Three Steps back to Sanity for Overachieving Entrepreneurs
Being a free professional — call it freelancer or entrepreneur — is not easy. You are on your own in the sea of both opportunities and challenges. When I think of it, what comes to mind is the opening entrance of Jack the Sparrow in the Pirates of the Carribean when first we see a graceful captain approaching Port Royal on his own ship and suddenly turns out he is the only one aboard and the ship is slowly sinking. Nevertheless, he arrives in style.
Working independently has many upsides. You have freedom of waking up whenever you want, not going to an office, calling the shots because you are the boss. But at the same time, it can be scary. There is no team that can take care of hundred and one to-do’s, there is no employer who guarantees a monthly pay, fixed working hours, vacation days and various insurances. At times it seems impossible to combine everything you have to do as a free professional: doing administration and taxes, looking for customers, marketing yourself, improving your expertise, and most importantly actually delivering your service.
I’m sure you know that feeling of fear and urgency that you have to find clients, you have to make money, you absolutely don’t have time to rest… And then it inevitably turns into a run of a “headless chicken” trying to do it all and ends in tears.
There are two main pressures that jeopardize sole entrepreneurs and freelancers.
It needs to be done… yesterday
When there are so many things that need to be done, it can be overwhelming. What happens is that you start feeling like you are lagging behind on all of them. So every new day you tell yourself “that should have been done yesterday”. And the brain immediately gives you two options. Either you go into the state of unproductive urgency when you spend over twelve hours with your laptop trying “to do it all” or you spend your day sulking because “what’s the point?”
Social Media Fever
One of the top reasons for anxiety among entrepreneurs is having to promote themselves. There are dozens of articles that tell you that you need to have “omnichannel presence”: your website, your pages on facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, etc. There are friends that tell you that you need to use Facebook ads and you spend your time in money into those. There is another friend who says you need to promote yourself on Instagram and you start trying.
This is when you get a Social Media Fever. Your brain starts to smoke when you try to take care of all of those. And let me ask you: with what return on your invaluable investment of time? Do you even know how much you need to work on Instagram alone to make it a sales channel?
A friend of mine, a great expert with a strong background, has not a single word about her online and yet she is invited as a coach and facilitator by high-level executives from all over the world. Her choice of being invisible online relying only on the personal connections she built and amazing recommendations she gets made her services exclusive and expensive.
Now that we faced our entrepreneurial tyrants, we can find ways to make life easier.
1. Prioritize
Doing your tax declaration on time, replying to your customer’s email, delivering your service or product with the best quality is really important. Making sure that your logo has the right color, your website has the right font, and you have business cards before you can reach out to customers — not so much (unless you are a freelance-designer). Focus on what is truly essential for your business: finding customers and making them happy.
2. Define your true customers and narrow down the scope of work
To find customers, you first need to understand
a) who they are: age, gender, marital status, job, purchasing ability, etc.
b) where they are: based on your answer on the previous question define one or two channels on which you can find them and they will see you.
If you take your time to do this exercise, you might find that your customers don’t even have Instagram on their phones but they meet every week for a brunch in town. So this will allow you to avoid social media fever and focus your precious time on the one or two that really reach your customer.
3. Set yourself objectives for one or two weeks and stick to it
No matter how brilliant you are, being a free professional you have limited resources and your health is the key one. To protect yourself from twelve-hour shifts at the laptop and emotional burnouts, set yourself reachable goals (in writing) for every week or every other week that contribute to making your customer happy. And stick to them! It’s not an invitation to slack or let it go, it is a reminder that you deserve to rest and enjoy your life!
Life of an entrepreneur is a beautiful journey. It is full of exciting victories. Sometimes even over your own fears, inhibitions and preconditions. So enjoy it! Live it to the full. Don’t wish your life away till the “better times” come or when “it’s not so busy”. It’s always going to be busy… and interesting. Experience it because when you look back at everything you’ve conquered you will be proud of yourself.
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