Freelancers have to face many challenges: how to focus and avoid distractions, how much to ask for their work, defining their strategy… These can sometimes be overwhelming and prevent you from paying attention to the important stuff.
But you’re lucky because there are many books that will teach you how to overcome such obstacles! In this article, you’ll find a list of 5 books that will help you grow your freelance career, along with some other interesting reads that you can flip through for fun. And guess what? They’re all available for borrowing in the Locus library!
Indistractable: How to Control Your Attention and Choose Your Life (by Nir Eyal)
Living in an age of constant distractions – social media, group chats, reading the news, checking your emails, etc. -, it’s sometimes hard to stay focused and pinpoint where your attention is going. Does this resonate with you? Then you should totally read this book. Behavioral designer Nir Eyal explains what drives you to distraction.
Distractions stop us from achieving our goals and lead us to make mistakes more easily. With this book you’ll learn not only how to avoid them, but you’ll also understand the importance of scheduling time for yourself first, and get some tips on how to spend your time wisely. You’ll realize that some of the actions you can take are as simple as rearranging the apps on your phone.
You might also be surprised to learn that being ‘indistractable’ doesn’t apply solely to your professional life. You can also and should also become ‘indistractable’ in your relationships with other people. Distractions can keep us from being fully present with important people in our lives – whether it’s friends or more intimate relationships. Don’t let that happen to you!
In the last pages, you’ll even find a ‘Schedule Template’, a ‘Distraction Tracker’ and a card to place on your monitor when you need to focus. Definitely a must-have if you value your time and would like to learn how to manage it more efficiently!
The Freelance Way: Best Business Practices, Tools & Strategies for Freelancers (by Robert Vlach)
Bestseller The Freelance Way by Czech author Robert Vlach is a must read if you’re a freelancer or would like to become one. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve been in business for years, or you’re just trying to get a project off the ground at this moment. This book shares key insights that will help you grow, avoid mistakes, successfully develop your personal business and live a fulfilled life.
More than 400 pages cover key points such as how to find a good work-life balance, the foundations of success, building a clientele, defining your price or personal finances, among many other important things to bear in mind.
But this book stands out among others for the following reason. At the end of each chapter, you’ll find a summary of the key ideas, along with some tasks that you can do to put the advice from the book into practice. This means that not only will you get useful tips, but you’ll be able to implement them right away! Definitely a good way to make some fast progress.
In a nutshell, Robert Vlach shares very interesting insider tips that will lead you to success. Those kind of things that nobody advises us to do when we’re starting out, and that you wish you knew.
No Rules Rules: Netflix And The Culture Of Reinvention (by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer)
Collaborating with clients and other freelancers is key to success, and communication is a crucial factor for that. Running your own business requires taking care of multiple things at once and dealing with situations you weren’t prepared for or don’t know how to solve, which is even harder in case you run a company where you need to rely on your employees. Good teamwork is essential for every company’s prosper, therefor you should make sure you build a team where everybody feels motivated and does their best. However, sometimes it’s not the case and your team doesn´t seem to work how you would expect. In this case, communication is the key to success. It’s very common that we struggle with saying what’s on our mind and what we really think in order to avoid dealing with uncomfortable situations. However, constructive feedback is a significant skill you should acquire if you desire your company to prosper.
The book accompanies you through Netflix’s company culture by introducing you four sections where you can get to know how this company built up a strong, well-developing business and teamwork.
The first section introduces you to a different type of workplace where you’ll see how to build up talent density among your team, how to introduce, increase and max-up candor and how to remove, release or eliminate controls in your company. The second section of this book shows you how to fortify talent density, pump up candor and release more controls. In the third section you will get to know how to max-up talent density and candor and how to eliminate most controls. Last but not least, the forth section of the book shows you reflection on how Netflix went global and what steps were taken to proceed with international integration.
Pricing With Confidence: 10 Ways To Stop Leaving Money On The Table (by Reed K. Holden & Mark R. Burton)
As a freelancer, have you ever found it hard to determine how much to ask for your work? Pricing can be hard. If you get it wrong, you might miss the opportunity to get a new client, or even lose revenue.
The writers argue that pricing with confidence requires an understanding of the following 10 rules of engagement:
- Replace the discounting habit with a little arrogance
- Understand the value you offer to your customer
- Apply one of three simple pricing strategies
- Play better poker with customers
- Price to increase profits
- Add new products and services that give you negotiating flexibility and growth
- Force your competitor to react to your pricing
- Build your selling backbone
- Take simple steps to move from cost-plus to value-based pricing
- Price with confidence: remember who you are
Choosing a pricing strategy, learning about your customer’s behavior or preparing for tough negotiations. These are only some of the many topics you’ll become an expert in after reading the book.
Does this sound like something that could help you getting your prices right? Then immerse yourself in the pages of this book to delve into the specifics of each of these rules.
Being Agile in Business: Discover faster, smarter, leaner ways to work ( by Belinda Waldock)
Efficiency, good communication skills, time management, ability to adapt to changing circumstances in our life in general are essential skills one should have while running a business. It requires constant learning which could be in many cases tiring. In this book you can find useful information and techniques on how to improve your businesse’s growth.
Belinda Waldock, a business coach and mentor in business management, shows you in her book that having an agile approach in your workflow is the key to success. In order to prosper and improve, you have to be able to adapt to a change and not to ignore it. Belinda in her book explains:
-what being agile in business means,
-teaches you the agile thinking,
-shows you different agile approaches and agile culture.
Other interesting reads at Locus
Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think (by Hans Rosling)
In spite of all its imperfections, the world is in much better shape than we think. That’s what Professor of International Health Hans Rosling proves in this book. It’s all about the world, and how to understand it. Apply Factfulness ten rules of thumb and you’ll get the big picture right and improve your sense of how the world works.
Numbers Don’t Lie: 71 Things You Need to Know About the World (by Vaclav Smil)
This book is designed for curious readers. With topics ranging from society to the environment, food and transportation, you’ll find answers to many questions you might have already asked yourself. The best indicator of quality of life? What makes people happy? What’s worse for the environment – your car or your phone? These are only three of the 71 questions that are answered in this book.
Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life (by Nassim Nicholas Taleb) 
Having skin in the game means taking risks, despite having something to lose. In this book, Professor Taleb explains how it applies to all aspects of our lives and why it’s necessary to understand the world.
So if you´re interested in any of the mentioned books, all you have to do is sign up for the book of your choice in THIS LINK and pick it up in Locus library!
