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In our UnCorporate Commentary on the Aquent Index, we drag in bosses, sagging bodies, and death. Huh?
     

Season's Growlings

This may be the season of good cheer for normal people, but normality is an alien concept for our demented columnist. Undaunted, out of the murky depths of his antisocial weltanschauung he manages to dredge up a yuletide parable for independent professionals.

Full Story

     

Getting Work Column
Nancy K. Austin discusses the art of making an ass out of yourself at the podium.

Doing Work Column
Give up your solo career for corporate rock? Depends on the offer.

inSANity Column
There's a rumor that San will be locked up any day now. Read his columns while you can.

Taxation Column
June Walker discusses education deduction no-nos. Bad news: that wine-tasting class probably won't qualify.


 Boss-Free People


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

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

Curator: 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.She's on Display Full Story

Detective: 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 IP PI Full Story

Diarist: 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? Self-Exposure Full Story

Event Planner: Charrisse Min Alliegro uses her Wall Street savvy to help couples tie the knot in style. Ringmaster Full Story

Executive: 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. VP for Hire Full Story

Healthcare Consultant: 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.  He Pulls Together Healthcare Full story

Illustrator: 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? The Canvas Man Full Story

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

The Fowl InternetNet-worker: 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. The Fowl Internet Full story

Painter: 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. Art of the Marketplace Full Story

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

Pilot: 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. Bird's Eye View Full Story

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

Stylist: 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. A Winning PROPosition Full Story

Techie: 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. Madame IT Full Story

 

                       
 Boss-Free Issues 

-- The Bucks --

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

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

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

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

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.

-- The Buzz --

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

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

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

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

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
-- The Gigs --

My First Time: Your first freelance gig can be simultaneously nerve-racking and exhilirating. Two IPs tell their tales. 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

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

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.

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

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

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 HomeNobody'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

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

           
 Flotsam & Jetsam 

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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