?

Perfectionist

This person thinks that everything has to be 100% of the project failed. You have difficulty accepting less than 100% perfect on extremely high goals set on by yourself. There is never a “good enough” with this person. Its done or it’s wrong! Success is rarely satisfying because you’re constantly thinking “I could have done better”.

As a perfectionist, you’ll have to learn celebrate accomplishments to avoid burnout. You need to find contentment and learn from mistakes in stride. Realize that mistakes are a natural part of your process and learn from them.

Superhero

This person thinks that they are working among people who are the “real” professionals. They feel that they have to go WELL above and beyond the call of duty and try push themselves to overwork. The mindset that the more they work and the harder they work, the closer to measuring up to their colleagues they will be.

You can easily classify these as workaholics or people who are addicted to validation that comes from work and the work itself. Your insecurities stem from needing approval from your colleagues.

The Superhero needs to be more attuned to their own accomplishments. The fact that you’ve made it THIS far is a major deal. Look around you and realize that your skills are competent and very much needed. You’ll also need to learn to take criticism constructively and not personally.

Gifted

This person was told by a lot of people around him that he is talked, smart, or great at something. They’re easy to pick up or understand something and find success based on their abilities versus effort. When tasked with something that is hard for them, they assume that they are bad at it.

If something can’t be done quickly or in a timely manner, they automatically assume that they’re incompetent.

To overcome this, you have to realize that you will always be learning. You will not be 100% at everything you try. Don’t beat yourself up for your shortcoming. Focus on bettering yourself with specific changeable behaviors or goals that you can do over time.

Individualist

This person feels that if they ask for help or assistance, that they’ll be found out. You constantly feel that you need to accomplish things on your own come hell-or-high-water. You push help away even if you need it.

To help break this cycle, realize that the fact that you asked for help is an awesome opportunity to better yourself. You’ve just pinpointed something that you can focus on and level up. You’re still the expert when it comes to what you’re doing. That person helping you will not forget that.

Fake Expert

The Fake Expert believes that the client/customer was tricked into hiring them. You seek additional training in what you’re already hired to do because you feel that the person who hired you ‘catch on’. You never feel that you’re good enough and may get into that cycle of always training and not working. This can be a subtle form of procrastination.

There is no shame in realizing that your responsibilities have evolved and changed. You can learn new skills as needed. You also need to understand that there is no shame in asking others for assistance. Seeking advice does not indicate that you’ve bamboozled your clients. It shows that your resourceful AND you gain additional knowledge. Pretty much a win-win.

Check Your Confidence

A common culprit of impostor syndrome is slip in your confidence in who you are and your abilities. What’s got you riled up and shook? Are you facing a new opportunity? Have you been invited to sit in on a very important meeting? Are you thinking of pursuing that high-profile client?

Identify specifically what’s possibly triggering your low confidence. Write it down and talk to yourself about that problem. Use the Rubber Ducky method (you can use it to talk through not just coding problems…) and say your problems out loud. I PROMISE you you’ll be able to talk yourself out of that doubt. You may even find that the underlying problem is just a huge assumption made of nothing.

Don’t forget, you didn’t just accidentally stumble into that meeting. You didn’t just tripped and found a new opportunity. That high-profile client is not a mythical creature, you can talk to them like a human being. You’re already oozing with success, you just think your tank is empty!

Change Your Tone/Language

Alter the way you talk about yourself and what you do! How you discuss your projects or the skills you have will have an assertive affect on yourself. Eliminate doubt from your sentences such as “I don’t know but, I just feel…” when talking about ideas or pitching to clients. Assertive phrases will slowly start making you believe in what you’re saying. And your clients/customers will notice!

Try words that show confidence in what your ideas are such as “I don’t recommend that…” or “Based on experience, option B would….” Champion your ideas through assertive language.

You’re Not the Only One

At the end of the day, you have to realize that Impostor Syndrome is not a rare THING that people. Almost every celebrity, CEO, actor, athlete, etc, have had a bout of Impostor Syndrome. EVERYONE starts from the bottom and build their way up! Just because you feel that you’re not as successful as you think, you need to take a step back and realize the path you’ve take to this point in life!

Mentoring other people is a GREAT way to break through your self doubt. You have so much knowledge and skills in what you do that other are lack. Its crazy on the number of people who DON’T know what you know and wish they did. Mentoring someone rising in your field/industry is a perfect way to see that.

The post FHS 16 Who the Hell Do You Think You Are!? appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.

Your business is now registered with the state and you have a Business bank account set up. Now we’re going to get your website online. Getting online is a relatively simple process if you’re already identified the goal of what you’re going to be doing online.

Total cost on the low end of getting online can run you around $160 per year. The high end is almost infiniti and can be as deep as your pockets will let you go. Depending on what type of business you’re wanting to bring online, actually acquiring a website is affordable.

