Not Becoming A Starving Freelancer
What makes you money in your job, doesn't necessarily make you money, when freelancing. Many freelancers have to learn that the hard way.
- Are you exceptional good in your job?
- Do you believe that your boss is not paying you enough?
- Are you tired of working for someone else?
- Who will give you the paycheck?
- Who will tell you what to do?
- Who will make you to work harder?
- …
Becoming a successful freelancer is not about doing what you have been used doing eight (8) hours a day while you had your job. You need to develop new skills in many areas and deal with all of the business stuff yourself. Most importantly you need to get clients of your own and keep them.
All of a sudden you see yourself having to do “marketing for yourself”, which turns out to be more difficult for many new freelancers or business owners as they originally have thought it will be. Yes, it is more involved than just running a couple of small ads, and calling some business contacts that you might already have.
It is tough.
Your first “friend” should be good time management. That will help you to feel stronger. It kind of lets you lay out a road that you simply have to follow. This post does not focus on time management, but I give a a few hints anyway.
Time Management in its shortest possible form.
How to attract potential clients? That depends heavily on the market, the industry you are in. You could buy advertising, write articles, do SEO on your Web site, improve the conversion ratio, partner up with professional or social networks, do cold calling, ...
My colleague Perry Marshall, who is a famous Guerilla Marketer and Google AdWords™ expert offers a great deal of advice on marketing your services as a freelancer, professional, or business owner. I suggest you visit his Web site and sign up for one of his free email courses, like the free “How to Write A White Paper” (and what it can do for your business) email course.
Stop!
Don't continue to read this, unless you have signed up for Perry's Email course. I can recommend it from the experience of my own. And it is absolutely free.
Here is another opinion on that subject. Ryan Healy, a direct response copywriter and information marketer, had written a related article, “Why Freelance Copywriters Go Hungry (↑)” on Michael Fortin's Blog. It portraits the situation from the perspective of a copywriter.
A short note at the end of this post. Should being a freelancer be your final goal?
I would say, “Probably not!” Unless you want to share the destiny of more than 80% of small business owners and become a prisoner of your own business. Actually you do not even have a business as long as it depends on your personal skills. Your goal should be to build a business that allows you to enjoy the fruits of it and live your life to the fullest extent. Today I leave it open on how to achieve this, but …
Hey, there will be other posts in the future. Come back for more.
Adios
John W. Furst
All of a sudden you see yourself having to do “marketing for yourself”, which turns out to be more difficult for many new freelancers or business owners as they originally have thought it will be. Yes, it is more involved than just running a couple of small ads, and calling some business contacts that you might already have.
It is tough.
Your first “friend” should be good time management. That will help you to feel stronger. It kind of lets you lay out a road that you simply have to follow. This post does not focus on time management, but I give a a few hints anyway.
Time Management in its shortest possible form.
- Most important tasks in the morning.
- No more than 6 tasks a day. You should be able to complete those in 6 or 6½ hours. Work from your daily list and you actually feel that you have something accomplished, when you check off the last task for the day. No more endless lists.
- When planning your day, make a real schedule, but allow one or two times, when you want to deal with the daily interruptions.
- Master your phone, mobile, email! You decide, when you pick up the phone or deal with email. There is absolutely no need to be available on demand all day long. If so, then there is something substantially wrong with your setup.
How to attract potential clients? That depends heavily on the market, the industry you are in. You could buy advertising, write articles, do SEO on your Web site, improve the conversion ratio, partner up with professional or social networks, do cold calling, ...
My colleague Perry Marshall, who is a famous Guerilla Marketer and Google AdWords™ expert offers a great deal of advice on marketing your services as a freelancer, professional, or business owner. I suggest you visit his Web site and sign up for one of his free email courses, like the free “How to Write A White Paper” (and what it can do for your business) email course.
“How to Write A White Paper (↑)”
Stop!
Don't continue to read this, unless you have signed up for Perry's Email course. I can recommend it from the experience of my own. And it is absolutely free.
Here is another opinion on that subject. Ryan Healy, a direct response copywriter and information marketer, had written a related article, “Why Freelance Copywriters Go Hungry (↑)” on Michael Fortin's Blog. It portraits the situation from the perspective of a copywriter.
A short note at the end of this post. Should being a freelancer be your final goal?
I would say, “Probably not!” Unless you want to share the destiny of more than 80% of small business owners and become a prisoner of your own business. Actually you do not even have a business as long as it depends on your personal skills. Your goal should be to build a business that allows you to enjoy the fruits of it and live your life to the fullest extent. Today I leave it open on how to achieve this, but …
Hey, there will be other posts in the future. Come back for more.
Adios
John W. Furst
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