Weedle Blog

Need to earn more money?  Remember when you were younger and you sold lemonade and home-made cup-cakes to your neighbors?  You didn’t do it just to earn more money, it was fun too!  There is nothing more satisfying than turning a profit from something you enjoy doing. 

But leaving your full-time employment to live off your wits can be a daunting prospect. I think Steve Burden puts it better than me in his post Reasons to Work for Yourself  on Helium.com Withdrawing oneself from the weary treadmill that lines someone else’s pockets, so that we can start work lining our own pockets, is the stuff of initiative, of guts, conviction and self employment!  It’s also slightly scary.  But working for yourself part-time can be a great place to develop your entrepreneurial skills.

Recently I was trying to think up a fresh hobby to pursue - somebody advised to think of what I enjoyed doing when I was 10 and go from there. For me it was horses and art. I would work from home, sketching horses and then blinging them up with sparkles and glitter.  These unique, ‘one-off designs’ would be sold to my fellow horse-crazy class-mates who would hang them on their bedroom walls.

I’m not suggesting for a minute that you burn your briefcase and pop the tube of glitter today, but if you are keen to increase your income and feel you are lacking satisfaction in your career, then going back to basics may be a good place to start.  

Mary, a friend of my sister was put in a difficult situation financially when her husband lost his job quite abruptly.  With a newborn baby to provide for, one income (the lesser of the original two) was proving difficult to live off.  Mary decided to attend a weekly evening class on icing cakes, a hobby she had enjoyed when she had more time on her hands, pre-baby.  With her husband now taking over baby duties while Mary practiced she soon felt ready to take on some customers.  The word was spread through friends and family and Mary posted pictures of her culinary creations online for all to see.  Without spending any money on advertising Mary has increased her income with a steady flow of business and, as she puts it, is as busy as she wants to be.

According to news10.net  and their post ’10 Best Part-Time Jobs’ ,  jobs in areas like fitness training and massage therapy are set to grow steadily over the next six years.  42 percent of all massage therapists working part-time in 2006 and many jobs in the area of personal training are done on a part-time, casual basis, evenings and weekends.

If you do decide to take the plunge Buzzle.com recommends you don’t try to literally “go it alone.”  Get as much professional support as you can get around you before you take the plunge. Network with local business people, especially those in your field and who may be your best competition.  Networking has never been easier or cheaper, just like promoting your services you can do it right here for free, online.

What makes self-employment more secure?  Two words, you’re fired.

Leaving your job to become self-employed may seem like a completely insane move in this day and age.  Many of us are holding onto our jobs for dear life and so scared by the reports of rising unemployment numbers and ‘employer’s markets’ that we haven’t dared to look into self-employment.

There are those of us who are forced into the world of Freelance against our will.  Stacey Tisdale spoke about her experience of this in her blog ‘Working for The Man When You Are The Man’ posted on The Root; Forced unemployment stinks.  There’s no sugar coating it…I did not become a freelancer by choice.  But Tisdale has found happiness in being her own boss and as a writer has experienced a realization,  I didn’t need an organization to validate my journalistic skills. I marketed my expertise and have branched into lucrative directions.

Then there are the Steve DeMaio‘s of this world who leave a well paid job to pursue old passions; What I’m leaving behind is admittedly a middling (but respectable) career in publishing, but one,  from the point of view of the working class people I grew up with, you just wouldn’t throw away. Steve’s passions by the way are teaching, writing and learning a foreign language.  Not exactly completely ‘out there’ and obvioulsy things he holds a genuine interest and (judging by his blog Working For Yourself) is talented enough to earn money from.

Two years into life as a Freelancer and Steve seems to enjoying creative freedom.  He maybe not earning more money but certainly earning enough to get by and most importantly cover his health insurance. He indulges in a variety of work and has pursued all three of his passions.

Whether or not you want to become self-employed and as we’ve previously mentioned on this blog, world of work is changing.  The security blanket once provided by big corporations is no longer there, with many companies ‘trimming the fat’; hiring consultants for short periods of time and employing temps to avoid big health insurance bills, etc. Pat Christine sums it up well in his blog Become Self-Employed:Without Leaving Your Job. Christine speaks about his uncle’s shock at being laid off from a middle-management job, basically what he thought was a ‘safe’ position; he had lived by the company, obeyed the company rules, and built his life around the company. I believe he thought his job was an entitlement or maybe even a subsidy. He had what he now calls “an employee mindset.”

