Cube Escape

Self Employment - Entrepreneur Lifestyle - Business Tips and Tricks

Pursing the Entrepreneurial Dream

A couple of years ago, I decide that my pursuit of climbing the corporate ladder was fruitless. It wasn't for me...not what I wanted. I craved freedom. I've learned a lot about becoming an entrepreneur, and I'll share what I've learned with you. Getting control of your life again isn't a pipe dream. Financial, professional, and creative freedom can be yours.

When to Walk Away

When do you know it’s time to walk away? Is it when the boss/client is not going to pay you? Now, I’m not talking about getting stiffed. In my opinion, getting stiffed is grounds for never working with that individual again.

But what if you are told — or just expected — to work extra and then, when you ask about extra pay, the question is just deflected? Well, pardon my French, but that’s bullshit. When a boss or client plays too close to the chest, as they say, that means they are probably just leading you along. If you ask a simple question, and the reply is something along the lines of “It’s just between you and the deadline,” then there’s a pretty good chance that they have no intention of paying you extra. And if they start putting words in your mouth, then you need to act fast.

Naturally, some projects or arrangements account for any overtime. Some do not. Some work arrangements are just loosely strung together with something that works. If you are a salaried, exempt-class employee, you’re out of luck here. But if you are a freelancer, with a loose verbal agreement, don’t work late, or on the weekends, without premium compensation. If overtime isn’t covered in any written agreement, then don’t fall for that trap. Negotiate compensation or don’t do it.

If you have to walk away, walk away. I think it’s better to walk away then to get walked over by a stingy boss or client. Remember, there’s always more work out there. Don’t settle for crap. Remember that it’s your paycheck and your career.

Oh, and one other thing, if the job is making your stress levels and blood pressure skyrocket, you probably need to get out, and get out fast. No job is worth dying over… not even a little dying, day by day. Find something that works for you, not for your boss or client.

. 13 May 08 | Regular Jobs, Business, Freelance, Entrepreneur | Read on | Comments (0)

Don’t Like Sports? You Might be Better Off on Your Own

A week ago, while eating pecan pie, I had a revelation. For it to make sense, however, I’ll have to explain something. You know all the sports that so many people in this country seem so obsessed with? I don’t like them. I find them incredibly boring. I never knew why, exactly. All I knew is that they bored me to tears.

Football, basketball, baseball, sports news, all of it — bores me. I never asked myself why, because I didn’t care. When I was young, I tried watching to see if I would get into them. My father would watch Monday Night Football every week, and just about any other NFL game that was on. Friends talked about watching “the game” all the time, as if I would just know what game that was. I tried watching, but I couldn’t do it. I would just say, “this is lame,” and then do something else or change the channel.

When eating my pecan pie last week, a thought just popped into my head. It’s because it’s a team. I don’t care about the team. I started to think about all the sports I didn’t mind watching, and even find a bit entertaining, and they are all individual sports. I value the goals, efforts, and accomplishments of the individual over that of the team.

I’ve been in large meetings in a large corporation and seen everybody in the room nodding their heads and going along with really bad ideas because it’s “what we’re doing.” If it’s what “the team” does, they did it. I don’t understand that. Well, I do know. Those people probably value the needs of the team more than the needs of the individual.

Which do you value more, the individual or the team? There is nothing wrong with either preference, but if you find that you just don’t fit in anywhere in the corporate world, that might be the reason. If so, you might be better off on your own, working freelance in your chosen profession.

I don’t fit, so now I work for myself. Others might not fit but keep at it because they have a great paycheck. And then there is that large group of people known as “team players,” who seem like such odd creatures to me. I work better on my own. Do you know where you fit?

. 10 Mar 08 | Regular Jobs, Business, Employment, Freelance | Read on | Comments (0)

2008 - The Year I Retire at 31

I’m 31 and I’m going to retire this year. Bold claim, isn’t it? Well, it’s true. But let me back up just a moment so you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. In general, the American work force is completely lame. Now, I’m not talking about any individual workers or groups of workers or anything like that. I’m talking about how we work in this country. It’s not natural, and I’ve just had enough of it. I’ve been in the workforce long enough. This year, I’m going to leave it.

