Author: Cheptiony Mutai

  • 3 Platforms Every Freelancer Should Invest in For a Long Term

    If you you ask a full time freelancer the advantages of being one, the most common answer is ‘freedom to work anywhere.’ It is one of powerful selling points of freelancing. What most people fail to share is the solitude that comes in at your initial stages of becoming a freelancer.

    Video Summary

    This is inevitable if you skills revolve around the ‘creative and design‘ space. You will need your time alone or with people who share the same mindset as yourself. As a result, on several occasions, you will be tempted to quit because of spending most of your time alone with your computer.

    Expressing your thoughts and ideas about your journey is the best way to share your feelings with other like minded creatives across the world who are struggling with the same issues as yourself on their journey to becoming a freelancer.

    So, is that all? Well, it’s not. It will matter a lot where or the platform you use to share your feelings/advice. Before you start sharing, here are questions you should ask yourself;

    1. Is what I am sharing truly helpful to the person reading it?
    2. Is social media a good platform to share the information?
    3. What do I expect to gain from it? is it fame, appreciation e.t.c

    When you ask yourself these questions, it will inspire you to take time in putting some thought on what you are going to share. With this said, here are a few ideas on choosing the platform for sharing helpful thoughts with other fellow freelancers.

    Build a Professional Website Blog

    macbook air flower bouquet and magazines on white table
    Photo by Jess Bailey Designs on Pexels.com

    I don’t recommend setting up a free blog for many reasons. One of them is this; ‘the level of commitment you will have is close to none.’ Secondly, you will be lazy in coming up with blog ideas. Most people who own free hosted blogs publish shoddy information because they have nothing to lose.

    That is why I recommend you buy your own domain and hosting. For as low as $1/yr, you can get a custom domain on hostinger. Hosting one website will cost you around $10/yr if you go with the same host. Of-course you can invest more depending on your ability.

    Looking into this, it is very cheap to own a professional blog considering the value you will get by having a domain with your own name. When you share information on social media and point it to your domain, people will be happy to visit your website and learn more.

    Pick Two of Your Preferred Social Media Platforms

    person holding iphone showing social networks folder
    Photo by Tracy Le Blanc on Pexels.com

    I don’t recommend posting ‘the thoughts you value‘ on all social media platforms like a spammer. It will loose it’s value as people will perceive you as someone desperate for attention. For example, I am not a fan of Facebook and Instagram so I rarely share any information pertaining to freelancing there. If you want get my weekly blog-post, follow me on twitter here. But if you love Facebook or Instagram, pick one from the two.

    I share most of valuable information on twitter.

    Let your followers, identify you by what you share.

    Pick One Video Hosting Site of your Choice

    Based on popularity, you-tube is the most sought after as it comes installed on all android phones. Besides, the service is great and free. This means when people feel like they want to watch videos, the first place they visit is Youtube.

    Now, if you prefer other platforms like vimeo or wistia go for it. All content you will share will be based on your blog-post. Once you publish the video, embed it on your blog and share it on social media. Don’t forget to paste a link to your blog in the description area of your video post. This one you back-linking and getting found by search engines.

    Important Note

    While planning and strategizing on building your online presence, its worth checking if the name you choose for your brand is available anywhere online. You can do this on Namechk.com for free. Namechk tool is capable of checking the availability of the username you choose in over 30 domains and more than 90 social media accounts.

    Finally as You Grow Your Blog – Capture Leads

    brown wooden arrow signed
    Photo by Jens Johnsson on Pexels.com

    If you don’t know what leads are, I will tell you in a moment. Let’s say someone visits your blog and they enjoy reading what you share and will want more of it, how will they get it?

    One way is bookmarking your blog. But often times, we rarely visit the sites we have bookmarked on our browser.
    That’s is why having a form on your blog where they can enter their name and e-mail is important.
    This way, you can send an e-mail each time you publish a new blog-post.

    You will be surprised on speed at which your audience will grow. Keep sharing well crafted thoughts and ideas with the world. You never know, one of the readers maybe your next customer.

    It’s ok if no one comments on your posts. Point is, you have done your part. Someone somewhere in need of the same information will find it.

    And that is it from me here.

