Sara Horowitz, founder of Freelancers Union, talked about it yesterday with Brian Lehrer of WNYC.org, callers called in with tips about how to prevent getting stiffed and commenters chimed in on the web site.

Listen to that 12 minute interview here.

And if you live in New York and want to do something that has an effect, here's what Sara suggests:

Tell NY Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos to pass the Freelancer Payment Protection Act:
518-455-3171
Twitter: @SenatorSkelos

On the new web site, graphicdesign.com, Nicole Spiegel-Gotsch. freelance graphic designer and owner of Hoboken, NJ-based, NSG Design, based in Hoboken, New Jersey posted her interview with Patrick Llewellyn, CEO, 99designs and Debbie Millman, President of the design division at Sterling Brands and President Emeritus of AIGA, about, among other things, the recent homepage redesign contest for one of the largest design crowdsourcing sites, 99designs.

Laurel Black and Jody Shyllberg, veteran creative freelancers and bloggers here on the CF blog, chimed in with their perspectives in the comments.

Read the entire article/interviews and comments here: http://www.graphicdesign.com/article/crowd-sourced-design/

There isn't a lot of research undertaken in the creative world, but every year Creative Business does a survey of business conditions in the North American creative services industry.

Well it's time for this year's survey and Creative Business would like your help gathering information for the fifth annual CB survey.

It only takes about a minute to answer twelve multiple-choice questions. Your responses will be confidential; your name or e-mail address will not be recorded. Survey results will be published in the July/August issue of the Creative Business newsletter, and available free on request to other respondents at the end of July.

Take the survey here

The most recent survey was the 2011 Billing Rates Survey.

(BTW, Cameron Foote, Editor of Creative Business, will also be sharing his long-earned wisdom on the Perspectives on Money and Pricing Panel at this year's Creative Freelancer Conference this June 21-22 in Boston).

I ask this because I recently had an incredibly productive week—but I was only working half days. Since I had work to finish within less time, I was avoiding everything else.

All week, I kept feeling like I was forgetting something.

What was I forgetting? My work was definitely done. Where was this feeling of “missing something” coming from?

Then I realized: I had been ignoring the twitch. Do you know which one I’m talking about?

The twitch that takes you away from work to check Facebook, look for a new eggplant parmesan recipe, see if those shoes went on sale yet, or see what Kim Kardashian ate for breakfast? It tells you to check your bank account –again. Find a video on YouTube. Read a restaurant review. Find things to buy on Etsy! Check your email, for the 57th time today…

Was the twitch filling up the other half of my day?

I feel like an explorer who has just uncovered a new world. A world where there might actually be plenty of time! Could it be?

The only way to find out: Keep ignoring the twitch.

And start checking Facebook – once –a –day.

Can I do it? It’s this week’s experiment. Wanna join me?

So, as I was saying yesterday in Part 1 of this post about what exactly I did and continue to do since the Creative Freelancer Conference last year to keep my business growing....

4. Ditch the order-taker hat and wear the PARTNER hat! Ilise Benun lead an insightful Q&A last year with Motto and their client CocoTherapy. The co-owners of Motto said that if you are truly passionate about wanting your client to succeed, your potential client will gravitate to you and want to partner with you. It also works with current clients. I search out ways to help them be fiscally responsible and efficient in growing their business.

If you do the same, your business will automatically flourish as a result. I’ve grown the number of projects with my largest client, been wiser with their budget and been referred to 2 new clients as a result.

5. Set Goals with a budget~ Get super honest with yourself, put your goals down on paper and if you need guidance, get your hands on The Creative Professional’s Guide to Money by Ilise Benun. It will get you on the right track in a hurry. My copy is highlighted, dog-eared and houses lots of lined paper with notes, goals, dreams, and more. When your aspirations, needs and wants are on paper, your brain starts working on ways to help them all come to fruition.

6. Be accountable– to yourself, your clients and others. Yourself and clients are a no-brainer, but what about others? Do you have someone to confide in about your business, an accountant to review your numbers with or even a small group of colleagues/friends that have your best interest at heart to help guide you in your business.

