Meetings are a common occurrence in working life. Maybe even a little too common. By that I mean that many meetings could have been an email. Regardless of how that, a large part of office working life is made up of meetings. In the meetings, a great deal of information is conveyed verbally. In order to work as efficiently as possible, you need to learn to screen, remember and follow up on this verbal information. If you do not ensure that you follow up on the verbal information that falls within the scope of your area of responsibility, there is a great risk that you will be sitting in the exact same meeting again in six months. It's something neither you nor anyone else wants to have to go through. So in this article I share how I try to avoid it and categorize verbal information as effectively as possible.
An initial interview with the customer is inevitable. Even if you are going to work completely remotely, the client will want to meet you digitally. In short - succeeding in the interview is a must for a consultant and freelancer. So how do you make the consultant interview a success and a wonderful conversation that just flows completely naturally? I will tell you in this article.
Interviews differ from company to company and from interviewer to interviewer. Depending on the role and assignment, it can also contain completely different parts and be of different lengths. On the one hand, for example, I only had a quick phone interview for one of my assignments. On the other hand, I know that some companies even have tests that you have to take and pass in order to move on to the interview as both an employee and a consultant. It can be both personality and knowledge tests as well as purely logical tests and so-called cases.
When it comes to consulting interviews (by consulting interview I mean when you, as a consultant, interview for an assignment with the client) compared to employment interviews, I can say in general that consulting interviews are often shorter and have fewer elements than employment interviews. The whole process is often much shorter. Job interviews can drag on for several weeks or even months and you have to meet several different people and/or the same person several times. Consultant interviews are usually only one step and one interview and it is common to receive feedback only a few days later or the same week.
Starting a company or executing on a business idea is hard. Many say it is even tougher if you are alone. Many, whom I have interviewed in my podcast Techskaparna, who have started their businesses alone say that it probably would have gone faster had they taken in someone else onboard. However, it is also difficult to find that person or persons. It is a super important decision - it could definitely be a "make it or break it" one, and you need to match on so many levels.
Therefore I have gathered all the different successful approaches to finding a co-founder (whether it is knowingly or unknowingly) in this article.
Many entrepreneurs have a background as freelancers. There are no official statistics on this available, but those who have listened to most of the episodes of my podcast Techskaparna (a podcast in Swedish, which loosely translates to “tech creators”) have probably noticed that many who have been guests on the podcast have freelanced at some point. Of the tech entrepreneurs who have participated so far, half (as far as I know) have a background as freelancers. In episode 4 of Techskaparna with Ted Valentin and Jonatan Heyman, they also explicitly recommend combining freelancing and entrepreneurship. Many tech entrepreneurs have simply freelanced at some point in their careers before transitioning to being full-time entrepreneurs.
In this article, I will try to explain why this is so and outline the pros and cons of being both a freelancer and an entrepreneur. That is, freelancing before and maybe at the same time as you try to build companies, products, startups, your own projects, be an indie hacker, lifestyle entrepreneur or whatever you call it - to have and try to realize your entrepreneurial ambition.
Here I list the pros and cons of combining freelancing with entrepreneurship.
Advantages:
Better knowledge in how to run a business, do book keeping and the like
Financial:
More cost effective
Better personal finances
Higher SGI (sjukpenninggrundande inkomst - something we have in Sweden)
Self-financed start-up capital
Less dependence on venture capital
Flexible time management
You can customize your freelance assignments based on interest
Fewer mental and legal barriers
More secure
Disadvantages:
Not everyone can freelance
It can be more or less difficult to get assignments depending on your skills and seniority
It may take longer time to get started with the entrepreneurial company because freelancing on the side offers security and not the same stress
It can entail a bit of a double workload if you run two companies at the same time - your freelance consulting company (here after referred to as consulting company) and your entrepreneurial company - when it comes to, for example, bookkeeping ....
These are differences on paper, which can be measured, and which are pretty much factual.
Administration
For the company hiring freelancers, it means different payment terms (paying for an invoice compared to creating a salary statement) and less bookkeeping in terms of not having to pay, report and document income taxes (including social taxes etc). Regarding the payment terms, usually freelancers get paid one, or even two, three, months, later or when the job is finished (this is stipulated in the freelancer’s contract and personally, I have experienced up to three months later, as demanded by the client) but employees could get their salary the same month (unionen.se). The freelancer has to administer and pay the income tax themselves and also pay self-employment tax and so on (ramseysolutions.com). Therefore, there usually is both less administration and payment at a later stage with freelancers compared to employees for the company.
Costs
Hiring freelancers compared to employees results in lower running costs. The total cost, which mainly depends on the employee’s salary and the freelancer’s hourly fee (and other peripheral costs) can be lower or higher in total for the company, but we can at least declare that it is a different kind of cost. Costs for salaries (as payroll expenses are overhead costs), benefits, computers and phones as well as other perks are allocated each month on a certain account in a hiring company, but as an expense when contracting freelancers (and not including benefits, phones and other perks, but sometimes computers due to security reasons). As such, freelancers result in lower running costs and headcount than employees. Whether or not the total cost for the company is higher or lower is more complex and varies from case to case, something I will not discuss further here. (paro.ai)
Employment benefits
The company does not have to pay or administer paid vacation, share or option programs, maternity leave, possible medical insurance, travel and retirement plans etc to freelancers (freelancers can choose to pay for these themselves instead and in their own company, if they want). Thus, freelancers receive no employment benefits from their client, meanwhile employees do that according to their contract and the company’s guidelines. (paro.ai)
The hiring process
From attracting talent to getting a freelancer onboard, in contrast to an employee, it goes faster and is less complex. For example, hiring companies may include several interviews spanning over several months and involving lots of different departments and people. There may be aptitude tests - both personal and competence wise as well. A freelancer can be ‘onboard’ by tomorrow ( no training or orientation needed) and the shortest interview process I have had was just a 10 minutes phone call. In conclusion, the hiring process is cheaper and easier with freelancers compared to employees that usually go through the traditional and extensive hiring process. (linkedin.com/pulse)
Hello, i have written "the freelance guide", which unfortunately is written in swedish and is adapted to the swedish system and how things work here, but many parts are probably general as well. There are essentially 17 steps you need to take in order to become a freelancer and i explain them all here: https://annaleijon.se/frilansarguiden-hur-du-blir-frilansare...
I was a hired it consultant, but have now been self-employed for four years, which has been truly great! I create a lot of content on the topics of freelance, self-employment and tech. I have also started a forum in which anyone can ask questions around these topics: https://annaleijon.discourse.group/