    If you need help you create and produce professional screen-cast video tutorials for software’s, mobile apps and web applications, let me know here.
    alternatively, you can send me an e-mail to connect@cheptiony.com

    Until next time, bye bye and take care.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

  • Creative Rights Every Freelancer Should Know and How Much to Charge

    When it comes to user rights, not every freelancer know much about them leave alone charging clients for the same. It’s ok to use ‘creative user rights‘ as a marketing tool when you are a newbie in the Freelance marketplace. I mean, you can get people buying from you if you are giving them ‘rights‘ to use your work as a discount.

    Watch Video

    But with time, once you have established yourself, you can introduce a fee for rights to use your work. Again, not every person you serve know or understand anything about rights.

    That is why you need to understand the two common rights that every freelance creative in the audio and visual business should know. This same rights apply to graphics design works as well.

    Commercial Rights

    When you grant your client commercial rights, you allow them to use the audio, video or design you created to market and promote their business, product, or service. They can use it anywhere they choose so long as it is not paid for.

    As a client, when you purchase Commercial Rights; in addition to the basic rights, the Seller grants you the license to use the work they produced for any corporate, promotional and non-broadcast purposes.

    Corporate, promotional and non-broadcast purposes means any business related use for the creation of, or to promote a for-product profit or service.

    This is with the exception of paid marketing channels i.e Explainer videos posted to company websites, social networks or email campaigns, audiobooks, podcast intros, and strictly excludes any illegal, immoral or defamatory purpose. 

    This is the next level of rights transfer. This is for the Buyer who chooses to use the video or VO recording to promote their product/service for profit but with limited public reach.

    Information source: Fiverr Forums

    Full Broadcast Rights

    According to wikipedia, Broadcasting rights are rights which a broadcasting platforms negotiates with a seller with a commercial concern.

    retro radio tape recorder in workshop
    Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

    In short, this is the use of ‘work’ produced to promote product or services in a paid platform. It doesn’t matter if the platform is online or offline so long as it is paid for, the buyer need broadcast rights.

    By purchasing a Full Broadcast Rights (Buy-Out) with your order, the Seller grants you with a license for full broadcasting, which includes internet, radio, and TV “paid channels” including (by way of example): television commercials, radio commercials, internet radio, and music/video streaming platforms, and strictly excludes any illegal, immoral or defamatory purpose. 

    This is for companies who profit from the largest type of public reach.

    Information source: Fiverr Forums

    Why Learning about ‘copyright(s)’ is Important to All Creatives

    With above information in mind, you will be well informed and you will be in a better position to educate and inform your clients on why they are paying for the rights ownership separately.

    On the other hand, you can also use it to market yourself. e.g You can inform your client that you have commercial rights as a package. Then tell them that you will give them the rights for free on their first order and charge them for the proceeding orders.

    This can be another way of growing your income. When you sell commercial rights on top of basic rights, you will be way much better financially.

    How Much Should You Charge?

    Well, it relies on how much you charge for the service you offer. For example, if you charge $50 per Minute of a video produced or $50 per project, it will be fine to charge the same amount for commercial rights and full broadcast rights.

    Note: When charging, have each right(s) priced separately. i.e Commercial rights $50 and Full Broadcast rights $50. This way, if a clients wants both, he/she can purchase them and you will make more from it.

    Also, it is important to note that the rights costs are fixed. This means that if you charge $50 per minute and someone orders a production that runs for 5 Mins, you will charge them the same amount of $50.

    I have seen people charge 2x the amount they charged for the service they offer. For this to work, you must be very creative and convincing to a buyer. When introducing the rights to them, tell them how having the rights will give them peace of mind.

    You can do further research on this topic to learn and understand more. Also seeing the kind of opportunities it presents.

    And that’s it from me today.

    Until next time, bye bye and take care.

    If you need help to create and produce professional screen-cast video tutorials for your website, software or app let me know here.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

  • How to Deal With Offline Clients Who go For Months or Years Without Paying

    It’s exciting when you hear how people start as freelancers then turn their experience into something beyond just freelancing- an online business enterprise. The beauty about the process is – you never know when it happens because you are having fun while at it.

    Video Summary Part 1

    That’s why if you are freelancer, you should be proud of yourself and what you are doing. It takes courage to commit freelancing as a full time job. In Africa, people will not take you serious if you tell them you are a full time freelancer and you are not attached to any company. Its really hard to explain to everyone what Freelancing is especially to the old school folks aka industrial age guys.

    And this takes me to my point of the today’s blog-posts – dealing with offline clients. In many occasions, you will manage to convince the ‘old school’ folks to give you business by showing them the portfolio of the services that you are providing.

