What Do You Sacrifice To Finish Work?

A couple friends mentioned recently about how busy their previous week had been, in an effort to meet deadlines. I asked, "What do you sacrifice in order to meet a deadline?" Their responses:

"The gym is the first thing to go. Eating healthy, too. I normally love cooking but when it's crunch time, I just throw whatever's in the fridge together, or cook instant noodles or something."

"I don't go out. My friends won't see me sometimes for weeks when I must finish a project at home. My girlfriend has to force me to go out for a drink during those occasions."

For me, I usually drop the gym first. Cleaning the house I try to let go, but I find I can't resist tidying up at least a bit, even when I'm running out the door.

What about you? What do you sacrifice in order to get work done?

Cultural Holidays and Time-Off

With the clients I work for in Spain, I have to keep in mind that at certain hours of the day, and certain days of the year, no one is available. Spain has an unbelievable number of days off. Christmas isn't three days, but rather two weeks. And immediately after, they celebrate Three Kings' Day, which is similar to North America's Boxing Day, in January.

In their public sector, there are long weekends almost every month. Plus, unless they're located in a large city, businesses are closed between 2 and 5 p.m. As if that weren't reason enough to celebrate, at each workplace employees have their own special day, similar to their birthday, except it's based on their name. Usually there is a saint that has their name as well, so on that day they bring sweets to the worksite and everyone partakes in a celebratory break.

What's your opinion? Do you believe the prevalence of numerous holidays is an advantage or disadvantage to the local economy?

A saint's day is a celebration for all.

 

Free Versus Paid Work

I am an advocate of people being paid fairly for their work. I see too many green entrepreneurs working for free or unfair pay. True enough, perhaps when you have zero experience you may have to settle for this. But it should never continue for long. You have bills and rent or mortgage to pay, just as your clients do.
  In some very limited cases, I have worked for "free". There are a few situations where a friend is asking for help, and I'm aware that economically they are disadvantaged. In these cases, I try to arrange a fair barter. In fact, I am a foodie, and payment in the form of food has always been a great option for me. However, this method has strict limits. For example, I never do it more than once for a friend.

Just this once...

   Believe me, there is a bit of guilt explaining to people that want a discount, that I must be paid fairly for my work. Because of my experience and apparent ease in accomplishing skilled tasks, they think that I can do it with my eyes closed. That is never the case. What can appear, for example, to be a simple editing job of laying down photos and video in a 3-minute presentation, quickly becomes a nightmare: last-minute changes, resizing different formats, conversions, audio problems...the list goes on. It's important that clients realize all of the effort involved in their "simple projects", and pay us fairly.

Can You Work At Home?

For all you entrepreneurs, do you work at home? Or do you have a dedicated space outside of the house? I live in a small town and the concept of renting a desk or office space is unheard of. Therefore, I'm left with two choices: the library, or my house. Some days, there's no choice but to work at home, due to that day's schedule. And on those days, working on my laptop is the last thing I want to do, because I'm surrounded by reminders of other things that need taking care of: cleaning the rooms, washing my clothes, playing with the cat. I find that when I sit down at the library, I get much more work done.
  If you have suggestions for how I can concentrate more when working at home, please comment below.

Seize the Day

It's Saturday morning. Your alarm has woken you up at 6 a.m. It's still dark. The entire world is fast asleep, cozy in bed, yet you leap out, ready to start work after a strong cup of coffee.

This is what would-be entrepreneurs dream of doing. Yet how often does it actually unfold? Based on the number of work colleagues still doing the same thing after years of dreaming of breaking out, it's a good guess that the number of people that realize their plans is very small.

When faced with the unpleasantness of early morning weekend wakeups, or late-night website updates, or saying no to vacation plans, what is one thought or image that you can hold on to to give you the boost you need? What makes you leap out of bed at 6 in the morning?

"The ones who make it are the ones who show up day after day."

Microphones and Audio

Although most people quickly whip out the cell phone when something instantaneous happens, some of you have access to better camera equipment. The question is: how is your audio equipment? Do you own one or more microphones that allow you to capture sound properly? Or do you rely solely on the mic your camera came with? (P.S. The second one is the wrong answer.)

Even on a clear, sunny day, the slightest breeze can ruin an otherwise great interview or soundbite. Same goes for when something happens in the environment around you. Unless you're in a sound studio, it's almost inevitable that your camera's microphone will pick up a door closing, a car driving on a street one block away, or a kid screaming. Murphy's Law.

However, if you look at your camera's manual carefully, and figure out how to plug in an inexpensive microphone designed to record interviews, your videos will turn out much better in the end. This topic and more is covered in my book, Make Money with Video: Sell Footage to News Stations and Get Paid.

A cheap clip-on can get better audio than the mic

 of your camera.

When submitting video to news stations, videos with proper sound can equal a better cash return. Don't let bad audio ruin your chances of having your footage shown on-air.

E-book About News: How to Sell Your Video

If you would like insider information on how you can make money supplying video to news television stations, I've written an e-book on the subject. It's available for sale via Smashwords.

In this book, you'll read about how to sell video you've either caught on camera, or produced to advertise your company. News stations receive videos every day, but only a select few make it to air. On the flip side, many people record video and give away their video for free or upload it to YouTube without taking advantage of the money they can receive if they contact a few news stations and offer what they have.  

Happy reading! If you have further questions after looking through it, don't hesitate to contact me.