How to live better as a Freelancer: Part Two.

In Part One I introduced the idea of doing less but earning more. To most people it may seem like a paradox. Indeed, in the past my own experience has taught me that going the extra mile can make all the difference, but at what cost?

That’s the most important question here, and one I’d like to answer, as it forms the basis of this entire journal entry.

You see, the chances are that at some point in your life you’ve held a permanent job – let’s say a 9-5 in an office, or a split-shift at a bar or restaurant. More hours equates to more money (usually), especially when the overtime rate comes in to play. Your boss, and the company, want to get the most out of you, and to do that they believe that hiring you for as many hours as possible will get the job done. If there are no customers to serve then clean the fridges. If all the paperwork has been filed, go and help out another department. There’s always something that NEEDS doing, or so we’re told.

A conditioning of the brain

What this creates is a conditioning of the brain. We feel that a job isn’t finished until it’s time to go home and that we haven’t done a day’s work if we haven’t completed eight solid hours of labour. Speaking for myself I know I’ve experienced this “anxiety” and have therefore been running my photography business in pretty much the same manner. OK, so it’s not quite the same; I often have assignments in the evenings or at weekends, and I can take a week off whenever it suits me. But I often found myself getting stressed in the mornings during the school run, because I felt I had to move fast and get in to the office. For what, though? Of course there was work to be done, but who was I trying to please? And despite my best efforts, the “inbox” was never empty. And so I’d keep hammering away at the keyboard, fulfilling necessary tasks but without realising that the stress would be back first thing tomorrow whilst I wrestled with the kids’ winter suits and boots.

And then something changed. Two things, actually. The first was I got sued by a client. It completely knocked me sideways, as our relationship was otherwise strong and trustworthy. It’s a very long story, and is perhaps a blog for another day. But the short version is, my colleague and I were forced to pay 22,500 DKK between us, for something that was totally unnecessary. Imagine a motorway pile-up, where the driver of one car sues the driver behind him, and this continues all the way down the line (as the law allows) untill the very last driver gets left with the bill and no-one behind him to sue. That’s pretty much what happened.

At the end I’d earned just 2.000 DKK

From me the client received two-thirds of what they’d paid me all year and I was left with a bad taste in my mouth and a serious hole in my funds. I was fortunate enough to have the full support of my colleague, who paid half and therefore made it easier for me. But it also left me feeling guilty on his behalf.

That entire month was spent worrying about the case and trying to find a solution, and as a result I spent absolutely no time marketing myself or trying to find clients. At the end I’d earned just 2.000 DKK: it was like the old days.

Once the dust had settled I decided to take a day off from the office and work from home. But my goal was entirely different: I needed to find some (well-paying) clients fast. So I made a cup of tea, opened my laptop, and got straight to work. I sent emails, made phone calls, and responded to requests, and by the end of the day I had one month’s worth of potential clients all saying “send us an estimate.” I breathed a huge sigh of relief that day, I can tell you.”

The Four Hour Work Week

I won’t go in to the methods of how I found these potential clients, or the nature of the assignments. But it leads me nicely on to the second part of what changed. I’d been reading a book for a while, called The Four Hour Work Week, by Tim Ferris.

He’s the kinda guy you either love or hate, and many people believe he’s egocentric. Possibly. But his ideas started to ring true with me, and I soon started feeling less stressed about getting everything done. I began to realise that working eight hours a day, five days a week, wasn’t necessary, and that work was eating up any spare time I had. Most of my weekends (and evenings) were spent either doing chores around the house, or entertaining the kids. Where was the time for me?

As I mentioned in Part One, there were a few things in my life that I was doing purely for fun, such as Half Marathon training and improving my Danish, but I had been struggling to find the time for it all, because I was still working too much. That was because my brain still believed I had to and I felt guilty if I left the office early to go for a run. But slowly, once I’d read the book in its entirety, I started feeling more at ease with the whole idea. My pre-conditioned brain was being rewired.

The 80/20 Rule

The key to the new lifestyle was the 80/20 rule. It’s a rule that suggests 20 percent of the work you do creates 80 percent of the income, and vice versa. In other words, focus more on the 20 percent of clients that make you the most money and get rid of the rest. Another way to look at it, is that 20 percent of your working day is responsible for getting 80 percent of the day’s tasks completed. Haven’t you noticed how you work more efficiently when there’s a deadline looming, or you have to be somewhere else urgently at 2pm? The huge difference is that we prioritise these deadlines or 2pm appointments at the doctor’s because we are aware of how important they are. So the key now is to start prioritising your personal life, too.

As freelancers we have the greatest opportunity to do this. We are our own boss, we decide what we do, when and who for. We are the ones who can delegate tasks to others if we choose to. Because working every day just to get things done doesn’t make our lives any happier, does it? They say the biggest cause of stress if when we DON’T get things done. That’s why I get pissed off when I don’t read, or study Danish, or go for a swim, or a drive out to the beach. Stop WORKING for your own business and start RUNNING it instead. You’ll thank me for it when you do.

