Ashley Chiasson, M.Ed

Instructional Designer & Consultant

Freelance

3 Tips for Tax Time

This is my third full year in business, and my second year filing taxes for my small business. I’ve learned a few things since last year, and I thought I’d share some of that with you! This year has been a breeze doing my taxes, and hopefully these simple tips can help you hate tax season just a little bit less.

1. Allot Administrative Time

This sounds incredibly boring, but I promise – you will save time in the long run. If you allot a certain number of hours per week or per month to completing administrative tasks, you will have a much smaller headache come tax time when you’re trying to track down invoices, calculate sales tax, itemize expenses, etc.

I try to give myself 3 hours per month to tackle anything and everything administrative. Most times I need fewer than 3 hours, so overshooting the allotment makes me feel better about myself when I finish in less time.

2. Maintain a Spreadsheet

Some folks I know use bookkeeping Xero Services software to track all of their expenses and income; I have gone back to the stone age a bit and maintain an excel spreadsheet. This spreadsheet has been pre-programmed with calculations to account for sales tax (a necessary evil here in Canada), and it pulls information from my various income and expense books into one main book that balances all of it out. It’s glorious!

My spreadsheet goes hand-in-hand with point #1; when I work through my administrative tasks, I populate this spreadsheet as I go. Doing this throughout the year saves a TON of time in the long run. Instead of spending days labouring over my tax forms, I simply pull data from my spreadsheet and toss it into the tax software.

3. Invest in Software

I know I just mentioned going back to the stone age with my spreadsheet, but hey! Excel is software, right? It might not be bookkeeping software, but it does the trick.

When it comes to investing in software, I am specifically talking about tax software. I use H&R Block’s tax software because 1) I don’t have time to manually calculate all of my taxes, 2) it’s free up to so many returns, 3) my refund comes expediently, and 4) they have built in information related to my provincial tax requirements and rebates. Last year I used their software and it was easy peasy!

Articulate Community Roadshow 2015 – Toronto #ELHToronto

This year I’m presenting at the Articulate Community Roadshow 2015 – Toronto; I presented at this event last year, and it was so much fun! So nice I thought I’d do it twice! All of the presenters are fantastic and the group looks like a fun one.

Last year I presented on How to Build Your E-Learning Portfolio, and you can check out some blog posts based on that topic below:

Screen Shot 2015-06-17 at 10.49.18 AM

This year I’m presenting on How to Become a Successful Freelancer; the presentation is very broad in the sense that users from many industries can take this advice and run with it. It’s based entirely on my own experiences as a freelancer and independent contractor, and I really hope that you can glean some good tips. I’ll post the presentation after I give it, but for now here are some resources for the presentation:

Freelance Sites:

Where Clients Might Be Hanging Out:

Time Management:

Answering Reader Questions #1

Over the past few weeks, I have been getting some fantastic questions from readers, and I’ll slowly be trickling through and responding to each.

The first question comes from Tristan (by the way, I love your WordPress theme – start blogging!):

Would you consider doing a follow up article on cold emailing techniques?

Cold emailing is certainly not the most fun activity, but it has landed me quite a few opportunities, especially in my early days as a freelancing Instructional Designer. First off – You need to get over yourself if you aren’t already. Take all of the fear and shame out of the idea of cold contacting prospective clients. Ain’t no shame in that! Back in the old days, businesses did this all the time, and businesses still do door-to-door, which is similar, but a lot more difficult. A cold email is how I landed my role at a university, which had I waited for a posting and applied traditionally, would have been looked over for one of the 100+ over-qualified applicants with more experience.

I had a great conversation with a friend a few months back. He was looking to break into the Technical Writing scene and wasn’t sure how to do it. I encouraged him to do some cold emailing, but he was nervous about what he would say. This happens when we’re anxious about whether we’re capable of doing the job. So my second piece of advice is to exude confidence from every fibre of your being. You enjoy what you do and you know (or are pretty darn sure) you can do what you’re saying you can, so just own it!

Now, when it comes to specific techniques, I took several approaches:

  1. I created a canned, but modifiable, email that could broadly address any individual or organization. Once developed, I modified it based on who it was being sent to. Key elements included: introduction of me and my background, explanation of how my expertise might work for the individual/organization, link to my portfolio, attachment of my resume, and a thank you for taking the time to read the email.
  2. I researched the heck out of the people I was cold emailing. This is important because it sets your email apart from anyone else who may be cold emailing, which in my experience, few people do this nowadays, so you really want to show off your best self because you’re already putting yourself out there. After researching, I modified my email appropriately.
  3. I followed up! In most cases I followed up 2-4 weeks following the email.

One great thing about cold emailing is that often times, prospective clients don’t realize that they need their services, so when they’re offered (and explained clearly and without jargon), some folks will have an “Aha!” moment and realize that you’re just what they’ve been looking for to resolve a problem that has been plaguing them and/or their organization.

