Designing a Successful Year
Each December I take a couple weeks off to celebrate the holidays and go through a visioning and goal-setting process in preparation for the new
Alvalyn Lundgren
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ARTICLES.
Tips and Insights on Mission, Mindset, Mechanics, and Marketing for Freelance Creatives
Can you include work created as an employee in your freelance portfolio?
One conundrum freelancers face when they shift gears from employment to independence is: Can I include the work I created for the company in my
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Boost Your Profits With Mark Ups
A mark up, also known as percentage over cost, is one way you can increase your freelance revenue. Marking up is a common business practice,
Alvalyn Lundgren
Year-End Planning For a Propserous New Year
Planning is necessary for any business owner. Going through an end-of-year assessment in order to set up for the next can lead you into more
Alvalyn Lundgren
Five Ways To Say “No”
How to nicely turn away the wrong clients to say “yes” to the right ones. by Alvalyn Lundgren Having completed more than 42 years of
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The Freelancer As Business Owner
When you start freelancing you become a business owner and are responsible for the success or failure of your enterprise. Honestly, it can go either way,
Alvalyn Lundgren
How To Overcome Overwhelm
Did you know that most freelancers struggle with time management, project management, and getting things done — on time? With margin? We deal on a
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How To Get Repeat Business
Client retention is tied more to character than to talent.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Firing A Non-paying Client Is Not Burning A Bridge
From the Freelance Road Trip mailbag: A Freelance Road Trip (FRT) member shared an experience with a non-paying client. The member gave me permission to
Alvalyn Lundgren
Making the Most of a Creative Review
You can get more out of a creative review than just a go-ahead to move to the next phase of the project. In coming together
Alvalyn Lundgren
Business Deductions For Freelancers
These are the freelance business deductions you can take for the 2025 tax year if you’re established as a sole proprietor or single member LLC,
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7 Things You Must Do To Start Your Creative Freelance Business
With the excitement and anticipation of embarking on a freelance career, we can easily get caught up in the ideas of freedom, of getting paid
Alvalyn Lundgren
How To Pay Yourself As A Freelancer
Paying yourself as a freelancer is often as perplexing as how to price your services. To simplify it, begin with the knowledge that there are
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Profit Motive and the Freelancer: You May Be Running A Business If…
A photographer is still in school full time but is already establishing connections for professional work. She is purchasing cameras, lenses and equipment she will use
Alvalyn Lundgren
Idling and Acceleration: The Four Cs of Moving Forward
I’ll get to it when I’m ready. I’m sure you’ve had the experience of planning to get something done and then putting it off until
Alvalyn Lundgren
What Kind Of Freelancer Are You?
Did you know that there is more than one way to be a freelancer? Independent creatives — freelancers — can choose a variety of working scenarios
Alvalyn Lundgren
How To Manage Your Brand
In Part 1 of this article I focused on what a brand is, and the visual and conceptual components of an effective brand. Brand is
Alvalyn Lundgren
Don’t Cry When A Client Leaves
How we can best respond when client relationships end? Here’s a professional, non-emotional approach you can take when a client informs you they’re leaving or have left.
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Which is Better for Self-Promotion: Email or Mailers?
Self-promotion is an ordinary and necessary aspect of doing business as an independent creative professional. Unlike social media marketing, self-promotion campaigns are targeted to contacts
Alvalyn Lundgren
How To Use Change Orders To Manage Freelance Projects
When I first learned about the power of change orders it changed everything in my workflow. When I implemented the practice, I actually began looking
Alvalyn Lundgren
GDPR Compliance Steps for US-Based Freelancers
The European Union’s (EU) General Data Protection Regulation goes into full effect on May 25, 2018. The internet and blogdom are all abuzz about getting
Alvalyn Lundgren
The Value of the Design Brief
Recently, I met with a start-up business. As we discussed the scope of work and began putting the design brief together, it became clear that
Alvalyn Lundgren
Skills You’re Not Taught In Design School
There ‘s a book in my library titled, 101 Things to Learn in Art School by Kit White. It’s full of truths that every designer
Alvalyn Lundgren
Creative Freelancer Q&A: What Do You Do About Scope Creep?
What do you do about scope creep? Avoid it? Agree to it? Stress out about it? Scope creep is when the amount of work originally agreed
Alvalyn Lundgren