On the lookout for a new client

As for the client who sued me… well, they reassured me that they wanted to continue working together in the New Year and that this whole affair would be put behind us. Sadly I can tell you that that hasn’t happened. For one reason or another, and despite the promise of negotiating a new contract, the work has completely dried up – leaving me on the lookout for a new client to replace them.

I should really thank them, though. They turned out to be the 20 percent who caused me 80 percent of my problems last year. I’ll be just fine, I’m sure.

So if you’re a Freelancer working every waking hour just to get by, start thinking smarter. Are you happy doing so many things each day and not improving your life elsewhere? I expect I’m not alone, and like I wrote at the very beginning of this new journal project, neither are you.

This blog post originally appeared on www.photographybymatthewjames.com

Photography’s Commitment To The Environment

When we think of sustainability our attention is obviously drawn to areas such as fossil fuels like oil and gas and, especially, these days, that is to what the media’s attention relates to also. However, with that being said, what people do on a daily basis and the...

Aerial Photography Protecting The Planet

Aboard a tethered balloon, from an altitude of nearly 500 meters, when Gaspard-Félix “Nadar” Tournachon photographed Paris from above was the moment when we can trace the roots of aerial photography right back to 1858. Before airplanes entered the picture, photos were...

Regular Photography Turned Inside Out as Fujifilm X-Pro3 Officially Arrives

As part of a drive to rediscover “pure photography” is a rear screen that has been turned inside out.   Innovative Feature Tilting the screen downwards to become visible, the rear screen that faces inwards not outwards,is a bizarre yet extraordinary feature...

Depth Of Field

What is depth of field in photography, and how do you control it? There are many terms which relate to a shallow or large depth of field in photography and photographers will bandy about these terms such as “hyperfocal distance”, “creamy bokeh”, “shooting wide open”,...

Stroboscopic Portraits

Use your unit’s strobe function to achieve rapid-fire flash and capture incredible staccato action.   Pulsing Flash A pulsing flash that fires lots of times during a long exposure can create a stop-motion effect by freezing the action multiple times as the...

Cheap Photography Projects’ Creative Lighting Ideas

Get creative with your images by using these lighting hacks to shoot cheap but conceptual photography. Beauty in Simplicity You don’t necessarily need to use top-of-the-line kit in order to capture brilliant photos. To help you inject some creative lighting into your...

Defining Street Photography, the Cartier-Bressonian Way

Street Photography pioneer Henri Cartier-Bresson has come to define the way the photography industry thinks about the genre. This article draws on sources that explains the way the genre has taken shape. Defining Street Photography Of what constitutes “street...

Even Photography Boffs Will Be Impressed By Polaroid’s New Camera.

    Vintage but not backwards. Whatever is in style right now, it seems, can make us feel like we’re in another decade. Vintage fashion, retro cars, and record players are all making a comeback.  Making the decision to jump in on the action, and by doing so...

Rear Curtain Sync.

With streaks going in the right direction, this article examines how to capture streaky headlight shots.   By combining flash with a long exposure you can achieve some great shots. You can get ghostly movement blur and trails of light from moving light sources if...

Tips For Using a Snoot in Photography.

Learn how to use a “snoot” in your photography to control the light and create theatrical lighting with your hot-shoe flash.   Even though it can often be like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut a flashgun is always a handy tool to have in your camera bag....

Famous Photographs That Inspired Film.

There has always been a sibling-like relationship between film and photography.   “The Horse in Motion” (1878) was a famous photographic series using an early movie projector called the zoopraxiscope invented by Eadweard Muybridge, a 19th-century photographer who...

UV Photography: tips for blacklight.

Blacklight photography can be great for shooting portraits so we are “shedding some light on the dark art” to reveal the secret of mastering ultraviolet photography!   You would most commonly see blacklight, or UV lighting, in nightclubs. White objects radiate...

Copenhagen Photographer Casper Sejersen’s One, Two, Three, Four.

Casper Sejersen Debut Exhibition. Set to the beat of a drum, Copenhagen-based photographer Casper Sejersen takes us on an unsettling visual journey in his debut exhibition.     Alluring Yet Uncomfortable. Copenhagen-based Danish photographer Casper...

The Five Best Photo Locations in Copenhagen.

  A summer break in Copenhagen is highly recommended if you have never been to Denmark. The sun and heat is enjoyed by all the locals.   As an introduction to the most common places you must visit we’re presenting you with this 3-hour photo walk. If you wish...

