5 Great Ways To Strengthen Your Freelance Business

You’ve got a great thing going. Want to keep it going strong?

Whether you’re new to freelancing or you’ve been around the block a few times, it’s always a good idea to think about the health of your business and its future.

What can you do to make your gig a better one?

It doesn’t matter what field you’re in.

You could be a writer, artist, editor, performer, or someone who builds birdhouses on commission. There are always things you can do right now to keep you and your business going strong.

Keep Up With Changes In Your Field

Things move fast. When I began my book design business, the standard software for layout was either Quark XPress or Pagemaker. Ebooks weren’t in much demand yet, and I sent large files via FTP.

Nowadays, most layout is done in InDesign. Email limits mean I can send large files directly, although I’m more likely to share them via the cloud. I’ve lost some once-great gigs because they’ve shifted to digital publishing.

For the most part, I was able to keep up with changes and learn new skills and technology to keep m business going for over 20 years — all except digital publishing. I fell behind on that, and it cost me. Fortunately, I’ve been able to pivot to writing and am slowly phasing out traditional publishing work.

Had I not pivoted toward freelance writing, I’d be out of the freelance publishing world right now.

Don’t expect your field to stay the same forever. Things change, and you have to change with them.

Adapt.

Pick up new skills, update old ones. It will pay off in the end.

Learn New Skills

Similar to updating your skills, it’s a good idea to learn whole new ones as well. If you’re a freelance video editor, it might be a good idea to know more about marketing. If you’re a freelance social media manager, you could benefit from learning how to use graphic design software.

If you’re a freelance writer, learn how to make an ebook.

Skills — particularly those related to creative fields — are often very interconnected. To be lacking in one means you’re not allowing your freelance business to be as strong and flexible as it needs to be.

Set a Dream Job Goal

What would you like to see yourself doing within a year? Do you want to write for a national magazine? Write a book? As an artist, do you want to do illustrations for children’s books or The New Yorker?

If you work in freelance marketing, who would be your dream client?

Write this down on a post-it note and stick it someplace you’ll see every day.

But don’t stop there.

Consider your goal, what steps you need to take to achieve it, and then get started.

Write it all out in a step-by-step plan and incorporate it into your scheduling/planner system. Track your progress and review regularly.

You’ll get there.

Build a Better Office

Or workspace. Or studio. Wherever it is that you do your work.

Many freelancers begin with a home office or other work area that suits their immediate needs to get started with their business.

Then they stay there.

Whether it’s a better desk, better home office equipment, a larger filing cabinet, or a larger area… if you want your business to grow, you need to give it room. You need to feed it — so to speak — with the resources it needs.

Look at your work area now and write out what could be improved, upgrades, or expanded, then map out a plan to accomplish this within a set number of weeks.

Heck… a new paint job could improve your mood and, therefore, improve your work attitude and the quality of your work overall.

Give it a go.

Establish Healthy Work-Life Boundaries

How many hours a day do you work?

Eight? Ten? Twenty?

Good lord, I hope the answer isn’t twenty.

Many new freelancers learn, to their surprise, that it’s not unusual to end up working longer hours than they had at a more traditional job.

Most traditional jobs have the benefit of a set schedule — clock in by 9 am. Leave at 5pm. Scheduled breaks occur at set times during the day.

There’s no real reason why your freelance work can’t follow a similar routine. It may not start at nine and finish by five. You might divide your workday into two four or five-hour chunks.

Whatever you decide, stick to that schedule, and when your day comes to an end, it comes to an end. Go outside. Play some basketball. Go for a walk. Meet up with friends.

Live your life.

This will keep burnout at bay and help keep you fresh and positive. That’s a plus for both you and your clients.

You work to support your life. You shouldn’t live to support your work.

Good Freelancing Is More Than Just the Work

I have a stack of articles, blogs, and email blasts to write for clients. That’s how I pay the bills. And then some.

In a quarter-century of knocking around the freelance world, I’ve had wins and losses. I’ve learned a lot from my successes, but I’ve learned even more from my failures.

Keeping a freelance business healthy means not staying too static.

Don’t get caught in a rut. While things may seem comfortable to you now, the world continues to change, and you need to change and grow with it.

Understanding that will go a long way to keeping your freelance business strong and healthy.

Thank you for reading. I’d love to share more with you via my Bi-Weekly Word Roundup newsletter sent to subscribers every other Sunday. It will feature news, productivity tips, life hacks, and links to top stories making the rounds on the Internet. You can unsubscribe at any time.