A Guide to Starting Your Own Freelance Business
By Jennifer Henczel
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to work for
yourself? Have you imagined what it would be like to
set you own schedule and make money on your own time?
Thousands of people around the world are enjoying the freedom of freelance work. The types of freelance
opportunities are endless.
Here are just some examples:
- Training
- Coaching
- Photography
- Marketing
- Web Design
- Computer Technician
- Painting
- Event Planning
Now, consider these steps in getting started:
1. Know Yourself
The most important aspect of the freelance life, is to
do what you really love. If you aren't sure yet what you are
most passionate about, then it's time to discover your
Personal Style. Your Personal Style is the part of your
personality that determines your preferences - the things
you like, and dislike. By taking the Personal Style
Indicator (PSI), you learn more about yourself and you
become more confident in your natural abilities. You will
find out things about yourself that you never realized
before. This assessment will help you to understand yourself
and identify the behavioral tendencies of others.
Many of us have been told throughout our lives to work on
our weaknesses. However, we will be most successful if
we work within your strengths and passions. One
leader in the strengths based approach is Marcus Buckingham,
He has authored of several books on the subject, such as
First Break All the Rules, Now Discover Your Strengths, The
One Thing You Need to Know, and Put Your Strenths to
Work--all great resources for your personal library.
If you're not familiar with this empowering approach, find a
strengths based trainer or coach in your area today, and
learn more about how it can lead you to a more fulfilling
life and career. Take some time to reflect on these
key questions:
What is my passion? What really fires me up!
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
What are my strengths?
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
2. Know Your Industry
The next thing you need to do is get to know your
industry thoroughly. Become familiar with all the top
resources, tools, associations, organizations, and contacts
affiliated with your field of expertise.
For example, if you want to become a trainer or instructor,
you would first find others who are successful in that field
and ask them what types of opportunities are available.
Brainstorm with them to determine the possibilities. In this
particular field, you could teach workshops through the
continuing education department of a public university. You
could teach through private colleges, or through government
funded organizations. Profitable options include training in
a corporate environment, speaking at conferences, or
presenting for business groups and associations.
Once becoming established as a trainer, instructor, speaker,
or presenter, you quickly learn that these careers fall
under the larger umbrella of the profession called: Adult
Education. As an Adult Educator, besides specializing in
a field of study, you also need to have many unique teaching
tools on hand. Having a variety of teaching methods makes
learning more enjoyable for students and learners in your
workshops. Visit the Adult Educators website (www.adulteducators.com)
for a wide range of teaching links and documents that will
save you time and make your workshops more fun. It has
icebreakers, training games, lesson plans, PowerPoint
templates, speaking tips, research links, and so on. This is
one small glimpse of what it's like to get really involve in
a niche area. Ask yourself:
What are the top three associations or governing
organizations within my industry?
1. _____________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________
3. _____________________________________________________
Name three people who successful freelancers in this
industry?
1. _____________________________________________________
2. _____________________________________________________
3. _____________________________________________________
3. Plan Your Plan
In order to succeed in starting a freelance business,
you must have a business plan. It is the main tool you will
use for expressing your ideas to potential investors,
financial institution, and government funded programs.
Most importantly, it is used as a place to document all your
research and findings in one place, and can then be used as
a road map to keep you focused on your intended destination.
Planning is It is an essential Creating a business plan is
an essential part in starting up a business.
To save you hours of time and money, there are many
templates available to help you get started. A
template provides the structure needed to write a
professional business plan document.
Here is one source for such business plan template:
Business Smart Start (http://www.importexportcoach.com/business-smart-start.htm).
Here are some questions and exercises to help you put
the required information into a business plan:
Write a half page description of your business.
What products will you offer? Include a
description of each product, as well as potential
suppliers for any needed products and services.
What does your idea customer look like? Include
demographics, industry, size (for example number of
employees in a company or a town), and a list of
potential customers.
How will you promote your business? Include all
marketing and promotional methods, such as business
cards, website, mail programs, email promotions, and
online marketing.
A well written template will give you an idea of all the
information needed in a complete business plan.
4. Brand Yourself
Upon identifying key aspects of yourself and your
industry, you need to choose a title or identity that makes
you stand out from your competition. Make sure your brand
expresses the essence of what you do and the services you
offer. Try to get the domain name associated with that
title.
Another unique idea is to combine action words that describe
your industry. Here is an exercise that will help you
come up with a catchy, brandable name for you, your service,
or approach:
In two columns, write action words, benefits, and/or
results associated with who you are and what you do.
Write any words that come to your mind, no matter how
specific (i.e. your name) or general (i.e. success).
Place the words in the left and right columns randomly.
Separating them simply helps you to look at the words in
a new way.
(A) Now, once you have 10 - 20 words in each column,
combine the first part of the words in the first column
with the last part of the words in the second column,
and visa-versa.
(B) Another way to do do this exercise is to find 2
words that start with the same letter, or two words that
rhyme.
|
Marketing
Communication
Success
trainer
visibility
strengths
abilities
possibilities
career
Hire
Brain
export |
integration
Prosperity
sizzle
integrated
Motivator
Leader
promotional
creativity
coach
education
jennifer |
Here some random results from quickly combining the above
words:
-
Communication Coach (www.thecommunicationcoach.com)
-
Marketing Motivator (www.marketingmotivator.com)
-
Hire Heaven (www.hireheaven.com)
-
Good Gifter (www.goodgifter.com)
-
Brain Train - Perhaps you are trainer that focuses on
brain based learning, so your workshop could be called
"Brain Train."
-
Promotivity - Let's say you are a career coach, how
about "Promotivity" because you help your clients get
promoted. That could be the brand for you service.
-
Sizzability - If you help people put sizzle to their
presentations, helping them to achieve greater
visibility through self-promotion.
