Are you waiting for that perfect moment to start your freelance business?
The moment when you feel completely prepared, ready to take on the world with your brand new skill?
Well, here's your wakeup call: there is no "perfect moment." You can never be fully prepared to be a freelancer, whether you're a designer, a writer, a coder, a coach, or any other profession.
This isn't really such a bad thing. After all, you can only prepare so much beforehand - most of the learning and the stuff you'll do to eventually reach "guru" status will be learned as you go. The lessons you learn and the mistakes you make will be more valuable than your days, months and years spent preparing in advance.
But this isn't an easy concept to accept. When I first started out as a freelance copywriter, I spent nearly six months completing the copywriting program I chose to complete, devouring every gem offered within. But when I was done with the course, I didn't go out right away and try to get clients. I bought more courses... put more books on my "must read" list... and spent all my time soaking up more information on copywriting, advertising, and the world of marketing.
Rather than being confident in my skills and just accepting that I'd always have more to learn, I kept waiting for the "right time" to get started.
Reasons for delaying
Nick Usborne, a freelance copywriter and coach says there are two main reasons freelancers tend to delay starting:
1. You have a fear of rejection. Starting any kind of business is scary, and freelancing is no different. It means you have to put yourself out there, find clients, be rejected, even cold call (this one still nearly makes my heart jump out of my chest). It means you might fail and fail often.
2. You feel you're just not ready yet. There's a voice inside of you telling you that before you take the big leap you have to keep learning and broadening your knowledge, whether this is by reading books, taking more courses, getting any necessary certifications, etc. Essentially, you feel like you need to be an "expert" before you can put yourself out there.
The fact is, both reasons are just excuses to procrastinate. Yes, starting is scary, but everyone has to go through it (you'll get used to rejection soon enough, trust me). And you'll never become an expert without actually diving in and just doing it, no matter how many books you read on the subject.
How to start
You'll never be the expert you want to be until you get going on your freelance business and have some experience behind you. So here are a six ways to squelch the fear of starting and just get yourself out there:
1. Realize you know more than your clients do. If you've spent any amount of time studying your subject, you probably know more than most, if not all, of the clients you'll ever work with. You've studied this one thing for a long period of time, while they've probably only ever had time to learn the basics (after all, they're not a specialist like you).
Plus, says Nick, "you only have to know 10% more than your client." That extra 10% is the value they're paying for.
2. Accept that you'll always have more to learn. Whatever your field, know that even the top guys and gals are continually learning. It's what keeps them at the top of their game.
John Carlton, one of the best copywriters in the business, calls this the "apprentice for life" mindset. By being humble and never balking at learning something new, you will never get stale, and you'll be able to better adapt to the ever-changing nature of your business.
3. Make specific goals, and stick to them. Keeping a list of daily, weekly and yearly goals is the best way to stay on track and always headed in the right direction.
To do this successfully, make your goals as specific as possible (such as, I want to be the top copywriter in the financial services niche), determine the steps you need to reach your goals, and always keep track of how far you've gone. Writing down your goals in a journal or computer document will allow you to look back on how far you've come and can be the much-needed catalyst that keeps you going.
4. Rejoice in your mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. Expect them. But you'll learn faster and get light years ahead of your peers if you actually make the mistakes yourself, rather than just reading about them.
Just make sure they're "smart" mistakes (i.e. not easily avoided) and you take their lessons to heart so you never make the same blunder again.
5. Go tell everyone else you're doing it. There are countless studies that show that when you make a goal public, you're much more likely to actually follow through than if you kept the goal to yourself.
This has a lot to do with your own willpower as well as a fear of being publicly humiliated. So when you're starting your freelance business, go tell everyone you know you're doing it. Trust me, you'll be a lot less likely to put it off if your friends, colleagues and loved ones know about your plans. The accountability will keep you on track.
6. Limit your learning resources. As a beginning copywriter, I typically found myself signing up for two or three courses at once, reading countless books and blogs, and consuming every copywriting-related resource that came my way at once. This essentially meant that when I should have been prospecting for new clients, I was reading about my trade. As a result, I got started way later than I should have.
Don't take this as a command to stop learning (obviously, I'm a fan of continuous education). Just be smart about your learning resources. Stick to one book at a time, only buy a new course if it will dramatically add to your skill-set (such as your niche), and always make your main priority your business.
It's hard to take the leap. But sometimes, you just have to jump!
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