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Investor Memo

Check out the investor memo now live on the website!

https://freelancrinfo.files.wordpress.com/2017/10/freelancr_investormemo_final.pdf

Reflective Journal Weeks 11&12

This week’s assigned Lean Startup reading was aptly named ‘Adapt’. And adapt I did. Over the last few weeks I was really struggling with how to show traction without having enough time or knowledge to launch a full blown social network. There were highs and lows - paying for a premium Wordpress account and finding that I STILL couldn’t use plugins was definitely a low. Having a listen of Tom’s week 10 lecture to find that I was missing lots of pieces in my investor memo was another low (you should watch the lecture before attempting the assignment - go figure). When I logged on to Wordpress at the end of this week to find that the landing site had received over 255 views in the last few weeks things were finally looking up. Its a few long days at the library later and I now have a completed investor memo that I am proud to share with both Tom and the site visitors. I’m pretty happy with how both the content and the design turned out.

Probably the most helpful thing that came out of the adapt chapter for me is that taking shortcuts during the startup phase can lead to a whole world of trouble down the line. It made me realize that although I could have paid extra and rushed to launch an ugly and poorly designed social network, it would not necessarily bring the audience I am after. Eric Ries reminded me that achieving scalable quality takes time and moving too quickly defeats the purpose of a feedback loop. I am now much more comfortable with the speed that Freelancr is progressing at, even if it is just getting the product front of an audience while still at conceptual level.

As I finish up the final assignment, I’m able to reflect on some of the early ideas I had and choices I made in the first few weeks of class. For one, if you’re in a journalism unit, you create a whole bunch more confusion and work for yourself if you choose instead to develop a social network. Some of the time I felt as if lecture content and readings (while useful!) did not make sense in the context of my project. I found I had to rely on google and things I’ve learned working in marketing to round out my assignments. Do I regret it? Not really, but admittedly I did during the assignment crunch when I had to make a round peg (my startup) fit into a square hole (the investor memo suggested framework).

Secondly, I found that building a startup is a lot of work, and I haven’t even really begun yet. I didn’t think it was going to be easy per se, but I guess I thought it would be more like in the Facebook movie. Its not. Earlier in the unit Tom talked about the value of an idea versus how it is executed. I now know that even if you have a great idea, you have to be willing to work on it. You have to be willing to be up at 2am pulling your hair out over how to demonstrate traction while your boyfriend snores loudly. I have a newfound appreciation for people in the trenches working on media startups, and can understand why so many people give up and go work for someone else.*

Thirdly, I learned that the best way to learn is to do. This has been by far the most hands-on unit I have undertaken in my entire uni career, and I think it will be the most useful out there in the real world. I’ve already been able to put concepts that I picked up in this unit to use at work (thanks for the crash course on programmatic advertising!). I also felt a lot more responsible for my own learning and - at the risk of laying it on too thick - was able to build something I wanted to share with friends and family and can be proud of.

Just because the semester is ending doesn’t mean freelancr is ending! I owe it to each and every one of my 22 backers and 200+ site viewers to keep chugging along. I may take a few weeks off, but I have every intention of setting up the network in the new year. Readers, please hold me to my promise! Contact me here or via freelancr.info and ask for updates!

Cheers,

Carly

*About halfway through writing the final assignment I was researching statistics on freelancr’s main competitors and nearly signed up for a fiverr account because at the time it just seemed so much easier to edit copy than build a startup

Site Prototypes! Made using Justinmind

Reflective Journal Week 10

I am admittedly a bit behind on readings, so I was having a look through both the week 7 and week 9 course content. What I found in there was a gold mine in terms of inspiration, direction and a bit of reassurance from both the Lean Startup (our textbook of sorts) and the author of week 7′s reading, Jeff Jarvis. In hindsight, I think I have been neglecting Freelancr these last two weeks out of fear and uncertainty as to what direction to move in. After struggling to link up my GoDaddy domain with my Wordpress site, finding that I purchased the wrong Wordpress membership, and watching deadlines creep closer the project was stressing me out more than anything.

