Freelance Heroes

A small attempt to distil many of the conversations we have here, and that I have on other forums into one blog post.

My abridged guide to being the BEST and MOST SUCCESSFUL (eLearning) freelancer EVER!

http://wp.me/p13NYZ-4Y

Thank you Bruce,

The part about ''You need to do things rather than talking about it. This is the hard one.''

I like that. Same for the BITS.

Thanks for this Bruce, actually caught it on Twitter yesterday, but as you eluded to in the blog post, I've seen you make those points several times before (including once to myself). So it's more than time it went onto your blog!

I wish we could sticky this post to ensure that people read through it before posting! Great tips and Daniel, great work on the courses, please keep us posted with releases.

Thanks, Bruce, for letting us know about the post. Man, this conversation has opened a lot of doors. 

Another thing - know what you stand for, and be prepared to defend it to maintain business integrity - at all times.

wp.me/p13NYZ-51

An article I've been reading on the shift from working as an independent contractor to business owner:

http://www.sitepoint.com/become-a-business-owner/

It is pretty good reading for all those freelancers out there.

Thanks, Nicholas. I've been meaning to read Gerber's E-Myth Revisited and this is just another sign that I must do that.

Total agree with author's first point, though not crazy about the syntax: It will be much harder work than you ever imagined, and...will increase, rather than decrease, the time you spend working. 

Reading through the E-Myth Revisited now Daniel, it puts a lot of things into perspective. You should really get a copy.

Hey eLearning heroes!

I work in the Training Department at Chipotle and we're looking for a freelance Articulate Storyline designer. We're overloaded with creating incredibly interactive eLearning awesomeness and need someone who can take a storyboard and our design specs and build it into a fully functioning .story file. You can work from home and it's project based. 

For your own happiness, you MUST:

• Be able to deliver on very tight timelines - we're not insane, but we do work at lightning speed
• Be an Articulate Storyline guru - Not just intermediate skills - we use TONS of triggers and custom variables
• Have an incredible eye for design and layout - Our courses aren't cookie cutter courses. We'll provide the storyboard, image assets, and design specs, but there will be tons of layout decisions throughout
• Be incredibly independent - we'll provide the vision, storyboard, and assets - but you've got to be a kick ass eLearning designer and a creative problem solver

If you're interested in this, please send your portfolio via either PM or pbryant@chipotle.com. If you've got questions, send those, too. I've got answers!

Keepin' the joy,

Patti

Hey All,

It's been while since I posted here. The community is definitely growing. 

Q: Does anyone have a sample of a contract for voiceover talent? It is my first time dealing with an outside person on this and want to make sure I follow the right channels. Any input will be helpful.

Thanks in advance!

Kai

Hey All,

I work in Membership Education at an educational foundation, and we're hoping to transition our in-person standards of conduct course into a self-led e-learning course. We're planning to look to articulate for our LMS hosting needs, but need to identify someone to develop the course. Here's a little background:

The course is about 45 minutes in length, and is fairly straightforward. As it stands, we have a finalized slideshow, script, and we're writing notes for the developer to use when animating slides and inserting script. The script itself is already recorded into small numbered mp3 files, and have numbered these files in accordance with script. From a developer's end, we want this to be paint by numbers. We've inserted four knowledge checks and a final 20 question assessment, and that's really the most interactive part of the presentation. In terms of reporting, we're just looking for the basics. 

This should be a fairly simple project, and will offer a competitive rate for the hours. If you might be interested in this quick project, or have some questions, feel free to either send me a PM or email me at alessi@zetapsi.org and we can talk specifics.

Thanks in advance,

-Joe

A question for the E-Learning Heroes freelance community:

Has anyone ever been offered equity stake in return for services rather then being paid cash?

I've experienced this previously but preferred cash. Anyone else had this experience as a freelancer?

Hi freelancer community,

this post might be interesting for some of you but not all: I am looking for a person / company that can and will do adaptations and updates to existing eLearning modules in GERMAN langauge for a German company. It is mainly about product modules and sales topics. Modules belong to a blended learning approach as preparation for the class-room piece.

If you are interested in that kind of job and you have a  proven track record regarding project management and quality work please do not hesitate to contact me.

Andreas Prestel

Hi, everyone: saw this call for Storyline freelancer on the precursor to this thread, and thought I should post if here.

Hi everyone. I'm hoping this is the right place to post this question

A prospective client has approached me to do a project which will involve taking the PowerPoints and videos from some F2F workshops and converting them to asynchronous courses. The course will be a basic, what I call "Level 1" course—basically just slides & audio with a few interactions (nothing too in-depth).

Typically, I price per project after reviewing the scope, etc. However, this client wants a Rate Sheet or Rate Card. I have no idea what this is! I did some googling and I was able to find rate cards from voiceover companies, but haven't found an example of an elearning rate card.

