Too often, freelancers are told they have to choose between being creative or making money. Financial expert Paco de Leon debunks this thinking — and gives practical advice on how you can set yourself apart and get paid what you deserve.
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Thank you for sharing this. I often forget to include values like the knowledge, skill, taxes, and profit when design my pricing.
Love this! Will need to revisit once I quit my day job and start freelancing
Great, quick info. I just moved off grid and I want to figure out how to make money online so I don’t have to commute into town every day. I found the tips for defining what you do and who you do it for particularly helpful.
There are lots of freelance websites online.. what do you do? Are you a designer?
Great video! I simply adore TED!
I used to work as a freelance video editor for 3 years professionally; mainly for popular youtubers. Here are some resources that might help a fellow freelancer
FILMMAKING EDUCATION RESOURCES
Philip Bloom: “Philip Bloom is a world-renowned filmmaker who, for the past 7 years of his 25-year career has specialised in creating incredible film-like images with low-budget video. His most iconic work is created with Canon DSLRs. His site now regularly has over 1,000,000 visitors a month.”
Vincent Laforet: “I’m a filmmaker, photographer, producer, teacher, advisor, innovator and very, very proud father of two. Throughout my career, I have been fortunate to witness extraordinary news events, the evolution of story-telling technologies and work alongside many people who have inspired me.”
Video Business Guides: “Whether you’re just starting out in video production, or if you already have a video production company, these guides will help put you on the path to running a successful and profitable video production business.”
F-Stop Academy: “Den has worked in the industry for over 20 years and in every major TV genre conceivable, including Music, Documentary, Travel, Sport, Factual & Entertainment. His site features filmmaking education of all kinds.”
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No Film School: “No Film School is the leading worldwide community of filmmakers, video producers, and independent creatives. No Film School is where filmmakers learn from each other — “no film school” required.”
creativeLIVE: “CreativeLive empowers you to unleash your potential by bringing the world’s greatest experts directly to you, live. Featuring workshops in photography, video, design, business, etc.”
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FILM FUNDING
Think Outside the Box Office: “Considered one of the best film funding resources out there.”
Sherri Candler: Marketing and Publishing: “Sheri Candler is an inbound marketing strategist who helps independent filmmakers build identities for themselves and their films.”
Without a Box: “Submit to film festivals and get noticed.”
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FILM/VIDEO JOBS
Mandy: “We have a detailed directory of 100,000+ production companies, film makers, production crews and equipment.”
Creative Cow Careers: “List of available jobs and also the ability to post your resume and go job hunting!”
Film & TV Pro: “The #1 networking and jobs resource for film and TV professionals.”
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STOCK VIDEO & AUDIO
VideoHive: “At VideoHive you can buy and sell royalty-free footage and motion graphics as well as After Effects Project files starting at just a few dollars.”
AudioJungle: “At AudioJungle you can buy and sell royalty-free music and sound effects that are completely Podsafe for just a few dollars, which includes a Buyer Fee. The site is home to a bustling community of audio composers and producers.”
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PHOTOS, IMAGES & GRAPHICS
iStockPhoto: “Royalty free stock photos, vector art illustrations, stock footage and audio for print and use on websites and presentations.”
GraphicRiver: “At GraphicRiver you can buy and sell royalty-free, layered Photoshop files, vectors, icon packs, Adobe add-ons and design templates for just a few dollars.”
Unsplash: “Free (do whatever you want) high-resolution stock photos. Download 10 new free stock photos every 10 days.”
Pixabay: “Finding free images of high quality is a tedious task – due to copyright issues, attribution requirements, or simply the lack of quality. This inspired us to create Pixabay – a repository for stunning public domain pictures.”
CINEMATOGRAPHY TOOLS
CameraSim: “Online DSLR camera sim that allows you to test focal length, lighting, etc.”
RED Cinephotography Tools: “Use this tool to preview how a given focal length will appear depending on resolution setting and sensor type.”
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BUSINESS DOCUMENTS / CONTRACTS
Docstoc: “Docstoc provides the best quality and largest library of documents, videos and resources to start and grow small businesses.”
WRITING & NOTE TAKING
Evernote: “From short lists to lengthy research, no matter what form your writing takes, Evernote keeps you focused on moving those ideas from inspiration to completion.”
Scrivener: “Scrivener is a powerful content-generation tool for writers that allows you to concentrate on composing and structuring long and difficult documents.”
Final Draft: “Final Draft is a screenwriting software for writing and formatting a screenplay to meet the screenplay submission standards set by theater, television and film industries.”
TIME MANAGEMENT
Pomodoro Technique: “The Pomodoro Technique teaches you to work with time, instead of struggling against it.”
My Life Organized: “Create new tasks and checklists easily. An elegant To-Do list view will help you to focus on the most important items and act immediately.Clean and simple drag-and-drop interface allows you to rearrange tasks within a plain list or organise them into a tree.”
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TIME TRACKING
RescueTime: “With so many distractions and possibilities in your digital life, it’s easy to get scattered. RescueTime helps you understand your daily habits so you can focus and be more productive.”
Toggl: “Toggl’s time tracker is built for speed and ease of use. Time keeping with Toggl is so simple that you’ll actually use it. Toggl drives a stake in the heart of timesheets.”
ONLINE ADVERTIZING
Yell: “We are in the business of helping small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) be found by consumers.”
Google Adwords: “Be seen by customers at the very moment that they’re searching on Google for the things you offer. And only pay when they click to visit your website or call.”
