You’re an Uber driver. Or you work the holidays at the mall to earn extra cash. Or you do freelance IT work.
Whatever your freelancing specialty, balancing your freelance work with your other job, family and social life responsibilities can be a challenge. There’s just not enough time to do everything. So you need to set priorities and boundaries.
With the shift if social norms towards work and jobs, people want flexible work schedules, telecommute options, and ways to earn more money and contribute to their world. Often this turns into side hustles and freelance works to supplement income and or keep the creative juices flowing. Things that often aren’t available for many in the fixed salary, repetitive task situation in most people’s jobs.
So if you decided to go the side hustle route. Whether starting a full-fledged small business, or just adding some light income at nights or on weekends with minimal administrative work required, you still need to optimize your efforts.
Check out this infographic from Invoice2Go. And when you’ve read it, I’ll continue with my insights on how I’ve implemented some of those ideas (or might) and how you might too.
Enjoy!
Okay. You read through this. Interesting, huh? I think they did a great job with this as it really hit home with me.
Here’s some of my highlights.
Always be prepared to pitch your work, you never know when and where you will meet your next client.
I’ve found clients through family and friends recommendations (I’ve had family refer friends who were being laid off or facing job uncertainty or looking to pursue new opportunities – for me to help with updating their resume or providing career coaching services).
I had a prior client call me six months after I did his resume to get help asking a family member for money to cover crippling student loan debt. Not something I typically do…but because I was ready and able to help, I jumped on it. And it was a cool copywriting opportunity.
Become skilled in your niche to attract and connect with your target audience.
As I’ve consistently published hopefully interesting, thought-provoking, and helpful blog posts to you, my fans who enjoy hearing about cutting edge ideas around small business growth (or your freelancing and side hustle versions) or career strategy advice, I now have people coming to me. Whether it is connecting with my via LinkedIn or my website to have me help them with their business or career needs. Or if it is other bloggers or content creators in the space who want to get their awesome content out to you, my readers (and hopefully drive some extra business their way), this all feeds itself.
You need to keep learning, growing, and trying things if you’re going to grow your connections (both the number and depth of connection). And by doing that, the investment you consistently make will then translate into personal growth and business growth over the upcoming year.
Venture outside of your home and find a good cafe or co-working space, it’s a different type of networking.
Being time limited between my job, freelance work, and family, I often find myself on the living room couch – laptop on my lap – typing away while my kids are watching TV or after they go to sleep. Trying to find quiet time to focus can be a challenge for any freelancer. If you’re single or just need a break or change of pace. Or if you’re transitioning into something full time or are a stay-at-home mom who does this and wants to use the business to get out and connect with people (including your future clients), consider getting out of the house. It will likely spur some new ideas (changing your environment is often the quickest way to mix things up).
Now go tackle your freelance work!
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