The Free Creatives

December 13, 2009 in Resources by Crystal

Freelancing was difficult for me just starting out, and I blame it purely on jumping in too fast and not doing my research. While I am fortunate for that experience because I learned so much so quickly, I know a lot of my problems could have been prevented with some simple preparation. This is why I encourage all other aspiring freelancers to follow some quick startup guides that will provide them with all the information they need to get started on the right track. Here are ten favorite start-up guides for creating a freelance business.

1. My So-Called Freelance Life

240 pages of pure freelancing goodness. This 4 1/2 star book (Amazon) gets excellent ratings from both experienced freelancers, and by those just starting out. It is a perfect start-up guide that covers everything from getting set up the right way, to maintaining your business. Michelle Goodman has years of experience freelancing, and knows the in’s and out’s of successful freelancing, vs. years of wasted time and money maintaining a bad business.

“Since we’re all sh**ing our pants over the current economic situation, this book couldn’t come at a better time. My So-Called Freelance Life saunters its way through the ins and outs of becoming a successful solo professional, whether you’re a newly graduated 20-something trapped in a monotonous cubicle job or a new mom looking for flexible hours. Having accumulated a great deal of experience on the topic, Michelle Goodman (author of The Anti 9-to-5 Guide) leaves no paperweight unturned, explaining how to get started, maintain a budget and schedule, gather/weed out clientele, and legally cover your a**. Goodman includes a bevy of relevant links, contacts, organizations, and advice on everything from negotiating your hourly rate to when to quit working for the Man. While her book thoroughly covers every fundamental career intricacy you can imagine, wit and hilarity are also seated firmly within. (She even quotes Peter Gallagher on The OC, thus actualizing the poetry of my heart.) Not only is this book an incredible guide on how to get started, but it’s also inspiring and oddly comforting. “You can’t hitch your entire creative career on one big break—or one fat failure,” Goodman writes, “you have to keep moving forward, reaching for bigger and better.” It’s a book you will feel compelled to keep in your personal library (probably between your college dictionary and your religious tome of choice), or you can be like me and sleep with it in your arms.”
—Bust Magazine

Buy My So-Called Freelance Life by Michelle Goodman today.

2. A First Hand Guide On How To Start Freelancing

This full-length article on JustCreativeDesign is perfect for anyone even just thinking about getting into freelancing. From officially making the choice to go freelance, to research, planning, and implementation. It is not as thorough as the paid books on this page, but it can lead you to some great starter resources, and more importantly, some great beginner insight.

“In this guest article, Jacen Nicely goes through the first hand personal experiences of becoming a freelance designer detailing the emotions and the three phases of the process (research, planning and implementation) of going from frustrated to a full time freelancer. This article is applicable to all freelancers, not just designers.”

Go to and read A First Hand Guide On How To Start Freelancing now.

3. How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer

The writers of this book, Cyan and Collis Ta’eed, have both been freelancing for years, and have made popular websites such as the FreelanceSwitch blog and the Envato Network. With years of both freelancing and entrepreneurial experience, they both share their insight and knowledge, as well as their research for creating a smooth-running and successful freelancing business.

Straight from Rockable Press:

“212 Pages of Expert Freelancing Advice”

“Covering everything from getting started to expanding your business, How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer is the official FreelanceSwitch book. Written by Collis & Cyan Ta’eed – the founders of the site – it’s packed with new information, advice and insights not covered on the blog.

If you want to start your freelance career the right way, then How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer will give you everything you need to become the best freelancer in town!”

Purchase How to Be a Rockstar Freelancer today in either paperback or download instantly as an e-book.

4. How to Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer

While this is not so much a straight-forward freelancing how-to, I put this book on the list because many designers want to be professional WordPress Theme designers and freelance via selling and making custom WordPress themes. Because it is such a rising trend as a business model in itself, I thought I’d put it on this list.

There is a difference between making a WordPress theme for yourself and a theme to sell. This book is the technical how-to to get anyone started in making WordPress themes that will sell, and how to make themes for clients the right way.

Straight from Rockable Press:

“Managing web content has always been tricky, but with WordPress, any web designer can have a flexible, free and powerful CMS to use not just on blogging projects, but on all sorts of websites. In How To Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer you will learn step by step how to take a straight HTML site and power it with WordPress.

During the course of the book you’ll build THREE WordPress themes, a blog, a portfolio site and a general site with menus and submenus. Each theme demonstrates different aspects of WordPress theming and all three are packaged in with the book so you’ll have Photoshop, HTML, CSS and WordPress PHP files to refer to.”

Buy and download How to Be a Rockstar WordPress Designer today.

5. The Roadmap To Becoming A Professional Freelance Web Designer

This is a very business-oriented article about freelancing that has caught a lot of attention on Smashing Magazine. This guide covers everything from research to branding yourself, and from creating your portfolio to finding your first clients. The article also has a great list of tools for beginners too.