OUTSOURCING WORK
Elance: “Elance is where businesses go to find, hire, collaborate with and pay leading freelancers from more than 180 countries.”
Fiverr: “Fiverr is a global online marketplace offering tasks and services, beginning at a cost of $5 per job performed, from which it gets its name. The site is primarily used by freelancers who use Fiverr to offer a variety of different services to customers worldwide.”
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SETTING UP AN LLC
LegalZoom: “Our founding vision was for an easy-to-use, online service that helped people create their own legal documents.”
INVOICING
Freshbooks: “FreshBooks is a cloud-based accounting software service designed for owners of the types of small client-service businesses that send invoices to clients and get paid for their time and expertise.”
Wave: “More than a million small business owners have trusted Wave to track $60+ billion in income and spending, for free.”
SYNCHRONIZING / SHARING FILES
Dropbox: “The Dropbox client enables users to drop any file into a designated folder. The file is then automatically uploaded to Dropbox’s cloud-based service and made available to any other of the user’s computers and devices that also have the Dropbox client installed.”
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CONTACT MANAGEMENT
Highrise: “Highrise is a flexible contact management tool that helps you stay organised. It’s easy to import your contacts from any email system and get started with Highrise right away.”
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PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Basecamp: “For over 10 years, millions have relied on Basecamp to help them get their projects done on time, on budget, and on point.”
WEBSITE DOMAINS & HOSTING
Namecheap: “We make registering, hosting, and managing domains for yourself or others easy and affordable, because the internet needs people.”
Hostgator: “Whether you are a seasoned Internet pro, or just starting out with your first website, our professional staff is here to assist you every step of the way.”
WEBSITE CREATION
WordPress.org: “WordPress is web software you can use to create a beautiful website or blog. We like to say that WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.”
ThemeForest: “The #1 marketplace for premium website templates, including themes for WordPress, Magento, Drupal, Joomla, and more. Create a website, fast.”
LOGOS
99Designs: “99designs pioneered the design contest, where designers submit competing designs in response to a customer’s design brief—and the winner receives a cash payment for their work.”
Crowdspring: “Effective, easy, and affordable. Name your price, watch dozens of talented participants submit their ideas and choose your favorite.”
SCREEN CAPTURE
Camtasia: “Camtasia gives you the tools you need to record on-screen activity, edit and enhance your content, and share in high-quality to viewers anywhere.”
ScreenFlow: “With ScreenFlow you can record the contents of your entire monitor while also capturing your video camera, iOS device, microphone and your computer audio.”
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DOCUMENT COLLABORATION
PBWorks: ““Millions use PBworks each month for partner/client collaboration, new business development, project management, social intranets, and knowledge management. “
Google Docs: “Google Docs brings your documents to life with smart editing and styling tools to help you easily format text and paragraphs. Choose from thousands of fonts, add links, images, drawings, and tables. All for free.”
BACKUPS
Mozy: “Mozy is the industry-leading solution for online cloud backup and data recovery. Sign up now and sync your most important files securely to the cloud!”
Dropbox: “The Dropbox client enables users to drop any file into a designated folder. The file is then automatically uploaded to Dropbox’s cloud-based service and made available to any other of the user’s computers and devices that also have the Dropbox client installed.”
ONLINE PAYMENT/COLLECTION
PayPal: “Discover PayPal, the safer way to pay, receive payments for your goods or services and transfer money to friends and family online.”
Omg man, this list is awesome, have you posted it on reddit or similar sites?
This is good video but it’s not gonna make you successful as title says. It basics of the basics of freelancing, you need to know much more in order to be successful as a freelancer.
very relevant topic for the future job model, which will come very soon i think
I was a freelancer for 2 years. I was a student at the time, and i also live in russia, art is realy cheap here, thats why most of the artists and disainers try to find customers from other countryes. I used to draw avatars and stikers for whats up and telegram for so cheap. Like 5-7 dollars for 1 stiker(and it was a full drawing, not a photostiker)
I realy want to try and be freelancer again, but make normal money)
Why not create a paid app for stickers?
All the best
так тупо, что приходится выживать в россии из-за каких-то плохих челиков
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It’s so stupid that we literally have to survive in Russia because of some bad people (I’m talking about the government, if anyone doesn’t know)
to be honest I miss my workplace… Freelancing doesn’t worth it
I don’t know about you guys but when i tried freelancing i failed miserably it was so isolating inconsistent work horrible customers . I wonder if someone has a similar experience
Lol yeah. I only did it for a short while.
Honestly I want to go back and freelance through e commerce and don’t work directly
With clients.
Damn, I love you already
Great video!
Very useful thank you, my husband is an artist and after 20 years is still trying to get all of those points right, esp number 3. It is an ongoing and ever changing landscape out there for creatives.
Have to say, I know this to be true, having done it wrong and done it right, and done it wrong again, oh yeah it’s so true
❤️ love you
Exploitation = bad negotiators
She still dislikes capitalism even though she finally figured out that her lack of practical knowledge was her real problem, and now she has a successful bookkeeping business. Hey, try being a creative freelancer or entrepreneur in Venezuela or Cuba. See how well socialism works. And Sweden and Denmark are NOT socialist nations.
Solid video – Thank you Paco for making this and thank you TED for the platform to deliver this.
I wish more companies that hired freelancers like myself for story development and video production thought this way as well. 🙂