Photographer’s Picture of Bald Eagle Gets Overwhelming Response

The worldwide response to a photograph of a bald eagle has overwhelmed a Canadian amateur photographer who took the picture.   Initially posted on Facebook photography groups, Steve Biro snapped the image of Bruce the bald eagle at the Canadian Raptor...

Off-Camera Flash Photography To Help You Perfect The Strobist Effect.

One of the easiest ways to achieve amazing portraits is to utilize off-camera flash. You’ll be amazed at how you can transform your photos by simply taking your flash off-camera if your only experience of using flash is the disappointing result you got with it fitted...

Ex-Oasis Photographer warns UK Risks Losing Classic Rock Archives.

Unless a dedicated museum is set up British musical history may be lost. According to one of The UK’s most celebrated photographers unless a dedicated museum is set up to preserve large swathes of classic British rock photography it could lose them all to private...

Samsung reveals a phone with screens on both sides which could change photography forever.

Screens are multiplying! Offering photographers a truly revolutionary ability, Samsung has designed a smartphone with two or more screens.   The front and back display on the device has just been granted a patent. The gadget will be able to run speech translation...

Viral Photographer Quits To Make Bread.

Viral Photographer Quits To Make Bread. Amassing over 300,000 followers after dreamlike photos from Burning Man Festival went wildly viral online a few years ago, photographer Victor Habchy went on to become a Sony ambassador as his career took off. But, as of last...

First Professional Wedding Gig Shot by Photography Robot.

Would you hire a robot for your big day? Making the rounds for a few years now has been the news that robots are coming for our jobs. Many of us have nothing to fear despite automation increasingly taking over our lives, unless you’re a wedding photographer, maybe? A...

The World’s Creamiest Bokeh.

    Full-Frame 50mm Lens with Aperture of f/0.35. The world’s creamiest bokeh (definition: the visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image) can be whipped up to give us incredible subject separation through the use of huge apertures. In...

Colour Photography Pioneer’s Images of Old Russia.

    Way Before Instagram A Revolution in the Use of Filters was Taking Place. Deep scientific roots underlie the art form we know of as photography today. Early pinhole cameras were both described by Euclid and Aristotle in ancient Greece. In order to...

Making a Living in Photography in 2019.

    How Viable is it Being a Professional Photographer? Whilst being both stuck in its ways and simultaneously forever changing, photography is indeed a strange profession. The majority of the profession work in a very different way to the old guard who...

The Hidden Colours of the Moon Revealed by Photographer.

A Mineral Impact. Different minerals impact the Moon’s surface leaving different splashes of colour as shown by the enhanced photo of the Moon created by extracting colour data from 150,000 photos of the Moon composed by Sacramento-based astrophotography enthusiast...

Piccadilly Circus’ Neon Lights Reflected By Shiny Cars: the Photography of Nick Turpin.

    Advertising Reflecting. In London’s Piccadilly Circus vehicles are caught reflecting advertising to show how modern life embraces consumerism as shown by photographer Nick Turpin in his latest series, “Autos.” “Shiny new vehicles passing through the city...

Nobody Talks About The Problem With Camera Phones.

The camera itself was the biggest problem with camera phones once upon a time.   Released in 2000, the J-SH04 was one of the world’s first camera phones. Things have come a long way since then. Tiny 0.11 megapixel images was all it could shoot. To give their...

What Is The Focus of Your Photography?

Does your photography have a point? And how can your images engage with more viewers?   You can help define your photography by implementing these few very helpful following techniques, especially if you have reached that stage where it may be a struggle to...

Capturing Cancer: Tumour Cells in Action.

Every year, researchers submit extraordinary images to the Science and Medical Imaging competition which tells the story of pioneering work and its benefits for patients. Replicating cancer cells invade the blood vessels.     Each year, The Institute of...

Selfie Harm.

Selfie Harm. Witness the scary results of Photoshopped portraits done by teens at the behest of professional photographer Rankin as part of his project called “Selfie Harm.”     Unnaturally Perfect. Unnaturally perfect social media photos are being made...

Young Marketing Guru Who Helped Photo of Egg Go Viral on Instagram.

Going Viral Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks you should be fully aware of the photo of an egg that went viral and claimed the top spot for having the most liked photo on Instagram. The simple photo of an ordinary, brown egg has garnered...

The Story of the Desert as Told by the Dubai Photography Exhibition: Inhabited Deserts.

Dramatic Landscapes. Some of the most dramatic landscapes across the world have been captured by UAE-based explorer Max Calderan and Italian photographer John R Pepper through their much renowned collaboration. It was never going to be the usual desert landscapes when...

What Is The Best Aperture and Focal Length For Portraits?

Get The Basics of Portrait Photography Right. You’ve probably asked yourself what is the best aperture and focal length to use if you’re just getting started in portrait photography. You can produce very different effects with your subjects by changing the aperture...

Psychedelic Images of Tokyo by Jean-Vincent Simonet.

