February 18th, 2010 | 
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- ISBN13: 9780764553691
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Product Description
Sick of the office and looking for a change? Relax! Let expert Susan Drake help you make the leap from employee to boss — with no stress, no sweat. From practical tips on asessing your skills to real-life stories from successful freelancers, this friendly guide will pave the way to a smooth and fulfilling freelance career. Inside Freelancing For Dummies you’ll discover how to:Organize your home office and budget your timeEvaluate jobs and projectsLand busine… More >>
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“Shiny, happy people wheeling deals” should be the sub-title for this book. The profession of freelancing is for the go getting, self-imaging, assertive (most times aggressive) dynamo. Drake’s book failed to include this brief but crucial bit of information in Freelancing for Dummies.
Drake does a wonderful job empowering the reader, then again so does Maxwell in The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader. Both books, although I am sure they sell wonderfully as they are corporate products, are not grounded. Drake should have addressed all of her audiences, not just her likeminded Type-A personality readers.
Some of the contents such as setting rates, collecting fees and paying taxes are needed. However, sections on how to set up one’s chair are not. And, the chapter on building an extended staff is, again, assuming that the reader is either an egomaniac with the knowledge to boot, or a former corporate executive.
If you are full of yourself and can’t wait to tackle the world with your own business, this is the book for you. If you are a little more on the average side, I suggest you read Sorenson’s Power Freelancing. Good luck!
Rating: 2 / 5
This is nothing more than a how to set up a business book. There is absolutely no content on being a freelancer,as it relates to the job itself! By page 10 I was totally fed up of any sentence that contained the words “Susan” and “corporate”. C’mon Susan, once was enough, not every other page. You’d be better off spending your money on a book that actually offers an insight into the world of freelancing. The advice on how to lift, set up your office and what to wear to an client meeting are invaluable, I think! All of the advice I found redundant. I feel naive that I wasted $20 on this book.
Rating: 1 / 5
Practical and accessable.
I actually ended up choosing Dummies for Freelancers as one of the required core textbooks for a “one-time” course I am teaching in our department–”Freelancing and the Liberal Arts.” We are inviting many, many professional freelancers as guest speakers to our night class, too. The book has been a fantastic starting point for our college students as they prepare to interact with the classroom guests.
Rating: 5 / 5
It may sound quitchy, but man, these for dummies books are packed full of information, easy to read and sometimes downright funny.
Another stellar resource from Hungry Minds, Inc.
Rating: 5 / 5
Frankly, Susan M. Drake has written extremely well. With 8 years of freelancing experience behind me, I can only nod my head and agree with her with every turn of the page.
Written in a very simple manner and easily understood…no fanfare, no big words, just facts.
She covered almost everything there is to cover for the topic of freelancing and you know what? It REALLY is a book for dummies.
Rating: 4 / 5