Has anyone here ever created one? Would you mind sharing how I should set this up, or provide a sample rate structure? Should I break out the individual costs per hour of seat time? Should I provide a blended rate per session (there will be 14 sessions @ 90m ea.)?

Hi, Robyn!

I've found this time/cost survey data from the Chapman Alliance an invaluable aid for giving clients a range of time and cost estimates for Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 projects. Note that there are two key studies -- one for single-type learning and one for blended learning.

In fact, it's been so useful that I turned the data into an interactive "client education tool" and embedded segments of it in this production.

I hope it's helpful for you, too!

Adele

Thank you Adele. Your educational presentation is fantastic! What a great tool for your clients. Thanks for sharing that.

I also saw the Chapman Alliance PPT, which is very helpful for average price ranges. My struggle is not really determining the rate, but creating an actual Rate Sheet, which I’ve never done before.

Would you say it should look like Slide 14, with each task broken down and how much that task will cost per finished hour?

Hi, Robyn!

Thanks so much for the kind feedback; I very much appreciate it! And yes, I thought afterward that I really didn't address the "rate sheet" aspect of your question.

Slide 14 of the Chapman survey results might indeed be one way to approach it. Here is another rate-sheet variation you might consider from WritingAssistance.com, which is designed in a tabular format. It covers various kinds of information design activities, including instructional design at a very high level. As you can see, some kinds of task rates are much more detailed than others, since they're easier to estimate at a granular level. Perhaps there's a simple way to adapt the Chapman data to this kind of format, given that WritingAssistance.com has already taken a stab at it. 

In fact, what you're working on could really be very useful for all of us! I personally haven't had the need (yet) to aggregate the data in the form of a rate sheet, but I very well might need to do so in the future!

Adele

The problem with "rate sheets" is that they tie you to a rate for further work, and run the risk of placing you in a cost vs. cost battle.

Rates should vary, they NEED to vary, as no job is ever the same.

Hi, Bruce! 

Good points -- that's why I always present a range of both hours and rates, so clients know that there is a ballpark of possibilities into which their projects might fall. It gives me a lot of flexibility to modify my rates and times accordingly. If I even quote an hourly rate, I'm usually very upfront with them about whether I'm offering them a "preferred-client discount" rate because the project will have a large volume of work, or whether it's a higher rate for just a one-off, short effort.

Just a quick blog post about how it ALWAYS pays (IMHO) to use forums like this (for example) to network, chat and then call up real people, rather than just hitting every "Connect with me", and "Like" request that you get - http://wp.me/p13NYZ-5D

@Bruce,

Nothing beats meeting people in person. Good blog post.

Good post, Bruce!  I posted on your site, as well.  Sorry I haven't posted here in quite a while; it's been wacky.

I also agree about the "rate sheet" idea.  Adele provided Robyn with some great resources, but the most important truth is that there are many variables, and each project truly is different, in large or small ways.  I always provide a range.  I think I've mentioned this before, but I have a spreadsheet where I itemize elements with price ranges, so the client can see the ballpark cost of each element of the project, and can easily calculate for themselves which ones are "essential" versus "nice to have" when fitting the project within their stated budget.  Pricing shouldn't be "one size fits all" unless one is aiming to be the Walmart or Target of consultants--which I wouldn't recommend.  

A couple of other items, while I'm on here:  I've been finding a lot of good deals on the iPad Insight / Stack Social site lately. If you're looking for high-quality graphics that are free for both personal and commercial use, check out their Summer Freebie Design Bundle, through July 15th only. You do have to register on their site (also free) and share the link or follow them on Twitter or FB to download the assets, but I have to say the large selection is surprisingly high quality, and a lot of elements could be handy in eLearning!  https://deals.ipadinsight.com/sales/the-summer-freebie-designer-bundle?utm_source=StackSocial+Deals+Newsletter&utm_campaign=90714c6632-II+The+Summer+Freebie+Design+Bundle&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_bf74b34094-90714c6632-291418637&mc_cid=90714c6632&mc_eid=8281a8d27f 

Also, I recently converted a well-received blog post into a podcast and also a little "instructional video" to encourage clients to create more meaningful (or SMARTER) learning objectives.  Hope you enjoy it!  It's now the first item on my eLearning Samples page: http://www.sellonsolutions.com/elearning-samples/ 

Cheers,

Andrew

PS: If you enjoy movies, and happen to see the new Mark Ruffalo/Keira Knightly film "Begin Again," look for the odd preacher on the subway in an early scene.  It was great fun shooting with Mark Ruffalo, and I'm tickled the fleeting scene made the final cut!

Hello!

My company recently purchased Articulate Storyline and I am looking for either a freelance storyline developer or a instructional design intern to help build content this summer for a global training launch. Please respond if interested! Position will be in Chicago, IL but I am willing to work with this person remote.

Thank!

Jenna