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The Biggest Disadvantage of Being Self Employed

Even though I grew up with two self-employed parents, I didn’t even really get it until I started working for myself. It’s something that you don’t really think about if you work for someone else, but it’s a daily thought if you’re your own boss. What do you think it is? Discipline, hard work, no boss to keep you on track? Nope, it’s…

Finding work.

That’s the killer. Getting enough hours is the bane of most self-employed people’s existence. My friend Sergej who does freelance translation says that he spends 70% of his time translating, and 30% of his time finding new clients. My father, who runs the business Timberbuilt, spends large sums of money to get new clients every year. And he always says to me; “We can handle more work, first we just need to get it.”

Employed vs. Self-Employed

In my own experience, getting enough hours to make the kind of money I want has been the hardest part of working for myself. For example, my hourly wage is a respectable $25 to $30 at the moment. That’s great and I’m happy with it, but if I only get 10 hours a week it doesn’t matter how good it is, the guy making $10 an hour, working forty hours a week, is still doing better than me.

When you have a normal job with a boss and a water cooler and coworkers you don’t like, you take it as granted that you’ll always have work. In fact you probably wish you had a less steady supply of the stuff. While I don’t think it’s fair to look at your workload as a blessing, it is something that you might want to appreciate to some degree. You can do your work without having to worry about whether you’re even going to have any hours at all next week.

Is it Worth it?

Of course, there are many self-employed people who never worry about getting hours. They regularly turn down jobs. However, I believe this is something that typically comes once you’ve been in the game a while and the quality of your work is high. If you’re in the beginning stages it’s more difficult. Getting work is a big part of the grind, and the constant search can grow tedious.

So if you’re thinking about working for yourself, or starting your own business, be aware in advance that a large part of your time is going to be spent finding new clients. It’s easier for some people than others, but everyone has to anticipate this arrangement to some degree. Despite this, I think the advantages heavily outweigh the drawbacks, and I encourage everyone to take steps to start their own online business today! You can read my post: How to Make Money Online, or check out all the other resources available on the internet today.

Should You Create Your Own Website?

Having your own website is an invaluable way to market yourself. It’s the 21st century equivalent of a business card. It’s sort of like having a cool Facebook profile, only more professional and you have ultimate control over it. Regardless of the appeal of a large platform like Facebook, you have to accept that someone else will always be in control. At any time they can suspend your account for violating some arcane rule, and there’s little you can do about it. The only reason that will happen with your own website is your failure to pay the hosting fee.

I created this website after reading The Education of Millionaires, a book that I recommend to everyone. Ellsberg suggested registered a domain with your own name and I took him up on his advice. Eighteen months later here we are. But what if you don’t want to write blog posts, does it still make sense to create a website?

Absolutely. Even if you don’t plan to publish content a website can still be your calling card. You can use it to host your resume. If you do freelance work it can be a place for clients to leave reviews. You can use it as a portal to all of your social profiles. If you know nothing about web design it will force you to learn a thing or two. Finally, it will give you control over your image. If you don’t have a website, when someone types your name into Google you’re at the mercy of whatever comes up. Having a website gives you control over your own brand name which is important now, and will be even more important in the future.

Creating a Website from Scratch

Even if you don’t want the hassle of creating a website right now, you should definitely consider doing the bare minimum and registering your domain name. Sites like GoDaddy will let you register a domain name for about $15 per year.

If you’ve done that and you’re feeling adventurous, you can begin the process of creating your own site. There are loads of guides to get you started. Or you can easily go to Upwork and contract the work out. However, I believe that you should give serious thought to designing your own website. It will give you total control over the appearance and you’ll end up learning why things look the way they do. For people just starting out I’ve written the post: 4 Web Design Tips for Beginners. That’s just the tip of the iceberg though, and there’s a nearly unlimited amount of useful information out there on the internet.

3 Downsides of Freelancing Online

Earlier I wrote about how awesome it is to work online. You can work from anywhere in the world, you don’t have a boss, you can earn a healthy amount of money, and so on. That’s fantastic and I meant every word of it. There are downsides too though, and it’s only in the last couple of weeks that I’ve really started to notice them. If you work online, can you relate to any of these?

1. Lack of Client Communication

For me, this warrants spot number one. When I wrote about having clients (and not needing a resume) I was looking at as a major positive, and I still see it that way. However, the flip-side is that when you have lots of different clients, not all of them are going to treat you as you might like.

The best clients provide feedback and answer your questions in a timely manner. The worst don’t say anything and never return your emails. I’ve found that most clients fall somewhere in the middle. They’ll usually answer your questions, but not all the time. What I’ve found is the absolute worst though, is when a client stops giving you work for no apparent reason.

