Category: Freelancing - Tim Thompson - Archer English Consulting

Taking Chances With Your Career

6/30/2023

I have a friend who is about to move her family across the world (literally) for a new job. I'm excited that she's excited but, wow, what a huge risk. What if her husband can't find a job he likes? What if her kid doesn't like the school? What if she doesn't like the job? What then? The problem is that most people will ask these questions and then decide that it's easier to stay put. Change is hard and taking a chance this big doesn't appeal to a lot of people.

Now for my story. I closed the solo consulting business I had been running in Korea for seven years, sold my car, rented out my apartment, and moved to Tajikistan to join a regional education project four months ago. It was supposed to last from March 2023 until January 2025 but recently I realized that this job isn't a good match for me. It's an office job, an admin job that is part project management and part curriculum development. I'm not teaching and I'm not traveling around the region like the job description suggested. Those are the things that make me excited to get out of bed in the morning.

So I gave my notice and will leave the project at the end of July. It will be a fresh start, I suppose. I can't go back to Korea easily since my apartment is still being rented. I can stay here in Dushanbe and do border runs every month. I can go live cheaply in Albania. I could go somewhere I've always dreamed of visiting with the money I've saved. That's the positive part. I don't have to choose quickly or rush to find a new job immediately.

I took a chance with my career, found out that it didn't suit me, and am fortunate to be able to float for a while. I think the best aspect is that I'm back on the free agent roster for short gigs. I loved flying to Tunisia for teacher training before COVID and working with the Afghan teens in Albania and Tajikistan last year. I was in the classroom and that brought me joy. Whatever is next, it will be something that I'm confident will bring me joy.

Do I regret taking this job? Not at all. I learned a lot, met a bunch of great people, and discovered what I don't enjoy doing in terms of day-to-day work. I'm looking forward to seeing what's next. It could be something I never considered or maybe it's something that has been right under my nose. Check this page in a few months and I'll let you know.

Freelancing and Finances

3/14/2020

These are strange days we are living in. COVID-19 has made face-to-face meetings much more difficult and had caused my regular income streams like workshops, presentations, interviews, and conference hosting to dry up. Thankfully, people still need editing done or the situation would be much more dire. Even though the money coming in has dropped dramatically, there are still bills to pay and I have been dipping into my savings to make ends meet. Times like this make me very thankful that I was able to put away some cash when things were going well.

This situation reminds me of a story my father told me during his first year as the superintendent of a small school system in Kentucky. Following a rain storm, the roof of one of the larger schools started to leak in several places and parts of the school were flooded. My father asked one of the people in his office if there was some sort of emergency fund to help pay for a new roof and clean up the damaged areas. The man he asked had lived in that county all his life and had worked for the school system for decades. "Yes, John," he sighed, "but we've been saving that money for a rainy day." "Jimmy," my father exclaimed, "it's raining inside one of our schools!" Needless to say, he got the money.

It's important to have some cash stashed away for a rainy day , especially if you are a freelancer with an unstable income; but it's equally important to know when it's time to dip into your rainy day fund. You don't want to have to borrow money at a high interest rate or eat instant noodles for a week because you are afraid to touch your savings. Doing this will make recovering even more difficult once regular business resumes. Sure, try to cut corners where you can but don't deprive yourself of basic needs during such a trying and stressful time. Things are going to be especially tough for small businesses and people living paycheck to paycheck. I shared an article on Facebook about this and understand that things could be a lot worse. I'm doing fine, all things considered, but I'd still like more work. So, until things return to normal, stay healthy, wash your hands, and try to hire a freelancer. It's raining hard out there.

Emcee Duties

10/14/2019

Hello from chilly Pyeongchang, Korea. Today and tomorrow I'm working as the emcee/presider/chairperson for the EARTH 2019 symposium. Not everyone knows what this kind of job (gig) entails so I thought I would share some details in case you find yourself doing a job like this and are unsure how to do it well.

The first thing I do is to meet with the organizers and discuss their expectations for the opening ceremony, plenary session(s), concurrent sessions, special session, panels, gala dinners, receptions, or anything else that I will be expected to lead. Once I have a clear idea of how they expect things to go, I can try to help everything run as smoothly as possible from the front of the room. I rely heavily on the people behind the scenes to make sure the tech is working, people are in the right place at the right time, and any changes or surprises are relayed to me so that I can make the appropriate announcements. Surprises are bad and make everyone look unprofessional so communication is key. I'm also asking questions and double checking schedules so that I can share the most up-to-date and accurate information. I also check how to pronounce people's names and verify that they made it to the event before introducing them.

