Many freelance careers fail to take off because there is no prior experience, there is no interaction between different freelancers and right decisions are not made at the right time. This doesn’t mean the sky begins to fall and you shouldn’t venture into freelancing but it really makes things easier if during the initial phase you take care of a few things so that you can avoid major blunders later on.

For instance you should start building a solid portfolio from the very beginning. This means doing projects that do justice to your portfolio and act as an asset. Day-to-day necessities may force you to take up assignments that cannot adorn your portfolio but make sure that along with meeting your daily bills you also take care of your long-term goals.

Also, don’t charge insanely less just because you are a beginner; charge according to the quality of service your providing. Read more on how to avoid the initial freelancing pitfalls in this Web Worker Daily blog post.

Businesses obviously don’t want to shut shop by losing valuable employees; they only layoff employees that are disposable. Make sure whatever job you’re doing you are giving your best and your constantly excelling in your service or skill. You should make yourself irreplaceable. In fact this attitude should manifest even when there is no economic downturn; you suddenly cannot improve your position when you are about to lose your job (in some cases yes, you can).

You should also constantly work on networking and interpersonal relationships with your superiors. When you have good relationships with your superiors and when you perform well it is very difficult for your superiors to lay you off. Find some tips on how to secure your job during hard times at this link.

Has your computer crashed and your hard drive died? Or do you want to plan to be prepared for such a drastic situation? Just imagine what a disaster it would be to lose files and other information that you have been gathering for so many years! Of course you can avoid such a tragic case scenario by routinely taking backups. If taking backups seems time-consuming you can find many programs that automatically take backups while you’re not working on your computer or laptop. Even if you haven’t been taking backups, there are many utilities available to retrieve your data and you may also seek help from a professional who knows how to retrieve data and other computer files from a crashed computer.

If your Windows computer has crashed and there is no way you can access your computer files and other data there is still a way you can save your data using the Ubuntu live CD. A good thing about Ubuntu is that you can run it from a CD and so that you don’t need a hard drive. This tutorial tells you how to retrieve data and other computer files from a crash computer using the Ubuntu live CD.

Financial stability cannot be attained merely by earning lots of money. People earn millions and are still declared bankrupt. Although earning matters, what matters more is financial planning. Along with earning money you must also know how to save your money and how to invest and grow your money. This blog post at Zen habits contains a list of numerous online articles and resources that can help you attain financial stability.

When mosquitoes attack you, they don’t particularly attack you, they just want your blood. To know your presence they use their senses, and if you can defeat those senses, or if you can eliminate circumstances that encourage the breeding of mosquitoes, you can easily keep mosquitoes away.

The best way of keeping mosquitoes away around your house is not letting water accumulate in puddles, broken furniture, appliances lying outside, or discarded bottles and tires. Keep your surroundings clean and dry as much as possible. In case you cannot get rid of the water just sprinkle it with kerosene oil to kill mosquito eggs. A better, environment-friendly way of keeping the breeding of mosquitoes curtailed in your pond is releasing some fish that eat mosquito eggs and larvae.

In case you are outside you can keep mosquitoes away by doing the following:

• Avoid wearing dark, especially black clothes because such clothing attracts mosquitoes.
• Wear clothes that keep most of your body parts covered, and wear lose clothes so that the mosquitoes cannot bite you through your clothes.
• Apply some mosquito-repellant cream over your exposed body parts such as hands, face and feet.
• Avoid wearing a perfume as this attracts mosquitoes.
• Keep your animals and pets clean and dry.

First of all if you can help it avoid going out in the sun.  Of course this is not possible all the time so while you are in the sun keep drinking water at short intervals.  Continuous supply of water keeps your body properly hydrated and the water inside your body helps to keep your body temperature down. So keep a bottle of water with you all the time.

You can also dab a cloth in water and keep it over your head or around your neck because these are the parts that feel the heat the most.  You should also eat juicy fruits and vegetables like water melons and cucumbers wherever and whenever possible. They say that eating a raw onion is the best way to avoid a heatstroke.

In case you are not used to going out in heat and you know that the next day you need to go out then have lots of water the previous day.  This certainly helps.  Seek medical help immediately if you feel like vomiting or you feel very weak and disoriented and your body is suddenly burning.

When confronted with an enemy get rid of the fear of death because that is not going to save you, especially when the person really means to harm you or kill you — no amount of groveling or praying is going to deter him from acting out his intention.  You need to know how to attack and how to retract at inappropriate moments. So instead of feeling scared of being badly injured or killed you should focus on defending yourself.  Once you have overcome your fear you will find that you are more capable of defending yourself.  Read some great but simple self-defense tricks at this link.

Aside from switching off the electric bulbs and other appliances when not in use you can strategically use your appliances to save money on your electricity bill. When using your air-conditioner make sure that all the windows and doors are properly closed and no air from outside can come in. This may sound unhealthy but unfortunately this is the only way to optimize the effect of your air-conditioner. You should anyway use your air-conditioner as a last resort.

Place your refrigerator slightly away from the wall to avoid overheating. When using your clothes washer make sure that you use it only when you can wash lots of clothes in a single wash and avoid heating water if not necessary. Read more on on you can save money on your electricity bill.