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In our UnCorporate Commentary on the Aquent Index, we drag in bosses, sagging bodies, and death. Huh?
     



If you're looking for a laugh, check out these surefire breaches of business etiquette. Commit them, though, and you'll have more free time than you probably want.   Full Story

     

Getting Work Column
Have you got the guts to guarantee your work? If so, do it. Clients eat that stuff up.

Doing Work Column
Azriela Jaffe solves the case of The Client Who Wouldn't Shut Up.

inSANity Column
Is it possible to be a nutcase and a source of freelance wisdom simultaneously?

Taxation Column
June Walker tells how to get some extra credit from the IRS.


 Boss-Free People

Architect: He's not a professor, but Tony Blackett thinks about universities all day long. This is the story of his big gig in Asia. Big Plan on Campus Full Story

Communicator: Actor- turned- communications- consultant Gary Hirsch teaches wage slaves how to freak out and be goofy. We approve. Loosen your shirt collar and read. You Call This Work? Full story

Curator: Surely you knew that museum curators can be independent professionals. It's an interesting life, complete with mother goddesses, problem clients (sound familiar?), and a diabetic male cat named... Susan? Don't ask. She's on Display Full Story

Detective: IP Chris Horsch is a private eye -- a real one. Turn off your TV and tune in to this story to find out what these guys actually do. The IP PI Full Story

Diarist: A diary can be a tool for self-expression, revelation, venting frustration, or just fun. But who would have thought someone could make a living helping other people make diaries? Self-Exposure Full Story

Event Planner: Charrisse Min Alliegro uses her Wall Street savvy to help couples tie the knot in style. Ringmaster Full Story

Executive: Even in the Internet industry, experience counts. Teresa Kersten has turned her 15 years of work at Apple, Intuit, and elsewhere into a one-woman Silicon Valley market. VP for Hire Full Story

Healthcare Consultant: People hire personal trainers to keep themselves fit. So do healthcare institutions like hospitals, medical clinics, and advocacy groups. Consultant Matthew McClain is their soft-spoken task master.  He Pulls Together Healthcare Full story

Illustrator: Tim O'Brien is a well-known IP illustrator who's also a boxer. When was the last time you met an artist who sidelined as a tough guy? The Canvas Man Full Story

Landscape Designer: When it's hot in the Hamptons, superstar summer residents hire IP Elizabeth Lear. She Loves to Get Her Hands Dirty Full story

Lawyer: How does a former big-time Fed get respect as a solo lawyer on Whiffletree Circle?  Full Story

The Fowl InternetNet-worker: Since 1995, the coop on the knoll behind John Babiarz's Grafton home has hosted a 20th century gaggle of noisemakers new to farm country -- computer servers. The Fowl Internet Full story

Painter: Naima Rauam doesn't sleep with the fishes, she paints them -- right in the middle of the Fulton Fish Market. Here's how Rauam became Catch of the Day in the crowded sea of New York artists. Art of the Marketplace Full Story

Photographers: Long-time couple Tim Gray and Kim Furnald prove that free agency doesn't have to be lonely. Buddy System Full Story

Pilot: Gene Boyle of Moab Utah's Slickrock Air Guides is one part fearless aviator, one part trusted guide, one part showman, and 100% independent professional. Bird's Eye View Full Story

Producer: Even in the complex film projects of tinsel town, some people work for themselves. Meet John Daly. Film by One Full story

Publisher: If you're a CEO, you'd better hope Peter Chapman never writes about your company -- because if he does, it probably means you're getting flushed down the toilet.   Full Story

Restaurateur: A good restaurant offers more than tasty food; it exudes a vibe. Funky Frenchman Olivier Boudon helps aspiring restaurateurs make the scene. Restaurateur to Go Full Story

Stylist: Candy canes in July? Swimsuits in February? A casserole dish with attitude? Prop stylist Judy Singer digs up stuff like this all the time -- and makes a healthy living doing it. A Winning PROPosition Full Story

Techie: The information technology field is hardly glutted with female consultants, but they do exist. We peek into an IT career filled with computer languages, programs, and (surprise) difficult decisions. Madame IT Full Story