Recently I’ve been doing a lot of wondering why I chose to take on such a big task, and worrying about how I am going to pull it off. Looking back, I could have just stuck with what I already knew, and created a blog or online magazine for freelancers. The readings I did this week definitely helped me overcome my anxieties and I think I am back on track.

In the Lean Startup chapter, Eric Ries discusses the benefits of small batches in keeping startups flexible to change in a period when validated learning is so important. Reading this made me feel as if the small step in getting even a minimally functioning site up that people can visit and become acquainted with is important. In Jeff Jarvis’ article he makes note of Chris Anderson’s Long Tail Theory (which essentially describes the internet has facilitated a multitude of niche markets that now have outgrown the traditonal ‘mass’ market). This also proved to be a sigh of relief for me. I seemed to have forgotten that my site doesn’t have to be the next Facebook as long as it is useful to some.

In summary, I forgot about the power of thinking small and now I’m feeling like a weight has been lifted. My attention is now directed towards changing the landing page and going live with a site that has more information about what Freelancr will look like when it becomes a full-fledged social network. The final assignments are due next Friday and so I will be working on those from here on out. Will keep you posted.

#freelancr

Rome wasn’t built in a day!

Reflective Journal Week 9

This week I received my feedback from Tom on my first assignment. Overall it seemed as if he liked it, but he mentioned that he would have liked to see a community built around the idea. His comments inspired me to get going on building the Freelancr community, and so I went ahead and used some of the funding I am set to receive through Kickstarter to purchase a domain name.

Earlier this week, I compared some options and prices and decided to buy freelancr.info for a few dollars off of GoDaddy. At the moment the homepage is simply showing up as a ‘coming soon’ landing page with a link that takes you to the Kickstarter campaign. In my web design course, the instructor stressed the benefits of having a coming soon page to start building momentum for your site. He likened traction to a snowball, which builds in size though search traffic and social followings. As someone who works in marketing and studies design, the current state of my coming soon page is the stuff of nightmares. The colours for the ‘learn more’ button were limited and thus are completely off brand, and the lack of any design components other than a tiny logo make me cringe. I’ve included a screenshot of the monstrosity below for us to all laugh at now and compare to the future versions of freelancr.info. It can only go up from here!

The general ugliness of the landing page also inspired me to sign up with Wordpress to get the ball rolling with Buddypress. I linked the freelancr.info domain and will be working on getting something more visually attractive and informative up as a ‘coming soon’ page in the next week or so.

#freelancr

Website is LIVE!

freelancr.info is just a ‘coming soon’ landing page at the moment, but we are up and live on the web and can now collect insights as to how many people are clicking through to the site. Journal post to follow.

https://freelancr.info

#freelancr

Reflective Journal Week 8

This week was fairly busy with work, other assignments and travel, so my Freelancr efforts were admittedly not as full-force as past weeks. I figured I deserved a bit of a rest once I finalized and handed in my first assignment, but startups never sleep so I did work on some decision making for how I’m going to move forward with Freelancr. I was able to do some looking into options for site building and hosting. I’ve decided on Wordpress and social plugin Buddypress for the first working iteration of the site. Eventually, I hope to design and code the site for myself, but at this point I believe Wordpress will be give me all the options I need to get Freelancr on its feet. I’ve compared a few different Wordpress social network plugins – WPSymposium, WP Mingle, and BBPress - and have decided that Buddypress will likely be the simplest structure to work with that will afford me the means to begin an online professional network. I am nearing the end of my web design course and am learning lots about effective design, so I am hoping to be able to employ some of it when I begin to build the site next week.

Catching up on Tom’s online lectures has also brought SEO to the front of my mind, and I am looking forward to working with Google’s software that helps with keyword planning. I have minimal background knowledge on SEO despite being in marketing, so I’m looking forward to reading up on it.