Christine suggests that we should train ourselves to work as if we are self-employed as we never know when the need will arise to work from home, “The” company doesn’t owe you a living. In fact, it doesn’t owe you one thing. It is not to blame when your career falters, when you are not trained for other opportunities, or even when no further opportunities exist. We are moving toward a global economy and corporations are no longer a safety net for the American Worker.

Steve DeMaio speaks about his long attention span, obviously a result of self-training and an absolute must if you are working from home.  But like Christine, De Maio explains that disrupting what you think is normal and getting out of your comfort zone is important to establish the confidence in yourself necessary to stand on your own two feet,  if and when the need arises.  In De Maio’s post Three Ways to Cope with a Looming Layoff  he describes how  ‘By initiating your own disruption at work, you can make externally driven change seem less threatening’.

For example some people would find a day off, mid-week with no plans and no errands to run, well a bit scary. For those facing an uncertain future in their job, De Maio recommends taking a day off to observe and enjoy what it would be like not to be in the office for a whole day.  Enjoy the peace and quiet and bring a souvenir back from your outing and place it on your desk or your wall at work. Let it remind you that you were out there already and that you can, if push comes to shove, go out there again. 

De Maio recommends it for those faced with the fact that they’re losing their job but why not for everybody?  The confidence to be on our own with only our own motivation, initiative and thoughts to rely on could be empowering enough to give us the strength to fulfil our talents and follows our passions.

The world of work is changing, you’re on your own. But you won’t be lonely. 

It was through a cover story in Fast Company magazine that Daniel Pink launched the idea of the Free Agent.  A Free Agent could also be called a Freelancer and is somebody who works for themselves and includes self-employed, independent contractors and temps. 

The reaction to Pink’s Fast Company article was so huge that he decided to travel the US interviewing these ‘Free Agents’ to research his book.  Free Agent Nation was published in 2002 at which time Pink estimated the population of Free Agents or Freelancers in the US to be some 33 million.

Jim Salmons and Timlynn Babitsky, who set up Sohodojo.com to help struggling entrepreneurs, described it as simply the best book written this century about emerging social trends shaping the world of business and our lives!

Suzanne Hull, author and founder of the blog Contemporary Business Solutions, reckons If you have an open mind and are interested in getting out of cubicle-world and living your life now, this book is a must.

In a review posted last March,  Free Agent Nation – Closer and Closer to Everybody’s Reality, Randy Mayeux wonders if the life of a Free Agent is really that manageable, there may be a fair number of people who are simply not up to this challenge.

But do we have any choice in whether to take on this challenge?  In Mayeux’s same blog post he quotes from The Dallas Morning News, where the article ’A freelance work force‘ by Drake Bennett reports that The United States Government Accountability Office has estimated that so-called contingent workers – everything from temps to laborers to the self-employed to independent contractors – make up nearly a third of the workforce.  And forecasters believe that proportion will rise.

In Michael D. Haberman’s blogpost “Free Agent Nation” A Thing of The Past? Not In My World, he  talks about our  father’s world  where a job was for life.  That day is over.  Free Agent Nation quotes the New York Times in Chapter 2, among some types of information technology professionals…the generally accepted turnover rate hovers around 50%. That means the average worker switches jobs every six months.

Welcome to a more changeable, more challenging and no doubt more exciting working life.  I like the way Haberman puts it The only stability you can hope for in your work life is what you make through what you know, your education, your experience and how you continually upgrade your skills or reinvent yourself. By making yourself continually valuable you make yourself continually employable.

Some may criticize Pink’s Free Agent Nation as painting a bright picture of the life of a Free Agent but there is no denying that Pink’s theory of the individualization of work is well and truly here and affecting all of us.  The job stability once offered is a thing of the past and just like Freelancers, we are expected to re-invent ourselves as we change roles several times throughout our lives.  Pink encourages us to take control of our lives, follow our passions and show the world what we can do without waiting to be asked.

Our self-promotion may be the only permanent job we have, not just something to adopt when we’re desperate and it’s the only thing that will provide us with security.  So where to start?  Right where you are is good.

By joining social networking sites designed to show off your skills, you are off to a great start.  Creating a rich, detailed profile means you will soon be networking and attracting other professionals (a lot of them Freenlancers) in no time.  These connections will lead to coffees, ‘tweet-ups’ and possibly some doors being opened.  Online communities are the fastest, cheapest ways to network.  No travel costs and no new outfits.  There is no limit to the amount of social networks you can join, the amount of connections you can make and how much time you spend on them.  So what’s stopping you?