For example, I’ll turn in a few articles, the client will thank me (or not) and then I won’t hear back from them. That leaves me in a mental fog. Did I fuck up somehow, are the articles not what they wanted? Or is there just no more work right now?

Not only is this taxing mentally, it also makes it difficult to plan ahead. At the moment I have contracts with guaranteed work for the next month. Everything else is always on the chopping block. This is opposite of a traditional paycheck, which arrives week in and week out. I believe this is something that all self employed people experience, whether you work online or not.

2. The Need to Constantly Find New Work

I imagine that this will change in the future. As I continue to work online I hope to pick up steady clients and find more consistent, reliable work. However, at the moment I spend several hours a week looking for new work. There are two reasons for this.

As I mentioned above, sometimes clients leave me out in the rain. I deliver a product and then don’t hear from them again. Especially frustrating since I actually work really hard on every single article and I crave feedback. If they have a problem, I wish they would tell me! Every month a certain small percentage of my work disappears like this.

Sometimes it’s the other way around though, and I leave a client. The best example of this is a job I quit last week. I was working for Udemy, looking for email addresses of technology bloggers. It was stable work at $11 an hour. Comfortable, ridiculously easy, and I was good at it too, routinely beating their average time requirements for finding a certain number of addresses. However, the work wasn’t furthering my career. I could do it for 100 hours, earn $1,100 and still be in the same spot as when I started.

That’s different then writing articles. Every article brings me one step closer to achieving my long term goals. With every article I gain a sliver of new experience, I have something new to add to my portfolio and I learn a bit more about SEO. You don’t get any of that when you’re searching Google for Bloggers. That’s why sometimes I quit jobs, even good jobs, in order to find work that will bring me closer to achieving my goals. Giving up the short term to further the long term is great, but you still need to find new clients when you do it.

3. Explaining to People How I Earn Money

Seriously though, this gets old. Typical conversation goes like this (usually in Russian since I’m in Ukraine, but I’ll write it out in English).

“So what do you do for a living?”

“I write online.”

“You mean you’re a blogger?”

“Well, sort of. I write articles for different companies around the world.”

“You studied this in university?”

“No, I just started doing it four or five months ago”

“What do you write about?”

“Ummm, well I wrote about bedbugs today, but yesterday I wrote about a motel in Australia.”

“Wow. That sounds…. Cool!”

Eyes glazed, no comprehension. I’m fairly certain that half of the people I talk to think that I’m making this shit up. They probably think that every day I actually sneak off to go work in a factory or sell hot dogs on a street corner. It’s outside of most people’s reality that some guy from Australia who I’ve never met and will never meet is willing to pay me $20 an article to write about his motel.

A Freelancer’s Lifestyle

That, in a nutshell, is what I find difficult about working online. Number three isn’t really that bad though, just sort of annoying. I don’t think people take me seriously when I tell them how I earn money. They think I’m a fruit, or that I just don’t want to tell them what I really do.

All things considered I really like working online. I’ll take these downsides any day versus the drawbacks of previous jobs that I’ve held. If you want to find out how you can get started, read my post: How to Make Money Online. In the post I break down the procedure of finding work online into a series of easy steps. Anyone can do it, so long as you want it bad enough. Are you ready for something better?

Screw the Resume, Satisfy Your Clients

For an entrepreneur, having a satisfied client is the most important resume. You can’t fake it and you can’t pay for it. It takes a while to build up a list of satisfied clients. However, once you have it, it’s like holding onto gold. You’ll be able to use that list of clients to bring in new jobs and charge more for them while you’re at it. Here are three reasons why you should start creating a list of satisfied clients, and chuck the resume in the garbage can where it belongs.

1. Your History is Irrelevant

If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re working for yourself, your history is irrelevant. A prospective client doesn’t care where you went to high school, what you studied in college, whether you graduated from college, or how many times you’ve visited Florida. He cares about one thing.

Can you help me to solve a problem, and make my company more money?

If that client can read feedback from people you’ve worked with, or talk to people you’ve worked with, that’s going to be a way more effective way to convince him of your value.

2. Good Communication is Crucial

When you’re working with a client it’s critical to be accessible and easy to contact. You’d be surprised by how many people screw up this simple idea. They answer their emails late, or not at all. This makes it harder for a client to work with you, and they’re less likely to hire you again. A resume doesn’t tell a perspective client anything about your communication habits. Feedback from past clients does.

3. A Resume is Too Commonplace

My dad has been a business owner for more than twenty years. When I was a kid I would occasionally see the pile of applications that formed on his desk. When you see twenty or thirty of them stacked on top of each other, they no longer seem to represent human potential. That’s just a small business. Imagine if you’re sending in an application for a company which will receive hundreds..

