The Ten Commandments of a Freelance Techie

Commandment number 6

Keep track of your accounts. If you operate in a freelance world, you will be called upon to account for your earnings and costs when it comes time to pay your dues. Keep your accounts, right from the beginning of your business to ensure that you are able to account for your spending and earnings.

Commandment number 7

Pay yourself a salary. That is, a structured salary. Everything else, bank. If you have done your sums correctly on your business plan, you ought to know how much you can expect to make, and when you are going to make it, and therefore, you should be able to estimate what salary you can expect to draw from the business.

Commandment number 8

Find a friend or a mentor to talk to. Everyone, at work, has a friend or colleague they can share with, and unburden themselves to, seek advice from and rely on for a (reasonably) honest opinion.

Commandment number 9

Structure your week. Do your calls, contact your leads, research your info. Make sure that all week you have an ongoing list of items you are going to get through, and, when you’ve been following all of the commandments in turn, you’ll find that you actually need to do this to get through the action plans that make up your business plan. Be strict with yourself – if you don’t get something done, work out why not, and then make sure you do it next time.

Commandment number 10

Know when to switch off, but also make sure you are putting in a full weeks’ work each week. Likewise, take holidays and weekends, and give yourself annual leave, at a reasonable level and at a time not prone to be bad for business (e.g. not at the start of a new term or straight after Christmas when new users make problems, and not at any critical point for your business). Make sure your calls are answered, and maybe provide a skeleton service during your leave, but make sure you take it.

Seven Deadly Sins (of the Freelance Techie)

Sloth – don’t be too lazy to follow up on calls, get back in touch with outstanding customers or even to put away your stuff at the end of the day. With no-one looking over your shoulder, you’ve got to be the one wielding the big stick.

Greed – don’t take more than you should from your business after a good month- and that includes time as well as money – take your salary only and let the rest accrue interest or at least sit somewhere waiting for that rainy day/equipment failure.

‘Ostrich’– pay your bills, follow up your calls and make sure you are keeping in touch with the outside world. Techies are notorious for not wanting to do business type stuff, but, unless you do it, you may be without heat/light/telephone and therefore unable to conduct your business. If you find yourself in trouble, take advice from a friend or mentor, and get yourself out of it or start talking to people who can help you. Even taking a full time job while your business develops is OK – it’s not a failure just a setback.

‘Smugness’ – don’t do it – be personable, be nice, be clear when dealing with your customers and ensure they know what you are talking about in a language they understand.

Undercharging – make sure you charge for your work, even if it’s a friend or colleague/mentor. If you went to a grocery store, no matter who owned it/worked there, you couldn’t take your shopping for free.

Overselling – don’t promise what you can’t deliver – if you don’t specialise in an area, or don’t know how to do something, it’s better to pass the work onto someone else than it is to fail at it yourself.

Legal obligations – make sure you always know what they are – from copyright and data protection to vendor rules and regulations and other areas affecting you.