Just odds and ends of information about freelancing and small business. You can listen to the show on BlogTalkRadio.
I’m starting off with an accounting joke.
More on accounting for the freelancer or the small business.
Open discussion about tangential items.
Probably, the bane of your existence as a freelancer is the mountain of paperwork you generate for yourself. How do you keep track of it all? How do you organize it? How do you find stuff?
Let’s talk about what you can do to keep yourself organized as a freelancer.
LINKS
IGS Bookkeeping
Freshbooks
QuickBooks Online
ADP
BlogTalkRadio: Organizing Your Tax Related Paperwork
You can listen to today’s show on BlogTalkRadio.
Why you are in a much better position to weather economic downturn as a freelancer. None of this is new if you have read the following books.
The show is on the air from 8:30 am to 9 am CDT, Monday through Friday. You can call in to (646) 716-8227 to join the show.
I have been vacillating between going to PodCamp NYC and not going. John C. Havens, one of the co-organizers of the event, invited members of the San Antonio Podcasting and New Media Group to present at the event about our experience in organizing PodCamp San Antonio. For those of you who travel, you know that a trip to NYC is not exactly the most affordable thing in the world. The cost is what is causing me to hesitate and commit to going. I am about ready to commit. First, some background.
On the one hand, making it to New York and presenting to so many people would be a great “professional” experience. I put that in quotes because this is an unpaid gig. Like all BarCamps and PodCamps, you attend these things for two main purposes, to learn and to network. After presenting, I’d have plenty of time to learn from other podcasters and exchange business cards. It would cost me to go to PodCamp NYC, but it would also serve greatly to move me further along in the field of New Media.
The downside to attending PodCamp NYC is that it is scheduled very close to PodCamp San Antonio. That makes a double whammy on the pocketbook. The Texas Legislature does not pay me very much for my part-time work. Therefore, it is up to me to earn the necessary amount of money to attend both events.
After some research, I have learned that I can fly to NYC for about $200 round-trip starting in San Antonio, Texas. It’s about $300 if I leave from McAllen, Texas. This does not include food and lodging. $600 should cover my expenses, I believe. I’ll stay awake and wander around NYC if necessary. Having no place to stay is not a deterrent for me. That’s the goal, raise $600.
To accomplish this goal, I would need to bill about 15 hours at $40/hr or 30 hours at $20/hr. Both seem achievable to me. All I have to do is go out beat some new business out of the bushes, right? When looking at a fixed income, $600 seems like a lot. Yet, when thinking along the lines of what I need to do to earn that much, it’s not as daunting. So, I will make my reservations and proceed to earn what I need for the trip. When I ask myself how I can afford the trip, some gears clicked into place and I figured out how to do it. Nice.
Yesterday, we talked about your blog being your resume. People use your blog to judge you and your work. What you put out there reflects who you are.
Today’s Morning Show is about creating business opportunities for the freelancer. How can you bring in new business? How do you advertise? How do you land new clients? Join me.
Show runs 8:30 am to 9 am, M-F. You can call in at (646) 716-8227 to join the conversation.
See “My Blog is a Resume?”
Today we talk about what your blog says about you. Does your blog help you or hurt you in your search for work?
I just got off a conference call with members of the San Antonio Podcasters and New Media Group. We discussed that latest in our work to organize PodCamp San Antonio Number Dos, which is still the ONLY PodCamp in the State of Texas. At the moment, we are working to find sponsors for the event. We have some deadlines looming for sponsors so that we can put their logos on t-shirts, badges, and the guide to San Antonio.
If you are interested in sponsoring, we need your firm commitment by April 15 so that we can send off the t-shirt order and have them printed in time. For the badges, we have April 25 as the deadline. We can mess around with the Guide to San Antonio a little, but would appreciate as much time as possible so we can do a good job.
Another point of discussion is sponsorship levels. We are asking for $250 and $500 sponsorships. However, if you want to give $10, we’re not going to turn you down. Whatever you can contribute would be of great help. You can contact Jennifer Navarrete for more details on that. There is also a donation button on the PCSAII website.
The rest of the discussion centered around getting the word out to the press, the public, and sponsors so that we can meet the deadlines. It’s coming down to the wire, folks. Before you know it, we’ll be 30 days out and we’ll really be working it.
I was sitting here bored and started thinking about the difficulties that would ensue if we reproduced simply by splitting down the middle. You know how you can cut flatworms down the middle and each half will grow back another half? Like that. There are physical issues, cognitive issues, and even legal issues that come to mind. Nature made a wise choice in having us multiply the way we do. I just thought I’d give some reasons why.
