Now, your reputation is your meal ticket. Everything you do impacts it. Always keep this in mind. Some clients will hire you solely because of your reputation. Your free agent career lives and dies by it.

4. Peer relationships change

When you get together with your former colleagues for first time since becoming a free agent, you will notice a remarkable difference. Your former colleagues will still be focused on their job while you are focused on marketing, writing proposals, meeting with potential clients, and oh yeah, doing actual work for which you'll get paid.

During your discussion, do not ask your former colleagues for advice about being a free agent. They don't know what you are going through, how much progress you've made, and cannot comprehend your new responsibilities. Most of these people will never understand. Don't take it personally. Accept it now and save yourself frustration.

The issue is not that you don't value their opinion. It is that your former colleagues aren't knowledgeable about issues you now encounter. For example, do you take your automobile for repairs to dentist? Of course you don't!

Develop a network of other free agents. These people do understand your issues and can provide fantastic guidance.

5. Initiate all contact

As an employee, a certain structure was provided, mainly an office and a paycheck. However, most important and not often talked about structure was a means of regular conversation with other people. Being a free agent has potential to be very lonely and can be isolating especially if you work out of your home. It is possible that mailman or UPS driver is only person you'll talk to during day. This lack of human interaction can cause your productivity to nosedive in addition to being very lonely.

Make sure you stay connected with world. Go to lunch with former co-workers. Call up friends and keep up your network. Be sure to have at least one conversation with a human every day. However, you have to initiate contact, it doesn't come to you like when you were an employee.

Extending a deadline is buying time. What are you going to exchange for purchase?

When you have not met a deadline, your boss has four main choices: fire you, demand free overtime, give project to someone else, or extend your deadline. S/he is far more likely to feel positively about extending deadline if you can demonstrate an increase in value he or she will receive. Here's a great example of this: "To do most thorough job possible and prevent us from making a mistake on this, I'm going to need a week more. I don't think it will do us any good to try to rush it and end up neglecting x.y and z."* Be clear about what that additional time will produce--in this case, a more thorough, thoughtful and successful job.

Make no excuses. Folks may accept them, but, they will never like them. Being perceived as an excuse-maker, calls your effectiveness and maturity into question. It affects your future relationship with these folks.

This is big stuff! It's your career. Be pro-active!