Domain Registration

Domain registration is when you get an actual website name. It’s what your customers are going to type into the web browser. You can also us a custom domain name to be used as part of your email address. Let’s say you want to use a custom email address such as marion@mowenworks.com, you can use the domain registration for mowenworks.com to route the email to your specific address.

Think of Domain Hosting as the directions for data on where to go. Similar to a physical mailing address, a domain address lets you browser know where to go. The same thinking will happen when you are looking to build a custom app, email address, or online software. A domain would be one piece you’d need. For the most part, you’re looking at around $10/year for domain registration. Go ahead and grab 2-3 years of registration from the start.

WhoIs.com – $9/year

WhoIs is a standard in the domain name registration space. They have very affordable website names and will help you research different website names before you purchase. If you run across a website that already exists, they sometimes off the option to purchase/bid on that name

NameCheap.com – $9/year

Namecheap is another alternative location where you can register your domain name. Similar to WhoIs, they will allow you to purchase/bid on website names that already exist.  

Domain Hosting

Domain Hosting is purchasing server space to physically hold your website. This is where you files, images, text, etc will be stored and served to your visitors. This is where the your Domain Registration will point to.

There are three types of website hosting

• Shared hosting
• Private Hosting (VPS)
• Custom Hosting

Shared Hosting

Shared hosting is the common type of hosting and the cheapest. You are sharing server space with other organizations, business, people. Shared Hosting is perfect for basic websites that just need  to “get online”. Shared hosting limits what you can do for a website as you can potentially run the risk of affecting the other websites that are sitting on the server. 

The other downside for shared hosting is that performance is usually not very good. Its ok, but not the best. Don’t forget, you are sharing a server with many other people, therefore you are sharing resources.

The good thing about Shared Hosting is that the cost to create a website is relatively cheap because the cost is spread across your neighbors.

Private Hosting

Private hosting gives you control of the actual server. You’re able to create custom code that does “something” for your website. This is a step up from Shared Hosting in cost as well as features. You’re able to control what goes on with the server to your liking.

The downside to Private Hosting is the initial cost. You’re going to be spending more money on a private server because the total cost is not spread to neighbors.

The pro about Private Hosting is the ability of total control. You can create anything you want whether its a private email server, chat-bot, payment processing server, or a Twitter clone.

Custom Hosting

Custom Hosting can be a hybrid between Private and Shared hosting. Custom hosting allows you to pick and choose which modules you may want to accompany your website. If you have a custom eCommerce online store and you need a large inventory database app, custom hosting would be the way to go.

You’re able to host your website and create a database to manage your inventory, sales, customers, and more!

The downside to Custom Hosting is that you have to have a roadmap of what you’re going to be doing. There are a lot of choices (in a good way) that lets you pick and choose what you need for your project. You can get lost in the choices because you don’t know if you need a no-SQL database or another module to accompany your website. The cost of Custom Hosting is also very variable and can change from $50/month to $500/month with the simple addition of a new module.

The plus about Custom Hosting is that you have so-many-choices when it comes to your online platform! You can mix and match and use any module that suites your needs. Need to have an email processing piece that reminds your customers of upcoming sales? Your Custom Hosting can do that for you!

For the Custom Hosting route, you will more than likely use this route if you need a highly custom online solution that requires you to bring in a developer (like myself: marion@moweworks.com).

Overall Hosting Estimates

BlueHosting.com – about $4/month for basic

Bluehosting has very competitive pricing for Shared or Private hosting. The up-time and performance of your website will be noticeably better using this hosting provider versus the competition. They are have an awesome price and package of $4 per month to help get you started! That’s hard to beat.

If and when you do decide to upgrade your website to a more robust level, it’s pretty dang easy and cheap to do so. Blue Hosting virtual servers and private servers allow you to build solutions that wont bog down.

WhoIs.com

I mainly use WhoIs for domain registration and domain research. They do have a solid domain hosting plans that includes virtual and shared hosting. I love their domain hosting and registration management panel in case you have more than one website you run/manage.

HostGator.com

Host Gator is a popular choice for web hosting with shared hosting. They are possibly one of the largest providers for shared hosting. Host Gators customer support is pretty

Hybrid Hosting (cloud computing)? : Send over an email (questions@freelancerheadstart.com) and lets chat about what you’re looking to do. Hybrid hosting is a long drawn out conversation and can get pretty complicated. Lets chat about what you need.

Types of Websites

eCommerce: An eCommerce website sells or buys goods with an online marketplace. This is a common website type that a lot of business try to have. The cost for an eCommerce website is relatively low but can become expensive depending on what the website is attempting to sell/buy.

The size and type of inventory that you’re selling/purchasing can change the overall price of an eCommerce site. If you are selling digital goods, you’ll need a little bit larger server space. If its physical goods, you’ll need a way to track and manage shipping.

