Too many freelancers believe it’s enough to find a niche that seems “OK”, and just dive in.
Not so.
If you want your freelance business to be as profitable, productive and enjoyable as possible, there are five elements you need to consider.
Your personal brand is a fictional character. So make it a good one.
As a freelancer or other type of solo professional, you doubtless worry about how you can stand out among so many competitors.
You write articles. You send Tweets. You keep in touch on Facebook and LinkedIn.
But so does everyone else.
So how can you separate yourself from the crowd?
The Power of Saying No to Your Clients
Many freelancers find it hard to say no.
When work comes their way, they say yes to every project.
They say yes to working evenings and weekends when their clients have a looming deadline.
And they say yes when clients and prospects ask for a reduction in fees.
In isolation, and on rare occasions, there is nothing wrong with saying yes in any of these circumstances. But…
When you feel positive momentum, use it or lose it.
As freelancers we have to generate our own energy and momentum.
We don’t have colleagues or managers to give us a quick boost. Nor do we have group meetings or off-site brainstorming days.
At times we can do a great job of creating internal momentum for ourselves. At other times it becomes hard, and we feel ourselves running down, like a battery losing its charge.
And then there are times when we are given a little extra energy from an outside source. Like…
I wrote and published a Kindle book in one weekend, with GPT-4.
As you can imagine, I’ve been playing with ChatGPT and GPT-4 for a while now.
I’ve been using GPT as a brainstorming buddy, a research assistant, a first draft copy and content writer, a social media writer… and more.
Honestly, it’s incredibly good. Mind-blowing really, when you consider where this technology was just a few months ago.
This time I asked GPT-4 to write me a 40-page Kindle book I could publish on Amazon.
The title of the book is… Brain Sharpeners: 48 Natural Foods That Support Brain Health
My favorite question when working with a coaching client… It’s a good one!
When I’m coaching a freelancer or solopreneur, I actually ask a lot of different questions. That’s a big part of what it means to be a good coach.
Many of those questions I’ll ask during the first one or two sessions. It’s how we feel our way forward…teasing out answers that can help you break new ground.
After that, we start working through the 6-week process you’ll see outlined on my coaching information page.
But I still have one more question that I’ll throw out at any time. Honestly, I usually ask it several times over the course of a few weeks.
It’s an incredibly powerful question.