I'm also putting out fires as the come up. These include delayed speakers, schedule changes, technical issues, or an invited speaker using their first language when the official language of the conference is something else. Even checking to see if the restaurant can still take us for lunch if we're ten minutes early is something that comes up when you're the one telling people where to go. Other announcements include when to come back from coffee breaks (Top tip: Tell them to come back five minutes earlier that you really expect them to), where to go for meals, when the bus leaves for a tour, and of course reminding the participants (in vain) to turn the phones to a silent mode.

A good presider will also socialize with the participants and help the upcoming speakers relax. We greet attendees from previous events and make them feel welcomed. We often end up checking and revising the speeches that will be made by members of the organizing committee and visiting government officials. In short, we need to do a lot more than just stand behind a podium and read the names and bios of the next speaker. You need to enjoy being in the spotlight if you do this job and you need to be prepared and detail-oriented. Finally, don't be surprised when people talk to you like they know you. They have been watching you and listening to you all day so they don't see you as a stranger. If this happens, I guess that means you have done a good job. Good luck!

Musings About Retirement

4/2/2019

I don't know about you, but my Google search history includes a lot of "retiring in (insert country here)". This isn't new for me, I've been doing it for over a decade. Part of me dreams of living in another foreign country just to see what it is like (I've been in Korea almost 20 years) and the other part just wants a new adventure.

When I think of retirement there are two main factors and then a plethora of sub-factors to consider. The two main things are: 1. What do I want to do with my time? and 2. Will I have enough money to pull it off? Since an endless supply of books, internet access, and red wine doesn't sound that healthy, it's probably a good idea to keep my online editing business active. This will help me maintain the "sense of purpose" that you hear about so many retired people losing and missing. Also, if I'm living in another country I won't have as many in-person training opportunities as I do now, and if I did, they probably wouldn't pay as well. Here's why... The list of places I've been learning about just in the past week include Tunisia, Malaysia, Indonesia, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, and the east coast of Italy. Living in these places means I wouldn't expect to do much work (if any) inside the local economy. Instead, I would just try to keep up with my online editing work and slowly begin to phase it out when it becomes too much.

As a teacher turned freelance communications consultant, I'm looking for a places with lower cost of living and a climate that doesn't get too hot (and especially too humid) or too cold. I'd like to live in a place that isn't too noisy or crowded but is still close to an international airport. There are other factors to consider such as the difficulty of the local language, the local food and drink scene, the tax situation, visas, and a whole list of other factors that are too silly to mention here.

I have a former co-worker who has a cabin in rural Canada that he stays in during the summer and then every winter he chooses a new country, closes up the cabin, and heads out. That could be an option if I wanted to keep Korea as a base, but Korean summers are no picnic.

So for now, I'll just keep dreaming and continue to travel whenever I can. I've had great experiences in a lot of interesting places but I don't think I've found that one perfect place yet. Maybe the thrill is in the search.

Sowing the Seeds of Productivity

3/15/2019

If you follow this blog you know that January and February are slow months for me. A lot of government offices in Korea don't start new projects until after the Lunar New Year holidays. This gives me more free time than I would normally like to have and puts a dent in my bank account. A couple of years ago I used this slow period to write my book on teaching presentation skills. Last year I had the Olympic project to keep me busy. This year was slow again so I needed to make up ways to be productive.

This winter I got back into Twitter. I started interacting with some amazing teachers based in Europe and shared more of my blog posts via Twitter. Even though I only have a small number of followers, some of them have large followings so when they liked or shared my posts my blog would get a good number of readers. The numbers were similar to similar posts on Facebook and much higher than from LinkedIn.

I also channeled my boredom and frustration into writing a couple of articles and sending them to various teaching magazines. My article on freelancing was published recently in EFL Magazine. You can read it here. Another article on Business English projects will come out in English Teaching Professional in May. Be sure to keep an eye out for it.

A third thing I did was to contact a publisher in Korea and ask to be added to their database of freelance editors. They replied and said there was a project coming up for adult learners that I would be a good match for. Fingers crossed that it works out and turns into both editing and presenting opportunities.

Finally, I used some of the down time to work on two new presentations. One was on teaching tips for new teachers and education majors and the other was on presentation tips for teachers. I debuted them on my trip through Turkey, Hungary, and Serbia and the reactions were very positive. I even got some suggestions for ways to improve them so they will be even stronger when I give them again.

