All freelancers are talented. Whether you are a writer (like me), graphic designer, consultant, broker, artist, home contractor or virtual assistant, you have an area in which you excel. This is difficult enough to figure out in and of itself. How many people do you know who struggle to figure out what they are good at doing, let alone choose a career path they are happy with?
Freelancers Are Skilled Professionals
Realizing you have a skill and putting it to good use makes you unique – and it’s something that all freelancers have in common. We have an innate ability to take something we are interested in, and have a talent for, and turn it into a way to make money.
Heck, I found a way to turn an interest in writing essays and doing research reports in high school and college into a successful business that I run out of my home office. At the time, I never imagined that writing would be main source of income, even though others around me recognized my skill for writing.
People Want to Pay Me for Something I Am Good At – Awesome!
If you are good at something, people will pay you to do it. It’s pretty straightforward. But where many freelancers struggle initially is failing to realize that you need to treat freelancing like you are running a business. If you want to make money from freelancing, people need to know that your services are available, you need to have client meetings, have products and services to offer, run an office, have a website, and promote yourself – sounds like a business to me, right?
I came to this realization that I needed to focus more on the business side the first year I did my taxes as a freelancer. After registering as a business, I realized how important it was to keep track of invoices, expenses, and the importance of having a system to track things. A file folder and a paper planner just wasn’t going to do the trick anymore.
Working “in” vs. working “on” your business
One of the biggest roadblocks for freelancers is that they focus on their skill too much and have a tendency to overlook the business side of things. There are two broad functions on which you need to focus to operate a successful freelance business:
- Tasks where you to work within your business: Working on client projects, meetings, day to day operations – this is where freelancers spend most of their time.
- Tasks where you work on your business: Administrative tasks, promoting your services, strategic planning, financial management, efficiency.
Naturally, freelancers (myself included) want to focus on working within their business – this is where you are most comfortable, and it’s also how you make money. But, if you neglect working on your business, you could miss out on new opportunities to add new clients, develop your reputation in your industry, and gain more freedom to be more selective about the projects you want to work on.
