If you want to start a small business, you craft a plan, make some financial decisions, complete some legal statements and you are done. Sounds easy and simplistic enough. You know what, freelancing is also an easy business. However, there is more you can do than just sitting in front of your computer, marketing your services, delivering projects to satisfy and please clients.

You can turn entrepreneur.

Moving from freelance to entrepreneurship may sound a little risky for freelancers. Some of you may think that you don’t have what’s required in order to be an entrepreneur. Truth is, anyone can become an entrepreneur. Well, they have to come from somewhere, right?

a Freelancer Or an Entrepreneur?

There is a difference between being a freelancer and being an entrepreneur. Freelancers just focus on delivering work and getting paid for it whether it is per hour or per project. On the other hand, entrepreneurs are more focused on building long-term businesses that work. They earn money while they are sleeping. In return they accept risks involved and have to be open to new challenges.

But talk is cheap. In this article, I’ve listed 7 examples of entrepreneurs who started off from freelancing before leaping into creative endeavors and turning themselves into entrepreneurs.

Recommended Reading: Entrepreneurs: 5 Startup Mistakes to Avoid

1. Brian Wong

If you are a tech and gaming enthusiast, chances are that you have heard a lot about Brian Wong. He is a young entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Kiip. One of the things you probably don’t know about Brian is that he started off like many freelancers. At the beginning, he used to design ads using Photoshop and earn money freelancing for clients.

As time passed by, he thought about innovating the mobile game advertising model. That’s when he founded Kiip, a mobile rewarding app that allows companies to provide their clients with rewards for certain virtual achievements.

Kiip has been growing rapidly over the last two years while partnering with major companies, such as, Disney, Carl’s Jr, Kodak, PepsiCo, Sony, Guinness World Records and many more. The startup made Brian the world’s youngest and venture-funded entrepreneur and Mashable named him in its 2010 list of “Top 5 Young Entrepreneurs to Watch.”

2. Sahil Lavingia

Sahil Lavingia is a young talented designer and serial entrepreneur who we all should watch. He has designed series of apps and worked for reputable and renowned brands in the media industry including the design of Pinterest, one of the world’s most popular social media networks.

While he was working at Pinterest, he gained a lot of experience. Later on, he combined what he had learned from his past experiences then founded Gumroad, a website service that aims at helping people sell their stuffs online.

Gumroad was founded in 2011, and is growing significantly over the last few months. The startup raised over $8.1M in funding from well-known venture capital firms, such as, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, SV Angel, Collaborative Fund and others.

World renowned and famous signers like Girl Talk, Wiz Khalifa and David Banner have used this platform to sell items, and that proves Gumroad is on the right track to success.

3. Alex Mangini

Alex Mangini is the owner and founder of kolakube. He’s a young entrepreneur who started off delivering services to clients before creating snazzy thesis skins for WordPress. Alex is a very talented and creative entrepreneur who combined his Photoshop and web designing skills to create themes that push the business over the edge.

Before getting more serious into selling themes online, the first product he sold was a thesis premium skin used in blogussion.com (before he sold it) and it remarkably generated over $20,000 in sales. Then, he devoted all his time and efforts to building Kokalube.

Kolakube is a remodeled website that sells premium thesis skins for WordPress. It has provided services for savvy online marketers and bloggers like Neil Patel, Jeremy Schoemaker, Derek Halpern, Lewis Homes and many others.

Alex’s online business is expanding more into a community for thesis users that makes nearly $120,000 a year.

4. Collis Ta’eed

Collis Ta’eed is a successful and creative entrepreneur behind Envato.

The bunch of tutorial sites, such as, Psdtuts+, Netuts+, Vectortuts+, Audiotuts+ and many other marketplace websites make up the networks of Envato. The thing you probably don’t know is that before co-founding Envato, Collins was a freelance and self-employed designer.

He began his freelance career as a web designer, which gave him the flexibility and strong foundation to make the leap into launching Envato early in March of 2006. Envato’s is currently one of the largest tutorial networks and generates nearly $1 million in revenue per year.

5. Cyan Ta’eed

Cyan Ta’eed is another aspiring designer. We can’t talk about Envato without mentioning her. She co-founded Envato alongside her husband, Collis, and Jun Rung.

Cyan began her entrepreneurial career as a freelance designer who devoted her time to working in creative fields.

FreelanceSwitch, a community of expert freelancers, was her first startup before it became one of Envato’s education and information website. Now, FreelanceSwitch has over 384,383 members and that shows how popular the freelance network is.

