Freelance Heroes

Congratulations, Bruce on your Super Hero status!  I appreciate all the information and guidance you share on the forums. And now that our department finally has Storyline ( downloaded yesterday....WooHoo!!!!) I may just need to be asking a few questions of my own!!

Hi Heroes,

I have been attentively following this thread (and many, many others!), and lurking in the background, but it's time to start participating!

On the topic of this thread, I too would like to venture into the world of freelance, not immediately, but make a gradual transition. I don't even have a portfolio I can show yet, so still at the very beginning stages of 'thinking about it'.

I was thinking about how I could raise my profile a bit. Aside from building a portfolio of course, I had the idea that I could contact a few businesses and develop something sweet and short for their (public) websites, for free. If I am going to build a portfolio of samples and demos anyway, I thought it would be even better if a couple of them were actually on someone else's site, not just my own. I actually contacted a former boss (and friend) with the offer and he is quite interested. The sort of thing I am thinking about is a one or two slide interaction that is, obviously, related to what the business does and, obviously, matches their style and brand. I think it could add something fun, and even informative, to their site.

What do you think of this approach?

Bruce, congratulations on your Super Hero status, soooo well-deserved!

Cheers, Veronica

Hi Veronica, and thanks.....

Anything that you can do to create a web, or "real" presence will ultimately help you.

There are always people who need some content - go to a local hospital, hospice and/or charity, walk in, talk to the boss and offer them something they would not get usually. Perhaps do it for 3-4?

It's all good practice for selling when you get up and running if nothing else!!!

Try and make the content different, in as many ways as you can, without creating 4 "Frankencourses" (copyright Tom Kuhlman 2012).

Use them to develop a house style, a "way" of working - remember, when you get up and running clients will often look for you for advise, so it's good to be creating in styles and using functionality you are already familiar with. You do not really want to be under deadlines and using features and functionality for the first time...

It is a good idea to get content on other people's sites, my only thought would be that potential clients may not want to go to another companies website to see what you can do, especially if they are in the same industry. Might be best to try and do it another way - such as images of the content, or ask the client if you can use it as a demonstration-piece as part of doing the freebie in the first place.

I think it is a great way to get your skills, portfolio and skills up and running.

you could even create a "niche", for example, create the same thing for each of them - perhaps some sort of business benefits interaction based on their business?

Have fun, make a plan, and go for it.

Good luck, and may the road up to greet you.

Bruce

Rich, I agree with Sheila that being self employed is more secure than being in a corporation. As Bruce says, you can deal with many different industries so you don't depend on the failure of others.

I'd point out your experience in training, same as mine and Daniel's, that makes us possible not only to create contents with a pedagogic point of view, but also to actually train people in classroom about different things.

My group of students learning what's up in the e-learning sector is very participative and highly motivated. 

I also think this is the best job in the world, as it combines lots of different aspects: I learn every day. The more challenging what the client wants, the better. And I also learn about taking care of my own things (taxes, social security, etc.). I think that being freelance is being an Adult (in the model Parent-Adult-Child), and it feels really good.

As for what you ask, I started not being sure about the future. I found some clients and soon the workload was enough to say goodbye to the corporation... Even if I still work for them. It feels much better to work from the outside.

Good luck!

Belén

@Daniel, just wanted to say that I visited your website and I was amazed!

I remember visiting it when @Bruce gave you lots of advice -that I tried to follow myself- and now your site is clearly something different: engaging, professional, impeccable... I'd hire you right now!

Belén

Thanks for the feedback Bruce: Yes, I will definitely request that as part of my 'freebie' offer I reserve the right to also have the interaction on my own website (and have a link to the business' website for anyone who might want to look at it there too). I will also try to add a small link (or something) on the Storyline interaction too, referring users back to me.

Thanks again!

Bruce, congratulations on your Super Hero status. It's been well earned and very well deserved. 

Hello, I have a question.... i am trying to create a test in exe learning when the students have to fill in the blanks. However, when I hide the word the students can click on the botton that shows the answer. I do not see any option that hides that boton how can I do it?

