How to handle and profit from the feast and famine cycle for freelancers

Presents Webinar at

on the theme of

Managing Freelancer’s Feast and Famine Cycle

Pritam Bhattacharyya

[email protected] Founder and Chief Wordsmith, Wordsmith Communication Founder –Teacher , Wordsmith University Web-casting Now from Calcutta, INDIA 1st March 2013 - 1600 Hours GMT onwards

Discussion Schedule and Tone

40 mins of presentation and followed by Q&A and freewheeling discussions

Semi-formal and conversational

Essential Terminological Exposure

Freelancer’s income cycle : A quasi-random cyclic process of varying characteristics governed by host of interconnected external and internal processes.

Examples of such Cyclic Processes : Climate, Stock Markets, Life Insurance Claims.

Famine Cycle : Lowest point below an averaged out, subjectively arrived threshold denoted by a number $ X / per month in a cycle

Feast Cycle : Income going above an averaged out, subjectively arrived threshold denoted by a number $ X / per month in a cycle

A question

What is my threshold income ? (over a certain period, say 24 months ?)

Gathering Evidence

Plot a curve Timeline can be monthly / quarterly Have a hard look at the curve

The Cyclic Curve

Empirical Conclusions

There is a structural similarity between your income cycle and other vaster and broader economic cycles, earthly cycles and cosmic cycles.

Most of these cycles are partly or fully beyond the control of you and me or for that matter any living species – individually or collectively.

We can only try to manage / mitigate these using our own and expert knowledge.

Foreknowledge of a cyclic process (within a certain level of confidence) is a powerful tool to destroy anxiety, provide strength and make you face the good or bad – both in a better manner.

Bad = Famine Cycle Good = Feast Cycle

Signpost : Does the income management more eerily now seems to be a matter of astrological / destiny cycle consultation?

Vedic Astrology

Vedic Astrology is a Life Management Tool in its broadest scope The word Veda comes from the Sanskrit root vid which means to know. As a Life Management Tool, foretelling is just a part of the tool. The tool is subtle, sophisticated and user-dependent, i.e. the skill, consciousness and the expertise of the astrologer directly influence the

foretelling power of the tool.

Note : Just like a weather forecast helps you decide to take an umbrella, forecasts of Vedic Astrology provide protection in a similar manner. A weather forecaster cannot control rain or bring rain. So with a Vedic astrological astrologer with regards to events, including your income.

Encryption, Convolution, Compression

The Encrypted Signature

Inputs = Initial Conditions Initialization

a. Place of birth (/manifestation)b. Date of birth (/manifestation)c. Time of birth (/manifestation)

Note : The signature above essentially signifies the encrypted signature of the seed-time and not a person or event. The astrologer maps this time-seed into the person and the time view using the toolbox and his experience and skill in using the toolbox

Cycles and Epicycles – I

TOOLBOX

Primary Factors

Secondary Factors

Tertiary Factors

Marginal Factors

Fixed Factors

More Malleable Factors

Strengths and Weighed Averages

Cycles and Epicycles – II

These cycles and epi-cycles provide an insight into good earning intervals and bad earning intervals (general). These intervals are as long as 20 years and as short as few days.

It also tells that there are epi-cycles and inside cycles where there are favourable opportunities in certain areas.

For example, it can indicate that from March 2013 to April 2014, one will have negatives on technology related areas (IT sector translation) but high on Government related areas ( leaflets for Government support translation)

It can also say that the same sector shows high positives on art and artistic activities (may be you should think of asking your clients for DTP / Design works if you have a diversified business)

Our Consultant Astrologer and my teacher in this area Dr. Ashutosh Bhattacharjee is a prominent astrologer in India having experience and expertise in Vedic astrology for more than 38 years. He has been a Civil Engineer and worked as a Government Engineer in Public Works Department in India for four decades.

He learnt Vedic predictive astrology through discipilic succession or parampara tradition from his uncle who was a great scholar of Sanskrit and a renowned astrologer of his time.

Dr. Bhattacharjee was awarded with the Gold Medal and title “Jyotish Samrat” by the Astrological Research Project for his reflective research on Medical Astrology. He was also rewarded with the title “Doctor of Astrology” by the Astrological Research Project for his study on the influence of astrology in conjugal life subsequent publication of a book in

Bengali – দা�ম্পত্য� জী�বনে� জ্যোজী��তিত্যষ (Astrology in Conjugal Life). In 2012, He delivered his valuable lecture on the effect of stars on human body for developing Cancer in International Seminar of ARP Kolkata and he was awarded with professor of Astrology.

He continues his research and practice of Vedic astrology and considers this profound knowledge as a Life Management tool for every human being and everybody has a right to use this knowledge to manage one’s life in a better manner.

Summary

Your income will have cyclical variations. We don’t have 100% control over it. We can have a forecast and remain prepared. This forecast helps us to diversify/change/make decisions at optimum time. The whole knowledge provides you path of least resistance at set times The forecast is not the event, just like the map is not the territory.

Famine Cycle – Management

Availability (Time) and Skill (S) get converted into Money or Cash for you. T * S = Money [ More Money More Work Less Time

Use time to diversify Use time to market Use time to read Use time to research Use the time as some reward to you Use time to connect Use the time to experiment

Remember – in the feast cycle, you will pine for the time you have now !!!

