From freelance to business
I have to share this excellent post on ThinkVitamin: 15 tips for freelancers starting their own business. It really drives home some of the transitions you have to make from working on your own to becoming a proper business, with other people and everything.
#10 and #15 are particularly interesting. I love being the person in the middle; if someone approaches me with something that’s not quite up my street, it’s very satisfying to refer them on to someone who will do a great job — I enjoy the matchmaking itself, that sense of making connections in your head and being useful to others, far more than the hard-nosed ‘well, they’ll both thank me for it’ business approach.
As for taking notes with a notebook, a habit I’ve adopted since my university days is to simply listen to what the other person is saying and remember it, rather than scribble down every other word and not really pay attention. I don’t do well with the in-one-ear-out-the-other approach, I prefer to challenge myself to think, to listen, and to recall the important points of the conversation later (and then note them down). Should I start writing as I go? I suppose it depends on the conversation. If I’m talking to someone about how I can customise my software to their needs, not writing down their requirements might seem a bit funny.
I also love the brusqueness of “learn how to deal with different personality types”. Whether you choose Helen Fisher’s chemical-inspired 4-way classification, Myers-Briggs indicators, Merrill Reid or others, personalities do tend to fall into four different classes and you can categorise people according to their dominant and secondary traits. However, it seems to me that instinct can get you a long way; learn what sort of person you have difficulty dealing with, what the key turn-offs for you are, and don’t worry about fitting people into boxes along the way.
[image from Guille on flickr]
Recent Comments