Hi Veronica!  I have been working on building my portfolio too.  One of the best ideas I found was in a blog post from Tom Kuhlman (http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/how-your-skills-can-change-the-world-help-build-a-professional-portfolio/).  I volunteered for LINGOS, a consortium of NGO's who need help developing learning resources.  The program was a bit different when I started.  I partnered with Conservation International to help them build a course about how they handle their fundraising.  Truth is, I've invested WAY more time in this project than I thought I would but it has paid off in so many ways- my skills have increased significantly, I've learned a ton about working with a client with multiple SME's and the contact at CI has connected me with new potential clients.  Finally, I feel great that I could contribute to a cause I believe in.   I highly recommend it!  Good luck!

Thanks everybody, such great ideas!

Daniel: yes, you're absolutely right about the channels; I have all those accounts, but I need to start using them for this purpose and make it a more cohesive "multi-channel" if you will.

You know, I live in Australia now, but I lived in Boulder Colorado for 2 years when I was 6 years old, back in.... 1976! I really loved the place (what I can remember!)

Heather: yes! I remember reading that post and checking out the LINGOS website and then....... getting busy and forgetting about it But I will definitely give that a go, and I am prepared to invest some time and effort, especially when it's for such a good cause. Is your project with them finished? Is there anywhere we can see it? Is the best way to get in touch just through their CONTACT US on the site?

Again, thanks all for the  great ideas!

In case you didn't get the link to the DevLearn12 backchannel list of resources, here it is:

http://davidkelly.me/2012/10/devlearn-2012-conference-backchannel-curated-resources/

JB

Freelancers: For those of you who carry personal liability insurance, what companies are you happy with, how much insurance do you carry, and (if you don't mind me asking), how much do you pay per year?

Thanks much, Daniel

Hi Daniel,

Could you explain to me what is personal liability insurance and what is it used for?  Why would someone need to have it?

Thanks,

Helena

Hi Bruce,

I found a problem and it bothers me a lot.

If I inserted several pieces of  flash into a slide when using the storyline, it would crash or stop displaying after publishing as a html, especially when user clicked the time navigation bar randomly.

Could you please help me out of this problem?

Thanks a lot!

Alice Z

Helena:

As a freelancer, you carry personal liability insurance in case you get sued--unlikely, but it happens. In the two years that I've been full-time freelancing, I haven't had it, but just won a small contract that asked if I did have PL insurance. That put it on my radar, along with forming an S-Corp with my wife, who's also self-employed music therapist. She carries a million dollars of PL, and it costs her about $140 a year or so. Just curious as to what the other freelancers carrry, what companies they like, and so on.

Daniel, I’ve had Professional Liability insurance for the past 5 years. I have a $1M policy, and the premium is $245/year.  Then I add “off-premises liability coverage” (basically, to protect me if something happens while I’m at a client’s office and I get sued over it) which has an extra cost.  I also cover my sub-contractors – I’m not providing them with coverage, I’m just covering myself for anything they might do that I might get sued for – and that has an extra charge too.

I’ve been thinking about incorporating (LLC or S-Corp, not sure) and I’ve heard that requires a different type of policy, as the one I have now is for an “individual” not an entity…    If you happen to learn any more about that, I’d love to hear about it.

Sheila/Daniel;

Could you give an example of an action that could cause a lawsuit covered by these policies?  I am from less litigious Canada and my brain doesn't think about things like this and it is the unknown unknowns that can get me into trouble.

Thanks

Tim

Tim,

I’m not sure how much of this translates to other countries (I’m in the US) because I know some countries disallow lawsuits for some of the things you can be sued for here.  But I’ll try to answer your question from my own (obviously non-lawyer, non-insurance professional) perspective.

Some examples of the kinds of things insurance would cover: (1) a client believes I’ve accidentally shared their confidential info and they think they’ve suffered some sort of loss/damages because of it; (2) I’m conducting a training class and someone trips over my computer cord and sues me for their broken leg; (3) I’m working on training related to a product rollout, one of my sub-contractors drops the ball and the training isn’t ready, and the client has to delay the product launch and blames me for their lost revenue.

I really think the chances of my getting sued are very, very slim – I have great clients and really good relationships with them, and I am conscientious and can’t imagine doing anything “bad.”  But I’m very risk-adverse so I’m all about insurance, strong contracts, etc. “just in case” – especially as a solo practitioner (without the protection of my personal assets that being incorporated would provide).  And if I were sued, I’m not all that concerned about someone winning their lawsuit against me (because I really can’t imagine doing anything that would have that end result, and because I try to have pretty good contracts).  But here in California – and in other places, I imagine – it can cost a LOT of money to defend yourself in a lawsuit, and liability insurance would pay for that. 

