Starting Your Own Business as a Freelancer Starting your own business can be very stressful. There’s a lot of work to be done, and the pressure increases as the budget dwindles. The goal is to gain notoriety first, build notoriety, develop a super-powerful platform, and gain a reputation. How you go about it varies by genre, personality, budget and location.
Marketing plans must evolve as situations change, and owners will experiment with all new options and test them to see if they work Business plans must be flexible and include contingencies for everything from injury and illness to death or building failure (floods, etc.).
I actually started with no budget, but I was able to reach high-end clients by putting on some music, grabbing backpacks, and walking around the neighborhood with a nice flyer rolled up like a high school diploma and a nice ribbon on every door. I turned down clients within a few months and have turned down clients every year since, even though I hired some help. I did it once without advertising.
At first the idea of being self-employed was very scary, but I got a lot of encouragement from family and local small business support outlets. My oldest brother had some business experience and gave me advice from time to time. This previous experience helped me a lot in starting a new career as a writer.
Before starting our careers in 1999, Dave and I both received professional writing training. I had some computer work, took a hospitality management class, and my husband took tax preparation and Excel classes. All these educational adventures have played a vital role in the business we run today.
20 years later, we’re still going strong. Over time, the business evolved so that Dave’s teaching and repair services, our books, blog, radio show, all our activities and products were absorbed under one umbrella name. This made running the office much easier.
Almost every year one of us is involved in a new course learning new skills to run our business. Almost every week we scour resources like YouTube to learn how to best perform a particular task. Between keeping up with the office, keeping supplies on hand, cleaning duties and promotional work, we put in quite a few unpaid work hours each week… to keep our business running .
So as you can see from this brief overview of our experience, being self-employed doesn’t mean you have a lot of time, it means you have LESS. It doesn’t lighten your workload, but adds to it. Luckily for Dave and I, we have each other to lift the heavy weight and stress and share in the wonderful celebrations. Finding a mentor makes the bumpy road ahead easier and helps a person laugh at their situation, grow as a person and find confidence they didn’t know they had. I recommend finding a few mentors to help you along the way.
Lillian and her husband, Dave, are the team behind Brummet Media Group, and they cackle as they pass each other on their way from ticking one item or another off their long to-do list. Their businesses include Dave’s music studio and drum accessory products and graphic design work, as well as many award-winning non-fiction books and popular blogs.iness can be very stressful – there’s a lot to do and pressures are running high, while you watch the budget trickle away. Unfortunately a lot of folks rush into their dream of running a business and find out in one big awful moment that there is a lot more to it than skipping off to your dream. , the goal should be getting known, building that name recognition, developing a super strong platform and getting a reputation. How one goes about this varies with the genre, personality, budget and location.
Marketing plans have to evolve with changing situations and owners will find themselves experimenting with all kinds of new opportunities, testing them to see if they will work out. Business plans need to be flexible and have contingencies in place for everything from injuries and illness to death or building failures (floods, etc.).
My first business ran for 6 years. I started it on no budget at all, but I was able to target high-end clients by strapping on some music and a backpack of supplies and walking their neighbourhoods placing a fancy flyer, rolled up like a graduation document and tied with a nice ribbon, in every doorway. Within a few months I was turning away clients and turned down clients every year from then on even though I hired some help. I did this without advertising once.
, the idea of being self-employed was very scary but I received a lot of encouragement from family and from local small business support outlets. My oldest brother had some business experience and he advised me from time to time. Having this previous experience helped me a great deal in starting a new career as a writer.
Dave and I had both taken a professional writer’s course before entering the career in 1999 and so we had a good idea about the process of querying, following up and building name recognition. I had some computer experience, taken a course in hospitality management and my husband had taken a couple courses in tax preparation and using Excel. All these educational adventures played a vital role in the business we run today.
20 years later, we are still going strong. Over time the business evolved so that Dave’s drum teaching and repair services, our books, blog, radio show, all our activities and products became absorbed under one umbrella name. This made running the office a heck of a lot easier.
every year one of us is involved in a new course, learning new skills for managing our business. Almost weekly we find ourselves scanning the resources like YouTube to learn how to do a specific task the best way possible. Between keeping up with the office, having supplies on hand, cleaning duties and promotional work, we put in quite a number of unpaid labour hours every week… to keep our business running .
So as you can see from this brief overview of our experiences, being self-employed doesn’t mean you have a lot of time, it means you have LESS time. It doesn’t lighten your workload, it ADDS to it. Luckily for Dave and I, we have each other to lighten the heavy weight and stress and to share the glorious celebrations with too. Finding a mentor eases the bumpy road ahead and helps one laugh at their situation, grow as a person and find the confidence they didn’t know they had. I recommend finding several mentors who can make your journey more do-able.
Lillian and her husband Dave are the team behind Brummet Media Group, high-fiving as they pass each other on the way from checking off one item or other from their long to-do list. Their business includes Dave’s music studio and percussion accessory products and graphic design work as well as many award-winning non-fiction books and popular blogs.