6. Chris Pearson

Chris Pearson is one of the most creative and talented web designers I know. Well, he is an online celebrity and best known as the creator of thesis framework for WordPress, and founder of DIYthemes.com.

Chris is a former freelance designer who started off designing cool themes for WordPress and for his clients before thinking about something bigger than himself, a thing that would revolutionize the overcrowded market of WordPress themes. So, he developed thesis theme framework.

The thesis framework has partnered with popular and successful blogs like copyblogger and problogger. Top bloggers like Ramit Sethi, Matt Cutts, Jason Fellas and nearly 53000 savvy web designers rely on the powerful framework.

7. Carol Tice

It doesn’t matter what type of freelancer you are. What matters is how you value your skills and how you are capable of turning them into something greater than yourself. Carol Tice is a great example.

She is the woman behind MakeaLivingWriting and wears many hats. One of them is mentoring. In her mentorship program she teaches her students how to generate high figures income from writing online.

Apart from that, she also founded Freelancer Writers Den a community for freelance writers who want to increase their income and chances of success.

Freelance Writers Den is a successful network offering freelance writing materials in a variety of ways, such as e-courses, bootcamps, webinars and live training events.

Conclusion

There are many ways to turn your freelance business into something a lot bigger than what you do on a daily basis. You need to commit yourself, accept new challenging endeavors and think of something that fulfills people’s needs.

Who would you like to see in this list as an freelancer-turned-entrepreneur?

If you’ve put effort in your CV/resume and you’re confident with your qualifications, chances are you’ll soon receive calls from your targeted companies to come in for a face-to-face interview. Normally a candidate is selected for an interview session is because one of these factors got the attention of recruiters: the right degree or professional background, your impressive portfolio, your valuable working experience or just asking for the right salary range.

(Image Source: Fotolia)

So you’ve at least one good reason which qualified you for a few minutes with your potential employer. It’s a golden opportunity which takes you one step closer to your dream job, and we bet you don’t want to ruin the chance. Are you willing to walk the extra mile to ace the interview and get the job?

Here’s an inside scoop on how to get the job, from the interviewer’s point of view.

Recommended Reading: 7 Great Ways To Get Your Resume Noticed

Before the Interview

A wise man once said, "By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail."

Getting yourself prepared here means getting everything prepared – physically and mentally. Try to familiarize yourself with a brief but complete portfolio which can leave a good impression to the interviewer. Apart from that, here are other aspects you should look into:

1. What Are you really good at?

What are the soft skills and technical know-how that you’ve mastered? Got it? Ok, now what is it that really sets you apart from all the rest, who presumably have the same skills and know-how? It’s what flows through your blood and is wired into you that are the main selling points.

These points give yourself the advantage, and will help convince the interviewer to pick you.

2. What Have You Achieved?

Yes, you need to clarify what you have done, completed, achieved, contributed etc. Divide this category into group projects and individual work.

While individual projects may show your prowess and proactive side, successful group projects hint on your ability to work in a team. It also shows that you acknowledge the hard work of team members and therefore know how to harness them for large projects. That’s a plus, right there.

3. What Are You Passionate About?

The simplest way to identify real passion when it is work-related is what are the things that you would most likely do even when you’re not paid to do it. If you have something you are passionate about and it is related to the company and can evoke resonance within the company, we want you.

4. Circumventing trick questions

While seemingly innocent, a few of these questions have an ulterior motive – why did you choose this company? Why did you quit your last job? Why do you think you deserve this position? What is your weakness/strength? They all reveal a part of you that interviewers cannot find on paper, so think the answers to these questions through before you answer them.

Also, research on the range of your expected salary and inform your interviewer confidently when asked about it. If it is not to excessive, and you are a keeper, they will give it to you.

5. Do A Background Check

“Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.” – Sun Tze. Of course, the company is not your enemy, but it is always a must to understand the company as much as possible before you go for an interview. Understanding a company can start from the company’s business nature, the person-in-charge (CEO/founder), its vision, mission, culture, target customers, etc.

Bonus Tip: Suggest New Ideas

You may also want to prepare 2 to 3 constructive suggestions for the company, such as marketing strategies or product feedbacks. Two or three is a good number since zero means you didn’t prepare at all, and more than 3 means you’re overselling yourself and it may offend the interviewer if they are not really open-minded.