I will say that cold emailing may not be as fast as other means in terms of securing gigs; the university didn’t contact me until a year and a half after I emailed – how they still had my email, I don’t know, but they did, and I’ve been here ever since! However, those are the techniques that I used, and I hope that this information can help you.

10 Things I Learned in My 1st Year of Self-Employment

It’s hard to believe that it’s been a year since I threw myself overboard from the corporate ship, and I thought it might be fun to share some things that I’ve learned in my first full year of self-employment. Now. Don’t get it twisted. I do still have a full-time gig, but it’s in an industry I love, so while I’ve reduced the amount of work I do with my business, I’m still very active in the small business world.

1. Invest in things that will make your work-life easier.

There are still investments I will make in my little business, but I cannot emphasize this point enough. You have a career that you are passionate about, so invest in the things you need to do that job well! For example, I’m an Instructional Designer who develops e-learning products. Things that make my life easier that I’ve invested in over the past year include: a computer that can handle the type of work that I’m doing, a nice desk, an all-in-one printer, some external hard drives, dropbox business accounts, software licenses, and a billing software (which admittedly I don’t leverage to its full potential, but it keeps my finances organized), professionals who know how to do things better than I do instead of trying to do X myself (e.g. my portfolio plugin and an accountant for tax time).

2. Keep organized records.

Administrative blah blah is still the bane of my existence, but being somewhat organized makes my life a whole lot easier when it comes time to do say…taxes. Or locate an invoice. Or locate a software product key. I’m in the middle of preparing to file my taxes, and let me tell you…it is OVERWHELMING. However, keeping organized records is making this task a litttttttle easier for me and using the best online tax software also helps!

3. BACK UP YOUR WORK…ALL THE TIME.

This might seem self-explanatory, but I know I’m guilty of not backing things up everyday. However, after several lessons learned that I paid dearly for in headaches and extra labour, I back my work up REGULARLY. This comes especially in handy if you’re guilty of over-trusting your technology. Yesterday my Macbook decided it wanted to get lame. To the point of having to reinstall the operating system. It sucked and cost me the better part of a day to resolve, but in the end, I had all of my stuff backed up, and it was business as usual once the reinstall was up and running.

4. Reward yourself with professional development opportunities.

Professional development is always important. It allows you to network with fellow industry professionals and learn new things. In this new fangled information society, it’s important to always keep learning.

In 2014 I participated in two speaking engagements (Articulate E-Learning Heroes Community Roadshows: Toronto and Denver), and I learned so much! It was also a learning experience for me to get up and speak about something I know in front of people interested to listen. I also began my Online Learning Consortium Teaching Certificate under the recommendation of the Director of my department at the University. I’m almost finished now, and it’s been a fantastic learning experience.

This year, I’ll be speaking at Learning Solutions Conference 2015 (later this month) and I’m hoping to speak or attend Dev Learn in the fall. I’ll also try to hit up at least one more Articulate E-Learning Heroes Roadshow.

5. Take opportunities when they’re presented to you.

I understand that you might not be able to take all of the opportunities presented to you, but you can weigh the cost-benefit and determine which ones you can engage in. For me, this was authoring two books for Packt Publishing, Articulate Storyline Essentials (released in a week or so – EEEE!) and Mastering Articulate Storyline (released later this year) – the former will hold your hand and get you up and running with Articulate Storyline, while the latter will have activities and will teach you how to push Articulate Storyline to the limits.

I had never before considered writing a book, because who am I to be an authority on ANYTHING?! But, when in Rome. YOLO!

6. You are your best sales person.

You know what you’re capable of doing and you know (or have a rough idea) of who you want to do work for, so get out there and SELL YOURSELF! I’m not saying you’ll making half a million dollars in your first year of business, because that’s just nutty. What I’m saying is that there will always be some modicum of hustling that you have to do, and sometimes you’ll need to hustle more than other times, but eventually you’ll get to a point where you’re comfortable with the level of hustling you do.

7. Come correct!

Piggybacking on #6, in order to be an effective sales person, you need to come correct. What I mean by this is: overhaul your resume, get a proper email address (e.g. not xohotgirl81), update your linkedin profile, update your portfolio, and BE PROFESSIONAL! When applying for new opportunities, you want to put your best foot forward.

8. Network like you mean it.

Find out where your clients or peers are hanging out, and go hang out with them! For me, this started with the Articulate E-Learning Heroes Community. I found so many great clients through the forums, gained a lot of insight, grew myself as a professional, and made a TON of friends.

I slowly began incorporating social media, so now I engage with my new friends on Twitter and Linkedin.

9. Don’t be selfish.

Once you find your clients (and potential clients) or peers, don’t just engage with them on social media for your own benefit, promote them! Whenever one of my pals tweets about a new blog post or promotes an interesting article or something they’ve developed, I try to share these items as much as I can. This will help your pals out when they’re looking for opportunities, or it might help a client find the perfect person for the job.

