Every few months, I find myself wistfully looking through the job posting sites and wondering if I should go back to the security of a permanent job. Sure, having flexibility and variety is nice and all, but so is having a steady paycheque.

For a few months last year, I did what I thought was the ideal solution: I took on a part-time editing job with a fixed monthly income. While this seemed like the perfect way to give me stability and freedom at the same time, I found it actually had the opposite effect.

Inevitably, my part-time gig ended up taking more time than I expected it to. My job description slowly changed and my commitment level increased, meaning I found myself spending more time to go above and beyond for the job. I also found that I ended up spending less time marketing myself, which meant I got fewer new (and better paying) clients. I became complacent and had less time and energy to put towards pursuing new work.

In a moment of clarity, I quit my part-time gig and refocused my energy to make room for more awesomeness in my life. Almost immediately, I found myself swamped with a steady stream of work for the next six months. I patted myself on the back at having incredible insight, and swore I’d never go down that path again.

Yet here I am, six weeks into the year, and I find myself trolling Monster.ca again. The truth is, there are some amazing, tempting opportunities out there in my field right now.

I think I have a lot to contribute—and a lot to learn—in a permanent job. A big part of me really likes working in an office. I like having co-workers to bounce ideas off of. I like going for lunch with my neighbor and I love the cheesy birthday parties, staff meetings, and special events. I love working with smart, talented people who teach me new things every day. I like the separation of home and office, and I miss reading on the SkyTrain during my commute. And I love the feeling of being part of a team.

There are pros and cons to freelancing and to job-jobs. I’ve been ridiculously happy in both positions, and I feel blessed to have had success at both.

The question is, which is best for me at this stage in my life?

In Los Angeles, a running joke is that your waitress is likely slashed, as in she’s a waitress/actress/model/bartender/whatever. Increasingly, I find myself slashing my job title too. Not just a writer, I’m now a writer/editor/social media strategist/media relations gal/communications person/speaker/project manager.

I didn’t exactly set out to be a multi-titled person. Though the core of my business is still writing and editing, the other titles have somehow naturally evolved as I work to fill my clients’ needs. And through this evolution, I’ve added new income streams to my business.

Let’s be clear: I’m not big on people who claim to be experts on many things. To me, if you tell me you can fix both my kitchen sink and do my taxes, I’m going to be a little skeptical. However, as a freelancer, I think it’s helpful to diversify your income streams.

By diversify your income stream, I mean think big and see what other income opportunities there are for you.

For you, this might mean finding other opportunities that complement your skills well. For example, if you’re a writer, can you also edit? Can you write for magazines and businesses? Can you act as a project manager and subcontract work out to designers, web developers and proofreaders? Can you offer courses, workshops or seminars on how to write effectively? Can you apply your business skills to help other entrepreneurs somehow?

You might decide you want to focus just on writing and maybe just for a niche market, zooming in on your ideal clients. That works too. Have you looked for clients outside the town you live in? Outside your province or country? Are there opportunities to partner up with other businesses such as designers or web developers and offer packages to clients?

All of these efforts help even out those dreaded peaks and valleys that freelancing brings. Another bonus? Diversifying helps ensure you’re always on your toes and learning something new. And to me, that’s one of the best things about being a freelancer.

What about you? How do you diversify your income?

I first heard about co-working through Twitter when I started following @thenetworkhub. The Network Hub, it turns out, is a hugely successful local co-working spot, with a flagship location in Gastown and a new location in New Westminster.

Co-working is a great solution for those of us who don’t always want to work from home, but are tired of the distractions of the coffee shops. The idea? Rent shared office space on a permanent, drop-in, or casual basis.

At The Network Hub’s New Westminster location, this translates into a huge open area with desks and chairs set up around the room, most right in front of floor-to-ceiling windows. There’s reception service and you can have your business’s mail delivered there instead of to your home. You can even take advantage of meeting room space and have a professional, non-coffee shop location to meet clients.

The shocking thing for me was how reasonably priced the space is—just $5 an hour or $35 a day. The Hub also offers several packages to meet your needs, including one that includes five days a month, perfect for writers like me who want to use it a few times a month when deadlines are looming.

While I love the idea of having a professional place to work that I don’t have to pay a fortune for, the Hub offered an unexpected bonus: incredible networking opportunities. Each time I’ve visited, I’ve either met someone new or seen a familiar face. The space attracts entrepreneurs, freelancers, and start-up businesses of all types, making for a fascinating, fun, and energetic group of people to spend your day with.

