Looking back at 2006, it was a very busy year, some excellent projects that I was fortunate to be asked to contribute to.

Spanning two cities, Brighton and London I quickly developed a good idea about what each job required. News International, Ebay and Emap my clients, the work for which I was nominated for, for this award.

However, I was none the wiser until one morning in January I was notified that I was a finalist in the Xchangeteam Freelancer of the Year Awards. I was quietly excited, but was too busy to think any more of it.

It was only until I was travelling up on the train from Brighton to the London event, with my girlfriend, Fiona, that I started to wonder how far I’d go. I was up against 150 other freelancers, obviously some other very established freelancers based in London.

This was a National contest with expert judges looking at our skills in relation to adding value to business as well as contributing to the freelance movement.

I must say meeting some friendly faces helped to calm my nerves, but no sooner had we arrived than the award ceremony started.

Each category winner receiving their award, to a rapturous applause. Then next was the New Media /Digital category, for which I was nominated. The description of the winner sounded familiar, and then my name was announced.

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KNOW WHO YOUR CUSTOMERS ARE

Whether you are running a successful business, social enterprise or charity, you need to know who is buying your goods or services, and whose needs you are meeting. The greater your understanding of people and their needs, the more successful you can be in meeting those needs and growing in business.

UNDERSTAND THE DETAILS OF YOUR BUSINESS – in particular the thing that drive costs

The greatest vision in the world will only get you so far – if you dont have a clear understanding of what makes your business work, you cant plan strategically or make good decisions. Build a simple financial model. The process will make you think carefully about all the cost items you will have, and playing with the numbers will help you identify the activities that drive your costs.

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Lots of new people, especially new clients and consumers get confused by what a programmer is, and what a person like me – a “front end web developer“, oh and im a freelancer too..

To save me writing down more titles, acronyms, etc.. I found a great article at Chris Heilmans site www.onlinetools.org/articles/fed2.html

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As a follow up to my last article, and also a latest bookmark on my del.icio.us list, check out an article which summarises the technologies for 2007.

Lets have a look at what they list: The Biggest Web Trend of 2007 Will Be…

>> Definately thumbs up for Mobile tech. and rich internet apps..

Whilst your there subscribe to ReadWrite web as its a good source of up to date information on web services and cool apps. Definately a place to check out whats going on in 2007.

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Considering you can now take web design programs online many people now learn web design from home.

A fresh start to an exciting year, I’m really excited about getting involved with new projects and clients in 2007.

I also have made a list of what I aim to do for the first part of the new year:

1. Write more articles – for related magazines – creative match, .net, etc.
2. Keep up with the networking > events, conferences and local meetups.
3. Increase freelance work in Brighton
4. Get local deskspace in a office in Brighton (or Hove, actually)
5. Extracurricular activity: Sailing and jogging Brighton

I like making these lists whatever stage I am in my life, its a good way to set goals and also look back to see how successfull you have been.

The GTD (Getting Things Done) wikipedia resource should be useful further reading to creating a successfull day to day working life.

Or a new article on Yahoo – Five Principles for Happiness in 2007

Who says Christmas can’t involve geekery?

24ways.org returns from last year’s triumphant set of articles, spanning the 24 days of xmas. Its a great resource where leading web developers and programmers post an article each day.

..(another) rounded corner article, flickr jscript feed, and and accessibility article have been posted so far. Loving the variety and exposure to new techniques I wouldnt normally dabble in.

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When I first started freelancing in the UK, I found it hard to figure out which recruitment agencies I should be approaching.

It can be a lot of time wasted if you spend your time approaching the wrong agencies rather than working for a client and getting paid. My saying and maybe a lot of other people – “it’s a full time job, getting a job!”.

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