    And when they buy your idea, you carry out the business offline.

    Why You Decide to Handle Their Offers Offline

    Owing to their unwillingness to take time to understand how the online freelance economy works, you offer to serve them offline since they are ready to give you business. Unlike the online platforms where someone funds the escrow before the contract- with the offline ecosystem, you work on a written signed and stamped L.P.O (local purchase order) from the company you are working for. This confirms that you have order with the company you are working with.

    What Makes People Excited to Work on Offline Projects

    There are many reasons to this. One of the the top reasons is because of the budget involved. Usually, offline projects pays 2-3 times the amount you could have received online from a Freelancing site. The risks are less when the project is completed offline and two parties know each other.

    Another reason is – direct human contact. You know where the company offices are and you can go there personally in case there is a payment delay and vice versa.

    The problem comes when people overlook the downside of this type of projects or contracts which is the risky part.

    What People Overlook

    First thing is, the time it takes for one to receive payment after completing the contract. This is not determined when you start the job-you just use estimates. Even if you complete the job to satisfaction, you will still need to give the company a grace period of 30 days to process your payment. The 30 days may extend to even 3 months or 1 year if its a government entity you are dealing with.


    On the other hand, if you are dealing with an individual, then that will depend of many things. Individuals are the most difficult ones. They may take many months or years before they pay you. I have a client who has taken 6 years before coming to take their wedding DVD.

    You can imagine, if 90% percent of the clients you serve don’t pay you on time, how will you survive? It’s really hard. You have bills to pay and new projects to finance.

    Dealing with clients indebted to you

    Video Review

    If it’s a government agency

    First things first, if it’s a government agency, the furthest you can go is writing notification letters to procurement departments to look into your payments as a priority. Make sure you have followed the right procurement procedures like writing a delivery note, and submitting the invoice for your payment to be processed. Sometimes, the approval process is long in some arms of government because of security measures.

    If it’s a private company

    If it’s a private company or an individual, propose to have a non-disclosure contract to be signed by both parties at the beginning of the contract.

    This way, you can have clauses within the contract that defines how you will be paid. You can propose to be paid after certain milestones have been reached.

    Most private companies are flexible when it comes to making payments as long as you have completed work to satisfaction. But an N.D.A is very important to have in handy for reference when requesting for payments.

    Other Approaches to Get you Payment After a Long Duration time – more than 6 months

    1. Don’t get angry. Anger will not get you anywhere unless it’s rightly directed. For example, you cannot start threatening a government Agency or a company because you are desperate for money. If you have to do it, have a plan so that sounds professional.
    2. Give them a window period for them to settle your payment – First, do this on e-mail or physical signed letter then follow it up with a phone call to make them take action on your request. Be as professional in your conversation as you can.
    3. For the cases where you did not deliver final project files – Use them as a hook to demand for payment. If say after 1 year, the client finds an urgency of using the project you completed and starts pressuring you to deliver- ask them to pay you first. That’s the only way you will get paid by this type of client.
    4. Destroy the files or delete them from your system but first inform your client 30 days prior. This way, if you take action, they will be aware of it.
    5. Put a penalty on projects not paid for and collected within your stipulated duration. For instance, you may say – if you don’t pick your project within the next 3 months, it will attract a penalty of 10% every month of the cost of the project.

    This is an issue that requires a lot of creative approach. Otherwise, you will not be paid and you will fall into a lot of debt. Always stay positive and use positive language always.

    And that’s it from me.

    Until next time, bye bye and take care. And if you need help to create and produce professional screen-cast videos, let me know here.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

  • How to Work With Talented Freelancers With Poor Communication

    We are all wired to look for the best in everything- so long we can afford to pay for it. We feel bad when we fail to find the best or when we are tricked to believe its best when it isn’t.

    Video Summary of the Blogpost

    For instance, let’s say you are shopping on Ebay or Amazon for a good lapel microphone for your DSLR camera with some specific features and you find one within you price range. The packaging and pictures of the product looks good and you are convinced to buy it. The product is shipped to you.

    When you un-box and try it out, the sound it captures is horrible and has some hissing and pops. Alternatively, it may be perfect but not compatible with your DSLR camera as seller claimed online. What do you do?

    working macbook computer keyboard
    Photo by Negative Space on Pexels.com

    The only option you will have in this case is shipping the product back to the seller. While you are guaranteed to get your money back, you will have wasted your time and lost money in the process.