9 Tips to Ace the Interview

Prepared for the interview? Here are nine more tips to take note of:

1. We all love cheerful and friendly people, don’t we? Smiling brings the positive energy within yourself to the interviewer and it simply cheers up the atmosphere.

2. Greeting. Stand up (if you’re sitting) as the interviewer enters the room. Greet the interviewer with a firm handshake.

3. Most interviewers can easily judge your capabilities via conversation. Be humble when you introduce yourself and be ready to admit that you don’t know "everything".

4. Be confident, not arrogant. Don’t oversell yourself. Bear in mind that interviewers usually are more experienced than you if not in the industry, then in the nature of the company. Plus, they’ve probably met good, bad and ‘uglier’ copies of you long before you finished middle school.

5. If an interviewer starts talking or asking questions, pay attention and listen intently. Your body language is important: don’t lean back, sit properly; don’t cross your arms; don’t fidget; don’t play with the pen or click it mindlessly – it’s distracting.

6. Take cues from the interviewer’s body language too. If they look like they’ve lost you somewhere, ask if there is a problem before continuing. Be proactive.

7. If you’re asked, you can also share your opinions about the future trends of the company’s products or marketing strategies. This can easily impress an interviewer but only if you are well-prepared.

8. Under no circumstances should you complain about past supervisors or companies you have worked with, even when the interviewer themselves do so. If you would complain about your past employers, you would complain about future ones too.

9. Send a thank you email on the same day and also mention the reasons you think you fit the position. If you don’t get a reply, try again after 3 to 5 working days. Every employer likes the ‘never give up’ spirit. If it’s about your dream job, don’t compromise.

Wrap Up

We believe daily improvements are actually much more important than the guidelines above. Afterall, the success rate also depends on your qualifications for a particular position and a reasonable expected salary.

Take each interview seriously and we hope the tips in this post will help you leave a great impression on the interviewers, and more importantly, get you the job.

Want to share a funny Facebook status but don’t want the profile picture or name revealed in the shot? Many users use colors to blot out the details, sometimes making a mess out of the image. Wouldn’t it be great if you could make this treatment as fast and as painless as possible?

We have found a handy Chrome extension called Status Snapper which not only helps you automatically blur out the profile picture and name, but also lets you capture and upload images up to Imgur without having to open up any other side applications.

Read Also: How To Customize The ‘Via’ Status On Your Facebook Posts

Getting Started

To start, add Status Snapper as your Chrome extension.

Now, go to your Facebook. You’ll notice that on the right side of the URL bar there’s a Status Snapper icon. Whenever you find a nice saying you want to take a shot of, activate Status Snapper by clicking on the icon.

You’ll notice on the news feed page that there are icons with the word SNAP. To capture the status you want, click on SNAP, and Status Snapper will automatically blur out the name and display picture of the nearest status.

After clicking SNAP, the FINISH and CANCEL buttons will pop up. Click FINISH to upload the shot to Imgur. Click CANCEL to make another selection.

Your screenshot will open in a separate tab with a Status Snapper watermark on it.

Limitations

This is just a simple extension that lets you skip having to use Paint and coloring to blot out details. Although Status Snapper makes it easier to blur out your personal details, there is no way of indicating who is saying what in longer Facebook conversation threads. Also, thus far, it only works with the news feed page, not on your personal Wall Feed.

Wearable gadgets have found a home in the health industry, providing a tracking device to help count your calories, track your personal mileage or help keep track of your exercise regime. As these devices get more powerful and adaptable, we find them making a mark in extreme sports.

The people from NZN Labs have created a wearable watch which could track your performance in extreme sports and turn it into numbers.

LIT tracks your performance by intepreting your movements with its sensors. You can wear LIT like a watch on your wrist, hang it on your belt, on a lanyard around your neck, in your pocket or anywhere that can fit something the size of a matchbox.

It is shock- and water-resistant and is built with an extreme gryo range to capture g-force movements. The battery powering LIT is rechargeable and can last up to 4 days. For now, the LIT is only compatible with iOS devices via bluetooth.

LIT supports extreme sports such as surfing, skating, snowboarding and motocross.

When you perform activities and actions such as rotations during your activity you will be rewarded with points which acts as a currency. Use the points to challenge friends, fellow sports enthusiasts or with yourself. View your performance and points on LIT-dedicated iOS apps or you can share your achievement on Facebook and Twitter.

Currently LIT has raised $33,600 on Indiegogo.You can support this project on Indiegogo for $99 and receive a black LIT for your support.