 From Other Sites

Twenty Tips For Finding Money Now: Despite the unpredictable state of today's capital markets, entrepreneurs still have plenty of ways to raise funds for their companies.
Full Story

Fear of Flying: A shortage of capital or difficulty in finding the right opportunity may keep some people from going into business, but the biggest obstacle often lies within.  Full Story

Do-it-Yourself Job Creation:They're leaving corporations by the thousands. Sometimes by choice. Sometimes not. They're creating their own jobs -- and changing the face of business.
Full Story

Never Too Small To Manage: Michael Bryant practices open-book management, does rigorous customer analysis, and recently set up a monthly incentive plan. Not bad for a guy with no employees.  Full Story

In Search of the Small-Business Bible: Bookstores and libraries are filled with more books of business advice than you'll ever have time to read. Our intrepid reporter finds the best ones for you.  Full Story

Grand Plans: It doesn't take a ton of cash to start a great company. All it takes is a little ingenuity and a lot of gumption, as the stories of these seven companies prove.  Full Story

Peter's Principles: When a top book editor decides it's time to chuck a steady paycheck and become a free agent, she seeks advice from a master soloist--Peter Drucker.  Full Story

The Flameproof On-Line Marketing Pitch: Learn how to subtly market your products in online bulletin boards--without alienating potential customers.  Full Story

The Eight Books to Read Before You Start Your Business
Full Story

 

                       
 Boss-Free Issues 

-- The Bucks --

Charge Your Clients More: If you're ready to raise your rates (and you should be from time to time), do it. And don't be apologetic about it, either. Just be smart.  Full Story

Gifts from the Gods: What do angels and Twinkies have in common? Believe it or not, they've both been used as financial tools by enterprising free agents.  Full Story

Cough it Up: Getting work is good, getting paid for it is better still. Getting paid on time is best of all. IPs talk about how to get your client to pay the damned invoice already.  Full Story

Should you do your own taxes, or have a professional tax preparer do them? 1099 speaks with three professionals about the pros and cons of each method.  Full story

Taxes as Melodrama: At least once every year -- usually in April -- IPs have a first hand experience of film noir. We found an IP lawyer/accountant who divides his time between murder, bombs, and... tax preparation. Call it IRS noirFull story

April's long gone, and if you were a good little girl or boy and filed your taxes on time, you can ignore this. But if you screwed up and are still having IRS nightmares, here are our picks of Key Web Sites for Tax Panic.

-- The Buzz --

Bearing Your First Web Child: Just "having a Web site" doesn't make you special any more... especially if it's garbage. If you're planning to lose your online virginity, here's some advice to help you make the most of the (ahem) pregnant possibilities. Full Story

Don't Leave Home Without It: Does your business card say too much? Too little? In the entire realm of things, do these wallet-sized marketing tools really matter?  Full Story

Don't Be Bashful: Nobody's saying you have to cruise the town square bellowing your name and phone number. Nobody's saying you shouldn't, either. But if you expect to succeed in self-employment, you'd better make time to market yourself somehow.  Full story

Beating The Night Terrors: No work coming in? Living in your own private horror movie? We feel your pain... no, actually, that's baloney. Only you feel your pain. But we do have some advice.   Full story

Professional Associations: Most independent professionals know that joining an association can help their networking. But what should you do once you join?   Full story

Classified ads for IPs? The Great Scott, a magician, is used to stunning children and adults by making things appear and disappear. But not even smoke and mirrors can conjure up new clients... Full story

Naming Your Business: You can invent a name for your solo business, or simply use the one you were born with. We found that IPs disagree on this issue. Full story

-- The Gigs --

Why Can't We Be Friends: Working on-site? Falling in love? Hold those hormones and read this first.
Full Story

My First Time: Your first freelance gig can be simultaneously nerve-racking and exhilirating. Two IPs tell their tales. Full Story

Saying No: Nobody likes to turn down work, but sometimes it's necessary if you value other things -- your sanity, reputation, and free time, for example. Full Story

Moments of Decision: It won't happen often, but every now and then a project will shoot you and your business in a completely new direction. Aquent talks with three IPs about the accounts that changed their businesses. Full Story

Clients You Can Live Without: Yes, we know, you love your clients. Most of them. Sometimes, however, a client crawls out of your nightmare swamp and almost makes you wish you were a wage slave again. Sound familiar?  Full story.