    Such experiences are very common In the Freelancing world but in a different way. A huge percentage of the Freelancing business -is service driven- and relies much on communication. If one of the parties involved in a project fails to communicate, the whole process is delayed and may result in many inconveniences especially when you are working on a deadline.

    In this blog-post, I share how to handle Freelancers with poor communication. If you are a freelancer and is dealing with a client with poor communication, please go and read this blog-post.

    So, how do you deal with good freelancers with poor communication? Well it depends. If you have posted a job and haven’t already hired, here is what I suggest you do in order to hire someone who will not let you down at the middle of the project with poor communication;

    Set your expectations

    In your post, be very clear on what you expect from the freelancer. What will help you catch a freelancer with poor communication is their response to your expectations when bidding. Put the following as your most important expectations from applicants; timeline, cost, revisions and working hours. i.e You can say you are looking for someone who works in your time zone for easy flow of communication.

    Remove applications which does not address the questions on your expectations

    If your offer is good and resonates with most freelancers, you will receive many applications. You will realize that most applications are generic. Sift through them and remove/decline applications which does not address your request. This alone will leave you with 10% of the applicants.

    Test their communication promptness

    Send them a message and ask them simple questions. See how fast they respond. Also, if they only answer your questions but does not ask any questions or clarification on your project, it means that the freelancer is after money than your project.

    Hire the freelancer who convinces you by show of their honest communication

    Many freelancers will pretend to work on weekends if you ask them only to just to please you. But a honest freelancer will tell you they don’t work on weekends and it will be up to you to hire them or not.

    Now, if you have already hired the best freelancer, and now you are finding it difficult to work with them because they are now responding late to your comments or request, here are the steps I recommend you follow to resolve it.

    Give yourself sometime to analyze why they are not responding on time

    Some freelancers will promptly communicate at the beginning of a project but relaxes after working with them for sometime. Their reasons maybe genuine while others are not. For example, a genuine reason maybe sickness or travelling. Them communicating upfront is professional.

    Pressure them to deliver within a timeline

    If the freelancer is swamped up with work, they will honestly tell you they will not. This means that their priority on your project is no longer their concern. This way, you can decide to hire someone else who will work on your terms.

    Analyze how you feel when they delay to communicate

    This is very important. The essence of starting any business endeavor is to get more work done and have freedom and happiness. If you are not feeling good, hire someone else immediately. Make sure you mutually end the contract with the freelancer and give them credit where they deserve.

    Use the experience to hire your next freelancer

    When scouting for your next freelancer, put in practice your experience while sifting through the many applicants. This way, you will be in a position to find the best freelancer.

    And that’s it from me today. And as they say, experience is the best teacher. Use your experience to hire the best freelancer who meets your demand. Don’t forget be kind and reasonable to each other. Let’s make internet safe and reliable market place to do business.

    And if you need help to create and produce professional screen-cast video tutorials for mobile apps, websites and software’s let me know here.

    Until next time, bye and take care.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

  • How to Work and Hire at the Same time as a Freelancer

    Many freelancers leave money on the table because they are not able to handle additional tasks proposed to them by their existing clients. Reason? Most of them are worried that they will fail to deliver because they lack the desired skills to do the job. Moreover, they are afraid to hire their fellow freelancers to do the job.

    Watch the video highlight

    But if you think of this and look at it with an entrepreneurial mindset, nothing is impossible. Its just up to the Freelancer to negotiate good terms with the client then find a skilled freelancer providing the service to do the job.

    So how do you do this without violating the terms of your Freelance service provider ? Well first, you need to read and understand the terms of service for each site you are in. The good news is, you can hire and work at the same time using one freelancing account.

    You are free to choose the platform to hire the freelancer. With this said, here are four important things to look at when evaluating the right site to hire on.

    Business model of the Freelancing site

    Currently, there are many online freelancing sites out there. The most common ones which have been in the market for a long time are Upwork, Fiverr, Peopleperhour, Freelancer and guru. All of them share a common goal but their business models differ making each one of them stand out in their way. Almost every freelancer is enrolled in 2 or more of these sites. Take your time to analyze and evaluate a popular site that you like.

    Modes of payment

    The payment method is how you will pay the freelancer you hire. Payment methods vary from country to country. Identifying a site that accepts payments through the method that you use is very important. Also, it will take you less time to verify it.

