Become Freelance

Before you hop into your Freelance convertible and start driving around, you need to know where you’re going. The Business Plan is your map. You could come up with some clever name for it, as it resembles the GPS ‘Tom-Tom’ navigational system that you might have in your car. Your business plan will guide you and tell you which way to go. It will take you around traffic and obstacles. It will sometimes take you on a detour. Yet, it will also inspire you to find your way in the shortest, most direct route.

Many Freelancers do not see the need for a business plan. They typically start out doing something on the side for extra income, and when more clients appear steadily, it is then that they venture out into the unchartered terrain of the lonely life as a Freelancer. What most Freelancers don’t understand is that not having any path or direction will keep them stuck amid the present, instead of forging into the future. Another reason they don’t develop a plan is because they don’t have a clue as to where their business is going.

“If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.”
- George Harrison

First of all, you need to set some goals. Ask yourself these important questions:

• What do you want to do, be or accomplish as a Freelancer?
• What ideas can you think of that would enable your business to grow?
• Are you happy just to work for yourself, or do you envision a bigger company one day with employees and company picnics?
• Do you want to sell products or focus on a service – or both?
• Do you know how to handle the legalities and day-to-day business functions of a company or do you plan to just wing it?
• Are you prepared and knowledgeable enough in the desired industry for which you will choose to pursue?
• Are you a leader or a follower? In other words, will you be able to stay self-motivated without a boss telling you what tasks you must do next?
• Have you researched the profession in which you would like to become a Freelancer? You need to know how much competition you will be facing, how much the going hourly rate will be and how to acquire enough work to meet your financial needs.
• Do you have any cash under the mattress in case you have a slow month? Cash flow is NEVER consistent when you run your own business. It is often ‘feast or famine’ until you become well-established.
• Are you willing to work sometimes very long hours for little or zero pay to get your Freelance career going?
• Are you able to make WISE spontaneous decisions? When you become a Freelancer, you can’t ask your manager if you have a question from a client. You are the policy-maker, the enforcer, the human resources department, customer service, billing and marketing. Are you able to manage all of those tasks, or at least learn them as you go?

Having all of these things throughout will help to give you direction. It will be a tool to guide you, but you do not have to stick to it verbatim. When the focus of the business changes, so too does the business plan need to change. It is not set in stone. It is a means to guide you and keep you from getting lost along the way. The business plan will be a great reference tool and will kick off your business in a professional way. If you treat this as a real profession and know that the benefactor will be you, rather than some large company, then you will take it much more seriously. If nothing else, it will bump some ambition into your butt to get this thing rolling. The longer you sit there in your boring cubicle or behind the headset at a drive-thru window, the less time you could be having fun doing work that is rewarding and self-gratifying.

Feel free to create your Freelancer’s objective in any style you choose. You can be serious or you can be free. The important thing is to clearly define what your expectations are of yourself. If you don’t have any, then you will only let yourself down because you will never meet any of those goals.