We’re giving you guys a peek behind the curtain at some of the tools available to our users. Visit CMI Interactive’s sign up page to take advantage of these medical freelancing tools.

When you log in you are presented with a grid of options on our control panel. Features include our rate calculator, links to our book store, and links to our information sections for business coaching, financial advising, and internet marketing.

Jobs and Contract Opportunities

Our users want to know about the latest contracts and job opportunities and we offer a constantly updating list of openings all over the United States. Each posting lists the job title, location, date posted, and type of opening.

Book Store

Our CMI Interactive Book Store are recommendations specifically chosen for CMI Interactive by our Legal author. Interested in a purchase? Simply click through to buy from Amazon.

Rate Calculator

The rate calculator is a valuable tool that takes your hourly rate and a projected number of hours of work, subtracts common expenses like federal taxes, insurance, and typical business expenses, and presents you with a annual or monthly bring home amount.

Business Experts

As part of our exclusive partnership with experts in business coaching, executive recruitment, financial advising, legal, tax planning, and web marketing we offer articles that answer frequently asked questions. We even give contact information so you can reach out to our experts directly.

Sound useful? Visit CMI Interactive to sign up.

You can also follow us on Twitter, Facebook, or Friendfeed for more tips and info about medical freelancing.

Back in October we posted a blog post that discussed some of the basics about medical writing and for those who haven’t heard about this rewarding industry. Allow us to wet your appetite. A competent medical writer can make $100,000 to $200,000 dollars a year!

Working as a freelance medical or science writer is a great career! The work is interesting and often lucrative, and the demand for medical writers is high, but if you are apprehensive about starting your own freelancing career we recommend checking out the guys over at CMI Interactive. They can help make your venture successful by offering you the right tools for your medical writing business.

There are many different types of work for scientific writers especially due to the internet there has been a proliferation of work. These would include:

• Advertising copy for pharmaceuticals and other products
• Editing
• Internet content
• Journal abstracts and articles
• Medical education materials
• Multimedia projects
• Pharmaceutical marketing and advertising
• Physician speeches and presentations
• Posters
• Sales training manuals
• Slide kits
• White papers
  (list via AMWA)

Science Writer Newbie?

Make sure you have strong confidence in your writing skills. Specifically your technical writing skills. Medical writing is a branch of technical writing, which is a subset of nonfiction writing. It’s a different kind of writing that requires a lot of clear, easily understood communication. A logical approach to each topic is a must.

Also, consider joining networks focused on writers. For example the National Association of Science Writers or American Medical Writers Association. These organizations provide a forum where medical writers meet and share knowledge and experience. They promote professional development and standards of documentation excellence, and help writers find career opportunities. These organizations offer fundamental medical writing training.

A successful medical writer will have knowledge of medicine or an aptitude for understanding it, an ability to write, an education: College degree in science, pharmacy, medicine, journalism, or English, and they are deadline orientated.

Check out this video of Emma Hitt (an accomplished medical writer) after the jump.

Part of that reality is that you must be responsible for your own tax withholdings. For those that are changing over from a employee to being self-employed, you must set aside about 30% of each check that you deposit, because at the end of the year you will owe Uncle Sam his due.

If that’s news to you then read on, because while being a freelancer is a great way to make money, your new freedom brings great responsibility. Here’s a short list of tips about taxes for the self-employed.

1. Report all income to the IRS no matter the amount or form in which it is received. Big brother government might miss a few items every now and then, but it’s not worth putting your business at stake. Be straight forward about your income and you won’t have anything to worry about on April 15th.

2. If you work from home, there are several business related expenses that are deductible as long as they are ordinary and necessary to your job. For example, you can deduct internet connections, common office supplies, business cards, cell phone fees, computer software and hardware.

3. Another benefit of having a home office is that you can deduct a percentage of utilities, insurance, and a part of the mortgage or rent. But don’t get too carried away, the space must be specifically set aside as an office workspace. Though you may spend a lot of time in your kitchen while on business calls, your new blender is not a business expense.

Let’s get this straight, this is a blog, not a CPA. So you’ll need more help than we can list in a blog post. If you want to manage your business the right way there’s only one thing you’ll need to succeed, KNOWLEDGE! With the right tools you can be a successful business owner. We recommend the professional freelancing tools over at CMI Interactive.

Competing against bloated businesses with big brands and fat marketing budgets can be intimidating, but there are ways for independent contractors to stand out. That first impression is always key to setting the standard for the quality of your work.

It doesn’t take a large budget to show your clients that you have the same tools, structure, and knowledge as the larger businesses.

Don’t send a client an estimate you threw together using Word or Excel. That’s so 2003. Instead make use of online invoicing and book keeping tools. Just about every site offers some kind of free demo and the starter package is typically very cheap.

With an online invoicing tool you can send professional estimates, track timesheets, manage expenses, manage billing, and collaborate with other people you are working with.