    Payment protection

    Ensure that the site offers escrow services so that you can pay the freelancer when you are happy with the delivery. Payment protection goes beyond escrow. When you release the payment, the site holds it for up to 5 days before the freelancer can withdraw it to their bank.

    Customer service

    Their customer service needs to be good and available during working hours from Monday to Friday. This way, when you need them they will be there to help.

    With this information at your fingertips, it will be easier to negotiate for a good rate. Here are the steps to take in order to smoothly hire someone else to do the job and make a profit from it.

    NOTE: Someone you have worked for already have trust in you based on the work you delivered to them. It means that whichever price you quote to them will be acceptable. Take time to break down your budget and make it easy for them to assign you the work.

    Examine the project requirements first from the client

    See if the project needs breaking it down into portions and assigning different freelancers to complete it. Reach out to freelancers and find out their rates. Use their pricing to provide cost estimates to the client. Include your fees for managing the project which at the end will be your profit.

    Always go for the best freelancer with low price

    Focus on newbie freelancers who have the skills and are looking to build their profile. Help them by hiring. Give them feedback that will help perfect their skills. This way, you will be helping to better the freelancing community while making money at the same time.

    Ask for a down payment to facilitate the hiring

    This only works if you have a good relationship with the client who is assigning you the project. Just explain to them why you need the payment and be honest.

    Put yourself in the shoe of a client

    Don’t let the freelancer you hire have a feeling that you are a freelancer also. Be keen and demand for the best. Also thoroughly review the work they submit before sharing it with your client.

    Learn from your first hiring experience

    Perfect your hiring based on your first experience. With time, you will find that its easy to juggle between the two positions -as a freelancer and client.

    If you follow these tips, your experience hiring a fellow freelancer will be fruitful. Share any additional tips if you have in the comments are below.

    That’s all from me today.

    If you need help to create and produce professional screen-cast video tutorials for software’s and apps let me know here.

    Until next time, bye bye and take care.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

  • How to Differentiate Between Serious Clients and ‘Time Killers’

    These two type of clients have a role they play in the internet business space. If you are a part-time or full time Freelancer, you have met one of them or if not, you are yet to meet them when looking for gigs.

    Watch video to learn more

    So, who is a serious client and who is a time killer? It’s really harder to differentiate the two because both of them will definitely hire and pay you. Most seasoned Freelancers with experience and those who have built a reputation online are the ones who can differentiate the two type of clients.

    Having worked online for now close to 10 years, here is my definition of ‘serious client’ and ‘time killers’;

    Serious Client

    Has defined goals from the time they contact a freelancer. They have outlined instructions on how their project should be completed. They also have a set standard of quality to be met by the Freelancer. At the beginning, their demands may be intimidating and the freelancer will be tempted to walk away but at the end, if you get a chance to work with them, the experience will be worth it.

    Time Killers

    They have a rough idea of what they want and need guidance from an expert in the field they are hiring on. They only have one problem, they are not open enough to be guided. Also, they are not ready hire yet. If you are a serious Freelancer, you will find yourself doing a lot of things beforehand hoping to make the client commit.

    Here are 8 things that differentiates the two.

    Serious Client Time Killer
    Have clearly written down their requirements before contacting a freelancer for work. They just have a rough idea of what they want and expects a freelancer to guide them towards ‘what they really want.’
    They are sure that what they want will work for them thus they commit/hire faster.They are 50/50 and thus they fear to commit. They rely on conviction from the freelancer.
    To show their level of seriousness, they hire a number of Freelancers and pay for a ‘test’ project. They ask for Free tests.
    They address freelancers by their names. They just write ‘hi’ at the beginning of the mails despite knowing the Freelancers name.
    They set timelines and require a Freelancer to commit to it before they hire them. They don’t have any timelines. In most occasions, Freelancers are the ones setting the timelines in order to push them to pay.
    They provide detailed easy to follow feedback once the project is completed. They give shallow feedback which is more generalized. The Freelancer hired is forced to ask them for more clarification.
    They are Flexible on Budget. e.g If there is an additional cost, they are ready to meet. They are are always negotiating. They never accept additional cost if it arises later.
    Once they get what they were looking for, they are happy. They are never happy with the work you deliver to them. They are picky.
    Table comparison between serious clients vs Time killer clients

    These are common differences. There are many more. Who would you like to work with between the two?