Starting with the physical reasons why our reproductive method is better than fission, let us start with the difficulties involved. As creatures with skeletal structures, we require use of our skeletons to keep us up. It would be damn inconvenient for walking while you are growing a new spine. At some point, each half would have to grow a new leg. Imagine the inconvenience of waiting for your digestive system to get sorted out. There has to be some disability time in all of this. We’d also have to regrow teeth or else there would be people with rotten teeth on one side and new ones on the other. Finally, we would not require genders as we’d all be the same.
Mentally, there have to be issues as well. First, reproducing half a brain can’t be that easy. Of course, the joke is most people don’t even use half their brain. The possibility of crossed wires would increase, in my opinion if we simply split in half. Then, there is an issue of memory. Would both halves have the same memories? If so, would all people share a common history? In cases of mental illness, wouldn’t that perpetuate with each division? Would the dominant side of the brain be determined by which side was the original one?
The biggest curiosity for me is property rights. How would the two new people with equal claim to property divide it? This goes for physical property and intellectual property. Would one half keep their name and the other choose a new one? Who gets to keep the job and who has to look for a new one? What about education? Who keeps the diploma? Simple organisms don’t have to worry about these things.
Splitting in half is no doubt much easier for simple organisms than it would be for us. I only mentioned items off the top of my head that pertain to physical, mental, and legal issues. I’m sure there are plenty other considerations I have not mentioned. Nature did us a favor in not making us reproduce that way. We like to think we can improve on nature; but perhaps in its brutal, messed up way, nature has it all under control. This is the stuff I think about when I’m bored.
If you’re bored, chime in with your ideas on what would be involved in this type of reproduction. What else do you have to do?
Today, on the Morning Show on Blog Talk Radio, I talk about ethics for the freelancer. There is no doubt that as a freelancer, you have access and opportunity to do all kinds of things. What are some some instances of unethical behavior?
When I was a kid growing up in my neighborhood, there were few houses and plenty of lights. At night, we could see people a couple blocks away from all the street lamps. Evening football was common. All us kids played outdoors at night because there was plenty of illumination.
These days are different. I suspect that the rising cost of electricity has much to do with it. Nobody pays for outdoor lights anymore. The only lights you see are front porch lights. It is a bit scary, and hazardous to walk down the street. Kids don’t play outside once the sun goes down either.
I had not realized that this had happened. I suppose that it gradually happened as the cost of street lights started going past price thresholds of individual households. We live in an area that does not belong to any municipalities, so there are no “free” streetlights. Maybe we ought to move closer to town.
A couple weeks ago, more or less, I upgraded my T-Mobile Dash battery. I had passed the 1-year mark in December. These batteries are supposed to not have memory issues, so I wasn’t having any problems with the battery itself. When I got the phone, the battery would last me a good day and a half. That was before Twitter. Once I hooked up with Twitter and started following people and started being followed, I found that my battery was not doing as well. Up until recently, I have been using Twitter through SMS. My family has a shared unlimited plan for text messages, so why not?
The big test of the new battery came during the first weekend of SXSW. That period is a Twitter frenzy amongst the geekerati. Even so, my phone was able to keep up with the higher than usual volume of messages. I wasn’t able to keep up. I deleted many unread messages. Even with that, my new battery went down one bar the entire day. Late in the evening, the battery went down to two bars. Besides the text messaging, I also made a few phone calls.
I am very pleased with the performance of the super extended battery on my phone. I had considered buying the extended battery as the price was reasonable. It brought the phone from around 900 mAh to about 1,500 mAh. Instead, I splurged on the super extended battery which has 2,400 mAh. I still keep the old battery around “just in case”; but I have yet to wear down the new battery in a single day.
If your T-Mobile Dash or HTC Excalibur battery life is less than you need, I recommend making the upgrade. Face it, you forget to leave your phone charging some nights, right? Like me, it usually happens the night before a busy day when you need your phone to have a full charge or when you can’t stop to charge a full couple of hours. The super extended battery will save your bacon.
More on mashable sites to help the freelancer share content and keep track of information. You can listen here.
Join Shaine Mata on The Morning Show. It can be brilliant, it can be lame. What do you expect from a show in the morning? Talk about politics, life, news, or whatever.
You can listen to today’s show here.
Cross-posting content. The value of cross-posting and where to do it. Join Shaine Mata on The Morning Show. It can be brilliant, it can be lame. What do you expect from a show in the morning? Talk about politics, life, news, or whatever.
You can join me on the morning show here.
Join Shaine Mata on The Morning Show. It can be brilliant, it can be lame. What do you expect from a show in the morning? Talk about politics, life, news, or whatever. Today, let’s talk about BarCamp Austin.
Here’s Tom With the Weather has more.
Shaine 