Here’s a list of some of the more popular online invoicing sites:
- Freshbooks
- Harvest
- ZOHO Invoice
- Blinksale
- SimplyInvoices

Having the right tools is the only difference between you (the freelancer) and them (the big brand). You don’t have to be an expert accountant to manage your finances. With tools from business mentoring companies like CMI Interactive you can get expert advice from business advisors. And you don’t have to be a news junkie to stay on top of the latest news in the healthcare industry. With CMI Interactive’s news feeds for the sciences and health field you can stay up-to-date on the biotech, healthcare, medical device, and pharmaceuticals industry.

For the independent professionals in the medical industry you should check out the professional tools over at CMI Interactive.

Below is a list of seven tips on how to be a good record keeper.

1. Electronic Record Keeping

Whether it is online or using a spreadsheet there are many tools that can make it much easier to manage your records. There are some considerations when it comes to relying on web applications for your business: there are security concerns, reliability issues and other questions you have to think about. However, never assume the best tools are expensive. There are many online applications that are free. For example, you don’t have to buy an office suite of computer programs. Google and ZOHO both offer a large collection of office software at no cost!

2. Back Up Your Computer

If you are going to primarily use your computer as your record keeping center, you must keep a regular back up of all of your files. Whether you use a Macintosh or Windows there are some great programs to help you make a thorough back up of each directory.

3. Filing Cabinets and Label Makers

Think ahead. A small one compartment binder is not going to offer expandable organization features. Plan ahead and get a filing cabinet and label maker. No need to spend a lot of money on a filing system, but get something that offers enough room to expand to your growing needs.

4. Keep Your Paper Files Simple

So you’ve got a new file cabinet or paper filing folder, but you have no idea how to organize? Start simple with some basic categories like “contract”, “pay stubs”, “taxes”, and “expenses.”

5. “____day Is My Organizing Day”

That little pile of paper is never going to shrink unless you take the time to sort it all out into the proper file. The best way is to designate a specific day as your organizing day. I like Saturday mornings because it’s typically quiet.

6. Outsource It!

As a freelancer, you know that you can typically outsource to other freelancers at a great price and personal service. If your organization skills are not at their prime, consider hiring some help.

7. Seek Professional Help

While being self employed isn’t overly difficult, it’s not something that everyone can handle on their own. Don’t be too timid to ask for professional help. There are companies that are specifically set up to help freelancers succeed. For example, CMI Interactive is a company focused on supporting independent professionals in the medical industry. They can offer a wide array of tools and services to help you with your record keeping as well as many other aspects of freelancing.

As we’ve said before, the success of your business is not based on the quality of your product. The key that makes a business successful is the administration and marketing of products! Today we’re going to focus on the administration aspect of your business. Basically, how you can stay productive without a manager. It’s great to be your own boss, but don’t let favoritism sink your freelancing ship.

• Keep regular hours
  Establishing a standard operating procedure is essential to staying productive. As a freelancer you’ve got lots of flexibility on hours, but you must respect other business’s work hours. Answering a client’s email promptly isn’t going to happen if you work from 9pm to 4am.
• Holidays
  The good news is that you’ve got unlimited holidays, but the bad news is that when you are out of the office your business is shut down. You’re not making money! Therefore, all holidays must be planned in advance.
• There’s always more to do
  Here’s an idea, limit your work week so that you only have 5 days to complete your work. Weekends are off limits. There’s always more work to be done and working more hours (or extra days) doesn’t always mean you will actually get more of it complete, you’ll just find yourself with more tasks on your to-do list.
• Avoid the pitfalls of productivity killers:
  – Instant messaging: Turn off the auto-login feature and stick to email. It’s less of a distraction.
  – User accounts: Create a “work” user account that does not have access to your personal email or your favorite blogs and websites. You’ll miss it at first, but you’ll have more time to check all that stuff when you finish your work hours ahead of schedule!
  – Breaks: Taking regular breaks are a heathy part of staying productive. Check out these reminder programs that can help you take regular breaks and keep you from desk fatigue: RSI Warrior, Stretch Break, Stretchware,Workrave, MacBreakZ, Time Out, and AntiRSI.

Feedback: Let us know how you stay productive at work or a your home office. What are your top 3 tips?

These guys offer a different approach to online project management because activeCollab can be installed on your own server or local network. For those that have concerns about using online tools due to sensitive information, this might be the best solution for you because users have full control over their data. ActiveCollab offers, invoicing, time tracking, file sharing, and email integration.

Visit activeCollab.com

Price:
- $99 a year (unlimited projects, source code, plugin support, API, themes, discussions, milestones, checklists, and more)
- $199 a year (unlimited projects, invoicing, calendar, tickets, time tracking, pages, project exporter, status updates)

Goplan

This online tool is one of my favorites because it’s just so darn colorful. Of course the design is not the only feature they offer. It comes packed with management and collaboration tools like tasks, issue tracking, milestones, discussions, time tracking, and a calendar. Something that sets it apart from the others is the integrated use of RSS feeds, which are handy if you have multiple projects at once.

Visit goplanapp.com

Price:
- Free (3 projects, 2 users, 2 collaborators, 100 MB of storage)
- $10 a month (15 projects, 5 users, 15 collaborators, 10 GB of storage)
- more levels up to $80 a month

Project2Manage

This management tool allows you to manage users, giving them limited or full access. You can also do many of the standard things like post messages, upload files, assign tasks, and create lists. One cool feature is that is supports iCal (the Macintosh calendar system).