Tips

The famine cycle you are experiencing now is part of the cosmic fabric – it is not your fault

Stop blaming yourself Stop blaming others The famine cycle is cutting deeper because of not proper actions taken

during last feast cycle The cut can be made lighter [ Coming Next ]

Cut fixed costs to the minimum Keep a buffer cash called ‘Provident Fund’ Discipline Yourself Price of freedom is eternal cost-vigilance Don’t be envious –they are just on their feast cycle ! So you were and will be. Market, market, market using the most-precious and non-renewable resource -

time

Case Study I – The Hungry Teacher and the hungrier Design Man

In 2010, we at Wordsmith Communication had a famine cycle which lasted in its most intense form for around 4 months. We did the following

I started teaching at proz.com. The time was spent in research and preparing presentations like this for colleagues. The venture made me connect with some of the best freelancers. Here are some of my courses at proz.com

As a fall out of these teaching experiences, some of my ‘students’ became teachers in Wordsmith University which was operationally launched by the end part of 2012

One of our Project Managers learnt DTP with vengeance and started an in-house DTP. Indian language fonts are notoriously obstinate with DTP packages and we sold ‘anti font-headache pills’ to the client PMs !

Case Study II

One of our freelance colleagues (7+ years of experience) had a great feast swing in 2011. A major Japanese multinational hired his translation and review skills for a high price in his specialization of mechanical robots. He was discussing about investment ( hedge for a famine cycle) and I asked him to make a tour of Japan / UK using some of the earnings as an investment. He did.

He ceased to become an email. He showed the clients that he values them extra-ordinarily and everyone loves

differentiated treatment. His client’s esteem increased and he was a person, a presence rather than an

email in a crowd of @s…… He was a traveling business. He partnered with a colleague and spent some time meeting prospects there and

came back a changed man As a reward of our advice, he recommended our agency to some of his leads and

prospects and we happily diverted all jobs in his pair to him from these clients He became a negotiator rather than a mere participant in a reverse auction

process

Feast Upswing

We look before and after,  And pine for what is not:  Our sincerest laughter  With some pain is fraught;  Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.

(To a Skylark – P. B Shelley – English Romantic Poet (1792 – 1822)

Freelancer’s Interpretation In our feast cycle or near feast cycle, we feel a tinge of sadness that this may

not last forever and famine cycle lies ahead

In our famine cycle, we fortify ourselves with the thought that LSJ (Life Saving Job) is going to drop in the inbox soon !

Quantifying a quasi-random cyclical process-peaks ?

What is our effective income in a feast cycle ?

Peak Income / 1.414 = 0.707 * Peak Income(This is called RMS or Root Mean Square Income)

Climatic Sciences Atomic Physics Stochastic Sciences

RMS Income – Conclusions

Your effective Income is 70% of your peak (maximum point over a time period) income. During feast cycle, strive for premium paying clients Sacrifice low peak incomes for a large higher peak income ( your time is limited) Premium Clients acquisition is an art and needs extensive marketing, trial and error,

dialogues and experience Research Surveillance Permission Content Timing and ( favourable time) PREMIUM CLIENTS Set aside a part of your income to pursue PREMIUM clients Tie Cost with Revenue [ plain English – question the philosophy – Build and they will

come ]

GRAND SUMMARY

Famine Cycle is inherent and inescapable. It is part of the cosmic fabric. With intelligence, expert guidance, we can remain prepared. One of the tools is

Vedic Astrology Famine Cycle provides you with tremendous opportunity and unlocks one of the

key resources – time Diversify, market and experience with this new resource In Feast Cycle, strive for higher peaks. Save hard asset (cash ) from feast cycle and invest a part into soft assets (training,

client engagement, business travel, collaboration, new skills) Save for Provident Fund (providential famine cycle ) Read, Research and Market everyday

A One-to-One Course

Designing Your Email Marketing Campaign

1.A researched and hi-impact mailing list.2.A ready content copy /flexi-copy in English.3.Tweaking Points and Tips.4.Deployment Plan5.Follow-up actions More Course Details and Showing Interest

Wordsmith Email Campaign Course

A One-to-One Course

How to start and grow with a Translation Agency

1. What does an agency do ?2.Do I qualify ?3.What about my freelance career ?4. Marketing 5. Challenges and Rewards 6. Step by Step Boot Strap Approach More Course Details and Showing Interest

How to start your own Translation Agency

Further Reading - Assorted

Seth Godin Blog : Arguably the most influential Marketing Thinker of our times. Read his blog here at www.sethgodin.com

My own blog on Translation Business : http://wordsmithofbengal.wordpress.com Arther Borges on Fresh Freelancer - http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/article39.htm - A very

great introduction by a veteran Freelance translator Arther Borges on Translating for Free http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/Articles.asp?

ArtID=139 - A very valuable essay and guide to crowd sourcing for freelance translators Practitioner’s Tips for Email Marketing http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/Articles.asp?ArtID=125 – A short essay on some features of a successful

Email Campaign and a text summary of today’s presentation

Price as a Signature – Tips for Translators http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/Articles.asp?ArtID=122 – How to communicate your pricing data

artfully and effectively

How to market your services in Social Networking Noise or Sonetoise http://www.translatorscafe.com/cafe/Articles.asp?ArtID=137

Thank You

Me and my team members at www.WordsmithCommunication.com , www.Wordsmithuniversity.com , www.Pentasect.com

Thank you for your time, patronage and patience.

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