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This week we look atPaul Boag: Get Clients to say ‘Yes!’byPaul Boag. This weekend we’re sharing a great talk fromCarsonified. In this talk at FOWD NYC, Paul Boag covers strategies for working better with design clients.

There are a lot of stories written about home-based businesses—trust me, I just did a Google search. Working from home has changed drastically over the years, thanks to technology.

If you think back not even 20 years about home-based businesses, you might envision a low-tech service business such as a daycare or landscaping company. To run a professional business, you needed to be located in commercial office space. Not only did commercial space provide the technical services you needed, but it also provided a professional atmosphere appropriate for meeting with clients. —seacoastonline.com

Luckily, for us freelancers, that is no longer the case.

I have a computer, high speed internet, printer, and cell phone that allow me to do my work at home. And I have a nice office/laundry room to do it in. I know a bunch of people who work from home and I have some tips on how to run it right. See if you agree.

Find Your Own Space

Working from your kitchen table is hard. Especially if you have a spouse and/or children who like to use that kitchen table. My desk is chaos to an outsider, but I know exactly where everything is and no one is allowed to touch it.

I work on a desktop computer (an iMac)—if I didn’t I’d undoubtedly work in bed or in front of the television, and that’s not very productive. I have an ergonomically correct chair and lots of natural light pouring in all day.

Having a space all to yourself is important. You can shut the door when you need toand focus. You don’t need to rely on a noisy coffee shop or the hours at yourpublic libraryto get things done.

Schedule Kid-Free Time

A lot of people who work at home make the mistake of thinking they can also take care of their children during the day, saving on the cost of child care for younger children. More often than not, you end up working in spurts when (and if) your child goes down for a nap. And since that’s only a couple of hours (if you are lucky) during the day, you are playing catch-up at night after the kids have gone to bed, leaving you no time tosocialize with your spouse.

Depending on the amount of freelance work you have, this arrangement may work out fine. If you are busy, however, it could prove to be your downfall.

Also, I can’t tell you how annoying it is when you are on the phone with someone and your child is howling in the background. I have had several conference calls where this has happened. I didn’t appreciate it, and your client won’t either. If you are going to take important phone calls, make sure your lovely children aren’t causing a ruckus in the background. It’s unprofessional.

Find Someplace Where You Can Have a Client Meeting

If your clients are local, you may have to meet them face to face on occasion. Please don’t invite them to your house if it is a catastrophe. I know several professional photographers who work from home that have a separate meeting space where they can sit down with their clients that is a part of their home, oftentimes with a separate entrance.

If you need to have a meeting, and it can’t be at your client’s office, try to find a quiet place outside of your home to have it. Scope out some coffee shops in the area and find out when they aren’t busy (i.e.,quiet) and schedule a meeting there. Manyco-working spacesand libraries have designated conference areas—see what it would take to use these spaces if you have frequent meetings.

Hire A Virtual Assistant

If having a professional presence is important to you, avirtual assistantcan be a great help. It’s like having a secretary that doesn’t work in your office. This person works remotely, and can help you with your bookkeeping, scheduling, and even answer your phone calls and forward them to your phone or voicemail.

Create Separation Between Work and Home Life

The downside to working from home is that you can feel like you should be working all the time. It’s nice to have an office door that you can close to create a literal barrier between yourwork space and home space.

Trying to keep regular office hours can help with this, but, as any freelancer knows, that can be a tall order. Set your alarm to get up at the same time every day and have a routine. The later in the day you start your work, the later in the evening you will be spending on finishing up.

Just because you are working from home doesn’t mean you can’t run a professional office. Do you have any tips on ways to make freelancing from home even more successful?

Photo credit:Some rights reservedbyxilius.

In this issue of Ask FreelanceSwitch, we look at growing into an agency and freelancing internationally. Ask FreelanceSwitch is a regular column here that allows us to help beginners get a grip on freelancing. If you have a question about freelancing that you want answered, send an email to askfreelanceswitch@gmail.com.

Question 1

I have been a successful freelancer for many years now, and I had such a successful year last year that I’ve realized it’s time for me to start hiring and building my own team. I am looking to start my own agency, but could use some advice on funding to help cover the initial hiring and marketing expenses to boost up from a freelancer to a full-blown agency.

Believe it or not, I am having a hard time finding any type of information on this subject online or in forums. How does one take your successful freelance business and officially move it forward to the “cooler” side of the creative corporate world?

The funding options available to a freelancer looking to grow her business are extremely varied, and you’re going to have to decide what really works for you. That said, here are a few ways to get started.

Hiring Your Own Freelancers:The greatest portion of freelancers who have built up businesses beyond themselves have done so by bringing in other freelancers when there was work available, rather than hiring on a permanent basis right away. It’s not a perfect situation, since you can wind up spending a lot of time on finding freelancers when new projects come along. But it’s probably the cheapest option.

Getting a Small Business Loan:Provided that you’ve been building up your business credit as you’ve freelanced, you may be well positioned to take out a business loan to make the transition. This option is attractive because you can get a lump sum and just get everything done, but it can also be tough to get through all the layers of lenders to actually get money.

Build Up Some Savings:Just as you might be advised to sock away some cash before striking out as a freelancer in the first place, you might consider setting aside a certain portion of your freelance income every month until you’ve built up the amount you need to launch your agency right.

Question 2

I am a freelancing wanna be based in Egypt. I know it’s hard to freelance internationally, especially from a third world country, what with scams and lack of trust along side with different culture and lifestyles. I have lived in the U.S for a year as an exchange student so I kinda understand the culture better, but my question is: Is it possible to freelance from the other side of the world, especially a third world country?

It absolutely is possible. One of the most reliable freelancers I’ve had the pleasure of working with is based in the Philippines. The thing is that I don’t think most of her clients really realize where she’s based. It’s not a question of lying to her clients — she simply presents herself as a professional and doesn’t bring up the matter of location unless it actually impacts her work.

If you’re looking to freelance and want to land clients from other countries that typically pay more, the first thing to focus on is presenting yourself as a professional. If you have a great website and portfolio, written perfectly in the local idiom of the clients you want to attract, you’re going to be more attractive to them — most people want to work with freelancers that seem like they’ll be easy to explain a project to, so not only is a shared language crucial, but so is a shared dialect.

Simply leave off your address in Egypt — or wherever — from your website. if a client asks, be truthful. You’ll be surprised how many people don’t ask, though.