Life of a freelancer
December. The last month of what has been a turbulent year. Not just for me but for the whole world. If you could sum your year up in one sentence what would it be? Mines would be simply:
“Is it over yet?”
Business has been up and down, and home life has shifted into a new way of living but as good things started to happen it felt like a new wave of rubbish hit. I’ve made the most of this new way of life this year, some of it I loved (hello all the new restaurants offering takeaways!) but most of all I miss networking. Now I love networking online, but there is something about making connections in person. I don’t just mean at dedicated events, I mean in a coffee shop, in stores, at pubs. It is true when they say you never know who you might meet when you go out and about, for me, it meant new work connections, new businesses to shop at and shout about and just engaging with people from all walks of life. We forget the value of just talking to people in person and I hope more of us will do just that next year.
I lost my biz direction a bit this year too. The deflation I felt when I had to think about doing work for Aesthetic Roots absolutely filled me with dread. So I gave myself a choice - give it my all or give it nothing. Boy, have I gave it my all this year and I have learned one thing - pressure doesn’t mean perfect. We are all guilty of putting too much pressure on ourselves, aren’t we? I included. I tried to do everything and perfect everything is such a short timescale that I just burnt out. If you are guilty of this, then I advise doing these few things to help relieve the pressure:
Separate your tasks - split them up into urgent, due soon and ongoing. This way you can see what needs to be done immediately and what can be doing over a period of time, bit by bit. Be honest, not everything is urgent!
Strategise - starting a new social media campaign? Plan it and date it. Got blogs ideas? Plan them. Strategies are key for success, no matter how small they are. So long as they are focused on your goals, they allow you to look at what needs to be done and gives you workable timeframes.
Be honest with yourself. Rome wasn’t built in a day and nor was your business, things take time and understand that busting 12 hours a day doesn’t mean instant success.
Adopting these 3 simple steps into running my own business has enabled me to recharge my motivation to be successful. Day by day I see my business growing and me hitting my strategic goals - which has made me smile as of late! So if you are a business owner, ease up on the pressure on yourself eh?
Until next time,
Rachel - Aesthetic Roots VA x