Psychedelic Experience. Tokyo at night can be a near-psychedelic experience in itself, and this is echoed in the warped images created by Swiss photographer Jean-Vincent Simonet who prints onto plastic paper then washes the photograph with chemicals, all part of his...

The $90.3 Million Painting That Reveals Unique Photography Methods.

A Masterful Piece of Art. The 1972 painting entitled “Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures)” by legendary British painter David Hockney fetched the highest auction price ever for a living artist as it sold for a jaw-dropping $90.3 million last month. A man in...

X-Ray Apparatus & Concrete Pyramids: Guy Hollaway’s Photography Studio.

The Process Gallery. Distinctive works are created using X-Ray equipment, housed in a concrete pyramid chamber, by British photographer Nick Veasey, who has had a studio built and completed by Guy Hollaway Architects.     Inquisitive. Designed to be an...

Comedy Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards Reveal Hilarious Winning Images.

World’s Funniest Animal! And the world’s funniest animal photograph of the year goes to a squirrel who thinks he’s Tommy Cooper, writes The Express. The world’s funniest animal photograph of the year has been judged to be what appears to be a cheeky squirrel pictured...

Comedy Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards Reveal Hilarious Winning Images.

World’s Funniest Animal! And the world’s funniest animal photograph of the year goes to a squirrel who thinks he’s Tommy Cooper, writes The Express. The world’s funniest animal photograph of the year has been judged to be what appears to be a cheeky squirrel pictured...

Vanishing From The Museums.

Confronting the absent. Largely absent from Parissien museums are works and faces of photographic pioneers who have become invisible; so, curator Fannie Escoulen is inviting visitors to walk across the city and confront it.   “The history of photography has been...

Analogue Limelight

In an increasingly digitalised world, why is there still a special place for the physical? After connecting on Instagram around two years ago, James Moreton and Raph Hurwitz conceived AllFormat - a global photography collective. After developing a loyal community of...

A Career Shaped By The Photograph

Starting Out For more than three decades the biggest names in show business have been photographed by Derek Ridgers, but it all began by chance, one night in Finsbury Park, north London. With a Miranda SLR slung over his shoulder, Ridgers walked into the Rainbow...

Facebook Bans a Photographer Who Innocently Posted About ‘Shooting a Few Christians.’

Double Entendre When it comes to the word “shooting,” photographers can be subject to endless jokes. So when you post about “shooting a bunch of Christians,” the double entendre is there; this is what happened to one London photographer who found himself faced with a...

Jacob Cockle: in Life & in Death.

A life lived in the sea was a favourite past-time of one Jacob Cockle. Whilst learning to walk at a tender young age he also began to learn to swim and his natural element became water. Any opportunity to film surfing was the best of all options because he loved it so...

How a Shot Went Viral is Revealed by The Royal Wedding Photographer.

Viral popularity and huge amounts of praise were received for one particular photo during this past weekend as the world's attention was captured by the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. The details of how the picture in question came to be have now...

Wildlife Photos Reveal Dirty Tricks as Insiders Spill: “There’s a lot of fakery.”

From trained tigers to glued insects many photographers are revealing the fakery in this niche as one such photographer lost an award for allegedly using taxidermy in a shoot. Inauthentic Capturing a shot at the entrance to a national park was how Brazilian...

One in a Trillion Shot Captures Food Chain in Action.

“What can you shoot with that thing?” “What can you shoot with that thing?” This was a question that photographer Doc Jon was asked when a passerby noticed his Canon 6D camera with 500mm lens attachment as he was walking along the boardwalk of Madeira Beach in...

How Well-Being is Improved by Photo-a-Day Projects: Following the Story of an Artist who Started Out in Project365

Project365 Well-Being is reported to be improved through the online sharing of everyday images shot by amateur photographers. To reference it, it is known as “Project365” in photo circles; it begs the question: how can your life be changed by a Project365? A precious...

5 Things Every Photographer Should Know

Just starting out? Get to grips with these camera functions before anything else I was one of the lucky ones, starting out on a non-digital SLR camera. An Olympus OM-1 where loading the film was the first really important ‘setting’ I had to master. Then there was the...

How Photography Can Be Ruined By Bad Habits

Leaving The Camera At Home Even if it's your smartphone the camera you have with you is always the best one. Not every photo you take will be of commercial value or be photography-competition material. Nevertheless, if you leave your camera at home what use is it...

Unethical Upselling

By offering additional products and services and convincing a customer to purchase them many types of businesses can make a lot of money and this type of “upselling” is a tactic that camera equipment stores can maximise their gains. But how far can this upselling go...

Very First Photography Show is Recreated By Virtual Reality.

Transported To The Past The world's first photography exhibition is being experienced once again for the first time in 150 years with people being transported back in time thanks to Virtual Reality. A selection of prints were then presented by photographer William...