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Freelance, and Business, and Stuff (Ebook Only)

$15.00

This eBook is a live text PDF with high resolution poster openers that you can print and hang on your wall!

✨ Over 12,000 copies sold! ✨ How to start your own business, grow your client base, and promote yourself without selling out or starving. This no faff, no fluff guide is peppered with applicable advice (things we learned from starting our own business), unasked-for humor, and worksheets (homework, gasp!) to help you just get started already. Because raw talent and good ideas aren’t enough. And because you can do this. Really.

Freelance, and Business, and Stuff (Ebook Only)

Freelance and Business and Stuff photoshoot bedroom scene by Scott Snyder

A start-to-finish roadmap to freelancing that wont bore you to tears

Learn how to start your own business, grow your client base, promote yourself, and manage your business without selling out or starving. This no faff, no fluff guide covers the 101 of freelancing or running your own creative studio. It’s peppered with applicable advice (things we learned from starting our own studio 8 years ago), unasked-for humor (to get you through), and worksheets (homework, gasp!) to help you just get started already. Because raw talent and good ideas aren’t enough. And because you can do this. Really.

Chapter 1
Do You Have What it Takes?

Chapter 2
Get by With a Little Help

Chapter 3
Making a Budget

Chapter 4
Pricing and Proposals

Chapter 5
Creating a Business Plan

Chapter 6
Branding Your Business

Chapter 7
Making It Official

Chapter 8
Growing Audience, Promoting Yourself, and Getting Work

Chapter 9
Contracts

Chapter 10
Workflow Mojo

Chapter 11
Communication & Collaboration

Chapter 12
Taxes, Accounting, and Measuring Financial Health

Chapter 13
Staying Competitive and Adaptive

Make a smart step into freelance by going in with eyes open and the key bases covered

As a creative, working for yourself can seem like the ultimate dream scenario. It’s true that freelancing can tailor your career to your unique skills, goals, schedule and work habits. But being your own boss also means taking on roles, responsibilities and risks that you didn’t have when you worked for someone else. This book will help you create a plan of attack and set up necessary procedures.

Freelance and Business and Stuff soft cover books laid in a grid with pages open

For all creatives
Business is business. While we’re brand designers, the advice you’ll learn in this book is generally applicable to any kind of creative.

Plus, free posters!
Each chapter opener features a poster we designed, which you can razor out and hang on your walls (or use as fire kindling).

Freelance and Business and Stuff photoshoot by Scott Snyder

About

Freelance, and Business, and Stuff is for anyone looking for more control in their creative career. Freelance can truly enrich your life. And you don’t have to be full-time freelance to enjoy the perks. It can be a way to make side cash to supplement your income; to test a new profession or skill without ditching your steady day job; and to work on projects that fulfill you.

When you run your own creative business, you have more power to choose how you work (when and where), what you work on, who you work with, and how much you make. The gain is more flexibility and control. The tradeoff is more responsibility. This book will catch you up on what will be required of you, give you the tools and resources to get started, advise you on how to grow and streamline, and help you setup necessary processes, checks and balances to stay on track.

You truly don’t have to be a business genius to start your own company, and you don’t need thousands of dollars. Heck, you don’t even need a college degree. Best of all, you definitely don’t need permission. This book can give you the 101 you need, without boring you to tears.

“So helpful, well written, and more than I got out of school.”

– Anna McNaughty

You’ll learn to

  • Make a budget
  • Calculate your hourly rate
  • Calculate and scope flat rate
  • Communicate value
  • Create a proposal
  • Brand your business
  • File necessary paperwork (USA)
  • Assemble needed team/allies
  • Make contracts
  • Promote yourself
  • Grow your audience
  • Get work
  • Communicate with clients
  • Present work
  • Finetune workflow
  • Setup and track financials
  • And much more!

Authors

Amy and Jennifer Hood are twin sisters and the Co-Founders / Principals behind Hoodzpah, a boutique brand identity and design studio based out of Southern California. Since they started Hoodzpah in 2011, they’ve branded hundreds of businesses and worked on projects with companies like Airbnb, 20th Century Fox, Beyond Meat, Red Bull, and Target.

While they cannot read each others’ minds, they can text each other while working in the same room, which is almost the same.

The taught Professional Practices at Laguna College of Art and Design (LCAD) where this book is currently being used as curriculum. They are also among the founding team of Connecting Things, a creative meetup in Orange County, CA.

They’ve spoken about the business of creative and the creative of business at conferences around the world, from Brand New, to Creative South and Dribbble’s HangTime LA and NY.

Disclaimer: they are not as docile as they appear in this photo.

Photo by Patrick Yandoc.

Chapters

Chapter 1
Do You Have What it Takes?

Chapter 2
Get by With a Little Help

Chapter 3
Making a Budget

Chapter 4
Pricing and Proposals

Chapter 5
Creating a Business Plan

Chapter 6
Branding Your Business

Chapter 7
Making It Official

Chapter 8
Growing Audience, Promoting Yourself, and Getting Work

Chapter 9
Contracts

Chapter 10
Workflow Mojo

Chapter 11
Communication & Collaboration

Chapter 12
Taxes, Accounting, and Measuring Financial Health

Chapter 13
Staying Competitive and Adaptive

Photo by Scott Snyder

Shipping

We run shipping Monday through Friday. Any orders made after hours or on weekends will be shipped on the next business day.

During the holidays, the USPS is notoriously and understably slower, so please order early to ensure you receive the order on time. Refer to USPS’s holiday deadlines for when to order by to get orders in time for December 25.

Priority USPS to USA
1 to 3 business days

Media Mail USPS to USA
3 to 10 business days

International is shipped First Class USPS
Time varies by destination


Photo by Scott Snyder
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