Stop Piddling Around and SELL!!
Posted on 13 September 2011
Everybody in business needs to be a good manager of their own time. You need to spend some time researching potential markets, perfecting your craft, working on client projects and files, accounting, etc. And if you’re working full-time, you know you need income so that you can survive. The problem is that part-timers and freelancers usually spend too little time on income producing activities. What I mean is that, whether you’re working full-time or part-time at your own business, the reason that you’re doing what you’re doing is usually because you like the field you’re in and you hope to make some money, if not a living, practicing your craft. If you have a day job and you’re only freelancing part-time, you may fall prey to doing the extra after-hours work simply for the pleasure of doing the work. But you need to keep in mind that if your goal is to earn a living, or even just make some extra money, you need to have a solid focus on income producing activities.
Of course you don’t need to be 100% focused on only doing things that directly generate income. You need to spend time producing marketing materials and making business contacts. As well, you probably spend a great deal of time perfecting your craft after hours. But you need to spend a solid percentage of your time doing things that actually generate income. In other words, every single week you should have some portion of your freelance time dedicated to paying projects. And if you don’t have any paying projects, you should reduce the time you’re spending on perfecting your craft and developing marketing materials, and focus intensely on getting that first client or two.
Are you making money? Or are you just dreaming about your business making money “someday?” If you don’t have income producing work, it’s time to focus 100% of your business efforts directly on sales.
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2 responses to Stop Piddling Around and SELL!!
Interesting post. I think the photographer as a naturally creative person spends too much time thinking about new ideas than actually working on generating sales!
Thanks for the motivation Larry. You are so right!
P.S. I read Scott’s Blog daily, and never realized you had one as well. I enjoy your columns in Photoshop User Magazine. I will definitely keep checking back here.