    If you enjoyed reading this blog-post, let me know in the comments section below. Also, subscribe to my blog-post to for updates.

    And if you need help to create and produce professional screen-cast video tutorials for your software, app or website, let me know here.
    Until next time. Bye bye and take care.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony.

  • 4 Pillars To Building Trust From Scratch Online As a Freelancer

    A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step.

    Chinese Proverb

    This is a common saying that originated from a Chinese proverb and it applies in our every day life. If you are starting to build up your online Freelancing business, you are making your first ‘single step‘ towards success.

    Overnight successes don’t last so you should avoid at all cost the temptations to fall into it.

    Watch video

    This blog-post is written for people who are interested in building a long lasting reputation online. Before you read further, I am assuming that you have considered the following things before launching your business online.

    • Niche – The marketplace you are going to target online. You have to be very specific. i.e Photography – Photo editing and design
    • Expertise – It should be something that is giving value to people. Also it has to be something that you enjoy doing. This way, you will be able to make it better everyday without anyone pushing you to do so.
    • Consistency – You are in a position to provide consistent services to your audiences/customers. Also, being prepared to do it for as long as you live.

    These are key things you have to look into before launching your business online. It’s important, because once you are on, challenges will be there that will make you want to give up. With that said, lets now get into the first Pillar.

    Own the Skills You Are Selling

    You must first own the skills that you are selling by showing. Do a video trailer that highlights your services. Publish the best samples of your work online. Let people see that you have the skills they are looking for. Let your samples show that you truly understand the industry you are in. This way, you will have made the first impression.

    Share a Short Description of Yourself or Team with a Nice Photo

    Most people will overlook this but the impact it has is beyond what you can imagine. While people will love to hear about your hobbies, take time to think about how you will want them to connect with you. Let your profile description lean on your expertise and experience. It should contain at least 10% of your personal life.

    Prospective customers are most interested in knowing the founder and less interested in knowing about your team. If the prospect is a big enterprise, then they may be interested in your team as a display of your capability.

    Sharing this also demonstrates that you are a proud owner of the business you are running. Be happy and excited about it.

    Communication Style – Be Professional

    Let’s say someone stumbles upon your website. They find what you sharing is interesting. They makes an inquiry about the services that you offer.They write their inquiry in a non-professional way. Their inquiry carries a clear message. Will you toss that mail onto the trash folder and imagine that they are not serious?

    With spammers getting clever day by day, you should take time to look into their mail inquiry more closely. Is the mail encrypted? Does it have the lock icon? Grey or green lock icon indicates that the mail source is secure. Also, the e-mail address should be from a real domain with an existing website.

    If upon checking on the mail, you find that the features are there, don’t hesitate, reply to the e-mail. In your reply, address the sender by his/her name. Then clearly address their need. Use simple language and let it sound you are a human. Let them feel you. Your reply will inspire them to take you seriously.

    Write Regular Blog-post About Your Niche

    Posting a video trailer or some product demos of your work and details about your business is not enough. To ensure that your website remains optimized and up to date, you have to build consistent traffic. You can only do this by writing regular blog-posts and sharing the posts on social media to generate back-links. Also do short video highlights and share them on YouTube to generate back-links.

    With time, your organic traffic with surge and you will be getting more inquiries and comments on the blog-posts you publish. This is the art of building trust online. There is no need to rush if you are already enjoying what you are doing.

    And that’s it. Apply these and you will be on the right path to building your online reputation as a Freelancer.

    Thanks for reading through the post.

    If you need help to create professional screen-cast video tutorials for your website, mobile application or software, let me know here.

    Until next time, bye bye and take care.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

  • 5 Sure Signs That You Need to Start Hiring Freelancers For Help

    We all know the obvious reasons most people would hire a freelancer – when he/she has a lot of work at hand. Most entrepreneurs will wait until demand for their services skyrocket then they start to hire.

    While this; realistically is the best approach to hiring a freelancer as you only hire on demand, the same approach is so predictable and in a long run, it tends to crash when dry spell hits.

    Any Freelancer or an Agency with a tendency of hiring freelancers using this strategy, should think beyond just hiring Freelancers with the skill they need.

    Let me break this down so that you understand what I am talking about here.

    Let’s say you own a highly rated Agency or you are a highly rated Freelancer. You get an e-mail from a client who is very interested in your services. The client hires you for a mega project which will require that you hire other guys to help you out.

