Working the market and the opportunities as a self-employed individual

Reading a blogpost by Ernst Poulsen this morning about the new ‘design’ on the Danish School of Media and Journalism and the hopelessness of it, I started thinking about how much you can criticize somebody else without fear of retaliation later on in a career sense.

Ernst’s very valid point was that often we don’t criticize someone, because we think about what would happen if we met the same person later in life, where perhaps we were the ones looking for a favor. But is it the right way to think?

As I said, I can definately understand the point. And I won’t say I haven’t been guilty of withholding something in the past out of fear of the longterm consequences. But I still think it’s wrong - but you need to approach criticism the right way.

I think it’s super important that you keep it constructive. That you really say, why it is you think that the criticism is valid. If not for any other reason then to make it possible for yourself to admit, you were wrong (if it turns out you were) and make a gracious retreat.

The key word here is integrity. Because if you criticize with integrity, people may disagree, but most of them will still respect you for sticking with you gun. And in my experience respect and proven integrity are better drivers for long term opportunity than being spineless or scared.

The issue of having multiple sites is to know when to update which site and with what. It’s just so easy to let one site suffer, even though that really wasn’t your intention.

I have had that issue with my personal English website, 030176.com. I updated in bursts and found that that was good - but also discovered the pain when there was too far between regular updates.

Well, I think I have solved that now. The solution is called Sweetcron and it’s a free-for-all lifestream aggregator, you install on your server and use to aggregate the updates you make on blogs, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter…whatever really.

It even presents it in a nice way, and I have to be honest and admit that the format makes me get lifestreaming. It’s actually fun to look back and see what I was thinking about, what I was shooting pictures of etc. etc. And this without feeling bad about not updating the site per se.

As a self-employed individual going back every once in a while and browse the archives can help you to understand why you did, what you did, when you did it - and what you got out of it. In that way it’s not only a lifestreamer - it’s also a meaning aggregator. Hopefully at least.

There seems to be a general consensus that the real differentiator between succesful consultants, experts et al and the not so succesful ones is a common ingredient: The secret sauce.

The secret sauce it what makes you stand out from the rest. It’s what you personally add to the equation. It’s why people choose to hire you for a project rather than somebody else.

I find the idea of a secret sauce somewhat counterintuitive in this day and age, where all the pretty speech among the digital digerati focuses on sharing, openness etc. Is it only me, or do you find it funny/strange too?

If I have a secret sauce, I think its a combination of being able to dig into complex issues and spot and create clarity and develop clear idea of where to go next from there. That and my ability to build personal relations based on mutual respect.

In the spirit of openness, what’s your secret sauce?

Being self-employed you’re often presented with many very interesting opportunities. And just like going out when you’re not single, all the interesting opportunities have a way of presenting themselves, when you’re up to your ears in interesting stuff anyway.

In other words it’s time to make a choice. But what do you go with? Head or gut? How do you choose and maximize the opportunity for making a correct decision while conversely minimizing the risk of making a wrong one?

Honestly, I don’t know. So if you have got any advice to share, please do so in th comments.

Actually, I could need it right now. Because I’m stuck in this dilemma. On one hand I have got an incredible opportunity to take up a new position and work on a passion project of mine. On the other hand I have an equally incredible opportunity to build something brand new and exciting for the longer term together with real cool and fun people. And it’s really hard deciding what to go for.

What would you do, if you were me?

Chris Brogan had a good post the other day about what it means to be a vendor to someone else as opposed to a partner. It was kind of thought provocing to me, because it underlined that while there certainly are significant differences in how you should be thinking and applying your trade, the real difference can be very small.

For my own part I choose to think of the people and companies I work for as partners. Now why do I do that? Because I like to see us as striving together to reach a common goal. That’s what partners do. At least in my book.

The challenge is that while I and the other side may see us as partners, I am in reality treated as - a vendor. This means that I have the same expectations on me as other vendors would have, and I just take my place in the rank and file of vendors doing various things for the person or company in question. It’s not about a common goal anymore. It’s about me fulfilling a task.

