My Freelance Wish List

CatalystBlogger will be on official holiday hiatus until January 2. This has been my second full year in business, and it has been seriously eventful--I may not have accomplished everything on my resolutions list from last year, but I did a lot this year and I'm happy with my progress. Sometimes life doesn't go the way you plan it, and it's a constant struggle for me to be okay with that.

But anyway, if there's room in Santa's bag for gifts for freelancers, here's my list of requests.

A blessed absence of tech problems. People assume that because I run a more-or-less online business that I'm technically savvy. Um...not so fast. All I know about technical issues is I want the darn things to work. Period. End of story. I don't want to troubleshoot. I don't want to figure out new and better ways to do things. I just want to get the job done without any fuss or bother. And when things break, I can think of absolutely nothing I want to do less than figure out the problem myself. To people who truly understand technology, machines are predictable. To me, they're fickle and mysterious and go deviant for absolutely no reason. Don't make me muck around in there.

A long run of mediocre clients. In the face of a rash of stellar clients and difficult ones, writing buddy Lori brought up a desire for mediocre clients. Freelancing is an up-and-down business, and that's true of the people you work for as well as the pay. Sometimes the clients is off-the-charts in love with you, and you're a superstar. Other times you just can't do anything right. Instead of the ups and downs, I'm happy to work with a long string of even-tempered, easy-going folks who know what they want, say "thanks" at the end and pay you on time. That's the kind of client I'm wishing for more of.

More hours in the day. My workload has increased as my business has grown. I used to have a perfect workday pretty much all the time: I worked four hours a day on client work, four hours a day on work for my business, and I was golden. Now I'm lucky to squeeze in marketing and business-related stuff on weekends and lunch breaks. I wish for a return to that schedule sweet spot--or more hours in the day, whichever is more possible.

A successful year for writers.This hasn't been a banner year for most businesses. I've been booming--partially because even in a recession, businesses need to market; much of the time they need to market more. My final wish is that success will continue to come despite economic conditions--not just to me, but to all of my colleagues in writing, design, SEO, and other related businesses.

Have a great holiday, and I'll see you next year!