A client in Portland told me my About page sounded like a robot wrote it, which stung because I thought it was professional. I rewrote it to tell the story of how I started freelancing after getting laid off in 2019, and the difference is night and day. Got two new inquiries within a week of swapping it out, so I guess the old version was really that flat. Has anyone else gotten feedback that made you redo something you were sure was fine?
My buddy Dave kept telling me for like a year that I was way too cheap at $35 an hour. I finally bumped it to $70 in March and figured I'd lose half my clients. Lost exactly two out of fifteen, but my income actually went up since the remaining ones took me more seriously. Has anyone else done a big rate jump and seen the same thing happen?
I was cleaning out my desk drawer this morning and found a stack of those old triplicate invoice books from like 2014. Back then I had a whole system - carbon paper, envelopes, stamps, even a little scale to weigh them. Now everything is just a link in an email or a Stripe button. Kind of miss the ritual of it, weirdly. My landlord still wants a paper check though, so not totally free yet. Has anyone else kept any old habits from the pre-digital freelancer days?
I was sitting in my car outside the post office last Tuesday when my check engine light came on. Figured I'd dip into my savings like usual, but when I checked my account I only had $87 set aside. I thought I was being smart but I was just putting spare change in there. That mechanic bill was $340 and now I'm actually keeping a real emergency fund.
I keep a simple spreadsheet. Just dates and project names. Saw the number today and had to double check. Felt weird. Like it snuck up on me. Never thought Id get past 50 back when I started. Anyone else got a number like that? Something you just looked up one day and it stopped you cold.