Nice Work, If You Can Keep It: Client relations and project management.  Full story

-- The Big Picture --

Fire and Ice: So, you work on the moon, eh? That's pretty far from, uh, just about everything. What's it like to be an IP in a far-away place? 1099 talks with IPs based in Alaska and Hawaii.   Full Story

Up Periscope: It's ten o'clock -- do you know what your competition is up to? There's more than one way to find out. Full Story

Breaking Out: Three freelancers tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about the great escape from the corporate big house.  Full Story

The Two-Headed Monster: Your solo business has a legal structure -- whether you've chosen one or not. Who cares? Um... the IRS and some angry lawyers might. We help clarify your choices; dealing with the boogeymen is up to you.  Full Story

Is the World Going Freelance? As Americans increasingly take control of their professional lives, like-minded workers beyond the borders do too -- somewhat more slowly. We review some of the issues facing Canadian and Japanese independent professionals.  Full Story

Nobody's HomeNobody's Home: Three traveling freelancers drum up new business, run from tornadoes and hurricanes, and, while abroad, take painstaking care not to be ugly Americans. All in a day's work. Full Story

The Tech Temptation: Computers and cell phones and Palm Pilots and all that other beeping blinking stuff can save you time. Or cost you a lot of it. 1099 talks common sense with three independent professionals about managing the temptations of technology.  Full Story

           
 Flotsam & Jetsam 

Show All! Get Newd!
First Annual New England Web Design Awards

Meet and mingle with the top web designers and developers in New England. See the region's best Web work. Music, food, drink, door prizes, and more.

Avalon, 15 Landsdowne St., Boston Feb. 10, 2000 6:00-10:00pm
Ticket information
To request tickets: newd@1099.com

Presented by Aquent, AIP, UDA and Webgrrls.



Could you construct this zine? World's strangest self-employment webzine seeks talented Web designer/ production person. If you like the way this site looks and feels, and you're expert in HTML, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, and Sarcasm, you might be the one. Boston-area candidates only (sorry, we're not looking for long-distance love). If you've got the skills to pay the bills, move your mouse to this link.

Booted from the Womb: What does the fall of communism have to do with being an independent professional? What are womb fantasies doing on a business webzine? In San's cracked mind, everything's connected.  Full Story

From our Shameless Bragging Department...
1099 may be a little weird but we Feel the Love:

Love: We were nominated for a British Academy Award for Interactive Entertainment! (And here we thought this was a business site? Well, anyway, we went to the Awards dinner and did our best to speak English, but the British bird watchers' site beat us anyway. That made us all a-flutter, but we're chirpy again now.)

Love: USA Today named us a Hot Site, and Project Cool named us Sighting of the Day. (Is it possible to be hot and cool simultaneously? Say, are there any IP thermal engineering consultants who can clear this up for us?)

Love: Working Solo's e-newsletter said we're "filled with solid content and an upbeat attitude" and "well worth a bookmark on your browser." (Upbeat? Aw, gee, and we thought we had a lousy attitude!)

Love: The San Jose Mercury News called us a "flashy site worth visiting." (That's a relief... if the chief geeks in Silicon Valley don't like you in this Web biz, you're in trouble.)

Love: Fortune Magazine said we're "a great little online magazine." (Thanks, guys, we think you're a great little offline magazine.)

Love: The Orange County Register and About.com (The Mining Company) featured us too, and we're a featured content partner on Inc. Magazine's new Inc.com site. (We don't have a clever sarcastic remark about this stuff yet, but never fear, we're working on it.)

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How to Blow an Interview: You're being interrogated... excuse us, interviewed by a potential client. There's standard advice on how to play this... and then there's our crazed columnist's advice. Hey, it's your career, dude. You decide. Full Story

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