Penny Thoughts

Is Freelancing for You?: A Questionnaire

pennylange — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 15:31:04 +0000

Each year I guest-lecture to the Algonquin College Technical Writing Program students, giving them my take on being a freelancer (aka consultant, contractor, self-employed person who rows her own boat instead of someone else’s).

The students always want to know if/how freelancing is better than having a fulltime job for someone else. It’s “better” only if it makes you happier. And unless this career path is foist upon you—there are no fulltime positions available and you really do prefer to eat occasionally—it’s a lifestyle choice.

To help determine if this is a lifestyle you might enjoy, I’ve put together the following mini-questionnaire.

Do you deal well with uncertainty?
Are you very self-disciplined?
Are you willing to work nights, weekends—whatever it takes—to get the job done?
Do you love to learn new things?
Can you learn really, really fast?
Are you really good at time management?
Do you play well with others and also work well independently?
Do you enjoy job interviews?
Are you good at math—or at least willing to get good enough at it to do your invoicing, bookkeeping, tax prep, etc.

There are no right or wrong answers, but if you said “No” to many of these questions, you might not be suited to a freelance lifestyle.

If you have other questions that you think should be added—or if you think any of the questions on my list should be changed or deleted—please share your thoughts in the Comments section of this blog.

Should I give a damn if you like me?

Penny — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 13:27:05 +0000

Ultimately, it’s more important to me to be respected than to be liked. (Miss Congeniality is often pretty bland and, hey, we aren’t in high school.) But when you’re looking for a job or new clients, it’s amazing how important likeability is. If you’re very good at what you do but you aren’t likeable, it doesn’t matter if people respect you but don’t like you: they won’t want to work with you and they may also not want to recommend you to others. We all want to work with people who are pleasant, helpful and make us feel good.

This fact has even been mentioned on American Idol where Simon Cowell, the caustic British judge, would tell contestants that they were in a good position with the voting public because they were likeable or they were in trouble because they weren’t. (Yes, I watch this show sometimes. We all have our guilty pleasures.)

I recently asked for some LinkedIn recommendations, and I was amazed at how important a factor likeability was for the people who very graciously said nice things about PennyLange & Associates, including that we were fun and personable. (I owe you all lunch.)

What should I take away from this experience? I’m not sure. I know I’m grateful for the recommendations and positive feedback, but also a little bit surprised at the importance of the “L” word.

Please share your thoughts on the issue in the Comments section of this blog.

Welcome to our blog!

Penny — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 00:34:47 +0000

Welcome to this new blog, Penny Thoughts. As in “thoughts from Penny” and also “a penny for your thoughts”—because I hope this space will be an interactive forum for sharing and exploring.

Sharing and exploring what? Well, I’m a writer, editor, manager, teacher, public speaker and business owner, so these areas will definitely figure. I’m an unapologetic word nerd who is passionate about words, language and communication…

… and more than a bit stressed out by authoring a blog. If my passion—and profession—were not related to communications, it would be easier because I’d worry less about the writing and just concentrate on the content. This experience is similar to my stint, many years ago, as a newsletter editor for a professional association. Producing the newsletter was like sending out my resume every two months. I’d get so tied up in knots over the possibility of inserting a typo in an issue that I finally decided to offer a prize to the first person who found the one (unintentional) typo. That helped…sort of.

I’m also fascinated by technology, both because I’ve worked in this field for 24 years and also because it affects so much of our everyday lives, in so many ways. Some big. Some small.

What else? We’ll see. Let’s figure that out together.