I starting making a list of freelance rules (lessons) a while ago and now it's big enough to warrant sharing them with friend and community.

Pass work along

When you honestly don't have time, pass the work to a friend... or even a "competitor." You'll be able to focus on the projects in front of you. It's a healthier lifestyle to maintain the quality of what you produce and your client connections rather than bite off more than you can chew.

Take Five

Do you have a great idea? ... Of course you do; you have at least three. In fact, you probably even have about five good ideas too. Maybe even another few mediocre ones you haven't bothered with. The difficult part of all your genius notions is that fundamentally their awesomeness doesn't matter. Your success will not necessarily depend on the perfection of the idea you choose to run with. What matters is all the work you put in, and of course-- luck.

We're in the business of happiness.

The worst job you've ever had at least helped with the basics of your life. You got a paycheck (occasionally) and you were able to pay the rent, buy food, and sleep knowing you probably had a job tomorrow. Chances are they even provided you with a toilet and a water facet (maybe even coffee) at work. That's ok. You were working for them and yet conceived where you were headed.

Your second worst job almost felt like a career. Finally you were you felt more more financially secure. The work took real skill and was doing something useful for other people. You bought some toys.

The purpose of market research is to gain insight into your customers, competitors, and the perception of your business in the eyes of others. Today I’m giving our interns an overview of market research, so I thought I’d turn the bullet list into a blog post to share.

Like any research, the scientific method is your guiding light to maintain objectivity and structure in your work. This means we’re going to define a question, assume a hypothesis, test it against real data and review the results. Simple right? Well... often the case is cloudy questions and a desire to find certain results even before you start. So, how to do it right…

ATHENS, GREECE -- Evolutionary biology teaches us that evolution happens not by constant, steady change, but in sudden leaps...
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Check out the release poster for Battle in Seattle, a docudrama by Stuart Townsend. This film kicked-off the Seattle International Film Festival for 2008. ReadyDone designed the poster... the night before.

And we got two free tickets to the opening gala. Awesome.