I don’t mind solving tasks for others and get paid to do so. Far from it. But I don’t understand why we need to have the partner discussion, if it’s a vendor they are looking for? Why not just cut to the chase and call it what it really is: A supply-demand relationship?

It would certainly simplify thinking and acting as a vendor.

Always being online can be a serious distraction for many people. But if you’re self-employed, time spent not being efficient is potentially money being lost. And that’s bad.

There is a lot of advice, you could choose to follow. And we do. But quite often we cheat. So in order to make it harder for ourselves to do things, we shouldn’t be wasting our time on, we need something more hardcore.

Enter Freedom. It’s a great little free app for the Mac that lets you effectively kill your online connection for a period of time that you choose. You cannot surf, you cannot mail, you cannot be on IM or Facebook. You’re offline and thus you might as well get some real work done.

It’s absolutely brillant. Advice is great. But tools that really help are just so much better.

The competion among self-employed people, freelancers, consultants etc. is often fierce. There are a lot of people who think, they can do the job for you, and as self-employed you’re up against every single one of them. At least until you have built your reputation.

Reputation is key here. Because it comes in many shapes and forms. Most important is of course the reputation you get for the results, products or services, you deliver. But your reputation for how you go about your business, your attitude to customer service, your flexibility etc. also preceeds you and may swing a decision in your favor.

More importantly it may be those little things that’s the difference between you competing on price and going poor - or even broke - as a result and competiting while maintaining decent prices. It’s about the intangibles, as Seth Godin clearly states. Go read his lists for pointers of what you should consider in order to offer that little extra.

The other day WebWorkerDaily had a great list of arguments for and against working for free on projects, when you’re a web worker or perhaps even self-employed. And I just thought I wanted to add my personal take on the matter.

For me there are two kinds of projects, where I would consider doing it without getting cash for it: Doing a project on my own or with likeminded people, and helping a small company that can use my expertise within digital business development to grow and hopefully become succesful.

The first one is a no-brainer. If I initiate a project, it’s because it’s something I’m deeply passionate about. Things I’m deeply passionate about I do for free. For two reasons. First and foremost because it’s feeding the lust for challenge and is great fun. And second because I have a feeling that if I apply myself with great dedication, some day I will be harvesting the rewards.

The second one is more tricky. I have talked to a lot of companies over the years, who were eager to get me to look at something or help them with something. More often than not they don’t have any money, but that doesn’t stop them from wanting help. Which is perfectly fine.

However, I have experienced in the past being screwed over and over again, and therefore my ask is simple: If you want me to help you with your product, you make me a part of your project or company by giving me an opportunity to step in with an ownership stake.

Why? Again two reasons. First, it motivates me to do my best for you and your project or company. And second, it values the relationship we have on an equal footing. It shows me that you’re serious and mean business. And that in turn again inspires me to do my best.

If you can’t or won’t offer me this opportunity, it’s fine. It just means that we won’t be working together. But we can still be friends.

There’s a lot of talk about the potential use case scenarios for the iPhone and all the great apps coming out through the App Store. But so far I find that one of the killer apps for the iPhone is really RSS.

I have bookmarked my Google Reader on the iPhone, and I have to say that for the first time, I have found a way of keeping up to date with my RSS feeds in a way that actually allows me to be fully concentrated when I read them. It’s almost like sitting with a miniature size book, and for me that means complete focus.

Of course it’s a deeply personal experience what works and what doesn’t. But if you haven’t tested out the iPhone as your device for keeping up with your RSS feeds, I honestly believe you should try it out.

My small business is deeply dependant on Google’s services. I use Google Apps for my own domain, and I share documents, spreadsheets and the likes using Google servers.

So what if they crash? Or what if my account is disabled for no apparent reason, as Chris Brogan mentions happened to a guy called Nick Saber? Where would that leave me? Where would that leave you, if you - as I - have become very dependant on Google?

This is worth a serious reflection. Because as more and more computing moves into the cloud, and services we use for our daily business travel the same way, the pitfalls are getting deeper and more serious. So better think of an emergency plan (the good old ones like backup etc.).