I’m also very pleased with the way that Freelancr is fairing on Kickstarter. I get regular emails with updates and the backers continue to roll in, which provides encouragement to keep moving forward with the project. Another thank you is in order for those that have hopped on and provided a few dollars towards the cause.

I’ll likely provide screenshots here as I progress through the design of the Freelancr site beginning next week. Stay tuned for my inevitable trials and tribulations.

#freelancr

Reflective Journal Week 7

At the end of this week is when the first round of assignments are due, so a large part of my freelancr energy output will be focussed on making sure I have a thorough Business Model Canvas and Startup Plan to hand in to Tom come Friday. Wednesdays are typically my freelancr days as I don’t usually have work and am already in an entrepreneurial/design oriented state of mind from my web design course, so ideally all things assignment related will be wrapped by end of day tomorrow. I’m well over halfway there, so this should be achievable.

Yesterday I received an email that I had my first backer on Kickstarter! My goal was to raise $50 CAD to pay for the fees associated with hosting and building a website, and an anonymous donor only known as ‘Congrats!’ donated the full amount to kick things off (pun intended). I’ve tried to figure out who this person is to no avail, so if you happen to be reading this, thank you so much! Kickstarter only releases the funds if and when you reach your goal, so it was a load off knowing that I could now move forward with buying a domain and hosting. I never imagined that my first backer would provide the whole amount and I was grateful to know that there is was at least one person out there who likes the idea.

After that first hurdle, I checked my account this afternoon and was absolutely shocked to see that I had 15 backers and $229 in pledges, meaning I am sitting at 458% funding for my campaign. Here I was thinking that I would have to pester my close friends and family for $5 here and there , and instead there are people I don't even know that have viewed and funded the project. On the Sports Network (TSN) in Canada, during hockey broadcasts they include a 'TSN Turning Point' which refers to the single most important highlight that influences the final outcome of the game. These last 24 hours have undoubtedly been the TSN Turning Point in the young life of freelancr, and I'm very excited to see where it goes in the coming weeks. Please, if you've pledged money anonymously, come forward so I can properly thank you not only for your donation but also for keeping me engaged and excited to create something awesome!

On another note, I've also received lots of great responses to my survey, and I plan to use the data as both an MVP and within my Startup Plan to bolster my market research section. My friends and family have been really helpful in sharing the survey around to those that it may apply to, and so again I must extend my thanks to those that continue to support myself and the idea.

Reflective Journal Week 6

This week I started putting together my Business model canvas and startup plan as it is due for submission next week. It is nice to finally have all the ideas that I have written down here, in emails and in my paper notes all coming together in a visually pleasing way. It also helped illuminate the three unique camps of customers I will be serving (freelancers, hiring entities, advertisers) and how freelancr could meet their needs. I guess you could say that I get the point of the business model canvas. Cheers, Tom.

This week was also exciting in that I was finally able so solve the issues with Kickstarter and am officially up and running, meaning that I’ll be bothering everyone for a couple of dollars in support of the cause. If you’re reading this, it is probably best to ignore my calls this week.

I also decided to run a short survey through Surveymonkey (mentioned in my last post) to better understand whether or not my idea is something people would even want. I see it as a bit of original market research that can be used in my report, as well as a failsafe MVP for if my Kickstarter campaign flops massively. I’ve been bothering people on Facebook to help get it out to freelancers and those working in the creative industries and already have a few responses. Full steam ahead!

In the days coming I plan on analysing those responses and comparing them to some industry data to include in my Startup Summary. Luckily, I took a unit on Automation and the future of creative work in undergrad, so lots of this information can be sourced from my own reports. I’ve decided to address both the current and future landscapes of creative work to better illuminate how useful my product could be in the recently emerging gig economy.

#freelancr

Survey is Live!