Every day, entrepreneurs, free agents, and individual business owners face challenges that they cannot discuss with their clients, their employees or their families.  So where do they turn?  To their peers.  With peers, they can establish a level of trust that allows them to talk openly and intimately about what’s going on.  Developing a support system, which includes peer-to-peer groups, is critical to the sanity of the sole entrepreneurs.
Pink quotes Lary Kesslin (New York, New York) in Free Agent Nation

Here at Weedle we like to keep things interesting so this week the success story of Ed Fidgeon Kavanagh, Powerpoint Presentation Designer, is told in Q&A form.

Here goes…..

Q. How long have you been on Weedle and how did you find out about it?

I joined Weedle when it was in “pre launch” stage (I think) I noticed a lot of buzz about the site on Twitter with a few big hitters saying it was worth checking out….so I did!

Q. Do you like the ‘layout’ and look of the site?

The layout is great, nice, simple and intuitive. Just what the doctor ordered.

Q. Have you managed to get work through Weedle?

Just got my first job from a Weedle search this week. A manager of a large MNC got in touch with me about helping them put together a clear, simple and engaging set of slides. One day later we had commenced work on the project.

Q. What are the core benefits of Weedle in your opinion?

You get to list yourself on a “go-to” resource for people searching for service providers and show off your work by uploading examples of it.

Q. Do you think a fully completed profile is linked to the amount of work you’ve secured through Weedle?

To date I haven’t compiled a fully completed profile, but I will make sure to do so now. I would say that a potential customer would indeed be influenced by the quality and completeness of a Weedle profile.

Q. Who do you think would benefit from Weedle?

I think anyone who is looking to win business as a service provider serves to benefit from Weedle. But also those looking to procure services will also find Weedle a great way to check out their options.

Q. What do you think the future holds for Weedle?

I would imagine that Weedle will integrate seamlessly into being part of the entrepreneurs “toolkit” in the same league as a LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.

Thanks to Ed for taking part in our Q&A and congratulations on finding work through Weedle. Have you found success through Weedle? We want to hear your story, get in touch please!

Lee Fogg (Carpenter,Joiner & Kitchen Fitter) has kindly agreed to write our first guest blog, so here it goes…..

I’m currently working on a large extension, the customer found me by running a search on Google and my Weedle profile came up.  It’s quite a big job and the customer says he’ll probably need plenty more work done in the future so it’s a great source of business.

At least 12 customers now have told me they found me by searching on Google . I am so busy now  that I’m having to explain to new enquiries that I’m totally booked up days and evenings. It can’t be a coincidence that I’m snowed under with work since creating my Weedle skill pages.

I must admit none of my new customers had heard of Weedle before , but since they found me through Google many of them commented on it and are joining themselves – I even got my accountant to fill in his profile!

I joined Weedle back in April, I already use twitter and have a facebook page for the business but I rarely use LinkedIn as I found it wasn’t where my customers would expect to find a tradesman.

My partner Ellie is very web savvy and she was raving about Weedle and telling me how it was the ideal solution for someone like myself to showcase my work and connect with both customers and contacts. 

I looked up a Youtube video of Iain Mac Donald talking about how the site works and instantly realised this could be a fantastic way to raise my profile online and get found. Weedle has plenty of prompts to ensure you fill out the right information in the right places and to encourage you to make the best use of your profile page.

Rather than me just posting the bare bones of my skills and abilities I’ve made an effort to really bulk out my profile and take advantage of the site. I know my customers like the fact that they can take their time looking over my work and reading about what I’ve done.

Weedle is an excellent way of letting my customers know who I am, what I’m capable of, and with the photos, testimonials and examples of work my customers have an upfront assurance that I’m good at what I do. It works perfectly with the search engines and makes me easy to find online.

I’ve also connected with and referred work to several other tradesmen that I ‘met’ via Weedle. If I’m too busy to be able to accept a project, I can refer it to another professional on Weedle and vice versa.

In terms of the future of Weedle I would like to see groups being formed e.g. for my particular trade, a list of Accredited Master Craftsmen would mean that customers could instantly see which carpenters have achieved masters craftsman status or are C2 registered.

I think Weedle will really benefit tradesmen like me. But it’s good for people from all professions who might not necessarily need a website of their own, but still want a presence online.

Thanks to Lee for this blog, would you like to write a guest blog for us? Get in touch!