When you work for yourself – as a designer, a writer, a photographer or some other creative job – you seem to have it made: no boss to answer to! You can set your own hours! You’re living the dream, doing what you want to do! But there is a downside to freelancing – seven that I’ve listed below.

1. Friends and family expect you work for them

for free. I am guilty of this myself, to a point. I ask my lawyer friends to explain legal stuff and ask doctor pals for medical advice. But I try not to take advantage. Acquaintances often naively think that everything creative pros do is fun, but they don’t realize that it takes time and money to produce the product, whether it’s photographing a wedding or building a website.

2. Those same friends and family ask you to run errands for them. How many times have you been asked to sign for a package or walk a dog between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. because people think you’re not on any schedule? They don’t believe you have deadlines to make or meetings to attend.

3. Taxes are hard. So much for the 1040EZ – all those freelance checks are unwieldy compared with one W-2 form from an employer. If you’re a first-year freelancer, it might be best to see a professional tax preparer, and before you go, check online to be sure you have all the proper paperwork.

4. A lack of personal interaction can be harmful to social skills. I’ve found that when I work from home – even for one day – I talk to myself, to the television, to my cats and even to the plants. If I don’t, when I do encounter a human being, I don’t even understand what comes out of my mouth – it’s just an unintelligible rant of non-English. Freelancers would do themselves some good if they got outside to meet clients or even visited the neighborhood café to personally order coffee. Keep those conversation skills active!

5. You need to get your own clients. You could be the best designer or photographer in town, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get any business unless you seek it out. “Marketing” is one of the top answers I hear when I ask people about the downside of freelancing. Creative pros want to create, not sell themselves. But until they’ve earned a reputation that precedes them, self-promotion is necessary to get customers.

6. Freelancers must wear a lot of hats. Aside from marketing, self-employed creatives must also handle all business affairs: IT, human resources and accounting, for example. Sure, I’ve heard of people outsourcing some of these responsibilities, but can you afford to do so right now? Fortunately, a lot of free or cheap software is out there to help with some of these tasks. And rather than resort to point No. 1 – asking a friend to work for you for free – this could be an opportunity to barter your skills.

7. Your “hobby” becomes a chore. That previously mentioned idea of “livin’ the dream”? Now that you’re doing what you love, you might not love it so much. You don’t always get to use your creativity to make art – now you’re photographing uncooperative children, writing brochure copy or designing text-heavy web pages. And in your spare time, do you really want to be behind a computer or pick up a camera?

That’s quite a list of gripes, but all that being said, would you give up the freelancing life to go back to the 9-to-5 world? The freelancers I’ve spoken to value their freedom too much to return to having a boss and having to stuff their feet into close-toed shoes each day. Besides, the coffee you brew at home is usually far superior to that burned-tasting sludge in the office.

How have you learned to deal with your freelance woes?

Ever been to dinamarierodriguez.com and wanted to take a piece home with you? Well, now you can!

All shirts, skateboard and posters are all available for purchase on zazzle.com!

create & buy custom products at Zazzle

Reaction Shot

“I’m thrilled to announced my first billboard that is now on display on 192 in Orlando, FL!”

My billboard went up on September 30th,  2010 and will stay up till the event of the Children’s Miracle Classic® is over. I am so excited about this billboard because it is my 1st big graphic design piece going up for the world to see.

A lot of time and love went into the 2 pieces of this billboard that’s on ©Disney Property. I hope this cheap viagra 100mg is the beginning of something great!

There is still time to buy tickets for this PGA Tour event! For more info go to http://childrensmiraclenetworkclassic.com/

Children's Miracle Network Classic Billboard

Children's Miracle Network Classic End Cap

2010 will mark the 40th year of the PGA TOUR event at Walt Disney World Resort, which returns to the award-winning Disney’s Magnolia and Disney’s Palm Golf Courses. This event is the longest running PGA TOUR event in Central Florida – a historic tournament that began with 3 consecutive wins by Jack Nicklaus in 1971, 1972 and 1973.

The Children’s Miracle Network Classic also continues to attract the best players in the world to Orlando each year; in its history, it has crowned such champions as Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh, Payne Stewart and Mark O’Meara.
This year I was lucky enough to be the lead graphic designer in charge of the collateral for this event, which included my first Billboard. These are a few pieces that I have worked on so far. No worries, upon this event’s completion I will post the rest of the projects collateral under the Print Page on this site. So come legal viagra by and visit me again after you have enjoyed your turkey or sign up to my RSS feed.

gel viagra class=”size-large wp-image-318 alignleft” style=”margin: 0.25px;” title=”Magazine Article: Effects of the Media” src=”http://dinamarierodriguez.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/mediaproto1-1024×724.jpg” alt=”" width=”229″ height=”161″ />

This is a 2pg article about how something as simple

as watching the news can be harmful for certain members of your family to watch. The Illustration on the bottom right shows how some messages are interpreted wrong by young kids that watch the news. Parents/ adults watch the news for fun facts like the weather, traffic and stocks but it can also can have a negative effect on children.