    This is the right time to hire freelancers. While your main focus will be to hire guys with specific skill set, your thoughts should go beyond that. Here are two other professionals you should include in your list when hiring.

    • Marketing Expert – While the client you are currently working with might have organically found you on the internet and hired you, it’s good to use the opportunity he/she has offered you to find other clients. And you can do this with the help of an expert. This way, you can focus on supervising activities of your company.
    • Virtual assistant – If you already have someone working for you as a virtual assistant-you are good. If you don’t have one, consider hiring. A virtual assistant will relieve you from the burden of prospecting and allow you focus on growing your business.

    Now that we have tackled the first sign, let’s proceed to others signs.

    SIGN #2: When You are Receiving Invites to Work on Projects that are Related to Your Area of Specialty

    Being a specialist in something makes you stand out. I can say this over and over again so that it sinks in. I have benefited a lot from mastery. But I often receive requests from clients asking if I can help them work on graphics designs for print. When I tell them I can’t help, they ask if I can recommend someone. Asking me if I know someone is a sure sign that they trust me enough. In most occasions, they have offered to assign me their projects having the knowledge that it will be done by someone else.

    SIGN #3: When You Find Yourself Attempting to Learn On the Job for the Sake of Money

    There is nothing wrong watching a you-tube video tutorial on how to do something and doing it yourself. While you might be quick at learning, it is always good to ask yourself if it’s really worth learning it anyway. For instance, while I can learn quick-books and do my accounts myself, I honestly don’t like it. I would rather hire someone who enjoys doing the job to help me out. So, why not negotiate for a price with someone who is good at it and hire him/her?

    SIGN #4: When Your Profit Margins is Good

    We all need more time for ourselves. This can only be created by working less. Now, most video editing projects requires a lot of attention to details. This means spending most of your time on them. What if you could hire someone to do the same job for half the price? Wouldn’t that be great? Always look for ways to accomplish more and by working less.

    SIGN #5: When You are Travelling and Your Current Client Wants You to Work

    Some projects are worth your time and you will do everything to keep them. Therefore you must always find a way to compensate your time when you are out of office. So, how how can you keep your projects running despite you being out of office? Simple. Hiring someone who can do the job exactly as you always do to help you out. Here, your job will only be to review and ensure the quality meets the required standards.

    You can only grow and expand your freelancing business if you creatively think of ways to bring on-board expert freelancers to participate your project.

    And that is it.

    If you need help to create and produce professional screen-cast video tutorials for your app, website or software, let me know here.

    Until next time, bye bye and take care.

    Follow me on twitter @cheptiony

  • Scared of Hiring a Freelance Agency? This Why it’s Worth it

    When most startups or a new clients fresh at hiring freelancers hear about a ‘Freelance Agency‘, they picture a big company charging a lot of money to accomplish a given freelancing task. They overthink and imagine that they can’t afford to hire one.

    If you are one of them, I have good news for you…You can!

    Now it depends with the kind of task you are looking to hire a freelancer for.

    Having operated a Freelance agency for more than 5 years in the video production niche, here are reasons you should consider hiring an Freelance Agency to work on your next project.

    Agencies Create Job Opportunities to Budding New Freelancers

    Depending on where you find the agency, consider contacting them to hear how they collaborate with clients. Focus on their capabilities. Most agencies are setup with one vision in mind, to spread tasks among different experienced freelancers. As a result, new ideas and fresh approaches. At the end, you get the best results.

    You may pay a little higher for the service, but have this in mind, you are hiring a team, not an individual. So long as they guarantee satisfaction, take that shot and hire them.

    You Get Extra Service With an Agency than an Individual Freelancer

    Let’s say you are hiring someone to produce several video tutorials on how to use your website. To brief the freelancer on the task, you will do a video call where you share screen with the freelancer or the agency manager talking about what you want covered in the videos. Considering that the tutorials will help you sell your website services to the potential customers, you will want the best in terms of quality and messaging.

    When you hire an Agency with a professional script writer, voice over artist and Video editor, you are guaranteed to get the best. Each person working on your project in this case is a specialist. This means that they give a lot attention to details in every aspect.

    Agency Will Save You a lot of Stress

    Still in the video production niche, in cases you where you could have hired a freelancer to do a voice over, then another one to do script, then another one to produce the video, an Agency will take care of that all on your behalf. In cases when you need a 3D animation production in some parts of the video i.e intro logo, the video production Agency will take care of it too. They know exactly which Freelancer does the best job.