And the best part? One of the designers I met at The Network Hub asked me to do a project that’s worth a big chunk of my target annual revenue. That means my membership more than paid for itself in no time.

Now that’s what I call a good value.

Last night, I spoke at the monthly meeting of the Editors’ Association of Canada about how I’ve used Twitter to get work and meet new clients. It was a fabulous, enthusiastic group of people and I really enjoyed talking to everyone.

In case you couldn’t make it and are curious, here is a brief summary of the seven tips I shared. Twitter is about building community and engaging people, so the key is to have conversations and get to know people a little bit.

1.      Know who to follow. Start with people you know, friends, and colleagues. Take a look at who they’re following and see if you can get some ideas that way. Then start following your dream clients, organizations you’d like to work for and job search sites. Often, the person doing the tweeting for an organization is its editor or communications person—as a freelancer, that’s who you want to talk to.

2.      Chat people up. Don’t be afraid to jump into conversations, even if it’s with people you don’t know. This isn’t high school, there’s no “cool group” that you need to be intimidated by.

3.      Search for keywords. You might be surprised to find out that a search for “looking for editor” actually yields results.

4.      Use hashtags. Hashtags highlight your posts to people interested in the same topic as you. It’s a good way to attract new people who might be interested in what you have to say.

5.      Post interesting content. The classic tweet of “I’m eating a ham sandwich” has thankfully given way to talking about things people might actually care about. Post links to your work, tips from your field, upcoming events, links to interesting articles, and information about projects you’re working on.

6.      Check in and post regularly. “Regularly” means something different to everyone, but I recommend spending at least five minutes, twice a day posting new content, re-tweeting others, and commenting on some.

7.      Share the love. Talk about other businesses, organizations, and people that you respect. Use #FF wisely and give shout outs to people who make your Twitterverse fabulous. And remember, a simple “thank you” goes a long way.

Interested in learning more? I offer personal, group, and corporate training on using Twitter. Just visit my website or drop me a line.

If you’re like most people, you likely run a spell-checker on your documents just before you save them. A spell-checker is a fabulous tool. It catches typos and spelling mistakes quickly and easily, without you having to waste time flipping through the dictionary.

Heck, you’d probably just toss your 20-year-old dictionary in the garbage, except that it makes a fabulous bookend, right? Before you do that, you might want to take a closer look at some of the advantages a dictionary has over a spell-checker.

1.       Verifying Canadian spellings. Even if your computer’s language is set to Canadian English, you might be surprised to learn that your spell-checker will accept both “grey” and “gray” as correct spellings. A quick check in the Canadian Oxford Dictionary will tell you that “gray” is a variation for “grey” and that “grey” is preferred in Canada.

2.       Spelling slang words. A friend of mine asked me the other day if “tushy” or “tooshy” is the correct spelling of the word. I had no idea, and both words got flagged as errors by my spell-checker. I took a look and, sure enough, my dictionary said that both “tushie” and “tushy” are acceptable. Go figure.

3.       Capitalizing words. Did you know that you use a capital A in “Alpine” when referring to the Alps or downhill skiing, but a lowercase A when talking about high mountains? Now you do (and so do I, thanks to my dictionary).

4.       Using words. Ever wonder when to use “lay” and when to use “lie” in a sentence? Wondering if the hill is “farther” or “further” away? There’s an entry for that.

5.       Hyphenating words. A relay race doesn’t have a hyphen, but when you re-lay tile, you need one. Likewise, when you stop at a red light, no hyphen is needed, but it’s a necessity for a red-light district. Also, the hyphen’s been dropped from “email” (though my spell-checker still doesn’t flinch at “e-mail”).

What makes things tricky is that different dictionaries will give you different answers to all of these questions, depending on the age, origin, and editor of the dictionary. To get around this, it’s critical for organizations to have a standard dictionary that everyone uses. That way, if there’s ever any dispute, a flip through the dictionary quickly ends any debates.

Another challenge is that your spell-checker might not even flag a lot of these words as possible errors. The solution? A skilled editor. While she might not know all the answers off the top of her head, she’ll be able to zoom in on red flags and know what types of things she should be looking up in her trusty sidekick—her dictionary.

What about you? Do you use your dictionary or does it just collect dust?

