Sept 2014 30x500 Hot Seats!
 

Exercise #1 - Painstorming!

15 minutes of Safari note-taking on this thread: http://bit.ly/30x500-boot-exercise2
 
Chris L
Doubts
  • new to freelancing
  • Worried about time spending non-billable time
  • Curious - wants to know about how much time other people in the industry spend on paid work
  • Wary of bringing more people on (too much time to manage)
  • stress of over working
  • how do i know that i am doing enough paid work? (what is “enough”?)
  • Hourly rate high enough?
  • Not working as many hours as others in the post
 
work
  • task switching - loss of productivity when changing gears every 15-20 min
  • Paid discovery
  • Seed  planting - looking for new work
 
suggestions
  • Looking for a balance to schedule
  • Bill for meetings/maintenance
  • Bill for any work that adds value
  • Get clients on maintenance plans (rollover hours?)
  • Time tracking app - keep running tab of client time
  • Have clients log tickets in redmine
  • Hold firm in your price - find the right client
 
themes
  • Too much time spent on admin (emails, calls, chat, managing contractor
  • No time to spend on non-billable things (dishes, personal website, etc)
  • Growing pains of having to manage employee
  • work-life balance is important
  • Exercise/getting up is important
 
Amitai S:
 
Given another /r/freelance post, "do 15 minutes of Painstorming"
 
OP is a new freelancer.
 
Nervous about how much non-billable stuff he/she is always doing
 
Seeking reassurance that that's okay, or that it won't always be this way, or that there's some way to fix it. Am I doing it right? How do I live this way?
 
OP spends recurring non-billable time on (at least):
* dishes
* exercise