I don’t have an advisory board, but I do have a great accountant, a retired mom that acts as an administrative assistant, counselor and accounts receivable manager, an all-inspiring husband (who also happens to work side by side with me in my business full time)! By being transparent with them, they are my biggest cheerleaders, shed light on problematic issues and keep me focused on my goals.

Rinse and Repeat! Just as you provide proofs to a client, your action plan and goals can be tweaked too. Don’t be heartbroken if a goal doesn’t come to pass by the first deadline you make. Just reset it, break it down or re-examine it. If you have too many goals, lighten up, allow breathing room. Setting goals and growing a business is a living organism. Be flexible enough to allow it to take shape and provide.

There you go– this is how I grew my business an extra 25% since the last CFC. I know you can too, except I hope you have double the success! What will you tweak, break, replace, make better this year? I’d love to hear from you and see you again at CFC this year in Boston!

6 Actions that helped my business grow 25% since CFC 2011!

Have you ever wondered how people move on, grow their business, how they become successful? Well, me too! So I decided to stop putting off going to the Creative Freelancer Conference and (in the spirit of Nike) said to myself - Just Do It!

I had already spent my budget for conferences, so I had to get creative. With a birthday coming up, my reply to the usual suspects for birthday gifts was simple - "I need to get to a conference!" (Isn’t it funny if you just make a decision, the rest usually fails into place. And it did.)

So here's what I did and you can do it too....

1. Be Hungry for Knowledge and put it to use! If you are always in learning mode, you’ll never be stagnant, you’ll always be growing. If you are evolving and moving forward, your business will automatically follow. Luke Mysse (also speaking at CFC this year) never stops learning, allows space to cultivate creative solutions and he’s making a pretty big difference in the world. I read everyday as well. From blogs, magazines, books, to whatever I need to so I can connect, learn and grow.
2. Get the right tools. I also take advantage of tools that help me be more effective. I was keeping track of my hours, but once I tweaked my accounts payable/ receivable software, I was freed up to be more productive and less obsessive about billing. Check out Freshbooks and FunctionFox.
3. Interact, be present and engage~ First, I search out ways to interact and engage with colleagues, for example the HOW conferences, LinkedIn and email. I knew I really needed to overhaul my website, especially the portfolio section. So I created the Portfolio Mafia, enlisted some trusted colleagues to keep me accountable and just got it done.

Von Glitschka says “Designers are victims of the graphic precedents they set.” So I took his advice and only show my best work in my portfolio and I only show the kind of work I want to do. Second, I look for ways to genuinely interactive and partner with current and potential clients.

Allen Murabayashi (also speaking at CFC this year) encourages “Be where your clients are. Go where your clients go and have fun with them.” By attending an International Conference that hosts one of my target markets earlier this year, I not only showed a current client support, I gained more projects from a new one and touched base with 3 other potential clients. A good investment indeed.

This is the first part of how I grew my business an extra 25% since the last CFC. Watch for Part 2 tomorrow.

In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you and see you again this year in Boston! Details and registration here for CFC, June 21-22 in Boston.

Creative Renegade: Solo copywriter and sustainability evangelist, Tom Tumbusch of WordStreamCopy, celebrates 10 years of freelancing

Working as a full-time freelancer was a lifestyle choice for me from the very beginning. It's made my professional life about so much more than a paycheck because I get to work with some of the most honest, talented, and creative people I've ever met.

My only regret is that the Creative Freelancer Conference didn't exist yet when I was getting started—it would have helped me to build a great client base faster and spend less time learning the ropes by trial and error.

My first act of "renegade creativity" was to launch a business in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. I walked away from the family publishing company I was being groomed to inherit. The market was awash in doom and gloom and a lot of people thought I was crazy, including my father and former boss.

I moved to another city with four month's savings and no work. After a few months with an agency to get settled, I paid a designer friend to whip up a logo and business card and started pounding pavement with no idea what I was doing.

I ate a lot of my own chili for the first year and a half, working and living out of a third-floor apartment that didn't always have heat during the day. By 2003 I was doing well enough to get a home loan. I tried everything from technical writing to magazine articles to direct mail, getting valuable coaching from Ilise Benun and Peleg Top along the way. (I even wrote some of the original marketing copy for the first CFC.)

