So what do YOU do PART II

All righty then as a follow up to the last post HERE

Let’s see where we are;

The majority of respondents are NOT fulltime freelancers.
Virtually all of the NON full-timers are under 24

So does anyone think there is a need for a TalkFreelance board for ; client relations, CRM, sales and marketing, policy, freelance marketplaces, business development, pricing and estimating, you get the idea.

Myself I’d be interested in comparing notes with folks on many of these topics.
I am just not sure at this point if anyone would be interested in these discussion topics.

Thoughts?

I think that given time, these topics will begin to come up more often on this forum. I'd definitely be interested in these type of discussions, dealing with clients has always been a problem for me and I'd love to get some more info from others.

Originally Posted by cdsadmin All righty then as a follow up to the last post HERE Let’s see where we are; The majority of respondents are NOT fulltime freelancers. Virtually all of the NON full-timers are under 24 So does anyone think there is a need for a TalkFreelance board for ; client relations, CRM, sales and marketing, policy, freelance marketplaces, business development, pricing and estimating, you get the idea. Myself I’d be interested in comparing notes with folks on many of these topics. I am just not sure at this point if anyone would be interested in these discussion topics. Thoughts?

Those topics are very helpful in all honestity.. But to be honest.. I've never really been able to pair up my ideas and how I treat such policies with information posted online--since alot of times, those debating it or speaking about it, only know it in theory or from what they have read.

If you run your businesses locally like I do--I would suggest making friends with other local business people. Even if you are not local, I still suggest watching your other friends in business more than you watch random posts.. Then again--this is my opinion, and from my knowledge, has only worked for me and may not work for you.

Hiya Bennett..

Thanks for the kind advice. Unfortunately, web folks ARE my peers. Thus I sought out a forum ‘on the web’ dedicated to ‘Talk’ing ‘Freelance’.

Our business is web based. I have 17 staff members, none of which are at my physical location. We have done over 300 projects in the last 7 years.
We have 15 projects on the go at any time and in the neighborhood of 20 long term ongoing relationships.
Our client list runs from Canada and the US to Western Europe ( France, Germany,Romania ) the UK (England and Ireland) all the way over to the East ( Hong Kong, Japan and Australia).

As such we moved into the country. So, ‘local’ developers/freelancers are non-existent. Even if there were, I doubt the business models would be relative. Thus I searched the web for fellow web-lancers to hang out with. and ended up here.

Actually, we, (my wife works with me managing the ecommerce division) are currently finishing up plans to move to the Dominican Republic. Seeing as our location is irrelevant, Why not?

Hey David

We have forums for discussing these issues, business/marketing and what not, unfortunatly there doesn't seem to be much debate occuring in them! Feel free to start a few threads or what not and i'm sure others will join in. This community is still relativly new, (6 months or so) so it's early days, as we move forward and grow no doubt the discussion will become more refinded and informative.

Originally Posted by cdsadmin Hiya Bennett.. Thanks for the kind advice. Unfortunately, web folks ARE my peers. Thus I sought out a forum ‘on the web’ dedicated to ‘Talk’ing ‘Freelance’. Our business is web based. I have 17 staff members, none of which are at my physical location. We have done over 300 projects in the last 7 years. We have 15 projects on the go at any time and in the neighborhood of 20 long term ongoing relationships. Our client list runs from Canada and the US to Western Europe ( France, Germany,Romania ) the UK (England and Ireland) all the way over to the East ( Hong Kong, Japan and Australia). As such we moved into the country. So, ‘local’ developers/freelancers are non-existent. Even if there were, I doubt the business models would be relative. Thus I searched the web for fellow web-lancers to hang out with. and ended up here. Actually, we, (my wife works with me managing the ecommerce division) are currently finishing up plans to move to the Dominican Republic. Seeing as our location is irrelevant, Why not?

Oh I completely understand. However--I do urge you to get involved with local businesses. You can learn a great deal by watching local businesses since you can discuss, monitor, and watch how they handle and develop. I've found that helpful because what is used here for promotions, I can use on businesses and stores that are not local and most times get the same effect that they are getting.

like robson said we actually already have forums for business development and marketing...though the activity isnt exactly what youd expect.

i too used to be in a position such as yourself. I had 10 or so clients at any time with a number of long term work as well. You are right, depending on your business model, physical location can be irrelevant. In all my works (ive handled around 100+ clients in my last 2 years), only a fraction were local jobs. However, I actually got started by doing local work, and only later realized the power of online marketing. Local businesses can be key if you are looking to expand locally, where there is potentially an untapped market depending on your location (small town america for me seems to work pretty well).

Ah. I work on a different playing field I suppose. A vast majority of all my work is local.