I don’t think liability insurance makes sense for everyone, but in my case I feel much more comfortable having it.  Plus some clients require it.

Tim, I'm in Canada (BC) and opted to get general commercial insurance and "errors and omissions" insurance, much for the same reasons as Sheila outlined. It's more expensive here in Canada (in the thousands rather than hundreds), but covers the same sort of stuff. Some clients require it (provincial government stuff), and since we deal with elearning it also covers for computer stuff (loss of files, etc). I decided to get it as a sole proprietor, as I couldn't take on work with provincial governments without it. I've recently incorporated, so need to see what impact that might have on business. I don't think getting sued is as likely in Canada, but feel better having it.

Thank you, Sheila and Holly, for sharing your expertise regarding personal liability insurance. In a way, I think it ties into what freelancers bring to the table that many non-freelancers don't: freelancers are more attuned to all of the things that can go wrong when developing e-learning. They have a better sense of the entire process.

Hi there!  Here's my two cents on the topic of insurance.  As Sheila and Holly have mentioned, lots of freelancers don't carry any of the forms of liability insurance in our particular line of business.  Others do carry it preventively, and others (including me) add it to the arsenal when a client insists on it.  

Basically, your options are General Liability (covering accidents onsite, etc.) and Professional aka Errors & Omissions coverage.  Or you can buy both, generally for a slight discount.  As has been noted, with the kind of work we do, partnering with clients, typically we're getting signoff for our work along the way, so I was advised by my insurance broker that E&O wasn't really germane given that I would already have client approval on projects, and it would be very, very difficult to sue later for something they already indicated was acceptable to them.  Professional/E&O is more for protection if something goes wrong down the road and they want to look back and try to blame someone in retrospect.  But you can always buy both types, if you feel the need.

When I started working with a very high-powered company earlier this year, they insisted on my carrying a couple of million dollars worth of both types of insurance, as well as Workman's Comp for myself (even though I work almost exclusively virtually)!  I asked a fellow consultant who he has used for insurance, and he referred me to Hiscox.  They specialize in insurance coverage for small businesses, including LLCs and other sole proprietor shops like us.

After the Hiscox rep explained the various types of insurance to me, we agreed that General Liability was really the only valid one for the client to be requesting.  I went back and edited the client's draft Master Service Agreement to reflect that, and explained my reasoning to the client.  After all, their MSA language is a boilerplate meant for when they do business with much larger organizations.  I was pleased when they accepted all my edits to the contract!  We ended up agreeing that I would carry $2M worth of General Liability.  I paid Hiscox $446 for an annual contract.

This client also insisted on being named as an "additional insured" on my policy.  I learned that you can generally set up one of your clients that way at the time of initiating the coverage; after that, you can add other "additional insured" at Hiscox for @$50 each.  You need to make sure your provider can/will do this part if your client wants it.  My client also initially insisted on the insurer notifying them by mail if I terminated the coverage for any reason, but I successfully argued that none of the small business insurers I contacted would provide that service, and that the MSA language already made it clear that I am agreeing to keep insurance active for the duration of the business relationship, so I was able to sidestep that unnecessary notification requirement, as well.  (I was a paralegal on Wall St. for some years in my early days, so I'm used to rewriting contracts; if you're not comfortable with legalese, find a resource who is and who can go over proposed contracts with you in detail.)

Bottom line: Do your shopping, but I suspect you'll find Hiscox is a good deal.  They were very good at explaining everything to me in normal language, and were in general both responsive and genuinely helpful.  If anyone has interest in Hiscox, they just started a referral program, through 11/30.  If you send me your email address privately, I can send you a referral link, which may do good things for us both!    They process the policy quite quickly, and you get your very clear documentation via email.  I was up and running with coverage in a day.  

When it comes to relationships with a client, get the terms in writing, and be extremely careful about how your MSA is worded.  Don't be afraid to push back politely but firmly if the client's requests are unreasonable/irrelevant, including the topic of what insurance they require you to carry.  Often it's just there because they're used to dealing with larger companies.

I hope my experience with this helps!

Andrew

andrewsellon@verizon.net