By : Travis King
In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, Travis King and Thursday Bram look at whether to tell your boss about your freelancing and what’s a good conference to attend to find clients.
Ask FreelanceSwitch is a regular column here that allows us to help beginners get a grip on freelancing. If you have a question about freelancing that you want answered, send an email to askfreelanceswitch@gmail.com.
Let’s roll!
Question #1
I’m about to finish my studies and am currently doing my internship. Now the opportunity might present itself that I can get a full-time job at this place.
Now I already had plans to become a freelancer. But as many freelancers suggest I would like to combine it with a full-time job in the beginning. This job includes web development. I love the work and love working there, but my dream is to be a freelancer. Even with the pros and cons.
I feel that if I combine this I’m basically cutting my own throat, as they say. On the other hand I’m not only going to do web development but also some other stuff.
My question is: How can I keep this hidden from my boss? Should I even keep it hidden? Should I use some kind of cover (for example: I’m not really developing, I’m just building themes). How should I approach this?
-Kenneth
Thursday: The idea behind an internship is that you’re getting to experience what working a job is like, along with getting some real world experience. If your boss is providing a good internship environment, you’re hopefully comfortable asking questions and getting a little mentoring. If that’s the case, trying to hide that you’re freelancing or planning to freelance typically isn’t necessary — and you may even be able to sit down with your boss, who has presumably been in the business a lot longer than you have to talk through the pros and cons of freelancing at this point in your career.
If, on the other hand, your boss is less enthusiastic about building up your skills and understanding of the business — you’re sent on coffee runs, rather than getting the chance to actually work on projects — it may be better to keep your freelancing efforts quiet. I’m not suggesting that you lie about what you’re doing (that never turns out well), but rather that you just don’t bring it up in conversation. If someone, especially at your internship, asks about your plans after it’s completed, just say that you’re still considering your options, but you’re definitely enjoying the internship.
Travis: Everything I learnt from working two jobs comes from the experiences of Fred Flintstone.
You see, when Fred moved into the lush accommodations of Bedrock Towers he found he needed to work two jobs just to pay for the place. Well, when Mr. Slate found out that Fred was moonlighting, let me tell you, he was pretty angry.
To this day I have a great fear of being caught moonlighting. I also have a great fear of Bruce Willis and the 80’s sitcom Moonlighting, but for entirely different reasons.
Since your day job has a lot in common with your night job – and if this is going to be a permanent position – I would recommend full disclosure. But being that it’s an internship, you can decide if you think it’s important enough to mention to your boss. Just don’t sneak around and try to hide it.
If it should happen that things go south when you bring it up to your boss, then I highly recommend taking a page from Madame Yes and exclaim, “You stupid good-looking, I’m much too important to be fired!”…and then run out of the room after you judo chop your boss!
As you can see, there are plenty of life lessons to be learned from the Flintstones. As for me, I’m off to have a rocks over rocks…oh yeah, and make it in a dirty glass.
Question #2
If you are a seasoned designer, what ONE conference should she go to this year (anywhere in the world)?
Is it more important to meet potential clients (such as editors and publishers?) or meet with her peers?
-Anna
Thursday: As fun as it can be to hang out with other freelancers at conferences, if you can go to only one conference this year, skip pretty much everything related to freelancing or building your creative skills. Go where your clients are — after all, if you land a couple of clients at one conference this year, you can probably use some of your earnings to go to more conferences next year.
Take a look at the specific conferences your clients are likely to be at. If you’re developing websites for dentists, you need to be at dentists’ conferences. If you’re writing marketing copy for small business websites, you need to be at a conference on small business. If you’re taking pictures for retail catalogs, you need to be at one of the retailers’ conventions. The only situation where it gets a little more complex is if you’re a freelance writer primarily writing articles for magazines and other publications. If that’s the case, you can either go to publishing conferences or you can go to a conference that covers the topic you primarily write about (where there will typically be a presence from any publications that cover that niche, as well as the opportunity to find new sources and story ideas).
Travis: I fully agree with Thursday, if you’re going to go to design conferences to find clients, you’re wasting your time. Although design conferences are awesome learning venues and offer the opportunity to form some great partnerships, they’re a horrible source of potential clients. After all, the place is going to be filled with people just like you looking for the same clients you’re looking for.
As Thursday mentioned, you’re much better off to attend conferences that your ideal clients will attend. The only problem is, these conferences are boring as hell.
So look through your local events calendar and find the conference that is least likely to put you into a comma and sign yourself up. Just remember, that you’re there to meet people and market your services, so if you’re just going to sit there like a turd, you’re wasting your time again. Unless of course, your firm’s name in Design Turd, in which case, be my guest!
