Work Generation
Posted: Tue 27 November, 2007 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: Own Business, Work-related |3 Comments »In 2008, I’m seriously thinking about doing a lot more freelance and self-generated work, rather than contracting all the time. It’s one of those “big leap” things, but as more stuff keeps coming in, it’s looking like it may just be pretty feasible. And I’m also getting into the entire “self-promotional” thing too.
For example, during the weekend just gone Herself was running a stall at one of the local craft/gift fairs – it wasn’t a brilliant fair in the end, but she’s made some money out of it, so it could be worse. I went over on the Saturday, and did some chatting to other stall holders, distributing my business cards as and where necessary/relevant, and it seemed to go OK. Of course, I won’t know for sure ’til they get in touch, or I chase them up, but still, it’s a start.
To be honest, I really don’t like this part of being self-employed, of doing the publicity bit, making the contacts and so on. You wouldn’t believe it if you saw me, because I’m actually not bad at it. I just don’t like doing it – but I see it as one of those “got to be done” tasks, and as such I get on and do it – the sooner it’s over the better so long as I’ve still done a good job of it.
There’s likely to be a lot more of it over the next year too, what with one thing and another. I’ll be pimping myself round the small(ish) local events, I’m going to carry on using things like LinkedIn, forums and the like to establish myself, and also making more use of both new and existing clients for word-of-mouth purposes. In addition, I’ll be doing those letters in the next couple of weeks, sending them out on spec and seeing how we do.
I’ve still got something of a time-cushion at the moment, in that I don’t really have to start finding more stuff again now ’til the new year – but then, that’s only five weeks away, so I know that I do need to start getting my finger out. It’s just that at the same time, while I know I’ve got to, I haven’t yet got round to having to.
I know, I know, I’m burbling on with no real point to the post. I was hoping that writing it down would go some way towards making me decide to pull my finger out. Maybe it still will – at least it’s got my head working in that direction.
Hang on in there – eventually the work will come to you and you’ll have so much you won’t know what to do with it all.
10 years down the line I could employ at least another 3 people full-time to cope with the enquiries I get by word-of-mouth (no advertising at all), but, as there aren’t the people around (and if there were I doubt they’d meet my exacting standards!), I just pick and choose exactly what I feel like doing.
Although our fields are quite different, the same principle of word-of-mouth always applies. Good people don’t need to advertise, and one thing invariably leads to another.
I’m not convinced that mail-shots work in any business of your sort. The type of face-to-face promotion you did at the craft fair is undoubtedly the way to go at first.
Blue Witch, knowing that 10 years down the line one might be picking and choosing is great, but how hard were the years in between?
Half of the reason that I work for someone else (even though I have a distinct lack of respect for him and I hate the work) is that I’m too afraid to try and make it on my own. Like Lyle I don’t like publicising and marketing (self-publicising is particularly distasteful), although I probably have the added drawback of being really bad at it.
(The other half of course is that I’m very lazy.)
QE – the answer to that is that I too hate the self-promotion bit, and luckily didn’t have to go that route. Fortunately, it was never essential that I brought in a set amount of money as our basic costs are covered by what Mr BW earns. That, plus my extreme Value-ness, and our lack of need for the sort of high-cost consumerism most people seem to need these days, has enabled me to do exactly the amount of work I have chosen/felt able to do at any given time.
But… realistically, I suppose Year 3/Year 4 was when I could have chosen to work full-time (and make what I’d been earning in the public sector) on pure word-of-mouth.
I do have a colleague who has really gone all out to move from public to independent work and has networked and put himself around a lot – he is clearing £100K after 2 years (way more than he earnt as a service lead with huge responsibility in the publioc sector). Mind you, me pointing some of my excess him some of my excess has helped him a lot. And he’ll give me his usual 3 bottles of naff wine at FOTCR™ to show has gratitude 😉
The first thing to do if you’re planning on being self-employed (even part-time) is read the Polly Ghazi book on downshifting, rationalise your spending in every area to make sure you are getting all the best deals, then work out exactly how much you need to make to exist, and take informed decisions from there.