In 2009 I re-launched my business with an emphasis on sustainability. While I still write for a diverse client base, I actively pursue companies with sustainable missions. Since the re-branding I've intentionally emphasized my personality when I promote myself. I don't try to disguise that I'm a freelancer. I don't talk about "scalable solutions" or "thinking outside the box" on my website, and I inform clients on my FAQ page that Mrs. Tumbusch gets my undivided attention on weekends.

In April I celebrated my first ten years as a full-time solopreneur. Today my father envies MY business.

Are you a "creative renegade?" If so, tell us how?

Because I’m convinced that the key technique to writing a graphic design proposal that gets you the job (this goes for a web design proposal or RFP response too for that matter) -- especially the big ones -- is this:

Devote as many pages of your design proposal to the client – your understanding of their needs and your recommendations for them – as you do to yourself and your qualifications.

In developing the Designer's Proposal Bundle I read a lot of graphic design proposals and I was amazed at how many of the proposals were all about the designers and not so much about the project at hand.

If you're working on a graphic design proposal template...
25 per cent of the proposal document should be devoted to persuasively written and completely customized text about your client's project in the following areas:

• Project Goals. This is where you essentially regurgitate what you’ve heard the client say and/or what you’ve been able to dig up about them online, or know from your experience with them. This shows how much time you’ve invested and how well you’ve listened.
• Project Recommendations. Since doing spec work is off limits, it helps to share your ideas and recommendations verbally, so the prospect knows you’ve given it some thought and have ideas at the ready.
• The Process. A client who doesn’t know you has no idea what they’re buying. Go into detail about how you work as it relates to the project. Unless you describe the process, explaining how and why you do what you do, they can’t imagine it, can’t justify it, can’t value it and therefore can’t pay you what you want for it.

Read more on this in my latest "Down to Business" column for Applied Arts. And if you are looking for sample proposals (or 11 of them!) check out the Designer's Proposal Bundle in MyDesignShop.com

Let me cut right to the chase: you’re coming to the Creative Freelancer Conference to meet people.

Sure, you think you’re coming to CFC for business advice, or tax tips. You’re not. You’re coming to CFC because of the amazing people who also attend this conference. They’re the ones who will form your network, your tribe, your motivational kick-in-the-butt team who will help you through the changes in your business.

You want to meet them, right?

Guess what? They want to meet you.

Yes, you: the one who wants to sit in the back of the room and quietly observes.

Yes, you: the person who would rather endure a root canal than speak to a stranger at a cocktail party.

Yes, you: the introvert who is convinced that the three hardest words in the English language are, “Hi, I’m ____.”

Know how I know this? Because we’re just like you.

So let’s make it easy. Here are some networking tips and tricks (and outright cheats) for meeting us:

• Send messages using the Twitter hashtag #CFConf Example: “Want coffee? I’m buying. Winner is the first person to find me. I’m by the blue couch in the lobby.”
• Bring candy. You’ll never be more popular than when you deliver treats to your tablemates during the afternoon doldrums.
• Wear something distinctive. A memorable necklace. A bright shirt. An unusual hat. Give people a reason to make eye contact and start a conversation.
• Bring party favors. Seriously, a little bit of silly goes a long way.
• Bring crayons. Most attendees are artists. Have a contest for who can draw the best/funniest/most interesting picture of a Boston landmark.

What’s my trick? Sorry, you’re just going to have to wait and see.

BTW: It's not too late to register for the Creative Freelancer Conference in Boston on June 21-22, 2012. Details and sign up here. And be sure to use this promo code for an additional $50 off: CMM12

So how do you (first) find what's different about you and (second) highlight it for your prospects and clients so they can choose you?

That's a question I answered recently on the "The Lab,"Agency Access' Blog. Here's an excerpt....

It may sound paradoxical, but to find what’s different about you, start by looking at your target market. What do they need that you have? What do they value that you provide?

Your points of differentiation spring from your answers to these questions. This can be in a variety of realms, including your process (how you work), the quality of your work or the focus of your work, such as subject matter expertise.

But it has to be important to them. So, for example, if you’re good with color but that doesn’t matter to them or the work they need done, find something else to point out.

Read on to see how Nat Clymer, portrait photographer, demonstrates his point of differentiation.

How do you do it?