I wouldn't wish down periods on any freelancer, but if they do come, be sure to plant some seeds. You may not get instant gratification but you will see results in time. If the down periods come at the same time every year, you will need to start packing some savings away during the busy times or be prepared to take some jobs that you normally wouldn't take so you can make ends meet. You might also want to try to plant some seeds earlier in the year so that they start to bear fruit around the time things start to slow down.

When Doubt Creeps In

1/31/2019

There are a lot of words that describe freelancing: satisfying, terrifying, liberating, and lonely, but steady is not one of them. January (and February for that matter) are slow months for me. This is my fourth year as a freelance communications consultant in Korea and January 2019 was easily the worst month ever.

There were no late payments coming in for work in December (but thanks for paying on time), there were only a few editing jobs (better than none), none of my clients wanted training in January (but I'm lining up some training in March), and there are very few big projects on the horizon. Sure, this has happened before and then I get three calls and four emails in a day and I'm running around like crazy but during the dry periods doubt starts to creep in. What if nobody calls? What if they found someone else to work with? Do I need to start looking for a full-time job?

Samira Shackle put out a great thread on Twitter about freelancing that really struck me. She talked about the need for a financial cushion (YES!) and some great ideas for how and where to look for more work. I've said it before and I'll say it again here, I don't like to commit to long gigs. As soon as I do that, I miss out on something more lucrative or more interesting. So I turn down opportunities that would help pay the bills but would also tie me down.

Type "betting on yourself" into Google and you will see that it is a popular idea that many people espouse. It turns into a mantra for me during the slow winter months as I remind myself how busy some of the other months have been and hopefully will be. Freelancing for the last three years has been amazing and has the potential to be rewarding both professionally and financially but I still send out my CV when a full-time position looks like an opportunity to learn, grow, and help while reducing some of the financial uncertainty that comes with freelancing. Stay tuned to see what happens in 2019. I'm curious too.

Where Do Opportunities Come From?

1/20/2019

It's January, so it's a very slow time for freelancers like me. Two years ago, I wrote my book in January. This year I took a trip with my family, binge watched TV shows like You and Killing Eve, and got hooked on Wordscapes. As destructive as a slow month is on my bank balance, it's a great time to relax and recharge, plan ahead, and reflect on what got you where you are. In my case, I've been thinking a lot about some of the amazing professional opportunities that I have had and where they came from. I hope they will inspire you to pursue some new opportunities if you feel like you are stuck in a professional rut (which we all do from time to time).

Here are five areas where my professional opportunities have come from:

1. Networks
There is no doubt that most of my clients have come from being introduced by friends and colleagues. The strangest example of this would be a former student introducing me to her mother, who ended up working with me for several years and hiring my company to work with her research lab during the Olympics last year.

2. Volunteering
Sometimes you hear about an opportunity that sounds interesting but, unsurprisingly, the client wants someone with a lot of experience. Volunteering gives you experience you might not have been totally qualified for but now you have the confidence that comes with having actually done something (not just reading about the theory from a textbook) and you have results that you can point to. In my case, I served as the editor-in-chief for a magazine and this helped convince several current clients that I was qualified to work on their publications.

3. Asking for chances
Anyone who knows me knows that I am not shy about asking for an opportunity. I believe in what I do and that's why I am not ashamed to reach out to people I know or to new people through friends in my network. In March, I will be going to Turkey for the third time to give some talks. This all came about from a friend in Japan recommending me to someone she knew in Istanbul and my network growing from there.

4. Being available
Leaving a full-time job at a university was hard. It's not easy to give up a monthly paycheck. But aside from not having to ask permission to do outside work, one of the best things about working as a freelancer is being available when other people are tied up. I might be the tenth person a client calls but if I'm the only one available then I'm getting the gig.

5. Looking where others don't
There are lots of places that people post jobs and short-term opportunities these days. Some of them are public sites that anyone can access and others are in closed forums and groups. Sure, you have to filter out a lot of jobs that don't match your criteria but if you see an ad that your competition doesn't, you have a much better chance of landing it.

What you might have been expecting to see on this list but didn't is advertising. I don't advertise for two main reasons. First, its hard to reach my target market because I perform a variety of services and work with people in different countries. It's not easy finding a place where enough of them would look to justify the cost. But second, and more importantly, advertising is like a cold call and I prefer to work with people who either know my value or have heard about what I can do from someone they trust. Most of the people that have found me online through a Google search just want a quote for my services and then never respond again. This is a huge waste of time. I'll stick to the best kind of advertising for my business, word of mouth. It's free and the opportunities that come from it only serve to strengthen my network as I get a new client and the people who recommended get more credibility for recommending a good freelancer.

