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

Ringmaster: An event planner uses her Wall Street savvy to help couples tie the knot in style.   Full Story

Self-Exposure: 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?   Full Story

Art of the Marketplace: 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.  Full Story

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

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

VP for Hire: 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. Full Story

A Winning PROPosition: 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.  Full Story

Bird's Eye View: 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.   Full Story

Madame IT: 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.  Full Story

The Canvas Man: 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?   Full Story

The IP PI: 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 Fowl Internet: 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. Full story

He Pulls Together Healthcare: 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.  Full story

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

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

She's on Display: 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; just read.

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

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

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

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

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

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 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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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 noir.  Full 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.

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

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



1099 feels the love:
Nominated for a British Academy Award for Interactive Entertainment.
USA Today names us a "Hot Site."
Project Cool names us Sighting of the Day.
Working Solo's e-newsletter says we're "filled with solid content and an upbeat attitude" and "well worth a bookmark on your browser."
The San Jose Mercury News calls us a "flashy site worth visiting."
Fortune Magazine says we're "a great little online magazine."
The Orange County Register and About.com (The Mining Company) talk about us too.



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