Imagine how much more attention you would receive if you mailed my father’s business a letter. Inside you wrote three lines about yourself, and included the name and phone number of three other people you had worked with who would recommend you. That would  stick out from the pile.

You wouldn’t have to mail many of these letters before you got a job.

How You Can Start Building a Satisfied Client List

Unlike a resume, you can’t fake a client satisfaction list. The only way to build it is to actually offer your clients a high quality product. Do that, have good communication, and add in a dash of going-over-the-top and you have the perfect recipe for building a great list.

You don’t have to always have phone numbers or emails either. If you’ve done a good job for a client, don’t be afraid to ask for feedback. They’ll be happy to give it. You can then take that and put it on your website. This doesn’t have to be fancy, my own list of feedback from clients is very simple. It gets the job done though.

Today I got my highest paying job to date, and I got it because my new client from Hong Kong read what other clients wrote about me. Twice during the interview she mentioned my client feedback list. She never asked me where I went to college, what my last job was, or what my address is (which is great, because I couldn’t tell you my Ukrainian address to save my life).

If you’re an entrepreneur, having satisfied clients is the new resume. Start building your list today.

My $2,500 Travel Manifesto

Born out of the idea that it’s possible to live on a very tight budget, I have created a simple challenge for myself. Live for 6 months, in Europe, on $2,500. Or, if you break that down further – $416.67 a month.

I’ve been doing the research, and I know that I can make it happen. It won’t be easy, but anything in life worth having is worth working for.

Instead of sounding abstract, allow me to break down into further detail how I’m preparing myself for this journey, what the rules and guidelines are, and how I’m funding myself.

Part 1) The Saving

There is a skill that I am eternally glad my parents taught me. Money management.

From my mother I learned about credit, paying bills on time, and how to effectively use money. You know the saying, actions speak louder than words? Well that’s the behavior my mother modeled for me. From the time I could speak, till the time I left for college, I watched my mom effectively handle money, and keep an outstanding level of credit, on less than an ideal income.

From my father I learned the power of saving money. My dad lived frugally, and he often talked about it. But the difference between frugal and cheap, is that he was saving to spend later. He lived frugally in order that we could take marvelous vacations and splurge on awesome holidays. Growing up, I came to understand that if you save money, and live below your means, you can buy experiences later on.

Combined, these two skills have allowed me to save 50% of my paycheck since arriving in Russia. This is the origin of the funding for my current journey. This seed money is what’s allowing me to embark on such an adventurous undertaking.

What’s Going to Make this Trip Financially Possible

At this point, I’ll do what poker players don’t do, and I’ll reveal my ace in the hole. I’ll share with you the powerful tool that is going to allow me to pull this trip off on such a small budget.

WorkAway.info

If you haven’t heard about WorkaWay, which I hadn’t till about a month ago, allow me to fill you in. It’s a website with numerous hosts spread across the world. In exchange for a few hours of work every day, a host provides you with shelter, and possibly food.

These hosts are spread across Europe, in every country I could hope to visit. Furthermore, WorkaWay makes the previously limiting expense of a country work for you. I can afford to live in Ukraine or Thailand for next to nothing. Sweden? Fuh-get-aboutit.

WorkaWay takes the prohibitively expensive aspect of a country and reverses it. Since there are more well-off people in first world countries like Sweden or Germany, there are more people who have extra space to let out to a traveler. If a person is well off financially, they will be happy to lend a room and some food, in exchange for some difficult chores. Planting trees, gardening, painting, boat building, language practice, and what have you.

These are the types of jobs I expect to do in the coming months. None of them serious (the maximum limit is five hours a day, five days a week), none of them paid. Food and shelter, that’s all I expect.

My First WorkAway Experience

That’s how I expect to live on $2,500 for six months. I’m going to stay with different hosts in different countries, never spending a dime for shelter. I’ve already arranged my first trip.

I’m going to a commune in Ukraine to plant trees (oh heavens, my life is so awesome!). After that, I’m going to live with a woman in Kiev. In return for English lessons, the only money I’ll be expected to pay is for my electricity bill.

I won’t get into my plans further at the moment (mostly because they don’t exist!) but I will make one final note. WorkaWay has a nautical equivalent.

FindaCrew.net

When Eastern Europe starts to cool down, I may pursue a nautical life. I dream of crossing the Atlantic, or at least sailing down to New Zealand or Australia. The trip isn’t that important, so much as my desire to learn to sail.

That wraps up this section. Next, I want to clarify exactly what my budget will consist of.

Part 2) An Exact Definition of Spending

I want to be very clear about where I will draw the line in my expenditures. I will start living off of my $2,500 on June 1st, 2015. And I will continue to do so until December 1st, 2015.

However, let’s look at my preparations. Before I enter into my frugal living stage, I’m going to make several purchases.