    So besides, doing the real project for you, an Agency will get the best talent on your behalf who will give you the best value.

    You Save Time and Money as You Pay Only One Entity For a big Project

    This is a good thing SME’s or companies with several employees. You can easily lose track of your business if all of your time is spent communicating with several freelancers working on a common project. Instead of doing the whole job as company, hire an Agency capable of handling the whole project. When you do so, you will only be contacting one person who manages the project.

    And that is it from me here. Do you think Companies should hire Agencies to help them work on their projects? Let me know on the comments below.

    Looking for an Agency to help manage your next video production project? We are right here to help you out. Talk to us today.

    Until next time, bye bye and take care.

    Make sure you follow me on twitter @cheptiony

  • How to Record and Edit Mobile App Demo Video

    One of the ways mostly recommended to market a mobile app in App store or Google playstore is through a demo video. Now, the way you create and present the video is up to you.

    The common and most effective way to do this, is by developing a professional screencast demo video. So, what is an app demo video? It’s a video demonstrating how an app works in real time. This way, interested users can watch it before downloading the application.

    This is the best avenue to impress your prospects.

    In this blogpost, I will show you step by step how I do it.

    Step 1 – Install the App You Want to Demo

    Install the app that you will like to demo on your phone. Open and preview it to make sure that everything is working well. Write a step by step script to guide you when recording the video. This is very important as the script will safe you a lot of time.

    Step 2 – Download Screen Recording App

    Note: For apple users, you don’t need this as most iPhones come with an inbuilt screen recorder.

    There are many applications available on google play-store that you can use to record the screencast on phone. I recommend the one I use called Screen Recorder -no ads offered by Kimcy929.

    download screen recorder app
    Download the app

    Step 3- Open the App and Adjust Recording Settings

    Recording settings will vary based on your requirements. I recommend recording your video in full HD at 25 fps and 6mbps bit-rate.

    screen recorder app settings
    Adjust your app settings

    The app allows you to record your own voice as well; so you can turn on the audio recording option. Your settings are saved automatically.

    Step 4- Record Your App Demo

    Note: As a rule of thumb, I recommend that you switch your phone to flight mode and use WiFi network if you need internet. This is unless you are using your mobile data for this task. This will help you focus and avoid interruptions from people calling you and messages coming in during the recording.

    Library of screen recordings
    Start your recording

    Tab on the recording button to start. Open the target app and start your demo. Hit the recorders stop button when done with your demo. Your recording will be saved on your phone. It’s important to review the video recording before transferring it to your computer.

    Step 5 – Upload Your Video To The Editor And Start Editing It

    You can edit the video with virtually any video creation program. In the past, I have edited it on Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe after effects and Camtasia Studio. But to date, the easiest editor to use is Camtasia studio. The newest version of the program has more tools that simplifies the editing process. So let me take you the process of editing your video on Camtasia studio.

    Upload Your Recording(s) to Camtasia Studio

    Once you have uploaded the video, drag it to the timeline.

    Camtasia studio video editor
    Videos uploaded to Camtasia Studio

    Change the canvas setting to 1920×1080 pixels.

    Camtasia studio video settings
    Canvas setting

    Next, crop out the Black sections and resize your video to fit the screen.

    crop video
    Crop the black sections on the video

    Search for a Mobile Phone Image on Google

    mobile phone image
    Mobile phone image from Google search

    This is the phone that you will blend with the video to make it look like it’s a real phone in action. Download transparent .png image format for use here.

    Focus Your Attention to Details

    This is very important. A little miss when scaling the recording to fit into the phone screen is very noticeable when rendered. So, look Keenly into details and ensure that you achieve it perfectly.

    Adjusting video to a mobile screen
    Details noticeable when fitting it into the phone

    Once done, you can start editing your video and removing all the choppy sections. You can add a voice over, zoom in and out and add any other necessary effects to make it nice and attractive to watch.

    Learn How to Edit Video on YouTube

    If you are new to editing, you can search and find several videos on Youtube teaching people how to edit with the program of your choice.

    And that is it.

    Now that you know the process of creating a demo video for your mobile app, you can start practicing it until you are perfect in it.

    But if you are a busy professional and you have less or no time to create a professional mobile app demo videos, let me know here.

    Until next time, bye bye and take care.

    You can follow me on twitter @cheptiony