Registration is now open for Level Up: a virtual workshop on business plans for freelancers. This is an intensive, immersive, hands-on master class on business planning for anyone who is self-employed. Whether you’ve already got a solid freelance career going, but you’re ready to up your game and your income, or you’ve just left your staff job and set off on your own to earn a living independently, this workshop will teach you the business planning skills you need to stay afloat in today’s difficult economy.
Instruction and meetings will take place on Zoom, and a Slack group will provide a place for informal discussions. Register here.
Eight sessions over two weeks (see dates below) will walk you through a 19-point business plan to clarify a vision for your business, map out how you will meet your income goals and plan for your short and long term future. Registration is limited to keep the group small and intimate.
Topics covered include: mission statements, client evaluations, pricing your work, meeting financial goals, short and long-term planning and scheduling of your work, finances for freelancers, and effective goal setting.
Sessions include informal instruction as well as small group sessions to work on your business plan, discuss individual challenges and offer support. Attendees will be matched with peers who can offer accountability check-ins and ongoing support. By the end of the workshop you’ll have a completed business plan and have built a support network to help you going forward.
The workshop also includes membership in a Slack group that can be used outside of workshop hours (and after the workshop is completed) for peer support.
Registration is open to any independent creator, regardless of media. Spots are limited, and a diversity of experiences will be represented. People from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply.
Registration fee is $375. Payment plan is available in cases of financial hardship.
This workshop is led by Christie Aschwanden, creator of the Courage Camp freelancing workshops (held in Before Times and to resume again in After Times). Roberta Kwok, a renowned expert in freelance planning and spreadsheets, will lead one session and participate in the January 27 discussion group.
Workshop Dates:
Monday January 18
9am Pacific/10/11/noon ET (90 minutes)
Tuesday January 19
9am Pacific/10/11/noon ET (90 minutes)
Wednesday January 20
discussion group: 9am Pacific/10/11/noon ET (75 minutes)
Thursday Jan 21
9am Pacific/10/11/noon ET (90 min)
Monday Jan 25
9am Pacific/10/11/noon ET (90 minutes)
Tuesday Jan 26
9am Pacific/10/11/noon ET (90 minutes)
Wednesday Jan 27
discussion group: 9am Pacific/10/11/noon ET (75 minutes)
Thursday Jan 28
9am Pacific/10/11/noon ET (90 min)
LOCATION: Zoom video conference
Application
Application is online here. Once your application is accepted, you’ll be sent instructions for payment, which will secure your place in the workshop.
Instructor bios:
Christie Aschwanden is the author of the New York Times bestseller, GOOD TO GO: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery, and co-host of EMERGING FORM, a podcast about the creative process. She’s also the former lead science writer at FiveThirtyEight and was a health columnist for the Washington Post. She writes the Test Gym column at Elemental and is a frequent contributor to Wired Ideas. Her work appears in dozens of other publications including The New York Times, Scientific American, Runner’s World, Slate, Smithsonian, Mother Jones, New Scientist, Consumer Reports, Discover, Men’s Journal, Popular Science and O, the Oprah Magazine. She was a 2015 journalism fellow at the Santa Fe Institute and was a 2013/2014 Carter Fellow. She has also received support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. Her book was a finalist for the 2020 Colorado Book Award in general nonfiction and in 2016 she won a silver AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award. In 2013, the National Association of Science Writers Science awarded her the 2013 Science in Society Award for Commentary or Opinion, and she was a National Magazine Award finalist in 2011. She blogs about science at Last Word On Nothing. On Twitter, she’s @CragCrest.
Why I Blog Last Word On Nothing.
Story Board post about 2014 Courage Camp
Harassment in Science, Replicated New York Times
Our Pleasure in Others’ Misfortune New York Times
Your Brain Is Primed to Reach False Conclusions FiveThirtyEight
Naming the Dog: the Art of Narrative Structure The Open Notebook.
Longform podcast interview with Christie
Roberta Kwok is a freelance science journalist who has contributed to the New York Times, NewYorker.com, Nature, Hakai, Audubon, The Southern Review, U.S. News & World Report, and other publications. She also writes for the management schools at Northwestern University and Yale University. Roberta earned a B.Sc. in biology from Stanford University, an M.F.A. in fiction writing from Indiana University Bloomington, and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She won the American Geophysical Union’s 2010 Walter Sullivan Award for Excellence in Science Journalism for feature writing and a 2016 silver AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award for children’s science news. In 2020, she received an MIT Knight Science Journalism Project Fellowship to work on a collection of reported essays. Find her on Twitter @robertakwok.
How to Design A Marijuana-License Lottery NewYorker.com
The Rock that Fell to Earth Nature
Conducting Science at the Speed of Law Hakai
Iceland’s Forgotten Fisherwomen Sapiens
Crowdsourcing for Shakespeare NewYorker.com
After the Crash The Last Word on Nothing
The Shocking Electric Eel! Science News for Students
Have other questions? Email christie: Christie@nasw.org
Christie Aschwanden 