Job Vacancy , Indonesia Job , Job Indonesia
In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, Travis King and Thursday Bram look at whether to tell your boss about your freelancing and what’s a good conference to attend to find clients.
Ask FreelanceSwitch is a regular column here that allows us to help beginners get a grip on freelancing. If you have a question about freelancing that you want answered, send an email to askfreelanceswitch@gmail.com.
Let’s roll!
Question #1
I’m about to finish my studies and am currently doing my internship. Now the opportunity might present itself that I can get a full-time job at this place.
Now I already had plans to become a freelancer. But as many freelancers suggest I would like to combine it with a full-time job in the beginning. This job includes web development. I love the work and love working there, but my dream is to be a freelancer. Even with the pros and cons.
I feel that if I combine this I’m basically cutting my own throat, as they say. On the other hand I’m not only going to do web development but also some other stuff.
My question is: How can I keep this hidden from my boss? Should I even keep it hidden? Should I use some kind of cover (for example: I’m not really developing, I’m just building themes). How should I approach this?
-Kenneth
Thursday: The idea behind an internship is that you’re getting to experience what working a job is like, along with getting some real world experience. If your boss is providing a good internship environment, you’re hopefully comfortable asking questions and getting a little mentoring. If that’s the case, trying to hide that you’re freelancing or planning to freelance typically isn’t necessary — and you may even be able to sit down with your boss, who has presumably been in the business a lot longer than you have to talk through the pros and cons of freelancing at this point in your career.
If, on the other hand, your boss is less enthusiastic about building up your skills and understanding of the business — you’re sent on coffee runs, rather than getting the chance to actually work on projects — it may be better to keep your freelancing efforts quiet. I’m not suggesting that you lie about what you’re doing (that never turns out well), but rather that you just don’t bring it up in conversation. If someone, especially at your internship, asks about your plans after it’s completed, just say that you’re still considering your options, but you’re definitely enjoying the internship.
Travis: Everything I learnt from working two jobs comes from the experiences of Fred Flintstone.
You see, when Fred moved into the lush accommodations of Bedrock Towers he found he needed to work two jobs just to pay for the place. Well, when Mr. Slate found out that Fred was moonlighting, let me tell you, he was pretty angry.
To this day I have a great fear of being caught moonlighting. I also have a great fear of Bruce Willis and the 80’s sitcom Moonlighting, but for entirely different reasons.
Since your day job has a lot in common with your night job – and if this is going to be a permanent position – I would recommend full disclosure. But being that it’s an internship, you can decide if you think it’s important enough to mention to your boss. Just don’t sneak around and try to hide it.
If it should happen that things go south when you bring it up to your boss, then I highly recommend taking a page from Madame Yes and exclaim, “You stupid good-looking, I’m much too important to be fired!”…and then run out of the room after you judo chop your boss!
As you can see, there are plenty of life lessons to be learned from the Flintstones. As for me, I’m off to have a rocks over rocks…oh yeah, and make it in a dirty glass.
Question #2
If you are a seasoned designer, what ONE conference should she go to this year (anywhere in the world)?
Is it more important to meet potential clients (such as editors and publishers?) or meet with her peers?
-Anna
Thursday: As fun as it can be to hang out with other freelancers at conferences, if you can go to only one conference this year, skip pretty much everything related to freelancing or building your creative skills. Go where your clients are — after all, if you land a couple of clients at one conference this year, you can probably use some of your earnings to go to more conferences next year.
Take a look at the specific conferences your clients are likely to be at. If you’re developing websites for dentists, you need to be at dentists’ conferences. If you’re writing marketing copy for small business websites, you need to be at a conference on small business. If you’re taking pictures for retail catalogs, you need to be at one of the retailers’ conventions. The only situation where it gets a little more complex is if you’re a freelance writer primarily writing articles for magazines and other publications. If that’s the case, you can either go to publishing conferences or you can go to a conference that covers the topic you primarily write about (where there will typically be a presence from any publications that cover that niche, as well as the opportunity to find new sources and story ideas).
Travis: I fully agree with Thursday, if you’re going to go to design conferences to find clients, you’re wasting your time. Although design conferences are awesome learning venues and offer the opportunity to form some great partnerships, they’re a horrible source of potential clients. After all, the place is going to be filled with people just like you looking for the same clients you’re looking for.
As Thursday mentioned, you’re much better off to attend conferences that your ideal clients will attend. The only problem is, these conferences are boring as hell.
So look through your local events calendar and find the conference that is least likely to put you into a comma and sign yourself up. Just remember, that you’re there to meet people and market your services, so if you’re just going to sit there like a turd, you’re wasting your time again. Unless of course, your firm’s name in Design Turd, in which case, be my guest!
Job Vacancy , Indonesia Job , Job Indonesia
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