If you don’t work take your business as serious as your clients’ well you won’t be in business for long.
Have to be disciplined on protecting that time.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s episode, when you are freelancing or consulting, you have to be extremely mindful of your time.
It can quickly get out of hand where you spend a tremendous amount of time on things that you shouldn’t be.
Now working “ON” your business really isn’t something that is a choice if you are running a business. But I get the idea here.
The question basically is asking about doing all the sales, marketing, support and administrative work that isn’t your client’s business.
It ultimately comes down to having discipline. Will power if you must.
Carve out and schedule the time
What I did very early on in my career was block out time on my calendar and get up an hour earlier every day.
Just knowing that I wasn’t taking time away from clients but still moving the business forward allowed me to not feel guilty and build my business.
Now there are whole days on my calendar devoted to the business. Which means that I don’t take any client calls or do any client work during those days.
Google has the 80/20 rule that they put in place for their employees to explore their own passion projects.
I like this split because even doing 20% work on your business will make a tremendous impact in a very short amount of time.
Get support and accountability to make great strides
Having that schedule and committing to moving the needle of your business is critical to the grow and sustainability of your business.
Inside of Feast we hold a 90-Day Challenge called “Moving the needle” because it’s that important. Folks in challenge meet up every week and check-in on the progress of what they need to do. Sales processes, libraries of operating procedures, building a team, and even content marketing have all been made as tremendous strides from these challenges.
If you are more of a person looking for 1:1 support. Having someone holding you accountable has made the biggest impact on improving my business.
If you are disciplined enough to do it yourself, then just do it. If not and you need that support from someone to hold you accountable, then find that person or community to do so.
Tools
Use a tool like Calendly and give links out to people.
This tool is great because it allows for you create blocks of time that you are available, sync it with your calendar and then people can go ahead and pick from the time available that works best for them and you to be able to schedule calls, etc with you.
Working “on” your business starts with the management of your time. Setting aside that time and making it as important as the time you give to your clients.
Let’s face it, if your clients value your service, they’ll value the time you put into your own business to stick around. Otherwise you’ll find yourself out of business and your clients won’t have you any more.
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Running your freelance business
More episodes in this topic:
17
What do you do when a crisis hits?
18
How to start building an email list as a freelancer?
20
How do you manage time wearing so many hats as a freelancer?
28
What software tools do you use for business? What is best?
32
How do you prevent, manage scope creep in your projects?
34
Do you schedule in time for exploring or reading articles online?
38
What is the best way to get income fast?
40
What happens if you can’t define a scope of work on a call?
41
What do I do first thing Monday morning?
47
How can I focus on my business when I’ve got a ton client work?
53
Do I have to be concerned with GDPR?
65
What are the tools and services that you use and would recommend to freelancers?
70
How do you have time for all that you do?
74
What podcasting gear do I use?
78
Does live chat bring you in business?
81
How do you followup with a lead after a proposal?
84
Did hiring a mentor really help you with starting up your business or your career?
87
What is my writing process
88
What is the easiest way to get a remote testimonial?
91
How do you determine a quality prospect?
115
How do you step away and actually take a vacation?
116
Are job boards reliable?
123
How to decrease the sales cycle or time to close?
127
How would you write a cold outreach email?
130
How to present different services that could potentially diminish your abilities in the minds of clients?
132
Should I bundle projects for clients or keep projects separate per client?
133
What product do you use for your business that you can’t live without?
135
What makes you stand out from other freelancers?
136
Do I drop this client?
142
How do I set a goal?
143
Do you meet leads and clients face-to-face?
144
How do I work “ON” my business and not “IN” my business?
147
What is the best structure for setting a goal?
152
How do you do a review of your week?
156
What do I say when a potential client says I’m too expensive?
159
What is activity based selling?
165
How to get more clients?
167
How to have a productive week?
168
Do you use a CRM for your business?
171
How do you choose the technology for your clients?
180
What is the structure of a weekly review?
181
What is the structure of a monthly review?
191
What are lead generation techniques to get me out of the feast and famine revenue cycle?
193
How do I know if I should buy a course?
198
What’s a polite way to tell existing clients you are raising your rates? And what is a reasonable percentage to go up?
199
How many email follow-ups should I send to a lead?
201
What do I do? I’m afraid to filter the tire kickers coming into my business because they are the only leads I have.
202
How to take the next step from contracting resource to solo business owner?
205
What do you think about Gutenberg? Schmutenberg!
206
How do I get better at sales?
207
How to overcome objections in sales?
208
How do I respond to an RFP?
209
How to respond to “I don’t need strategy, can you just do…”?
210
If you don’t have experience, how to you prove the quality without the education/experience?
212
How do you handle a client that has ghosted?
218
What do you ask during a sales call?
219
How to improve your sales process as a freelancer?
222
How to charge more as a freelancer?
225
How do you push past the imposter syndrome?
229
How do you segment your email list?
236
What to say when a client insists on adding something new?
257
What kind of content should I promote to potential clients?
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