PRO Act. ABC test. Two acronyms that could negatively affect all U.S. freelancers, whether we’re writers, editors, designers, or any other type of independent contractor in a creative freelance enterprise. The tl;dr scoop is this: With barely a hearing or discussion, the U.S. House of Representatives will soon be voting on the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, a.k.a., PRO Act (a.k.a., H.R. 842). The act would codify into federal law California’s stricter ABC test (rather than the existing IRS test) for classifying workers as independent contractors vs. employees. [Read more…]
A freelance pep talk and open-line Friday on 3-26
Note from Dr. Freelance: For some reason, Mailchimp decided to send out a year-old post when it sent out my commentary on the PRO Act, which you can read here: “You may not be interested in the PRO Act, but it’s interested in you.”
I have no idea why this happened. However, in the spirit of serendipity, I will do another open-line Friday–on March 26, 2021!
Interestingly enough, my points from last year have stood the test of time. I hope you and your business are doing well.
And now I return you to the post from 2020…
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I had a sneaking suspicion the Universe was telling me something when several freelance peers asked me last week why I haven’t blogged in a while. My answer looked approximately like this: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. In a world awash with armchair epidemiologists and instant experts on working from home, I’ll leave those topics untouched. What I do want to do is offer a quick pep talk for freelancers out there. What am I doing personally to manage my mindset? [Read more…]
Personality tests may be BS, but they’re still useful for client relationships
For some weird reason, I’ve had several conversations about personality tests with clients and potential clients during the past few weeks. Reading that, I’ll bet that your brain immediately took one of two paths: Option #1 is that you immediately thought about your own personality test results, whether Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), DiSC profile, Enneagram, or whatever. Option #2 is that you think they’re mostly or completely unscientific BS, no more valid than astrology or reading goat entrails. [Read more…]
Notes from the past to my future freelance self
It was August 1999 when I bolted my corporate job and launched Boomvang Creative Group as a full-time freelance writer and editor. If I could step back to day 1 of 19 years of self-employment, here are some notes I would have provided to my future freelance self: [Read more…]
Are you a freelancer, an entrepreneur, or both?
On Father’s Day, I riffed on whether entrepreneurship has a genetic component. In the wake of that post, I found it interesting that more than a few freelancers didn’t really consider themselves entrepreneurs. I decided to do some unscientific polling on Twitter and Facebook, asking the question “If you’re a freelancer, do you consider yourself an entrepreneur?” With about 120 total respondents, the results lean 55% no on Facebook, while about two-thirds on Twitter say yes. [Read more…]
Is entrepreneurship genetic?
My dad was a self-employed salesman through much of his career—and I’ve now flown solo for two-thirds of mine—so the idea that working for yourself could somehow be coded into your DNA has always piqued my interest. So…is entrepreneurship genetic, environmental, or a little of both? [Read more…]
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