A few weeks ago we started experimenting with a mentoring format at Uplink which is very popular in the United States: Mastermind groups.

From Wikipedia:

A mastermind group is a peer-to-peer mentoring concept used to help members solve their problems with input and advice from the other group members.

Sounds simple? Technically yes. The tricky part is to find a group of like-minded individuals who can relate to each others' situations in order to give advice or to ask the right questions. Thankfully, at Uplink we have a large pool of like-minded individuals who can relate to being a freelancer in the IT world. For the kind of mastermind we introduced at Uplink, a group between 4 and 8 people with a similar mission is ideal.

Did you ever wonder what other Uplink members are working on? We did. That's why we decided to showcase projects of community members in our blog and would like to present our first interview!

Our subject is Gerold Kirchner. Gerold and I met in an Asian restaurant in Berlin-Charlottenburg to talk about his upcoming project which he has been planning for a while: a circle of freelancers working together as a team to reduce the isolation of working solo.

On April 5 it was time for our next "IPAs and APIs" community meetup and oh boy, was it a fun one! Lots of new faces as well as old ones happy to see each other again.

It's really inspiring to see our community come together at these meetups to share stories from the trenches, make plans for joined projects or simply enjoy a few pints of good beer! And The Muted Horn is a fantastic location to do so, with super-friendly staff and a craft beer selection that keeps you entertained all night long.

Dealing with taxes is an unavoidable part of being self-employed. Especially in Germany, where bureaucracy and tax laws are notoriously complicated, it's important to have a knowledgeable expert at your side—either to do all the sorting and filing for you or at least to consult with when important questions come up.

Today we want to announce our partnership with the tax consultancy Führer & Orgel, who we have been working with for over 10 years (so even before Uplink was born about 2.5 years ago). They have been a reliable partner and helped us—and many freelancers and small companies that we referred to them—with all tax-related issues we have encountered over the years.

On February 7 we invited our freelancer community to our first "IPAs and APIs" meetup of 2019 to Labor in Berlin-Friedrichshain. Our sponsor this time was Equal Experts (thanks!) and it was again a fantastic evening with lots of old and new faces and interesting conversations about life, freelancing, and everything else.

Moreover, on this 8th meetup, we finally managed to get some photos taken! (thanks to Daniel Schmude of Launch Fotostudio)

Back in December we came up with a fun way for the members of our community to help us give back to some support-worthy causes.

Every member received 100 (virtual) cents to allocate between four non-profit companies chosen by us. We would then add up the results and donate the amounts to those companies.

Happy New Year from Team Uplink!

In this post, I want to look back at what we accomplished in 2018 and give an outlook on what we plan to work on this year!

So how was 2018?​

It was pretty, pretty good, to be honest!

We've had a fantastic year here at Uplink — the size of our community more than doubled to almost 600 members, we hosted regular craft beer meetups in Berlin where we had the chance to meet many of our members in person, and we moved to a nicer office — just to name a few highlights of 2018.

A few weeks ago, we sat down and thought about how we could give something back to our community. Quickly we came to the conclusion that we wouldn't impress anyone with a small gadget or voucher — and let's be honest, it would probably end up in a drawer or trash bin anyway. So we thought "how about engaging our community to give something back to other worthy causes?"

Earlier this month the VGSD — Verband der Gründer und Selbstständigen Deutschland e.V. — held an online presentation with lawyer Julia Gertz, who specializes in IT contracts and showed us how to identify unfair service contracts.

Please note that we are not lawyers and this post should not be taken as legal advice! Every contract is unique, so if you have one on the table, get it checked by an actual lawyer! (scroll down for Julia Gertz's contact info)

When the client sets out the rules of how they want to work with the freelancer, it is the case, more often than not, that those rules work in the client’s favor. There seems to be a common belief that, as the smaller party with less legal assertiveness, we have no choice but to accept these rules But our position is stronger than we think: It pays off to inspect the contracts and demand changes to create a level playing field.