Exception 1

-A $350 Nikon D3500 Camera, for superior recording
-A $250 Osprey hiker’s backpack, for superior comfort
-A $100 SSD Hard Drive for my laptop, for superior durability
-A $100 down payment on Russian lessons with my amazing Skype tutor Irina
-A $32 dollar plane ticket to Stockholm, from Warsaw, for the fulfillment of my long term dream of visiting Sweden

As you can see, that amounts to $832. Which I think is fair, because if someone from America wanted to replicate my journey, that’s less than they would spend for a round-trip plane ticket to Europe.

Exception 2

From August 12th to August 26th, I will be traveling with my sister. We will meet in Berlin, after nearly a year of being apart. By the time we have finished our travels, we will have taken in Dresden, Berlin, Prague, and Krakow.

This will be the second exception to my journey. During this trip I will be living a lifestyle that is necessarily different than the ultra-frugal one demanded by my budget.

I won’t be splurging, but I expect to spend twice as much a day while on this trip than I would otherwise. I have thus made this an exception period, because I would not otherwise be spending that money. Perhaps time will show that I can pay for this trip, while sticking to my original budget, but I won’t hold myself accountable if I go over.

I will keep meticulous records of this two week trip, and I will factor in additional expenses, writing them off as the result of spending some time with my super fabulous, super amazing sister.

Summary

That’s it. Those are my two exceptions. I have several pre-purchases that I will make in order to prepare for my long journey ahead. And I have a two week grace period, while traveling with my sister, that will be excluded from my normal expense column.

Wrapping up this section, I want to take a moment to lay out the reasons I think I will succeed.

1) My proven ability to live according to a strict budget. I am excellent at saving money and not making impulsive purchases.

2) My ability to think outside the box. Where other people see a wall, I see an opportunity. With utmost conviction, I believe that what I am about to do is possible.

3) The support of my family. I’ve been incredibly lucky to have been born into an adventurous family. Both of my parents have traveled extensively and they can empathize my desire to do the same. I appreciate that they understand what I’m doing, and have my back.

The End Product

I’m going to post regular updates on my blog. Everything from stories, to how the budget is working out, to what I’m finding difficult. As long as I have internet, I’ll surely make at least one post a week about this awesome journey.

And finally, provided that I complete this adventure, on budget and alive, I will write a book about the whole trip. It will detail my decisions along the way, some of the awesome stories I’m bound to accrue, and of course a practical section detailing how you can follow in my footsteps. Once I’ve proved that you can live for six months on a scanty $2,500, I hope that other people are inspired to start out on their own adventures!

TL;DR – Going to Travel around Europe for the next six months on $2,500.

Cheers from Russia (and tomorrow Ukraine).

Sam

I’ll Never Work Again in my Life!

I want to diversify my income so that I never again have to depend on a full time job. Being dependent on a job is like being hit in the groin with a ladle every day, it sucks. I don’t like the rigidity, the fact that on weekdays I have to go to work come rain or shine. It may not be the worst bargain in the world, but it’s not an appealing one either. I’m going to find a better solution.

To that end, I’m publicly declaring my intentions to become financially independent by the end of this year. Let’s break down that goal in order that we might understand the implications. Come July, I’m going to be living like a monk in eastern Europe. I’ve run the math and I don’t expect my monthly expenses to exceed $600.

If we break that down further we find that I will have to make $20 a day. That’s not an unreasonable amount of money. $20 is only four hours of work at a minimum wage job in the United States, for example. However, I don’t want to work a minimum wage job. Ideally, I don’t want to work at all, but one step at a time.

Making Money Online

So how the hell can I make $20 a day online? Well my current thought lies with copywriting. It would be a tough market to break into but if I was successful, my expenses would easily be covered. In fact as I started producing better content and amassed a greater list of clients, I would make enough money to live in first world countries. Many of the cities on my to-visit-list are expensive and I would welcome the income.

While copywriting would allow me to throw off the shackles of a full time job, and earn money virtually, it doesn’t fulfill one indispensible criteria. Copywriting will never make me money while I sleep. Although it’s unfathomably better than teaching ten year olds English, it’s still not perfect.

The golden pear that I’m building a ladder to reach is an automated platform that makes me money while I’m at the bar, swimming in the ocean and studying foreign grammar. I know it’s possible. I’ve read accounts of people doing it and I’m confident that I can replicate their success. The process won’t be easy, but the very thought of working a full time job for the rest of my life gives me nightmares. I never want to work for someone again unless I stand to gain something other than money.

And so my goal stands pat. By December 31st of this year, I will make be making $600 a month online. I will do so to fulfill a short term need, but I will always keep my eye on the long term goal of creating a virtual ATM. My goals may be ambitious but history has shown that I’m capable of rising to the challenge.