Freelancing - Getting Paid

7/3/2018

If you ask people who are thinking about moving into the freelancing realm what their biggest concern is, they will probably mention the unsteady income. It is true that freelancers go through busy periods and dry periods but for me the biggest concern isn't the down times, it's the length of time it takes to get paid after a project is finished.

Clients are often fanatical about deadlines. They need the paper checked by 6pm, you need to show up 20 minutes early to the test site, you should be the first person there before conducting training, but when it's time to pay you for your work, here come the excuses. It's payroll's fault. Our funding didn't come in. The manager who has to sign off is on a business trip. We forgot. You forgot?!?!

One of the things that eases the burden of unsteady income is having a healthy accounts receivable balance. Yes, it's just another thing to keep track of but this is your money we're talking about. It's worth tracking. Generally, clients that you have a strong personal relationship with will nudge the appropriate people to get you paid on time but you don't always get to work with people you know well and like.

I strongly recommend that people who are considering freelancing full time try to keep a "cushion" of two months of your average salary as your bank account balance. Account receivable are good in the sense that you know that money will be arriving eventually but when you have to pay the bills and buy groceries, that cushion will come in handy when business is slow.

Why I Don't Advertise My Business

6/14/2018

Last week a friend asked me how I advertise my business and appeared shocked when I replied that I didn't. He wanted to know why, so I decided to share my answer here.

I suppose it boils down to this: I don't like working with complete strangers.

There is value in working with people you know or have someone in common with. When you advertise, the people who find your business are often looking for the cheapest price and want a quote. When you are referred by a friend, the people are more likely looking for someone they can trust to do good quality work by a given deadline. Price is not usually their first concern.

Some of the least satisfying projects I have worked on are with clients that sent me an email because they found my website through a web search. The communication was very cold and overly formal and when I asked questions about their expectations for the work their replies made me feel like I was bothering them. I should know what they wanted. Inevitably, the client complained at the end that the project was not completed the way that they wanted. Neither of us was satisfied and we probably won't work together again.

Working with a client that you were referred to by someone they trust sets the stage for a much better working relationship. You basically start with one 'get out of jail free' card. If there is a misunderstanding early on, you often get the benefit of the doubt because you were spoken of so highly when they asked about you. If you did a good job before, surely the mistake couldn't have completely been your fault.

When I'm looking to hire a freelancer to work with on a project, referrals are vital. You can see someone's background and experience from their CV but you can't learn about their work ethic or emotional stability. For that you need to talk to someone who knows them or has worked with them before so a recommendation from someone I trust goes a long way.

Whether I'm being hired to work for a client or hiring someone to work with me, relationships are a key element for potential success. They are not a guarantee of a successful project but they reduce the chance of a "bad marriage". Networking is very important to the health and growth of my business. Countless opportunities have from friends and professional acquaintances suggesting me for various opportunities and I do my best to reciprocate whenever I can. It is said that WOM (word of mouth) advertising is the most effective form of marketing for a business and, so far, that has proven to be the case for me.

How Do You Know If Your Business Will Survive?

5/16/2018

One of the things that keeps freelancers and small business owners up at night in the early stages of their venture is whether or not they will have enough clients. In my case, I was fortunate that a friend recommended me for a project right off the bat so I wasn't waiting by the phone twiddling my fingers. An empty restaurant or email inbox can be soul crushing. "Just try my product/service, dammit! It's amazing!"

In the first year of my business I learned that being qualified, connected, and available were keys to getting work. Most of my clients were people I knew or had worked with before, and having been employed by KAIST but not being restricted by still being employed full time at KAIST worked to my advantage. The first year was an interesting experiment.

Now I'm in my third year of working for myself and starting to feel more comfortable about the sustainability of my company. Two things in particular are making the big picture brighter: repeat business and referrals. This afternoon's project is a perfect example. One year ago I was visiting a friend who works in one of the departmental offices at KAIST. The department head walked in while we were chatting and she introduced me to him and sang my praises as a trainer and editor. I didn't think anything would come of it but I gave him my business card anyway. A couple of weeks later I got an email from him asking if I could train some graduate students in his department who were interested in becoming professors and needed some coaching on how to deliver better lectures. This year he invited me back to do it again.

While the project mentioned above isn't a big job or an incredibly lucrative job, it is a good example of how the power of a strong referral and repeat business can give a business owner confidence that they are doing something right. Do your best to keep your clients happy and many of them will stick with you and tell others about you. That's when you can start to feel good about the future.