I’ll be working until I die, but this year I’m leaving the “work world” behind. My business will make enough money so that I will leave the workforce forever and do what I want to do. Sure, I’ll still have to work, but to me, one can work and be retired at the same time. To me, being retired simply means you’ve left the silly American way of work behind and moved on to something wiser and more natural.

Enough of that…to my ventures! I’ve got my company set up to run its fiscal year along with the calendar year. So, with the new year comes new things. Here are some things I’ve got in store for 2008 (I’ve already begun, by the way): Music, writing, and teaching.

Chaoscube Music: An independent music shop for purchasing DRM-Free and Royalty-Free digital music, sound effects, and ring tones. The main purpose of this site is to provide royalty-free music for independent game developers and small shops. Sure, I’ll sell to the big guys, too, but my focus will be the little guys trying to turn out great games that also happen to have soundtracks. And ring tones are just added in as a bonus. Everyone likes them and they are fast and cheap.

Cynical Tutor: Web programming video training. This site will sell training videos geared to the newbie web programmer. The new programmer will purchase the videos, download them, and learn various tricks of the trade, from simple database interfacing to building fully-functioning Content Management Systems. Plenty of freebies, too.

Education Finder: This one isn’t new, but I’ll be making some improvements to it. It’s a decent site, but I’ve got to make it better. The informational and revenue potential for that site is huge, and I’m not going to let it fall shy of it’s potential.

Caleb Rogers Copywriting Services: Copywriting, ghostwriting, blogging, ad writing, web copy, and just about anything else that can be written shall be written. Well, maybe not The Great American Novel, but stuff that will help others make money will be written. The site is still in development, but look for it to go live in two to three weeks.

There are also some other ideas I’m toying around with. I’ll bring those up as they move from “toying around” to “going to do.”

. 03 Jan 08 | Information, Business, Goals, Employment, Freelance | Read on | Comments (0)

Become a Freelance Web Designer

I’ve been where you are now… Stuck in a dead-end job just so you can get enough money to pay the bills (maybe not even that). You want out, but you don’t know what to do. Well, let me talk to you for a moment about becoming a freelance web designer.

Set your own hours, work in your pajamas, and enjoy the fact that your work is literally what you make it. You might have to work long, hard weeks, but you’ll also get to take a day off at a moments notice if you want to. Want to close up shop three hours early and go rent a bunch of B-grade horror movies? Go ahead.

You can do that with just about any freelance business, so you’re probably wondering why I mention web design. Well, I mention it simply because it’s easy to learn and there’s some pretty good demand for design skills. Web design falls into two broad categories: Graphic Design and Programming. I’ll talk about programming in another post.

There just aren’t enough good, trained designers out there. I can program my way around just about any database or system, but when it comes to graphic design, I’m just lost. That’s how a lot of the web is right now. Visually lost. If you have any design skills or a design eye — no matter how miniscule — get some design training.

If you have base skills and talent, professional training can put you above the weekend warrior web designer. Your work will look professional because you will be a professional web designer.

I’m a writer and a web programmer. I trained in those areas, and in those areas are where my strengths lie. Don’t just trust your insticts when it comes to design. You need to learn. Learn what works and what doesn’t, and what the design trends are now and will be in years to come. Do that, and you will be well on your way to a successful freelance web design career.

If you don’t know where to look for that kind of training, or if you don’t even know what’s out there, check out the art and design schools at Education Finder. There are traditional and online classes, so your chances of finding something are good. Find a school, learn more about it, and get started on your career. It sure beats working in a cube all day long.

. 15 Oct 07 | Regular Jobs, Business, Education, Employment, Freelance | Read on | Comments (0)

I’m getting farther and farther behind…

In my last post, I said that I had planned on getting my current sales letter project to at least 1st draft stage. But, here it is, Wednesday night, and I haven’t done any real concrete work on it. And…it’s getting close to quitting time for the day.

