How to freelance with a safety net

May 13, 2019 in Finances, Freelancers, Growing your freelance business, Tips and tools

Freelancing offers flexibility. It’s a way to fit in the necessity of generating an income, with the other things you want to achieve in life. Recently I heard someone reflect on the standard 9 to 5 working day. It came about in the industrial era to align with day light hours. The factories had little…

How to stop financial stress choking your freelance business

March 14, 2019 in Finances, Freelancers, Tips and tools

Chances are you’ve become a freelancer because you’re bloody good at what you do, and you love doing it. It’s pretty unlikely that you became a freelancer because you love financial management, book-keeping, watching cash flow, and all the other financial joys that come with being a solopreneur. Financial stress is a thing, and if…

Here’s how planing out the year ahead makes me a better Australian freelancer

January 25, 2019 in Finances, Freelance journalists, Freelancers, Growing your freelance business, The Freelance Collective

Ah, the promise of a new year in your freelance business. The world is your oyster. Anything is possible. With some careful planning. Sure, you have to roll with it to some extent as a freelancer. But you can take back some of the power by making some strategic decisions about your business. Here’s how…

5 ways freelancers can avoid late payments

October 25, 2018 in Finances, Growing your freelance business, The Freelance Collective

Struggling to get paid for a freelance project? The life a freelance worker has plenty of great benefits, like choosing your own work hours and having the freedom to move around the globe, setting up your location-independent office in beach bars and chic rooftop cafés. However, one of the biggest frustrations of this lifestyle is…

How to blitz tax time as a freelancer

June 13, 2018 in Finances, Tips and tools

As June 30 approaches, the best freelancers already know what their tax position is for the financial year and they have all their resources ready for it. It’s not because they knuckled down early and crunched the numbers before the rest of us, it’s because they adopt a different mindset when it comes to tax.…

5 things you can negotiate as a freelancer (that isn’t cash)

March 28, 2018 in Finances, Growing your freelance business

Being a strong negotiator can make or break your freelance career. If you do well, you can earn enough to support your family and stash away some cash for your superannuation. If you don’t, you’ll be living on Baked Beans and working around the clock. But there are times when clients simply don’t have the…

I’m a successful Melbourne freelancer. And I’m relying on food parcels from friends.

May 25, 2017 in Finances, Tips and tools

This is a true account of the current situation of a freelance colleague known to us at The Freelance Collective. This successful website developer offers a range of creative services, but due to a range of late paying clients, her bank account currently contains just $0.56c., and she’s owned more than $20,000 by a range of clients. She…

A tale of two bad debts: how this freelance creative got paid

May 8, 2017 in Finances, Freelancers

Freelancers are business owners with real responsibilities. We pitch, win jobs, invoice, pay our own bills, manage projects and even speak on the phone like a real adult. Like any business, icky money issues can be a jolt to the system. And freelancers will know that there’s a special kind of agony in debt collection…