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Which Meetings with Clients Should I Bill For?

You're a freelancer and doing regular work with your clients. If you bill by the hour or, more generally, for time and materials, which meetings should you bill the clients for?
 
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Links of the Month:
What are the different types of release management?
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When Do You Look Too Much Like an Employee?

Freelancers, especially newbie freelancers, can find themselves caught in situations where their only, large, 40-hour-per week client starts to treat them more like an employee than a freelancer. What should you do?
 
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Links of the month:
End-to-end testing for enterprise business processes
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Is California a Bad Place to Start a Business or Practice?

I've been asked this more than once, but eventually got around to doing a video about it. Rumor has it that California is "business-unfriendly," and, if you live there, you should start a business in another state. What's my take on that?
 
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Links of the week:
Salesforce Test Automation: What Every Engineer Should Know
Key Components of a CI/CD Pipeline

Should I Run Away If Someone Offers Equity?

It's a situation that a lot of techies can relate to. Someone comes along and offers you a stake in their business, instead of money, if you build their vision for them. What should a freelancer do in this situation?
 
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Links of the week:
Oracle testing
8 CI/CD Best Practices for Your DevOps Journey

Is It Okay to "Fake It 'til You Make It?"

We've all heard the phrase "hake it 'til you make it." A reader asked me if this is a good mantra to live by.
 
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Links of the week:
Data: What Is DevSecOps?
Key Components of a CI/CD Pipeline

Should I Approach Freelancing Differently During a Recession

At the time of recording, there's a good bit of uncertainty about the economy. Against that backdrop, as a freelancer, should you approach your work differently?
 
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What is the Best Way for Freelancers to Get Paid?

Wire Transfer? Check? Cash? If you're just starting out as a freelancer, what's the best way to get paid?
 
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What is My (Erik's) Worst Client Experience?

One of the questions that came up in my reader/viewer backlog was specific to me and my background. What is/was my worst experience with a client?
 
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Link of the week:
Using Pytest Fixtures: A Step-by-Step Guide With Examples

Is Coaching a Good Line of Work for Independents?

There are all kinds of people billing themselves as (non-athletic) "coaches" out there. As someone looking to go freelance, is becoming a coach a good line of work to get into, specifically in the B2B/professional world?
 
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Link of the week:
Learn Regression testing

Should Freelancers Have References, Like Employees?

It's common (at least in the US) for employees to furnish "references," which are essentially friends or colleagues who vouch for them as character witnesses. As a freelancer, should you also do this?
 
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Link of the week:
Test Environments: Why You Need Them and How to Set It Up