How To Get Clients To Pay You
What do you do when you a client refuses to pay you? According to Freelancers Union nearly 50% of freelancers were stiffed by clients in the past 12
Alvalyn Lundgren
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ARTICLES.
Tips and Insights on Mission, Mindset, Mechanics, and Marketing for Freelance Creatives
Green Scheduling: 6 Tips for Sustaining Your Creative Time
Design your time. Time is wasted when we do the wrong thing at the wrong time. It’s easier to keep your time boundaries and your well-being intact if you plan ahead.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Advice for Freelancers: On Being an Owner
Ownership is simply the idea that something belongs to someone. In the case of your freelance business, you own it. It belongs to you. You
Alvalyn Lundgren
5 Reasons Why I Can’t Be Your Designer
I wish I hadn’t said, “Yes” to certain design projects. It’s not that the projects were a problem, but something about the clients’ approaches, actions or expectations
Alvalyn Lundgren
5 Outreach Steps For Winning Better Clients
Successful freelancing is a matter of finding the right clients in the right places for the right reasons. Every client you take on affects your
Alvalyn Lundgren
Freedom Through Boundaries
During a downhill event at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, a contestant wiped out against the fence because she lost her footing on a turn.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Advice For Emerging Designers
…your process of emerging from school into the (design) profession needs to be as carefully framed and designed as any of your projects.
Alvalyn Lundgren
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
Contracts Protect the Freelancer and the Client
As I write this article I’m in the middle of a contract negotiation involving copyright and licensing of one of my character designs. I worked with
Alvalyn Lundgren
Find Your “Why” to Achieve Your Goals
You need to identify what’s at stake. I often reflect on how blessed I am to work the way I’ve always wanted to — independently, and why
Alvalyn Lundgren
Creating Lovability
How can you invest your product or service with “lovability” and create devotion in your customers? Here are some options: Love it yourself. If you’re
Alvalyn Lundgren
Unpaid Internships Are A Form of Spec Work
Why is spec work so prevalent in the design profession when it’s not in other professions? Increasingly, companies – creative businesses included – are offering
Alvalyn Lundgren
I’m Not That Kind of Girl: Manage Perceptions To Do The Work You Love
Let’s begin with the premise that design, illustration and photography are service professions, and that being a professional means you’re in business. You’re making a
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
AlvalynCreative
3 Things To Do Before The End Of The Year
One of the benefits of freelancing is: You get to decide for yourself what you will accomplish in any given year. You’re able to set
AlvalynCreative
Competence, Confidence and Baseball
One fact about playing baseball: To advance to the next base, you need to leave the one you’re on. Baseball forces you to advance to
Alvalyn Lundgren
Being Remarkable
My friend, Mary, was in a community theatre production of The Mikado, and was asked to write her bio for the printed program. This being her first theatrical
Alvalyn Lundgren
The Designer and the Relief Pitcher
If you know me well, you know that baseball is my favorite sport, and I often employ baseball analogies to explain concepts to students and
Alvalyn Lundgren
Keeping Good Clients: 10 Ways To Build Loyalty
Most freelancers will agree that it’s easier to hold onto an established relationship than begin a new one. And it’s less work to retain a client
Alvalyn Lundgren
7 Reasons Why Freelancers Should Not Discount
With value pricing for design and illustration projects, I am able to custom-tailor my services and fees to fit each client and project. But even
Alvalyn Lundgren
5 Inconvenient Truths About Freelancing
Transform the inconveniences of freelancing into opportunities for your personal and professional growth.
Alvalyn Lundgren
Does Formal Design Education Matter?
Aesthetic sense and talent are raw materials. They amount to nothing without discipline. Education forces you to add skill, discipline and expertise to your talent. And in order to meet project deadlines, you learn to steward your time.
Alvalyn Lundgren
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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Should Freelancers List With Online Business Directories?
Q: As a freelancer, is it worth having business listings like Yelp and YP? A: It depends upon what directories you choose and why you choose
Alvalyn Lundgren