One of the biggest hurdles to becoming a freelancer is the fear of financial instability. Without a doubt, the biggest question I had when I quit my day job was “Will I make enough money?”

In my first full year as a freelancer, I was thrilled to meet my goal of beating my previous salary (yay!). Despite that, I confess to still stressing almost daily about how much money I’ll bring in over the year. To help keep me sane, I try to remind myself that the money I make generally goes farther because I spend less money as a freelancer than I did as an employee.

Here’s how.

1.       I don’t need to buy as many work clothes. I have a few work-appropriate outfits that I wear when I work on-site or meet clients, but I typically wear jeans and a sweatshirt while I work at home. Bonus: some freelancers save even more money by wearing pajamas all day (comfy and economical).

2.       I eat lunch at home.When I worked in an office, packing a lunch just seemed like so much work. You know, you’ve got to take the food out of the fridge, and put it in containers, and put it in a bag…argh. Who has time for that? I hardly ever took my lunch to work, and when I did, I usually ended up going out with co-workers while my sandwich rotted away in my desk drawer.

3.       I eat supper at home more. By the time I got home from the office, ran a couple of errands, and realized I’d forgotten to take chicken out of the freezer, going out for supper just seemed way too easy. Working at home, I can start supper as soon as I finish work, just as other people are getting into their vehicles for the long drive home. Also, I live right above a grocery store now, so there’s really no excuse to eat out much.

4.       I fired my housekeeper. (OK, she actually quit after we moved, but I might have fired her anyway.) Again, working in an office meant I had less time at home so I had less time to clean. Plus, you know, I hate cleaning. Now that I’m at home, I have more time to get stuff done around the house (theoretically anyway). Come to think of it, I could still use a housekeeper. Hmm…

5.       I don’t need a transit pass. Gone are the monthly transit passes that set me back about $100 a month. Instead, my commute involves the arduous journey of walking 15 feet from my bedroom to my officer. Bonus: no more drunk guys breathing on me at 8:30 in the morning. Whoo-hoo!

What about you? Do you find you spend less money as a freelancer? What do you save on?

Make any resolutions this year? What about goals?

This year, I decided to tweak the annual New Year’s tradition and call my resolutions goals instead. Resolutions have always sounded so wishy-washy to me, you know?

Unlike many resolutions, goals are measureable and, I think, they hold you accountable better. It’s easy to say, “I resolve to go to the gym more,” but I wanted something more specific than that. I wanted to know what I’m working towards this year.

Interestingly, now that I’m a freelancer, I find myself focusing more on business goals than personal ones. Being a freelancer thrusts me firmly in the driver’s seat of my career. There are no pit stops, no taking breaks—it’s just go, go, go. Writing isn’t a hobby for me, it’s my job.

Here are my goals for 2012:

• Increase my revenue (I have a number in mind, but, uh, I’m not sharing it here)
• Do three speaking engagements
• Put on four workshops
• Do three magazine pitches per month
• Attend at least one networking event per month
• Clearly identify my ideal clients and connect with them

What about you? Do you have resolutions or goals for 2012? What are they?

Alrighty. I’ve decided to give in and start a blog. Since I’m a writer, it seemed like a natural thing to do, right? Well, kind of.

The thing is, I’m a freelancer. That means I’m always looking for my next gig, my next client, my next paycheque. By blogging, I’m putting myself out there in a whole different way. It’s now going to be easier than ever for potential clients to find out if I’m the kind of person they want to work with. And that’s a fabulously scary idea.

Freelancing is a tough business. I’ve been doing it for over a year now, and I still find it continuously exhilarating and devastating.

You see, freelancing is a lot like dating.

As a freelancer, I’m always anxiously waiting for clients to call. When they do, I think, “They like me, they really like me!”

When they don’t, I start replaying every second of the last conversation or job I had with them, wondering what I did that doomed our relationship (because surely it was my fault, it couldn’t be related to budget constraints or scheduling conflicts or, I don’t know, the lack of work at the moment).

I find myself constantly battling crippling insecurity one day, overwhelming confidence the next. Just when I start to wonder if I’m ever going to work again, I usually end up finding myself buried in projects that I can’t wait to get started on.

So why do I do it? Because I’m living the dream, baby. I’m working from home (mostly), setting my own hours, taking time off when I want to, doing what I want to do, when I want to do it, and, best of all, getting paid to do what I love—writing.

I think that makes me pretty damn lucky.