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4 Tips For Keeping Your Client On Schedule

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4 Tips For Keeping Your Client On Schedule

Clients live very busy lives so sometimes they may forget to provide feedback or hand in files on time. This can seriously delay your projects and have you pulling out your hair. Thankfully, freelance designer and hand letterer Gillian Tracey is here today to teach you 4 ways you can keep your clients on schedule! 

Clients. They’re the lifeblood of our businesses and give purpose to our passion. But no matter how dreamy the client is, it’s a rare occurrence for a project to stay perfectly on-track from start to finish. This common problem can cause all kinds of frustrations, stress, and project overlap for freelancers and designers, so let’s get some systems in place that will help dramatically improve keeping clients on schedule!

Getting well-structured processes and procedures in place before you get loaded up with client work is definitely key. You may find that you tweak your process here and there as you learn from trial and error, but in the meantime there are some things you can do to build a strong foundation for your business.

Here are 4 straightforward tips to help get you and your clients to stay on-track from the moment the contract is signed to the final delivery of files!

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Why Generalists Are The Most Successful Freelancers

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I've always held the belief that finding a specific niche is one of the best things you can do for your business, so when Erin came along and pitched this blog post idea, I was intrigued. I had never even considered the benefits of being a generalist, or why this might be a better fit for some freelancers. 

If you're in two minds about whether or not to specialize in one thing or be a jack of all trades, read Erin's post below on the benefits of being a generalist! I'll be posting my thoughts on being a specialist soon so stick around! :)

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Today’s popular opinion is that you need to be a specialist. You should invest your time into mastering your niche and becoming an expert. But what if your interests are varied and you consider yourself a multipotentialite? Can you succeed as a freelancer with a vast knowledge and many skills or do you need to hone in on one thing and perfect it?

Good news for those with many feathers in their caps. Being a generalist is a great thing. You should take pride in your varied interests and start promoting yourself as a jack or jill of all trades.

Here are some reasons why the odds are in the generalist’s favor.

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How To Do Affiliate Marketing Right To Boost Your Freelance Income

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How To Do Affiliate Marketing Right To Boost Your Freelance Income

Freelancing is all about exchanging time for money. But what if you need more money and have no more time to give? That's when you need to start making passive income, and the easiest way to do that is with affiliate marketing. 

My friend and affiliate expert Justine Grey is here today to teach you- my lovely community of freelancers and designers- how to do affiliate marketing right so you can boost your freelance income. Justine has even listed 31 affiliate programs you can join!

Read on for all the deets on how to make affiliate marketing work for you. 

Nearly 6 years ago, as my newborn baby slept in her father’s arms, I sat up in my hospital bed and flipped open my laptop.

23 unread emails

15 project notifications

4 urgent requests

All this since going into labor less than 15 hours before.

At the time, I had been running my freelance business for several years and most of my income sources - including paid writing and client work - required me to trade my time in order to get paid.

This meant I could not take any time off before, during or after giving birth to my second child. The realization that I would not get another paid maternity leave, like I did with my first child as a company employee, hit me like a ton of bricks.

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How To Use Asana's Custom Fields & Task Dependencies

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How To Use Asana's Custom Fields & Task Dependencies

Today, business systems pro Indigo Colton is here to teach you how to use Asana's custom fields and task dependencies to stay on top of your design projects!

Setting up a system to get your projects organized can be hard, but all you have to do is set aside some time to get it done. As Nike says, just do it. Today's post will help you see how to get started! 

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If you’ve read Nesha’s blog for a while, I’m sure that you’re familiar with Asana! But just in case you’re new to it, here is a very quick overview for you: Asana is a project management software that lets you keep track of your tasks, deadlines, and other pieces of the multiple projects I know you’re working on. You can easily collaborate with clients, team members, and business besties. They have an incredible free version, and an even more incredible paid version.

I personally use Asana to manage my entire life (business and personal!) because it works the same way that my brain does, and it makes working with my quickly-growing team a breeze. And you can use it with its most basic functions and be completely taken care of. But what happens when you want to dive further into what Asana is capable of?

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5 Tech Hacks That Will Increase Productivity For Web & Graphic Designers

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5 Tech Hacks That Will Increase Productivity For Web & Graphic Designers

I'm a sucker for tech hacks. I just love making business as easy as possible for myself and my clients. (You can learn how in previous blog posts like 5 reasons all freelancers should use a project management tool.)

Because of my love for automation and organization, I couldn't wait to share this guest post with you! This one is written by tech expert Kristen Smith. In it, she'll show you how to use autoresponders, time trackers and more to increase your productivity as a web or graphic designer. 

Like it or not, an element of creative genius will always be an essential part of your business. If social platforms like Instagram and Snapchat have taught us anything it’s the reality that no matter how stunning and meaningful the brand, creativity is unavoidable.

For those of us in the Web & Graphic Design field this need provides us a great opportunity to build our brand reputation and skills. Fact is, digital entrepreneurship and marketing is here to stay. Staying abreast of new trends and learning how to manage the workload will be imperative. 

The ability to think outside the box is just one of the things that I love about us creatives. We possess a unique insight that allows us to connect to website and graphic design elements in a way that expertly executes the vision of our clients. 

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