You see, I work to much. Even though I have some lofty goals, I am making myself get some rest and relaxation every day. Gotta stay healthy after all! I just looked at the clock. It’s quitting time.

I think I’ll go relax with some video games and my little one.

. 10 Oct 07 | Business, Marketing, Goals, Freelance | Read on | Comments (0)

Been putting off the writing of copy…

I’ve got a project waiting to be written, but it’s just sitting on my dresser collecting dust. Actually, it’s my wife’s dresser, but let’s not fret about semantics. Ready for the tired line?

I’ve been busy. I’ve been doing so much other stuff, my copywriting assignment (class assignment, not work assignment) has gone to the good old back-burner. At least I’ve still been writing some. I have been writing articles and web copy, so my brain is getting plenty of writing exercise. I’m even going to write a story next month (go ahead and guess what for…), and the side benefit of that will be an exercise in my creative brain muscles. That will help out with my copywriting, too.

I have, however, set a deadline for myself. And that is to have at least the first draft of this sales letter done by the week’s end. Since it’s Monday right now, I’m not worried. I had some net connectivity issues this evening, so I didn’t do the research I was planning on… Oh well, I’ll get it knocked out tomorrow and still have the rest of the week to crank out the first draft.

No problem.

. 08 Oct 07 | Business, Marketing, Goals, Freelance | Read on | Comments (0)

Get it in writing

When first starting out in a service-oriented business, it may be tempting to start work on a project with only verbal instructions from a client. Get it in writing first. Without the documentation, the project may get muddled, and things can get ugly.

Let me give you an example. In this example, you are a freelance web designer. Say a client wants you to build a website, and wants you to start on it right away. This client gives you some general ideas about the look and functionality of the site, and you say you’ll get right on it. With just a basic idea of what you need to do, you start developing a site skeleton for the client. Then, the next day the client sends you payment in full for the project, saying they just want to get that payment out of the way.

And then the problems start. You’ve got the full project fee in your hand, so there may be the temptation to slack off, since you don’t have the payment motivating you. But that’s not the real problem. The problem lies with you not being able to complete the project because you don’t really know what you’re supposed to be doing. The client never gave you full project specifications. So now, they have paid you for something when you aren’t really clear about what it is you need to do. At this point you’ll really have to push for those website specs.

The problem, as far as I’ve experienced, is that some people see what they want clearly in their head, but have trouble communicating that vision. In this example, the client might know exactly what they want, and can visualize it just fine. But the client did not communicate that to you in a useful manner. If project-necessary details are not coming in, you are going to have to work hard to get them. If you do not, a couple of things can happen.

The project can stretch out. Without a defined scope, the client can request revision after revision. You’ll finally have to say enough. Which, unfortunately, can be met with, “Well, that’s not what I paid for.” Without the project specs in writing, this can turn into a mess…fast.

Or…The client isn’t happy with your work, though you did the best you could with what you had. Any future work that comes down the pipe is given to someone else. Losing a client like this might be a blessing, but it can impact your cashflow.

The client may also ask for a full or partial refund, or a credit for free work, because the project is taking so long. The fact that you tried and tried to get project details from the client won’t matter to them. They know what they want and what they paid for–and in their mind, that’s all that matters. Nevermind the fact that no project deadline was set.

Don’t let any of this happen. Even though the problems in this scenario are coming from the client, they could have been avoided if you had simply insisted on getting everything in writing. Taking the payment in advance isn’t really a problem, but the rest of the scenario is inviting disaster.

Let’s review. Before you start working on any project from a client, get the project details in writing. Agree, and get in writing, how much you are being paid, and for what, exactly. Don’t settle for something like “The pay is for a website” in some email. Get details…as many as possible. This way, the client knows exactly what they are paying for, and you know exactly what you need to do to finish the project. Set a deadline and get it in writing, and then, only after all the paperwork is in place, should you accept an advance payment.

I have some personal experience with this, so let me just say that neglecting the initial paperwork is not worth the headaches. If you’re just starting out, I know you’re eager and want to start generating cashflow. Just be patient and do it right.

. 06 Jul 07 | Business, Freelance | Read on | Comments (0)