
Living Self-Employed Online: The Manual They Forgot to Give You - icey
http://www.viperchill.com/self-employment-manual/
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MartinCron
This was a good article. My favorite points:

 _View anything public as Marketing_

This is good advice for anyone and everyone. It doesn't mean that you always
are out selling your excellent services or plugging your web site, it's really
more "Use your real name and don't look like a stupid jackass anywhere
online."

 _Only spend money on essential items_

I totally fell into this trap the first time I was self-employed, and a little
bit the second time. It's so easy to justify all sorts of expenses as "for the
business" but the truth is, being smartly frugal can be a competitive
advantage. That said, you can take my new laptop SSD when you pry it from my
cold, dead hands.

 _Be Open About Your Position_

I find it interesting that high profile doctors, lawyers, and real estate
agents don't like to hide behind a name and a facade of "enterprisey-ness" and
false sense of scale. If anything, they do the opposite, having you work more
closely with with assistants and nurses than the name-brand expert.

If you're good, you are your brand, and you don't have to pretend to be a
dozen people. In fact, a dozen people don't generally solve client problems
better than one person who really has his stuff together. I'm proud to be able
to deliver well as a one-person shop.

~~~
Tichy
"you can take my new laptop SSD when you pry it from my cold, dead hands."

Say that buying a SSD is excusable, please! :-)

I guess I'll buy one when I first have cause to celebrate something (something
being some kind of income >> cost of SSD)...

~~~
MartinCron
Buying an SSD is absolutely excusable, just buy the smallest one you can get
away with and keep your machine very clean/small. I'm living comfortably with
40GB right now, as all of my media (music, movies, whatever) is on my iMac.

------
commanda
"I saved myself $1,500 by finding workarounds for my problems, rather than
just purchasing a new laptop straight away."

But how much time each day was spent dealing with the fact that his computer
didn't have a hard drive? If your time can be valued in terms of dollars (it
can), I bet it would have been cheaper for him to just pony up the $1500 for a
usable laptop.

~~~
arn
ya, seriously. There's frugal, then there's just wasting your time. It goes
back to the saying I always liked "linux is free if your time isn't worth
anything" (not trying to start a linux debate, the quote came years ago when
it required technical knowledge to do anything in linux).

Maybe it's just me justifying my spending, but I've always freely bought
things to reduce the friction between me and getting things done. A solid
laptop would be #1 on the list.

------
joshklein
“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there” – Lewis
Carroll

That's not a good quotation to cite when suggesting you define your goals :)

~~~
pzxc
I think it is. Goals are a destination. Strategy is the road that leads to
your destination. Put another way, this quote is saying, "If you don't have
goals, your strategy can be anything and you'll succeed at reaching your non-
goals."

Thus you need goals, so you know the success condition of your strategy. The
Lewis Carroll quote is quite appropriate here.

~~~
joshklein
I understand what the author's point is, but the quotation lends support to
the counterargument: accept that the joy is in the journey, not the
destination, and continue moving forward because you will get to where you
desire, no matter where it is.

Or succinctly: life is about adventure, so don't make plans.

"Cheshire Puss, she began, rather timidly, as she did not know at all whether
it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. Come, it's
pleased so far, thought Alice, and she went on. Would you tell me please,
which way I ought to go from here?

That depends a good deal on where you want to get to said the cat.

I don't much care where, said Alice.

Then it doesn't matter which way you go, said the cat.

... So long as I get somewhere, Alice added as an explanation.

Oh, your sure to do that, said the cat, if you only walk long enough."

