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| The Client Letter |
| Do You Really Have a Business? |
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September 9, 2011 Sedona, Arizona Quick question for you today: If You Work as An Independent Professional,
Do You Really Have a Business? If you are in a situation where you’re ultimately trading time for dollars, do you really have a business? Or do you simply have a job where you work for yourself? I think the majority of freelancers have a job. Sometimes a well paying job. They work, they get paid. Rinse and repeat. This has always bugged me a bit, and it led me to believe that the “freelancing business” was somehow flawed. That there was this huge inherent “problem” with being a freelancer. I thought that the guys with the “real” businesses selling products and stuff had it good. I always envied them a bit. They just have to sell their widgets. And they can sell 1,000 just as easily as they can sell one right? What are people saying about Moneymaking Secrets of a Renegade Freelancer:
“Holy crap! This is seriously good stuff. Dangerously good. I wish I knew half of it when I first started out as a freelance copywriter. It would have saved me so many hassles and headaches… And a ton of money, too. Good work, Jason. I highly recommend this book to anyone who’s serious about business. Any service provider, freelancer, marketer, or sales rep — in short, anyone who has to deal with clients — should read this report.” -Michel Fortin That is, until I was able to look behind the scenes and see that they have their own distinct set of problems and challenges. I’ve come to the conclusion that freelancing might just be the world’s best “business” for doing what it’s best at doing, which is… Generating Cash Fast With
Virtually No Risk Or Expense Sure there are limits to freelancing… just as there are limits to selling widgets. So the trick, in my mind, is not to view one as better than the other, but to view each as a distinct way of generating revenue. Each one is right for certain goals and priorities. Want to earn $40 million a year? Web design is probably not going to get you there. But using your web design business to fund a software development project where you create a tool that makes excellent web design possible for newbies… that could be a $40 million enterprise. If you want the ability to generate $10,000 or even $100,000 with just a few phone calls, from a standing start, then freelancing is definitely a possibility. To the extent that you use the real benefits of this business to your advantage, the more choices you will give yourself. Here’s my recommendation: There is No Better Place Than Right Where You Are. Stop Wishing for Things to Change. Start Working With What You Have for the Greatest Result
I’ve been through the cycle several times myself. You have a client that really leaves a bad taste in your mouth. You get fed up working with clients, so you go off in a new direction, vowing to start a “real” business. Something that can run without you. If you read books like Michael Gerber’s E-Myth, he’d say that any enterprise you can’t walk away from without revenue suffering is not a business. Eh, whatever. Maybe he’s right, maybe he’s wrong. Should I just scrap what I have and go do what he says? Nope. This is my life, not his. My answers are mine, his answers are his. In my mind, freelancing is probably THE number one way I know to generate cash quickly. Freelancing is cash generation. With that cash, I fund my life and other ventures. As you go into the weekend, think about the role that your cash generating business plays in your life. What is your plan for the cash? Do you have a plan? Do you invest it in places it can grow? Places like other businesses? Or do you simply spend it? You can generate a lot of cash in this business, but I know for a fact that there’s no amount of money too great that it can’t be spent. So unless you have a plan for how to turn that cash into something that grows, you’ll be stuck working for a long time. The answers here are not black and white. They are shades of gray. And those shades of gray are unique to you, so don’t bother with looking to others for YOUR answers. That’s the real work that has to be done. You have to come up with your own answers. And yes, this is a test. Because this is your life. See you Monday,
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