We’re in a prime time right now to build and grow. The freelance economy is booming. In the US, freelancers and independent contractors have contributed almost $6B to the economy. The climate is encouraging for businesses. There is more opportunity to start something from nothing and grow it than ever before. There’s more opportunity for you to make an impact through your work. There’s no time like the present to start something.
If you’ve been thinking about freelancing but haven’t stepped out, or if you’ve been dabbling part time while working for someone else full time, I’ve got 7 good reasons for you to stop thinking and dabbling, and start doing.
There are many reasons why people make the choice to freelance. Many of us have picked up some clients on the side while we’re working full time jobs. Many of us have dreamed about being independence and owning our time, choosing our clients, and doing great work. And many of us haven’t stepped out from fear, uncertainty, a sense that you’re not ready, or pressure.
If any of those seem familiar to you, I want to offer for your consideration some signs that it might be the right time to make the leap. So here goes:
- You’re tired of your current situation. Whether you’re frustrated with clients, you want to charge more, you want to scale, you want to quit your soul-crushing day job… you know you’ve come to the end of something and you need to make a move. You’re seeing the signs, the writing’s on the wall. You’d rather be doing something else.
- You want to do significant work. You know that working for your boss isn’t helping you. Or you’ve been more of an order-taker, asking your clients what they want you to design rather than asking what they need to accomplish and developing a program for them. It’s time to shift gears, make changes, and move toward your preferred future. Creating your own thing will have more impact than helping to create someone else’s thing.
- You need a flexible schedule and control of your time. When you’re working for someone else, you don’t have control over your time or creative energy. When you’re taking orders from clients, you don’t have the freedom to explore alternative options. You want to be at your kid’s water polo meet but can’t make it because you’re working.
- you want to have control of your income. How much you make, and how you generate the revenue.
- You’ll feel better. When you have an idea floating around and it keeps hitting you and grabbing your attention, and you continue to delay… you’re going to feel it. There’s a tension that’s created… a pressure that won’t be released until you get it done.
- You’ll have security. Remember, I got laid off from a comfortable job with no warning. How secure is that? At that point, I realized I couldn’t rely on a job, because it could be taken away.
- You’ve been putting off starting that new project, pursuing that big idea, …. long enough. Let’s get that thing done. The podcast that was percolating in my brain for close to 5 years became a reality because I made a decision to do and did the work necessary.
If you don’t start that thing, you’ll be exactly in the same place you are 12 months from now. Is that what you want? If that idea is an income-generating idea, why are you waiting on it? If you’re waiting for the right time… when will that be? If you don’t have the resources, when will you find them? Resources are there…
There are a ton of reasons to start your own something. And there are a lot of reasons to not do it.
Which will you choose? The road to your preferred future? Or the road of your current situation.
Remember, deciding to do something is not doing it. Take action. Set specific goals. Give them each a due date. Figure out what actions you need to take to get them done, look for resources and help, and go for it.
How do you start? Well, that’s where Freelance Road Trip can help. The course, or coaching, or just my free goals training are all geared to help you jump start your creative freelance business and keep it going.
Make your website a marketing tool. Add website updates into your regular quarterly schedule of business objectives.
Be ruthless about the type of work that you include in your portfolio and make sure that it’s targeted toward the type of businesses and organizations that you really do want to serve.