Welcome to guest blogger, Pawel Grabowski, from Self Employed Cafe. Pawel is a small business owner and a blogger on a mission to help you build a successful business.

Let’s face it: as a freelancer your first goal is to bring in enough work for yourself to be able to live off what you do. Everything else is a bonus. And, because of that, it’s quite easy to divert from your marketing plan – especially when business is slow and you need work.

The problem starts when you go too far off your marketing plan and find yourself in a place you’d rather not be in. Namely, surrounded by clients who pay you little but expect a lot. Yes, the very same ones who seemed like heaven sent when you didn’t have any work. They were never your ideal clients but they were bringing you projects in. They didn’t pay much for it but, since you really needed the money, it was OK. Now, because of your lack of focus on whom you marketed to, they may be all that you’ve got.

In a recent post I asked ‘what would you like to read about?’ and one of the replies I received was: “How can I effectively get across to potential clients that I don’t have to be an expert in their particular field to be able to write good copy for them?”

Good question!

I know a number of writers who specialise in certain fields, such as pharmaceutical or financial services, and they carve out a successful niche for themselves in their chosen sector. I decided not to do this because:

a) what if my area of speciality suddenly took a nosedive and work opportunities dried up?

and

b) it gets a bit ‘same-old, same-old’ writing for the same industry day in, day out. I like to have variety.

Benefits, benefits, benefits

I was in Hyde Park on Saturday with my husband to see the new summer pavilion at the Serpentine Gallery. As we were crossing the road from the Diana Memorial Fountain to the Gallery, cyclists and runners flashed past us. But these weren’t ordinary cyclists or runners.

They all had a limb missing, except one runner who was blind (with a sighted partner to lead them.) They certainly weren’t your average weekend joggers or cyclists. They looked like elite athletes. When I got back home I looked the event up on the internet. I found that we’d been watching the Paratriathlon of the ITU World Championships. There were 42 paratriathletes competing from seven countries.

It got me thinking about the focus and determination an athlete needs to compete at an international level. Not to mention all the hard work they have to put in to meet the demands of their punishing training schedule.

Have you got all bases covered when it comes to your terms and conditions? And, once you’ve drawn up some terms and conditions that you’re happy with, how do you get your clients to agree to them?

The exact nature of your terms and conditions will naturally depend on what business you’re in. The terms and conditions I had when I was doing PR are completely different from the ones I now have as a copywriter. Anyhow, the basic principles of why we need terms and conditions are the same for every business.

Why are terms and conditions important?

• You’re more likely to get paid on time – and that’s good for cashflow.
• If you do have an outstanding debt, you’re more likely to get it recovered if you’ve set your terms and conditions out clearly.
• They spell our your business rules and state clearly who is responsible for what.
• They make you look more professional.
• They will reduce the likelihood of disputes, limit your liability, enhance your rights and generally ensure you’ve got your backside covered.
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Darren Rowse at Problogger set his followers a 7 Link Challenge. His idea (and it’s a good one) is to publish a post that’s a list of links to six posts that I have written and one post that someone else has written. So here are my 7 links:

My first post: Top Ten Tips for Freelancers

A post I enjoyed writing the most:  My freelance story

A post which had a great discussion: Procrastination – the great time stealer

Guest writer and editor, Alison Harmer, helps you strike a balance between home and office.

As freelancers, working from home has its benefits – it’s flexible, convenient, fits in with lifestyles and, most of all, is a lot cheaper than an office. But achieving two ‘must-haves’ in business – a professional image and a secure place to hold a meeting – can be tricky.

Home-based freelancers will probably be familiar with at least one of the following nightmares:

• Your children have a slanging match during an interview it’s taken you months to set up, leaving your interviewee annoyed and unimpressed.

• You forget to update the answer-phone or forward calls on the day that a major customer phones with a massive, urgent job. Frustrated, they give the project to someone else and you lose out on repeat work.
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