Monday Spark: If you believe in your plan, don’t give up.

by

don't give upI have a coaching client who, alongside his writing work, is working to launch a stand-alone business aimed at the boomer generation.

He’s excited by the business idea, because the information he wants to share is so important and timely. Give him a few minutes of your time, and you’ll be hooked.

As part of the plan to develop and launch his business he recently booked a meeting room for two evenings. We wanted to fill the seats and then run through his presentation.

He has back-end products, but his plan at this stage was simply to get his message in front of an audience and measure their response. It was a test run.

Once he had booked the room, which would seat about 30 people, he then ran an ad in his local paper. He ran it three times in the run-up to his event.

Read the full post…

How to catch your first lucky break as a freelancer. And your second. And your third.

by

lucky freelancerThis is the third in a series of three posts, all on the topic of how a lucky break or two can accelerate the growth and success of your business. (Post 1 and post 2.)

If you feel a little uncomfortable with the idea of luck playing a part in your business success, don’t worry, you’re not alone. The story we all tell ourselves – the accepted narrative – is that successful people make their own luck. That’s what makes them successful.

In part, that’s true. And this post is largely about how to make your own luck. But, as I mentioned in the first post in this series, sometimes you are just plain lucky. Something unplanned for and unexpected just comes your way at exactly the right time.

Does business success depend on being lucky? No. Can you blame a lack of success on the absence of being lucky? No. One way or another, you’ll get the level of success you deserve. But getting a lucky break or two certainly helps.

Read the full post…

Monday Spark: Networking makes you feel good.

by

enjoy your networkAs a freelancer it’s almost impossible to achieve any significant level of success by hiding behind your desk all the time.

You need to build a network of people to connect with, a group of business friends who can help and support you. (And you’ll do the same for them.)

Build a strong enough network, and you’ll find you no longer have to spend much time looking for work, because most of your work will come to you through referrals, via your network.

Who are these magical people?

Read the full post…

When you catch a lucky break, make the most of it.

by

lucky breakIn last week’s post I talked about my first big speaking engagement. (If you didn’t read that post, I suggest you do so now. Today’s post is a follow-up or continuation of that one).

That invitation to speak came my way out of the blue. It was a lucky break. And when invited to speak, I said yes.

That was my first talk in front of a large crowd – about 700 people, as I recall – and I can’t say it was my best presentation. Actually, it was my worst. But it was good enough to get me invited back to another conference, and then another, and then another.

For a few years I was speaking on an almost monthly basis. My copywriting and consulting business grew out of those events. That is how I met my best prospects, and how I got to make a good first impression. It’s also how I got to meet and network with a lot of smart people in this industry.

Read the full post…

Monday Spark: Creating a projection spreadsheet will make you feel better.

by

hands on the wheelI’m not a big fan of paperwork. I don’t think most other freelancers much like it either.

But beyond the paperwork I have to do, there are one or two other things I choose to do.

Foremost among my voluntary pieces of paperwork is a spreadsheet that shows my income, month by month.

I fill in the months that have passed, and also make projections for three months to come.

Projections? That sounds like something that “real” companies do, not freelancers.

Well, I treat my freelance business like a real company. And I think you should too.

Here is what I do with my spreadsheet.

Read the full post…

Have a plan, but know that your biggest opportunities will likely be unplanned and unexpected.

by

unexpected opportunitiesAs a coach I encourage my clients to look a few years into the future, decide on where they want their business to go, and then figure out how to get there.

Set the goal, figure out some way-points  and then work steadily until you have achieved the outcome you want.

It’s good advice, because most small businesses and freelancers don’t plan enough. They stumble forward, month by month, hoping things will work out.

So yes, I think every freelancer and entrepreneur should have a plan and stick to it.

Now for the kicker – Your biggest successes probably won’t be part of your plan at all.

Viagra was not the result of a plan to create the world’s greatest erectile dysfunction drug. Researchers were actually working on a blood pressure pill when they came across a rather interesting side-effect. Viagra’s discovery was accidental.

Alexander Fleming didn’t discover penicillin, the world’s first antibiotic, by spending years looking for a drug that killed bacteria. He discovered it because of an accidental cross-contamination between two petri dishes in his laboratory. He screwed up, and found penicillin as a result.

Read the full post…