Visit Project2Manage.com

Price:
- Free (4 projects, unlimited clients, unlimited staff)
- $3.95 a month (12 projects, unlimited clients, unlimited staff, file sharing, and 150 MB of storage)
- several more levels up to $74.95 a month

Smartsheet

Smartsheet goes beyond just project management. You can track sales pipelines, discussions, set reminders, and plan events in an interface that works much like a spreadsheet. The layout is clean and easy to use.

Visit smartsheet.com

Price:
- $9.95 a month (1 sheet creator, unlimited users, 10 sheets, 3 GB of storage)
- $29.95 a month (1 sheet creator, unlimited users, 50 sheets, 15 GB of storage, custom logo, reporting)
- several more levels up to $149 a month

No Kahuna

This is one of the most basic project management tools of all. You won’t see a huge list of features and the pricing is very cheap. This might be an ideal place to start if you are unsure whether online project management is right for you.

Visit nokahuna.com

Price:
- Free (unlimited public projects)
- $7 a month (unlimited public projects, 1 private project, 334 MB of storage)
- several more levels up to $99 a month

ZOHO Projects

ZOHO Projects is only a small part of ZOHO’s online tools. They offer many free online tools much like Google Apps including web-based email, online word processor, spreadsheets, online presentation, note taking, organizer, online reporting, and many more apps. The Projects app is full of features including lists, tasks, meetings, milestones, calendar, wiki and even chat. They really offer a lot of features in just one package.

Visit projects.zoho.com

Price:
- Free (1 project, unlimited users, 100 MB of storage)
- $12 a month (10 projects, unlimited users, 4 project templates, 2 GB file storage)
- several more levels up to $80 a month

For example, take a look at the difference between the national unemployment rate (the dark blue line) and the unemployment rate of all men and women ages 25 to 44 with a college degree (the light red line).

That unemployment rate is only 4.5%, while the high school graduate unemployment rate is 9.1%, which is higher than the national unemployment average of 8.6%. And of course it’s no surprise that those without a high school level education is extremely high at 17.5% (pictured below).

No high school education

However, the three-month average job-loss trend is actually improving. Take a look at the chart below that shows the slowly improving job loss rate. Each month the loss of jobs is getting less and less.

We show you trends like this to let you know that there are lots of jobs out there and each month more and more people are becoming employed. Don’t let negative press about the unemployment percentage frustrate your job search or freelancing efforts. The job and contract market is still very strong and it is continuing to improve!

CMI Interactive professional business tools for medical professionals.

Elance.com – Elance is one of the biggest freelance service websites. A search for the word medical brings up tons of jobs like medical content writer, ghost writer for medical non fiction book, medical articles, and part time research assistant.

Guru.com – Much like elance, guru is a place for freelancers to find work in their speciality industry. You post your profile, search for projects, submit proposals, win projects, and get paid through guru’s own SafePay (which is how they make money, by deducting a percentage of your fees).

oDesk.com – After looking through many of these sites they all start to look the same, but oDesk as one really interesting feature for its users. The ability to see project trends! You can see the popularity of the different types of projects.

LimeExchange.com – The difference of LimeExchange is that they offer free project posting and free membership for providers. They also have some cool incentives like milestone based payments and buyer reward program.

GetAFreelancer.com – This site has a lot of programing jobs, which is not very helpful for our science professionals, but they also have medical industry jobs as well, like medical writing jobs. There’s even an RSS feed that you can subscribe to all the new medical job postings on the site. That makes it a lot easier than doing a new search each day.

Visit CMI Interactive for more helpful information for medical freelancing professionals.

Medical writing

A medical writer, working with doctors, scientists, and other subject matter experts, creates documents that effectively and clearly describe research results, product use, and other medical information. The medical writer also makes sure the documents comply with regulatory, journal, or other guidelines in terms of content, format and structure.

In order to be a good medical writer you must be able to work very efficiently with data, science, and of course be a good writer. Medical writing skills is mainly the ability to convert large amounts of data into a form that can be easily understood. An especially enticing aspect of the medical writing position is the freedom to be able to work at home and of course the fact that a competent medical writer can make $100,000 to $200,000 dollars a year!

The controversy surrounding medical writing is the lack of transparency. When a team of professionals work together to write a medical paper there have been instances in the past where random authors have been given authorship of the medical paper even though they have nothing to do with its creation. That is at the heart of the dishonesty surrounding medical writing.

We’ll be discussing the controversy surrounding medical writing more in the future, but the best rule of thumb is that if you, as a medical writer, are ever approached to do some writing that is unethical you should just walk away. Advertising agencies in the medical field would benefit from more medical writers. Adding professionals that are focused on data review and communication rather than marketing will lead to more honesty in medical ads.

If you are a medical writer or considering a career in the field of medical writing, consider using the professional tools available from CMI Interactive. There science professionals can find a toolbox full of resources to help sharpen their skills in the industry.