Author: katiepryal

I often get asked what software I use to keep my small-business-and-freelancer ship sailing smoothly. People tend to ask because they see that I have this swanky little laptop that never leaves my side. (Surely a person who is that attached to her computer knows computer stuff, right?) I can’t blame them, because I tend […]

Entrepreneurs, freelancers, and small business owners often face a problem. We are our work. And because we are our work, it’s easy to lose track of when we need to stop working and pay attention to other things in our lives besides our work: our significant others, our children, our pets, even other things about […]

When I started my most recent full-time job, I lasted about half a year before I started a side-gig. I wrote a nonfiction book and sold it to a publisher. The book wasn’t anything fancy—I just put together all my teaching materials from a course I used to teach, packaged them up for a pre-existing […]

Say you have a small business. Say your small business is really small. You might even call it a microbusiness. You have a main job with a salary that provides your primary source of income. Your small business is more like a side gig. Your small business isn’t incorporated—you don’t file a separate tax return […]

Have you ever taken on a client and realized you didn’t charge enough? Or maybe, you took on a client and realized that, no matter how much you charged this person, it would never be enough? If you’re a copywriter, this is the client who demands three or four more revisions than any other client […]

If you work with clients long enough—no matter what your field—you will encounter a client with boundary issues. This is the client who really needs a friend, who forgets that he’s paying you to do work and not to chat with him on the phone. This is the client who wants you to “meet him […]

You’ve probably already heard about the benefits of a walking desk, also called a treadmill desk. These benefits include not only increased health, but also increased brain function, which can yield increased productivity. Recently, I decided I was ready to make the jump from a sitting desk to a walking desk. Sure, I was thinking […]

After finishing graduate school, I worked for nearly ten years for a big state university. One of the benefits of working for Big State was the big state retirement plan. I contributed to it every year, maxing out the matching funds the school provided to us. Basically, I saved for retirement on autopilot. It was […]

Whether you work for yourself out of a home office, or you work for a large company and periodically telecommute, you probably can’t escape working from home from time to time. And if you work from home and have children, you might find yourself with a special challenge. Children of all ages often have trouble […]

Whether you work part-time as a freelancer or run your own business, you know the angst that pricing your services can cause. Business consultants make a killing helping big corporations price their services so you shouldn’t be surprised that you have such a hard time doing so. Here are some tips to help you get […]