-
Jennex - Jennifer and exporter.
-
Integrex - Integration and export.
For all I know, these particular words or brands may already
be taken (trademark and domain); they were just randomly
created examples of combining the words above. The point is
that this exercise may open you up to new self-branding
possibilities that you may not have thought of otherwise.
You are the only one who can determine the right brand for
you or your service. You must spend a great deal of time
reflecting on your strengths and passion, then composing a
list, and creating the ideal brand that represents YOU.
5. Stay Disciplined, Avoid Distractions
Being a Freelancer allows you to have freedom over your
time and schedule. There are pros and cons to this aspect of
freelancing. While you work hard for your clients, in the
end you are working for yourself. While you have complete
freedom, you must also have complete discipline. Discipline
around every portion of your day. There is a time and place
for everything.
Time - If managing your time is an issue, don't worry. There
are many resources available on and offline to help you
learn how to manage your time. It may take a few tries to
find the time management method that works for you, but keep
at it. Some enjoy online methods of schedule keeping such as
Outlook Calendar, while other still enjoy carrying a hand
written journal. And others, such as myself, enjoy a
combination of both; a double entry system is the only way
for me, lest I forget something.
Place - Start with making sure you have a dedicated place to
work. A home office is best for work that requires focus.
What ever type of workspace you have, make sure it's
ergonomic. If your work involves a computer station, then
make sure you have the right chair and keyboard for your
body. If you are a freelance artist, make sure you have
proper lighting and studio space to work creatively. Being
comfortable in your space will help you to stay committed to
the project you are working on.
Creating a balanced life is the key to a successful
freelance career. Here is a daily activity you can do to
keep you on track:
Use a journal or day-timer to keep track of every task
and activity you perform in a day. Now, after a
few days of documenting, categories each of the tasks
into "Money Generating Tasks" and "Maintenance Tasks".
For example, responding to emails and filling out forms,
and would be considered a maintenance task.
Creative projects such as writing, product development,
conducting webinars, and distributing online newsletters
are all money generating projects.
You may want to change the name of the categories or add
one or two more categories, depending on the nature of
your freelance work. The ultimate goal is to
analyze how much of your time you spend on each
category. If you are like many others who have
done this exercise, you may be surprised to find out
that you spend too much time doing mundane activities,
and not enough money generating activities.
The results in your life will reflect where you spend
the majority of your time. When you work within
your creativity and passions, you will ultimately create
more desirable results.
6. Stay Connected
Being a freelancer means building and maintaining
relationships. You can find potential clients through
association lists, trade directories, industry
organizations, and local groups. Don't just rely on
the internet, attend community events and trade shows
regularly, and IN PERSON. Meeting people in person and
collaborating on projects when the opportunity arises, will
give you the chance to build solid connections in your
industry. Not to mention, support friendship, and
advice.
Build a system for storing and maintaining those
connections. The important pieces of information
include the person's name, company name, all contact
information including email and website, and a columns for
notes,
follow-up dates, customer preferences, etc.
When starting out, you don't necessarily need a complicated
or expensive system. A simple spreadsheet or
document will do. Heck, even if you have to write them
all down in a binder alphabetically, just do it.
Whatever works for you may not work for the next person.
It's important to choose a data collection system that fits
with your personality, because the most important thing is
to stick to it.
What type of contact management system would work best
with you personality?
_____________________________________________________
Go ahead and list you first 10 contacts in your new
system. Make a goal to add X number of new
contacts to your system per day, per week, or per month.
Stick to you system and your goal, and you will be
amazed at the results.
7. Be Prepared
Be prepared and have all the supplies you need within
your work space. This will help you to avoid becoming
distracted. This is especially true if you work from home.
Oh, we've all done it...
We lean back in our office chair to find a fixture is coming
loose and needs tightening. After looking through all the
drawers in our home office to find a screw driver, we leave
the office to find one. Before we know it, we're tidying the
garage, putting a load of laundry on, signing permission
slips, helping with homework, and so on. By the time
we make it back to our project, we've lost our focus and
have to regain precious momentum.
Establish supplies and equipment that are for you home
office use only, and not to be taken to other parts of the
house. This may mean duplicating some supplies, but it
will save time and money for your business.
Make a list of items--supplies and equipment--that you
would need to start your freelance business today.
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
8. Consider Your Health...
As a freelancer, you rely on only yourself and your
talents to bring in income. Therefore, YOU are the business.
Protecting yourself is a priority. You can protect your
health in 3 ways:
A. Healthy Lifestyle - Eat healthy foods. Do not give in to the
convenience of fast food. Prepare a container of fruit and vegetable
at the beginning of every week so they are always available
to you, as needed, for a snack or as part of a meal.
Put you vitamins in a place where you can see them to remind
you to take them regularly. Get enough sleep by going
to bed at the same time each night.
B. Exercise - Walk to the mailbox instead of stopping
in your car on the way home. Some people like to walk their
pet. Some people go the gym faithfully, some of us
don't,...so find something that does fit into your schedule.
My mother took up bike riding at the age of 57 - she loves
it! Don't let anything stop you.
Most of us already have extensive knowledge o the healthy
things we can do in our lives, such as those listed above.
The next step is to implement some of those things that you
already know. The smaller the steps you take, the more
successful you will be.
Name at least one thing for each of these areas that you
can improve in just 5 - 20 minutes a day each:
A.
_____________________________________________________
B.
_____________________________________________________
Remember, freelancing is all about you, and you have to take
care of yourself, because...who else is going to do it?
-------------------
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jennifer Henczel is a freelancer communication consultant
known as The
Communication Coach and
Marketing
Motivator, and owner of
Affective
Communications. She offers training, writing, and
graphic design services, with a focus on email marketing and
online newsletters.
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