Taking Time to Plan
Jan 12, 2009 Excerpts
This is an excerpt from the book, The Principles of Successful Freelancing. Sample chapters are available for downloading from this page.
“Failures don’t plan to fail, they fail to plan,” says best-selling author and business motivational speaker, Harvey MacKay.
If you are planning to start freelancing part-time, you should have the time to put together all of the plans and start saving for the just-in-case rainy-day money. On the other hand, if you plan to move straight into full-time freelancing, remember that you’ll have those looming deadlines as soon as you take on projects. Even so, it doesn’t mean that you should ignore planning or preparation.
For most people, the concept of business planning is likely to provoke a jaw-dislocating yawn. However, it’s much more productive to welcome this as an exciting time, where you start to understand where you really want to travel on this freelance path. The world really is your oyster—you’ve made the emotional commitment, perhaps you already have some prospective clients lined up, and you may have already done much of this planning work in the back of your mind. It’s invaluable to take a little time to write these thoughts and plans down, for future reference and as a way to refine and catalogue your thoughts.
Many freelancers and small businesses fail in their first few years, and it’s widely agreed by experts that the number-one reason for such failure is because those business had little or no form of planning. This planning document doesn’t need to be a huge tome of numbers and words; it really is the summation of what you have been thinking, committed to paper.
This document is where you start to list known and unknown areas of your plans, so you can elaborate on them over time. A good business plan is an evolving one, so don’t consider it a chore to be completed in an hour and then stuck in a desk drawer and forgotten about.
There is a myriad of web sites dedicated to sharing templates and ideas about what they consider a great business plan. Perhaps the most important element of a business plan is that you remain actively involved with it. Review it frequently, adjusting and editing it where required—especially during those first few months.
Your plan could be just a few pages, or it could be dozens, but unless you have grand plans to circulate it for investors or financial institutions to read, avoid using buzzwords and reams of useless blue-sky figures. The plan is for your eyes only, so keep it succinct and to the point, and an honest appraisal of the “who, what, when, and how” of your plans.
There are many elaborate methods for writing a solid business plan, but let’s start by creating a text document, and answering what questions we can from the list in Example 1, “Business Planning Questions”. For those questions to which you don’t know the answer yet, just write the question, reminding yourself to add that material as you go.
Remember, plans change, so at this stage your efforts are likely to be more crystal-ball gazing than actual fact. You’ll expand on the plan, filling it out in more detail as you work your way through this book and progress over the first weeks and months of freelancing. And it’s fine to add other notes besides the questions included here—even if they’re rough dot points, the more notes the better!
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Tags: freelance, freelance book, sitepoint, successful freelancing
Interview on SitePoint Podcast
Dec 26, 2008 Announcements
Last week I was interviewed for episode five of the SitePoint Podcast, about the book, as well as the twelve principles of successful freelancing, which I recently wrote about.
I’ve heard some of the discussion, and although I was suffering with a heavy cold, and had only a few hours sleep the night before, I still sound (for the most part…) coherent.
Thanks to the hosts, Brad Williams, Patrick O’Keefe, Stephan Segraves and Kevin Yank for having me on the show. They’re a great team, and it was an absolute honor to be invited.
You’ll be able to find the podcast on iTunes (search for ’sitepoint’), or via the SitePoint Podcast page from today, Boxing Day, Friday 26 December. Enjoy!
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Tags: discussion, interview, itunes, podcast, sitepoint
Writing for SitePoint Tribune
Nov 21, 2008 Other
I’m not sure if you are aware, however over the last few months, I’ve started co-editing the SitePoint Tribune, a weekly email newsletter which goes out to close to quarter of a million subscribers.
You can subscribe to the Tribune and SitePoint’s other great email newsletters over at the SitePoint Tribune archives, which features every edition, going back to May 2001.
The recent editions, which I have written, are
Issue 422: Marketing at Christmas
Issue 420: Web2.0, Social Media and You
Issue 418: Seek client feedback for business success
Issue 417: Secrets of great sales proposals
Issue 416: Deadlines; Under-promise, Over-deliver
Issue 415: Your best business insurance
Issue 414: Why Conferences are crucial to your business
Issue 413: Learning to Say Sorry
My co-editor, Brendon Sinclair, is the Author of SitePoint’s excellent Web Design Business Kit 2.0. This is well worth a read!
I hope you do sign up for the Tribune, and look forward to sending tips to you every week - if you get a chance, please let me know what you think of the Tribune too!
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A few thanks to share
Nov 14, 2008 Book
I’ve been remiss so far in thanking those who took this book from a few scribbled notes to the great work that hits the shelves soon.
Producing a book is indeed a group effort. I’ve heard that before, but until I had written one, I didn’t understand the amount of work that goes on behind the scenes, when it leaves the Author. I’m only one of a team on this.
I’ve got a number of people to thank who work in the publishing team at SitePoint…
Simon Mackie and Chris Wyness, Managing Editors, who expertly steered and managed this project. Simon was the one who first approached me about writing it in the first place.
Toby Somerville and Andrew Tetlaw, who were the Technical Editors for the book. Toby left SitePoint towards the end of my writing, and Andrew quickly took the reigns without any fuss. Thanks to both of you for the advice and encouragement!
Hilary Reynolds, English language editor, who caressed my words into something far more eloquent. I love working with people who love language, and don’t get upset when I misuse it.
Then there are others who helped work on the book, outside of SitePoint…
Friend and fellow Perth local, Myles Eftos, who was the Expert Reviewer, provided me with much needed input and sanity checks.
This website and the illustrations you see in the book are the work of Jay Hollywood, one of the design team at Bam Creative. Thanks Jay!
Also, thanks to Derek Featherstone, Mark Boulton, Molly E. Holzschlag and Stephen Collins who all allowed me their time for interviews in the book - it makes more sense with your input.
I hope you’re all as proud of the end product as I am, and I look forward to some of you reading it for the first time soon!
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Tags: freelancer, freelancing, posf, sitepoint, thanks