To better round out my MVP and to test my startup idea I’ve created a simple four-question in surveymonkey that can be accessed at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2PHQPNJ

Reflective Journal Week 4

After the ball got rolling in Week 3 and I got myself caught up with lectures and reading I was able to make some executive decisions on the next steps for freelancr. Initially, I thought about building a prototype of the site and basically guilt-forcing my friends and family to sign up. I was going go attempt to go ahead with this idea (despite only being part way though my web design course at RMIT and a rookie at coding and designing in Dreamweaver) until I did some more reading about all the different ways an MVP can look. From my understanding, an MVP is the most minimalist thing you can build and deploy in order to gain the maximum understanding or feedback from your audience.

Although I still plan on building the freelancr site later in the year, I figured an appropriate way to gain traction and get feedback would be a twofold method: a tumblr blog (you’re looking at it now), and a kickstarter campaign. The purpose of the blog is not only to track my progress within freelancr, but to also serve as a web location where potential users can come to learn about the product and familiarize themselves with the purpose and uses of the product before its initial launch. The purpose of the kickstarter campaign isn’t to raise heaps of money, but rather to achieve a goal of a certain amount of ‘backers’. My financial goal on kickstarter will be simply to raise enough money to cover the costs of things like buying a domain and hosting the site, and will largely be aiming to attract a number of backers, or people interested in the concept. If I am able to show that there are people interested, the idea is more likely to be worth something. Now that I’ve got some logos and branding hopefully I’ll be on my way to a successful kickstarter campaign.

I’ve also found out that the computers at the Monash Library have Adobe products, meaning that I’ll likely be procrasti-editing my branding and code when I should be writing my dissertation. Good thing C’s and D’s get degrees (kidding).

#freelancr

Played around with some branding ideas today in Canva and Photoshop. At first the logo was blue but I realized every social network is blue (according to Google, its because blue is relaxing, universally likeable and apparently promotes interaction). For the purposed of differentiating, for now it shall remain a smart looking 5c5f7f.

The briefcase figure was pulled off Canva, and is meant to signify the way freelancers work in various locations and need to cart their supplies around. I also liked it because it looks kind of like a tool box, and my startup aims to be a ‘tool’ for freelance professionals.

Not sure just yet how I feel about the ‘go to work’ tagline. I’m trying to get across that employers can go to the site to get work completed, while employees can literally go to work. Unsure at this point if it’s too wannabe Nike.

Any feedback at all is appreciated!

Reflective Journal Week 3

Week three is when my weekly journals begin because this week is when it all really kicked off. I just started my web design course at RMIT and have been thinking a lot about what I’m going to do once I grow up and stop using multiple degrees as an excuse to travel internationally. The obvious answer here is to upskill so that I can hopefully continue to live a transient lifestyle, but do so in a way that makes money instead of continuing to rack up student loans and burden my family.

Freelancing is something I have a significant amount of knowledge on. In my family I am extremely blessed to have a lot of hard working professionals that run their own businesses and thus are their own bosses. I’ve watched them reap great financial and emotional reward through the maintenance of strong professional networks, and can now see the value in making connections with anyone and everyone. I also did some research on freelance work in my undergrad degree and so I am aware of the trends in the creative industry landscape and the struggles of young professionals trying to break in.

I came up with the basic concept of freelancr and forwarded a roughly drawn out email to both Tom the course instructor and two of the aforementioned family members in the industry. Overall, I got encouraging responses, but it was brought to my attention that networks similar to freelancr exist already. Tom mentioned that there are a few around, and my family contacts also cited an existing network designed for the film industry. I took the feedback as encouraging - existing competition alludes to the fact that my idea may be of value.

Now that I have had some feedback from those working in the industry (potential users!) I’m going to go ahead with finessing the elevator pitch, and make some decisions on how to go ahead with creating a minimum viable product.

Stay tuned for next week’s ramblings.

#freelancr

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