Trust me, I’m still learning this one. When you have a creativity related job, it’s easy for friends and family to assume you’ll do work for them for free. “Oh, it’s just a few photos” or “Can’t you just whip up a logo really quick?” We are constantly getting bombarded with requests to do things for free and free doesn’t pay the bills. So here’s what you should do if people want you to do any sort of work for free.
Be up front about your costs. Especially if you work in a creative field designing websites or doing photography, make sure people know what you charge. Create a pricing sheet or have an email template you can send to anyone who asks you to do something for them. That way they know immediately that you aren’t an intern and deserve proper compensation for your work.
Provide a friends and family discount if you feel so inclined. You definitely shouldn’t feel like you have to offer special pricing for people you know, but it could be an easy way to appease people while still getting paid.
Try the barter system if someone just doesn’t want to pay you. If you still want to work with them, try exchanging goods and services instead. Maybe they have a rental space you could use for free in exchange for some photography. Figure out a way that both parties are satisfied.
Create a site or portfolio of your work to boost credibility. A lot of the time people don’t really understand what my husband and I do for a living. The ignorance leads them to assuming graphic design or photography is just a hobby, rather than our way of feeding ourselves. Having a website or portfolio of your work will not only show moochers the quality you produce (and not for free), but is also a great way to get more clients.
Make very few exceptions to the rules. It’s super important that you don’t do a favor for someone “just this one time” because that could start becoming the precedent. You don’t want word spreading that you did Jack’s logo for free because Susan is going to expect the same deal.
Friends and family don’t perform their jobs for free, so neither should you. Just because you may have a non-traditional job in a creative field does not mean you have to be a starving artist.
If it’s tropical thing you can basically assume I’m going to love it. It’s been a while since I’ve received an Erin Condren Seasonal Surprise Box* so I could not wait to rip this box open. I’ve generally really enjoyed past surprise boxes because there’s just something about exclusive items you can’t get on the site. Exclusivity is basically death to my bank account.
If you’re new to the surprise box, they’re released every quarter for $35 (plus tax) and contain over $65 in exclusive and sneak peek products. The themes usually stay pretty close to whatever season the box is for. I’ve reviewed a few other boxes in the past if you want to check out those posts.
My favorite items from this box are the wristlet, palm paper clips, chase the sun cover, and asterisk pen. I’ve already used the wristlet as a pouch for my carry-on liquids since it’s see-through and can go through security.
The pocket sized traveler’s notebook insert is interesting, but I’m more curious to see if they come out with a line of smaller traveler’s notebooks since this particular insert is exclusive to the box. Otherwise this little guy is basically pointless. The larger insert is a summer petite planner where you can write down summer plans and document memories. I have my own style of documenting memories that I’m a fan of more, so this will likely be passed along to a friend.
Overall I think this box is worth the $35 price tag since a lot of the exclusive items I really enjoy. It’s when the exclusive items are meh that it doesn’t really seem worth it since you’ll be able to get the sneak peek items from the box on the website in a few weeks. I love seeing the company branch out into new types of products like the paperclips and pens. Who knows what they’ll come up with next…
What do you think of this seasonal surprise box? Did you snag one? What past box is your favorite?
If you’re living that online life of posting videos/writing blog posts, affiliate programs are a great way to organically talk about products you actually use while getting some money on the side. It’s something talked about a lot in the beauty and lifestyle industry, but relatively unheard of in the planning community. There are so many amazing options out there for affiliate programs to increase your online revenue just by simply changing what links you’re using.
What’s even better is that all of my favorite planner affiliate programs use ShareASale as their platform. That way it’s super easy to keep everything in one place and you’ll get one paycheck rather than having to keep up with a ton of different accounts.
You’ll be able to view the programs descriptions and apply to join once you sign up for ShareASale(it’s free).
Once you’re a part of the program I highly recommend using the custom links option to take whatever product you’re talking about and make an affiliate link for it. That way you can direct your audience to exactly what you’re talking about. You’ll also receive emails about once a month for each program to give you updates on upcoming sales, discounts, and collaboration opportunities. The Erin Condren program specifically offers a lot of chances to “bid” on projects where they supply you with items to talk about during specific campaigns.
There are a ton of other planner affiliate programs out there, but these are my particular favorites and the ones I find myself linking to most often. If you have any questions about getting started with affiliate links, drop them in the comments and I can help you figure it all out!
For the longest time I just left the notes pages in the back of my planner empty. I’m definitely not an artist and didn’t want to mess them up with my crappy attempts at bullet journal-like spreads. I’m ashamed at just how long it took me to realize I could just make stickers…oh Kayla…
With all the travel I’ve been doing lately across the United States I really wanted to create a travel tracker and wish listof places I’d like to visit. I just add a little red dot on the map to indicate places I’ve been rather than coloring in the whole state. My hope is that over time I’ll have a chicken pox map full of amazing travel adventures!
When the new Erin Condren Life Planner(review here) dropped I completely hated the new monthly productivity page. I never have that many birthdays to track and I wasn’t a fan of the other header options. Plus I always love a good habit tracker. The ECLP monthly productivity page habit tracker and headers was born! If I want to mix up what headers I use each month I have six different options to choose from. Gotta love stickers that can make a planner perfect!
Another one of my favorite ways to spice up my notes section is with the build your own bookshelf book tracker. There’s just something about wanting to fill in all those book spines that gets a gal reading again.
I wanted a section for all my wish list items, but I like to divide them based on categories. Presto. Wish list notes page. That way I can add a header to the little sticky note looking sticker based on wish list topics.
Here’s a video of my notes section before I created the USA map and wish list sticker sheets! I also use these popcorn stickersand television stickers to track shows and movies I’d like to watch and you can see how I set that up in the video.
