Freelance Heroes

Aug 02, 2012

Daniel Brigham
By Daniel Brigham

Hi, and welcome to the "Freelance Heroes" thread, a place where Articulate Freelancers help each other. Got a question about freelancing? Or perhaps you have an e-learning asset that may be valuable to those "doin' their own thing"? This is the place to share--to give.

To start things off, I'd like to share a short list of questions that help me figure out what kind of training a potential client wants. (So often they have no idea what they want.) The list is far from exhaustive, but may be of some help. Looking forward to meeting you. --Daniel  

1293 Replies
Daniel Brigham
over 10 years ago10/09/13 at 2:05 pm (UTC)

J. Scott Susich said:

I have all of 2 hours exposure to Articulate.  We have a client that brought the technology to our attention.  I am the subject matter expert at our organization and definitely NOT the technology guy.  However I find myself wearing both hats...HELP!  How do I go about finding a freelancer to lend a hand?

Hi, J. Scott: this is the place to find good Articulate freelancers. Those that have some bandwidth are sure to contact you, most likely through PM (private message). Let me know if you need any help accessing this. Thanks, and welcome to Freelance Heroes. --Daniel
Astrid Acase
over 10 years ago10/17/13 at 12:39 pm (UTC)

Sheila Cole-Bulthuis said:

Interesting article, Bruce, thanks for sharing!  Now I have a new blog to follow.  J

 

Good reminders about a few things, including: “While you may think that returning to a traditional job is more “secure,” remember that there are no guarantees. Even traditional employees are losing their positions.”  I was just talking about this with someone the other day; once you have an established freelance/consulting business, your job security is just as good as most people with a “regular job” – your income is usually less stable, but there’s almost always at least some income.

 

Like the author of the article, I have also noticed a lot of people jumping into freelancing, often with very low hourly rates.  I use this as part how I explain the value I provide: I am more expensive than those people (in some cases, a lot more!) but I have a track record of juggling multiple projects, dealing effectively with clients, and producing high-quality work; and there’s no risk that I’m going to abandon a project halfway through because I found full-time employment. 

 

And Daniel, thanks for starting this thread – I’m thinking about what I can share that might be useful/helpful to others!

 

Agreed...
Sheila Bulthuis
over 10 years ago10/17/13 at 10:54 pm (UTC)

Hey, fellow freelancers -

I may have an opportunity to do a project for a company in another country. This is actually the first time I've done this in six years of being in business, so I'm wondering if you have any tips for clauses in the contract to address currency exchange/payment/anything else I should consider for a client who is not in the same country I am.  Thanks!

Phil Mayor
over 10 years ago10/17/13 at 11:32 pm (UTC)

Sheila Cole-Bulthuis said:

Hey, fellow freelancers -

I may have an opportunity to do a project for a company in another country. This is actually the first time I've done this in six years of being in business, so I'm wondering if you have any tips for clauses in the contract to address currency exchange/payment/anything else I should consider for a client who is not in the same country I am.  Thanks!


If possible get them to pay you in your own currency, if they want to pay in their currency then ensure you can bill at your rate using that days exchange rate this will likely result in an unrealised gain or loss when you get paid, the other thing to take in account is what exchange rate does your bank use often this is much lower than the official rate.

Bruce Graham
over 10 years ago10/18/13 at 8:10 am (UTC)

Phil Mayor said:

Daniel Brigham said:

Congratulations, Sheila. And thanks Phil and Bruce for the suggestions.

I think this would be a great topic for a blog post. Maybe you all could collaborate and I could sit on the sidelines, eat popcorn, and nod in agreement. --Daniel


You sound more like David Anderson every day


LOL

Nancy Woinoski
over 10 years ago10/20/13 at 7:34 am (UTC)

Sheila Cole-Bulthuis said:

Hey, fellow freelancers -

I may have an opportunity to do a project for a company in another country. This is actually the first time I've done this in six years of being in business, so I'm wondering if you have any tips for clauses in the contract to address currency exchange/payment/anything else I should consider for a client who is not in the same country I am.  Thanks!


I do this all the time. I have them pay in my own currency and have it set up so that they do a direct deposit to my business bank account. My bank charges a small fee for the international money transfer so you may want to factor that into your pricing ( I usually just eat the charge as a cost of doing business).

Jim Arbon
over 10 years ago10/20/13 at 10:36 am (UTC)

Thanks Daniel, Phil and Bruce (and others) for all your posts in this thread - we're all benefiting from your hard work.

I'd like to take this opportunity to offer my services as an all-round e-learning developer.  I've been using Storyline for quite some time now and have pushed it to it's limits to make some innovative interactions and screentypes (I'll try to get some examples up here at some point).  I'm also proficient with Adobe Photoshop and Media Encoder so have no worries with adding beautiful images and videos.  

I'm currently based in Brighton, UK, though next month I'm moving to Victoria, BC Canada.  Please do get in touch via a reply or a private message and I can send you my CV/resume and some examples of my work.  

If this isn't the best place for this message, please let me know where I should post it.

All the best,

Jim

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