This week I ran an online event for a charity’s board of trustees, supporting them to review how the landscape around them had changed and how they anticipate it will continue to change, in order to refresh their business plan. A typical nearly-post pandemic event, it was via Zoom as the most practical…
Tag: Self-employment
A Day in the Life
I’ve always wondered what working for yourself would be like – I probably had those fairy tale images a lot of people have about easy starts to the day, midday exercise, working in cafes and all this space to fit the extra bits of life into. The reality is a bit different, not…
The Summer Productivity Challenge
In July the summer holiday stretched before us – 6 weeks of sunshine and I only had 50% of my planned working time blocked out for contract work. Perfect. I had all sorts of plans. And yet somehow pretty much spectacularly failed at them all. What happened and why didn’t the school summer…
How to find a freelancer
Naturally to be a successful freelancer, you need to be able to secure the work. I’ve been trialling a few different ways to find opportunities (more on that later) and something I’ve noticed is the huge disparity in how organisations are marketing, and outlining, their opportunities. From vague one-liners to 5+ pages of…
Finance 101
In my long list of things to learn, finance has got to be up there. I haven’t (yet) been caught out by anything in particular, it’s been hard to shake a worry that I might be, because I’ve accidentally overlooked something. The longer I do this, the easier this gets but I think…
First 90 days (foundation)
This week marked my first 90 days as a consultant. I’m counting it as foundation setting, however, rather than actual because 90% of it was while working my notice in employment and running some freelance work alongside. As the first 90 days are generally considered a key transition period into any new role,…
Lessons in Evaluation
This week I concluded a two-month long two-report impact evaluation project for an amazing charity. They provide independent advice services on areas such as benefits, immigration, debt and housing for their local community. Their community-led approach and ability to build trust with a community experiencing significant deprivation is hugely impactful (sorry, should have…
The Freelancer Club
A curiosity I’ve had since I first thought about becoming a freelancer was how many others were doing it and just how big the freelance community is. Before making the leap myself I was aware of some friends with their own businesses, either with actual companies or as sole-traders, but I wasn’t sure…