With the new year just around the corner, there's no better time to begin thinking about your own freelancing and business plans for 2008. This is important because it's rather easy to go year after year without any real thought towards your own career and future (other than making sure that you have work and that you get paid for that work). So here are three steps that help guide aspirations and plans for the coming year.1) Lose What Is Unnecessary or Beyond Your Expertise
A common temptation for any new website business or freelancing effort is to be "everything to everyone" - web designer, photographer, print designer, etc. This is a natural tendency because it (a) allows you to offer more to potential clients, especailly when you need clients, and (b) anyone with the confidence and savvy to start their own business usually feels they can tackle any task. While both of these may be true, three other strong facts stand against these:
- You only have so much time to keep up wih the ever-growing technologies in the website or design field. Raising your game in one field often means losing your edge in another.
- There is plenty of work even if you or your business only provide one technology or field of discipline (design, web apps, interactive media, etc.).
- Almost every great designer, developer, firm, or company has found success by being great in one core area. You simply don't find a person or firm who's "the best" in a large myriad of disciplines.
2) Learn More About Your Strengths and Build on Them
This step is a natural extension of the previous one and a key aspect of many great individuals and companies. In fact, many great business books in the last few years have championed this fact of finding your core strength (like Good to Great and Made to Stick). Think about it -- I'm sure that one name comes to mind when you use focused phrases like "best design software" or "coffee on every corner." Likewise, go be a "rockstar" in a given field or discipline, and I can assure you that in time, you will have no shortage of work or opportunities (note that if you do know "a lot about a lot," then perhaps your strength is website strategies or simply starting businesses).
3) List Out Your Goals and Your Plans to Reach Those Goals
Once again building on the previous step, listing out your goals is necessary – but not because you need to reach those goals. To be honest, there are many potential pitfalls in goal setting. First, you may set goals too low just so you can reach them. Or, when your lofty goals are unreachable, you will create false "outs" or even worse, continue focusing on a goal that has become irrelevant to your success. So why set goals? Simply because goals keep you focused and forward-moving, even if you never reach them. So drop the extraneous from #1, take your strengths from #2, and set some goals to maximize their potential. Doing so will keep you from just floating through the next year, and instead, keep you focused and successful in 2008.
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Landon Beaver