The main thing that you will need for an eCommerce website is whats called an SSL security certificate. This will protect your visitors credit card and purchase information. It will also protect your data from being compromised. If you’ve ever been on a website that has that little green security lock next to the website address, that’s a clue that the website has an SSL security certificate to help protect your data/information.

These types of websites usually start at around $220-300/year to get started.

Online brochure: An online brochure is the basic type of website. It presents information to your visitors and has little to no interactions. You usually don’t buy or sell anything on these types of websites directly. You may link to something external to purchase, but your website is mostly used to present information.

An online brochure usually has content that doesn’t change that frequently.

These types of websites usually start at $160-200/year to get started.

Online community: An online community is one of the more complex websites you can have. You are essentially creating a tool that visitors can interact, consume, and maybe purchase information from. The online community will need a way to manage and accept user accounts.

You will need to also create content to initiate user interest and keep people coming back. From there, your community will slowly start to grow organically. Integrating with other social networks such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, etc can help get you additional traffic as well as usage.

As your community grows, you will find features and options that will work for your online tribe.

These types of websites usually start at around $250/year.

Custom vs Pre-Made

There are a lot of reasons that having a serious custom versus off-the-shelf solutions should be have. What is your end goal? What is your budget? What is your time frame? Who is your audience? Regardless of if you choose a custom development route versus a pre-made route, start with Mobile First in mind.

Mobile First development is a method of creating a website with a mobile device in mind first. What will it look like and what it will behave like on a mobile phone is important in this day and age. There are a lot of tools out there that will help mock-up from a mobile perspective. You will usually find that most solutions will have a built in mobile version as well. Just make sure that what you are trying to do fits within a mobile framework. You may be leaving 30% of your traffic on the table.

I’m not gonna lie, custom development is expensive in two fold: time and money. You will get a highly custom solution for what you need with custom development, but it will take time to create. Custom development should be looked at if you have not found a solution that can be purchased outright. Before you commit to a custom solution you need to speak to experts and get feedback on what you are attempting to do. This includes quotes, timeline, and support after the solution was created.

Off the shelf solutions can save you a lot of time and money. But you also have to look at the long term – will that off the shelf be used for just right now or can you continue using it in the future? What is the amount it is saving you? There will be a point where a custom solution will become a much more viable and cost effective solution than a pre-paid solution.

Website Platforms

There are thousands of website platforms out there. A website platform is the framework on what your website is going to be built upon. There are tons of options, but here are the popular ones that I would suggest taking a look at.

• • WordPress – free or $60/year
    • WordPress is a popular solution for either custom built or pre-made. You have an almost unlimited amount of options that you can use within the WordPress environment. There are a lot of modules that you can turn on or off with a WordPress website that a lot of DIYers can take care of. If you feel that you’re out of your depth, grab a professional to knock your site out in no time.
  • Squarespace – $120/year
    • Squarespace is very user friendly and easy to use platform for people who don’t want to worry about their website. It is perfect for those people who just need to get something up and out there. The downside is that customization is limited to what you can do and is very difficult and expensive to go beyond the boundaries of Squarespace.com
  • Wix – $120/year
    • Wix is a similar to Squarespace in that it allows you to quickly throw up a website. You can expand a decent amount but are again limited by what Wix will let you do.
  • SharePoint – Starting at $5/month + Office 365
    • SharePoint is a unique solution where it is primarily used an an Intranet for your organization. An Intranet is a website that is private to a company or organization. The Intranet can help you automate a lot of tasks that your business does, such as employee onboarding, payroll and expense reports, inventory management, and much much more. SharePoint can do it for you with a few toggles of its settings and you can expand to do a lot more beyond that.

Social Media

We’ve entered and age where Social Media marketing and communication is becoming important. Gathering a following on social media helps give your banding and marketing social proof that you’re trustworthy or something people should purchase.

Grab yourself all the social media accounts you can for your brand or company. You never know when you’ll want to use them. You also dont want them to be taken by time you’re ready to start using them. So go ahead and grab your Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ accounts!

Analytics

Analytics about your website will help you make decisions on a lot of things. You can determine where people are accessing your website. You can then cater your marketing to speak to that audience. The reverse is also possible. You can validate that the marketing campaign that you are on is grabbing traction in the direction you’re wanting to go.

Google Analytics: With Google Analytics, you can keep tabs on where people are coming from (how did they get to your site), where they land when they do arrive, and where do they go after they arrive. This is important as you need to know how customers and consumers are using your site. You may have one idea in your head on how people will be browsing your site, but reality may show something different.

When you move into using Facebook, Twitter, or Google ads, you will use an analytics tool to see if your money is getting you a return. Google Analytics ties into your ad campaigns and helps you keep track of the visitors that come to your website.

The post FHS 6: Getting Online appeared first on The Freelancer Head Start.