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Freelancers Home Office Security Requires Business Security
November 07, 2017

Weekly Newsletter for Freelancers

Freelancers Home Office Security Requires Business Security

Whether you are moonlighting or working full time as a freelancer it does not matter, cybersecurity is a critical issue for you. Often you will be dealing with the business information for a client as well as your personal information and both can be compromised and it can cost you money. If you are smart you will have read about cyber security when you were making your plans to be a freelancer. CIO.com’s Kim Lindros and Ed Tittel have written What is cyber insurance and why you need it. You can read their article here.

In the United States, The Federal Communications Commission has provided extensive support for small businesses in the area of cybersecurity. You can read their material here. BusinessNewsDaily.com has focused this article on securing your client’s data, it is written by Nicole Fallon and it is entitled Cybersecurity for Freelancers: Protecting Your Clients' Data.

Terence Sadler has written a Kindle eBook Cybersecurity for everyone – securing your home or small business network which is focused on your market and a preview can be read here.

Motivational Tip Of The Week

Motivate Yourself!

“Whether you think you can, or think you can't--you're right.” - Henry Ford, founder of Ford Motor Company

Should You Wait to Start to Look for Low-Cost Business Ideas or Motivate Yourself Now?

The cost of living increases over time no matter where you live [source]. What is particularly unusual about these times is that wages are stagnating for many people, see here.

Not that you need a survey to tell you this! For many people in the developed countries with high household debt, this presents a problem if variable interest rate loans’ rates increase. It raises the question for families on tight budgets as to whether to wait and see what happens or be proactive and start looking for ways and means of lifting the family income. In my view, the answer to the question is do not wait! Helping you is what this newsletter is about.

Freelancer.com’s Nick Golding has written Low-Cost Business Ideas: Need a Business Idea? Here are 55 which you can read about here. There is, of course, another way to help the family budget and that is by reducing your expenses. Kate Kershner has written 10 Money-saving Tips for Families for HowStuffWorks.com blog which you can read here. If you have ideas to share with other readers you can post them on our Facebook page.

Productivity Tip Of The Week

Productivity for Freelancers is About Getting More Work Done Efficiently

Passive Income from Amazon Affiliate Marketing

If you work in a 9 to 5 job your productivity is measured by your boss and your key performance indicators. This is not the case if you are a freelancer. As a freelancer, you measure your productivity by getting things done that will earn you an income. At the same time, you need to look after your work life balance and make sure that you give your family and yourself quality time. This means that smart freelancers will always be on the lookout for ideas that will help them reach this goal.

Apps can clearly help freelancers do things more efficiently. Ryan Roberston has written 5 Best Productivity Apps for Freelancers to Get More Work Done for TheBalance.com blog which you can read here.

One of the issues for freelancers and productivity is that you have to manage your time better to get things done. This is especially true if you are on a fixed price for a gig rather than on an hourly basis. The more quickly and efficiently you can get a job done the more quickly you will be able to move on to the next gig. The article 8 Great Time-Tracking Apps for Freelancers has been written by Cynthia Johnson for Entrepreneur.com and you can read it here.

Work-Life Balance Tip of the Week

Being Resilient Matters For Freelancers Work-Life Balance

Incorporate Mindfulness into Your Freelance Career

Do you have a mantra that you can use when work-life balance requires you to put on a superhuman effort to keep everyone in your family happy? If you are not too sure what a mantra is you can read about them here. Here are three mantra examples that have importance for freelancers:

“You can disagree without being disagreeable. That's always been my mantra.” Larry Hogan

“What you reject today, you could accept tomorrow. And what you accept today, you could reject tomorrow. Never say never unless you can predict the future.” - Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Respect yourself, Respect others, be Responsible for your actions.” - Kevin Green

6 inspiring mantras to help you master work-life balance was written by Fred Mouawad for Mashable.com which you can read here.

There is no doubt that being a freelancer and also the main family work-life balance officer in charge of the family while another navigates a 9 to 5 job takes a lot of skill and resilience. Kara Baskin has looked at this issue for freelancers and written The 6 Work/Life Balance Habits of Resilient People for mequilibrium.com which you can read here.

Financial Tip Of The Week

Do You Know the Freelancers Are Planning for the Future of Work Faster Than Anyone Else

Freelancers are at the cutting edge of changes to the future of work because the gig economy is innovative and fast moving. If an employer wants some work done that those on their payroll does not have the skills set they can immediately go to a freelancing platform such as Freelancer.com or Upwork.com. It is also simple for freelancers to monitor the in-demand freelancing skills by looking at Upwork’s Skills Index here.

They can then upgrade their skills online by using Udemy, Coursera or Lynda. Lydia Dishman has written Freelancers Are Planning For The Future Of Work Faster Than Anyone Else for FastCompany.com which you can read here.

Freelancers are not only working for themselves but using technology can create online businesses to help produce an income for themselves and their family. This helps balance the family budget. We are running a project in establishing an Amazon Associates business so that you can monitor the progress and learn from the mistakes. I will show a summary the posts from the past that matter so that you can follow the history and current post:

Costs as on 30/10/2017
Domain name chose: BestSellersHourly.com.au. The cost of the related business name, Prime Benefits, registered with Australian Securities and Investment Commission for one year was A$35.00. The cost of the domain names was A$12.00 each per year with NetRegistry.

Costs as on 07/11/2017
Project to build the website was listed on Freelancer.com. The project required ten pages of 200-word description on the most popular Amazon best sellers categories, the home page of 400 words, popular plugins (the list is available for those interested), graphics and photos for the website, Facebook page and Twitter. The articles were outsourced to PaulWords. The Wordpress Thesis Theme was purchased from here. The Easy Azon Wordpress plugin was purchased from here.
The result of the above can be seen here as a work in process.

Summary of costs to date:

Total to date A$1,122.00

If you have any queries regarding this project you can either use the contact form, post a question on the Facebook Page, or send me an email here: john@freelance-work-guide.com

Freelancers And Cyber Security

We have gained approval from Robert Siciliano to bring you extracts from his books related to cyber security for freelancers. Robert Siciliano is an identity theft expert and consultant. He also gives self defense and personal safety seminars. Robert provides safety and identity theft fraud prevention tips and advice on multimedia channels in the United States. We have his approval to bring you weekly extracts from his books:

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