“Becoming a freelance web designer is a common dream among many designers, although it takes quite a bit of talent, business savvy, committment, and time. With all there is to consider when becoming self-employed, one can become overwhelmed — enough to deter themselves from trying at all.

Realizing many Smashing readers probably already have a head-start into the world of professional and freelance web design, this post is meant to act as not only a step-by-step guide, but also as a checklist for those who have already started their career. Hopefully this guide can cover all aspects of becoming a professional and freelance web designer, from business aspect and working with clients, to creating an effective portfolio and advertising one’s work.”
- Kayla Knight

Read The Roadmap to Becoming a Professional Freelance We Designer now.

6. How to Become a Freelance Web Developer

Even though this article is dedicated to web developers rather than designers, most of the information in it is just one more professional’s insight to the freelance world. There is some pretty useful knowledge in the article (for free, too, so what do you have to lose?), and whether you want to code extensively or not, all of the knowledge is very relevant.

“Have you ever wanted to be a freelance web developer? Whether you’re working for the man or developing as a hobby, there are some tried and tested tips you can use to ease yourself into the life of a freelance web developer – even if you only do it part-time.

By working with many and varied clients, your web dev and business skills will grow at a rapid pace. If everything goes right, you should be able to make a good living doing something you love.”
- Glen Stansberry

Check out How to Become a Freelance Web Developer today.

7. Becoming a Freelance Web Worker

A skillful how-to start-up guide and a long list of resources from a successful freelancer named Skellie. This is a multi-part series on becoming a freelancer, and offers many step-by-step resources for you to follow.

“It’s becoming increasingly common for freelancers to have an online component to their work. You might find clients online, have an online portfolio or work for some clients completely through the web.

In this post, I want to go a step further and answer the question: what if all aspects of your freelancing work were done online?

In this Becoming a Freelance Web Worker series of posts I’ll be outlining a complete guide to becoming a web-only freelancer: how to find clients, how to work completely online and how to run your freelancing business from anywhere in the world.”
- Skellie

Read part 1 of the series Becoming a Freelance Web Worker today.

8. Tweakcast

If your eyes ever get tired from reading numerous freelancing resources, than I suggest giving Tweakcast a try. Well, I suggest checking it out anyway too. Tweakcast is a podcast for ‘the creative entrepreneur.’ The creator, Josh Iwata, is a US-based web designer who freelances full-time with his freelancing business, Fallout Media. In his podcast he shares a complete guide to begin freelancing, starting from the very beginning: quitting your day job.

I’ve been a fan of this podcast for quite some time, perhaps for its more structured nature than other similar podcasts, or perhaps for its more personal and trustworthy approach. You can also find all of the resources straight from the Tweakcast website that he mentions, and find more resources and information on the website.

Download the podcast, “Tweak” from iTunes, or listen directly from the the Tweakcast website.

9. A Comprehensive Guide to Starting Your Freelance Career

This is a free article on Freelance Switch by Collis Ta’eed, who wrote a few of the books above. This is a great sub-sectioned guide to beginning a freelancing career, suitable for any type of profession.

“Working as a contractor – or freelancing as it is often termed – is both a great stepping stone to running your own business and a viable career in itself. For the uninitiated there can be numerous hurdles to overcome on the way to starting and having a successful freelancing career. As a former freelancer myself and having employed more than a few, I have observed some of these hurdles firsthand. This article discusses some of the ins and outs of both freelancing and running a small business.”
- Collis Ta’eed

Check out A Comprehensive Guide to Starting Your Freelance Career today.

10. 53 Steps to follow if you want to become Freelance Web Designer/Developer (60+ Resources)

Paul from SpeckyBoy ventured into freelancing sometime last year, and although a new freelancer, he has compiled a useful list of lessons he’s learned the hard way. Take the easy way into freelancing, and learn from his mistakes, not your own!

The 53 steps are short and to the point, but each is valuable, and I can say from my own experiences and research, they are all 100% true.

“In recent months I have been setting myself up as a Freelance Web designer/Developer, if I told you it was a rocky road I wouldn’t be exaggerating . If I had followed the list I have written below it would have made my life so much easier and stress free. But, like most things, entering into a new chapter can make you feel blindfolded and you stumble about trying to find the answers. Hopefully following this list will help.

There are many pros and cons venturing into Freelance, don’t think of it as freelance, but as you setting up your own Design Studio. That to me is a lot cooler.

But the truth of the matter is I have completed my transition, I am a Freelance Web Designer/Developer. And couldn’t be happier.”
- Speckyboy

Find the article 53 Steps to follow if you want to become Freelance Web Designer/Developer (60+ Resources) over at Speckyboy now.