10. Treat Yo’ Self!

You might not need  fine leather goods or velvet slippies like Tom Haverford and Donna Meagle, but you do need to take time and enjoy life. Many of us are guilty of being workaholics, but there’s this thing called burn out, and if you’re not careful, you will find out exactly what it is. Going on vacations, find a hobby, get out of your chair and go outside!

3 Ways to Improve Your Workflow

Any small business owner (and I would hazard to say employee) wants to be efficient in what they do; dragging tasks out is no fun, and our to do lists will thank us if we take steps to improve our workflow. Here are three suggestions:

1. Streamline

Some people call this using shortcuts or cutting corners, and that’s not right. Your goal is to streamline your workflow and make it more efficient. Not to cut out key steps. In any event, you can easily streamline your workflow by using to do list applications (or writing them out on paper), prioritizing these items, and focusing on the task at hand. If you work within software for much of your day, learn the shortkeys and use them whenever you’re using the product – trust me, it will save you so much time. Those seconds add up! Use a project management tool – believe me, it will save you SO MUCH administrative time (because I know I don’t like being stuck in the administrative trenches).

2. Remove Distractions

This might seem obvious, but a lot of people can take a quick break that turns into a 45 minute rabbity hole into the Internet. Pause your inbox, close all irrelevant (to work) browser windows, or even turn off your wifi access! You’d be surprised how effective removing distractions can help when trying to focus and cross items off your to do list. If you have a beagle, don’t schedule important conference calls on garbage day. If you have a beagle, maybe you just need to work at a cafe. Regardless of your beagle status, you should ensure you have a dedicated and quiet workspace.

3. Create a Calm Workspace

I’m guilty of not doing this 100% of the time, but I do find myself to be a lot more productive when I’m feeling relaxed. Ensure you start your day with a clean and (somewhat) organized workspace. At home, I like to brew a pot of herbal tea, use dim lighting (I have a table lamp with 40 watt bulb), and light a scented candle. I tend to vary between Mellow playlists on Songza and ambient sounds as background noise, but I do whatever I can to just zone out and feel inner calm. You already have deadlines, your workspace doesn’t need to be a stressor!

Things My Beagle Taught Me About Consulting

As some of you may know, my husband and I have a beagle/german shepherd. He’s a rescue dog that we acquired from the city pound nearly two years ago, and as with many rescue dogs, he comes with a slew of isms. This is Oliver:

Oliver_Frisbee

 

He is 41lbs of pure energy and excitement; there are very few moments when he is ‘powered down’, and he’s taught me quite a few things in my short while of being a consultant and entrepreneur.

1. Do NOT Schedule Client Calls for Wednesdays.

This one was a no brainer; in our neighbourhood, the waste removal services come around each Wednesday. They alternate between garbage/recyclables and recyclables/compost every other week…and in the summer (just for fun), they do all forms of collection each and every week. This means that the enemy (garbage truck) goes up one side of our street, then down the other collecting garbage, then does the same for recyclables and compostables. Oliver absolutely hates the garbage truck and will valiantly protect his homestead by scaring them off with incessant barking. This does not bode well for client calls.

2. Apologize in Advance.

Whenever I do begin a conference call, I begin by apologizing in advance. We’ve worked very hard to get Oliver’s barking down to a minimum and it’s an effort made in vain. He’s a beagle. He barks. So typically, I will let my client know that I have a dog, and apologize in advance in the event that his barking occurs. Initially I thought this would be an annoyance, but most of my clients have been understanding and even empathetic (most seem to have their own barkers).

3. Schedule yourself Accordingly

I’ve been over-extended, and it can suck. Even if I’m passionate about the projects I’m working on, there’s only one of me, and I still have other household responsibilities. Come 4pm, I will be reminded (not so gently) that someone needs feeding and to play fetch or go for a walk. This can seem like a cumbersome task if I’ve over-extended my self. Basically, you don’t need a beagle to tell you this, you  just need a reality check and for someone (me – right here) to let you know that you have a lot of other things going on (that’s life), and even if those 5 projects all sound amazing, you’re not superhuman and something’s gotta give!

4. Know your Job and Keep your Eyes on the Prize.

For Oliver, this is fetch. He knows as soon as we near the field behind our house, that I will unclip his leash and he will enter work mode, fetching the ball as many times as I’m willing to throw it. Sometimes his focus and determination can be a short-coming (he had a toe amputated this past year in a frisbee-related incident), but generally, he loves his job.

For me, this is my business and clients; when it’s time, I always settle in and focus on the work to be done. Like Oliver, sometimes this can be a short-coming…see #3 – say for example, when I over-extend myself. But generally, I love my job.

5. Don’t be a Jerk.

When Oliver is focused on his job, of fetching, his focus and determination and passion lead him to be a bit of a jerk. He doesn’t like sharing (his ball), and will quickly snap at someone who tries to take it. This has taught me (in addition to #3) that when feeling over-extended, share the wealth. Recommend other individuals with similar skill sets who may be available to take on new work and deliver a comparable product. Don’t snap at anyone who tries to eek in on your workload…most times it’s with the intention of helping.