My Review of “My So Called Freelance Life” by Michelle Goodman

Initially, I did not plan on reviewing this book, but I figured that I may as well since I am waiting for my BookSneeze book to arrive,  and I have been rather vocal about my desire to work for myself.  I’m still honing my review skills, so please forgive me for any faux pas that may occur.

Book Name:  My So-Called Freelance Life: How to Survive and Thrive as a Creative Professional for Hire
Author:  Michelle Goodman

Published in 2008 by Seal Press

Ms. Goodman is a woman, who I can only guess is somewhere around my age, and has been ‘cubicle free’ for almost twenty years. A life I can only dream of having…  Or can I?

She doesn’t go into detail about exactly what she does, but from what I can gather – she is a jack of all trades.  Writer, artist, blogger,  computer guru and the like.  I could be waaaaay off base, but being a freelancer for so long, I can only imagine that she has learned to wear a lot of hats – and make them WORK any outfit she chooses to wear!

Michelle’s writing style is geared toward people like me – who have lots of work experience, but aren’t experts.  For the most part, it seems that it is also slightly skewed toward women, but a gentleman would get just as much out of it should he choose to read her stories.

She breaks the book into sections, and then down further into chapters.  (Chapters?  In a book??? No way!) I know, it’s silly to read,  but I enjoyed the way it was broken up.  It made the reading more enjoyable, and will make looking back that much easier when I need to find that little nugget of information that is just tugging at the tip of my tongue.

The first part of the book highlights the basics of the beginning of your freelance life.  I had always been intimidated by creating a business plan worth abiding by.  Michelle scales it down in a way that even my dog could understand.  (Well, once he learns to read, anyway.)  Another greedy important question I had was how to go about putting a price on my time?  This was very interesting to me because I have never understood how (for example) a plumber could come to my home, change out a washer on a faucet, and charge me $40 for an hour.

Michelle explains how to work out what you need to make to keep yourself afloat, and how to break it down (and pad it up).

Part two focuses on how to sell yourself and what you do.  How to choose projects that will get your name out there without bankrupting you at the same time.   Did you know that you could be paid in PIE?  Michelle shows you how that can be a good thing.

Part three is all about YOU.  I liked this part a lot, because many of the ideas apply to different walks of life – not only the life of a freelancer.  I’m sure everyone out there has had a ‘Client from Hell’ in one form or another.  You know the type – the lady who makes a bazillion changes to a 200 word paragraph – most of which are incorrect; or the guy who orders a meal in a restaurant, substitutes everything he can, and then complains that nothing is cooked the way he likes it.  We all have our horror stories, and Michelle writes about situations she has faced and gives ideas on how to handle them so that you still get paid.

The book goes over a lot of things that I probably wouldn’t have thought of as I was building myself into a business – like licensing, marketing strategies, taxes…  She also mentions some pretty cool links to check out on your journey to free yourself from the cube.

It was also fun to read about troubles that she and her freelance friends had run into during their formative years.  And they weren’t all writers, either.  Oh no…  She had stories from personal trainers, accountants, artists, you name it!

Would I recommend My So Called Freelance Life to the average chick?  Maybe not.  Would I suggest that someone who is interested in starting their own business buy this book?  Heck yeah!  If you can’t buy it – check it out from the library or find a book to swap with someone for it.  It might not even hurt some of the ’seasoned vets’ to go out and read through some of the chapters.  (You can probably skip over the part that suggests you have an idea for your business, but I’m sure there will be at least one tidbit of information in there that is new for you!)

It’s definitely a book that I am going to keep on my office book shelf for future reference.  Heck, I already marked up the margins on a LOT of the pages!  =)

Happy reading!

Tags: books, freelance, reading, WAH