If you are self-employed as I am, the Freelancers Union can be a wonderful resource for you.
One of my friends here in Baltimore told me about it when Mother Goose on the Loose, LLC was just about 10 years old. At that time, the Freelancers Union in Baltimore was still having monthly SPARK meetings with speakers on different topics useful for consultants. The meetings were a wonderful place to network and meet other freelancers who did different types work than I did with MGOL. One person I met was an editor who did some work for me when I was designing my first online course, and another was a grant writer who successful wrote a grant for me.
Once the legal clinic at the New York Freelancers Union were scheduling free 30 minute meetings with lawyers, so I was able to use that benefit. Plus, when I needed to purchase business insurance, the negotiated group prices of the Freelancers Union were the best around. They also have group prices for health insurance and dental insurance.
Don't take my word for it; if you are a one-person company or are thinking about forming your own LLC, organization, or company, check them out at https://freelancersunion.org.
Another great resource is the Small Business Association (https://www.sba.gov/).
Through the SBA, you can get a mentor, usually a retired business person, who can guide you through the steps of starting your own business, and running it. The SBA offers classes on a wide variety of topics from "How to Create a Business Plan" to "Finding Funding During COVID."
The SBA also provides link to other resources, such as:
- Women-owned businesses
- Native American-owned businesses
- Veteran-owned businesses
- Military spouse businesses
- LGBTQ-owned businesses
- Rural businesses
- Minority-owned businesses
Membership is free for both the Freelancers Union and the SBA.
Since librarians love to share information, I wanted to share this information with those colleagues who do free-lance consulting or have their own businesses.
