This put up might comprise affiliate hyperlinks. See our affiliate disclosure for extra.
If you wish to be insanely worthwhile doing what you like then you’ll want to discover a joyful steadiness between artwork and commerce. Principally, you want a head for enterprise and a thoughts for getting the work carried out.
On the floor, worthwhile freelancers aren’t that totally different to unprofitable ones; the one actual distinction is that insanely worthwhile freelancers have developed particular habits that enable them to succeed.
8 years in the past I used to be financially careworn, I couldn’t pay all my payments on time, I had nightmare purchasers; some who wouldn’t pay me on time, I couldn’t discover good workers, I used to be working 16 hour days and my enterprise was sucking all my time and each final ounce of vitality I had… however for little or no return.
Are you feeling the identical manner proper now?
If you wish to create a enterprise and life you like, these 97 habits would be the key to your liberation… and your income.
Bear in mind you don’t turn into a freelancer simply to create a job for your self, you freelance to create a way of life. Don’t be the technician buried within the trenches, turn into the entrepreneur. Begin with these 97 habits and also you’ll rework your online business and your life…
Mindset / Each day Rituals
1. Spend 20 minutes visualising every morning earlier than you get away from bed to get the solutions you want for the day. This might be about your large goals, little targets, a consumer downside, a brand new product, a brand new weblog… no matter. Simply use the primary 20 minutes of the day to meditate and also you’ll be blown away by the distinction it makes to each facet of your online business.
2. Be grateful. Preserve a gratitude journal. Be excited you’re capable of so what you like for a dwelling.
3. Preserve a diary of all of your wins, large and small so you’ll be able to replicate on how far you’ve come (particularly useful to show to on these actually powerful days for a fast pick-me-up!)
4. Create an inventory of your favourite blogs and go to them each day. Make time every morning to learn via them while you’ve gotten brekkie and your morning espresso. (PS: if Millo tops your listing, you will get weekly updates right here.)
5. Make sure you take respectable breaks to remain impressed. Go abroad yearly should you can, it’ll open your eyes as much as your online business with an eagle-eye view you’ve by no means skilled earlier than. It additionally feeds your creativity!
6. Possess flexibility and stubbornness in equal measures.
7. Chew off greater than you’ll be able to chew after which chew like CRAZY!
8. Don’t sweat the small stuff like these ‘particular’ purchasers that present up each every now and then. Should you hit a street bump, ask your self “Am I going to care about this in 5 years time?” and if the reply is ‘no’ then simply get on with it and don’t let it upset you.
9. Be taught to journey the emotional rollercoaster of enterprise. It’s powerful however simply go along with it. Trip the tiger… tame the tiger! Tomorrow’s a brand new day.
10. Embrace failure. Each failure takes you one step nearer to attaining your targets. Apart from, it’s solely a real failure should you don’t be taught from it.
11. Perseverance (and getting stuff carried out) actually is the important thing to success. By no means surrender!
12. Develop a fearless entrepreneurial spirit. It’ll enable you bounce on alternatives in good and unhealthy instances.
13. All the time mood your positivity with a contact of realism… however not an excessive amount of otherwise you’ll by no means strive something new!
14. Be a giver. That’s it. Simply give extra. We give free web sites to charities, not for any kudos and never as a advertising tactic, simply because it makes us really feel good. Cleanse your soul regularly.
15. Discover your joyful place… and go reside there! For me, I needed to be close to the ocean and islands as a result of it evokes me and I be at liberty. Positive, it took 5 lengthy years to get every thing to a place the place we might make the transfer however now we reside in one of the vital lovely locations on the planet. My enterprise (and my creativity) has skyrocketed since my transfer and life won’t ever be the identical.
Funds
16. Perceive that ‘revenue’ just isn’t a impolite phrase. You’re in enterprise to make cash. If you end up doing favours on a regular basis, really feel responsible for rising your charges, or do spec work, cease it proper now and begin placing revenue as your #1 goal.
17. Perceive that point is cash. Interval.
18. Discover an incredible accountant and rent essentially the most organized bookkeeper you’ll find; they’ll rework your online business and life (to not point out stress ranges!)
19. Know your true prices to the cent. I imply each bum on each seat and for each hour they sit in that seat, together with yours!
20. Know your required revenue margins. Is it 30% or 50% or one thing in between?
21. Measure general challenge profitability on the finish of each job. Tip: you’ll be able to use software program to measure your progress.
22. You don’t play except they pay. Which means NO spec work!
23. Preserve an eagle eye on the {dollars} being invoiced, each day!
24. Work laborious on controlling your money movement. It can make or break you.
Advertising and marketing
25. Type strategic alliances with enterprise coaches, advertising consultants, occasion managers, enterprise advisory centres, copywriters, search engine optimisation corporations and the like for a gradual movement of inbound leads. How? Community. Go to occasions. Discover the people who find themselves already speaking to your goal market, befriend them, impress them together with your know-how, provide them money for referrals, wine ‘em and dine ‘em and watch the brand new enterprise movement in.
26. Don’t unfold your self too skinny in terms of your social media accounts, simply do what you’ll be able to and do it properly. (Rule of thumb: should you discover you’ve began doing issues half-baked then you’ll want to pull it again to fundamentals.)
27. Begin your individual weblog… like yesterday! I’ve obtained 5000 present & future net purchasers subscribed to Web123’s weblog proper now, and my model new weblog particularly for designers is already at 400!
28. Make constructing your electronic mail listing a high precedence. I do know that doesn’t sound very freelancer-y, however right here’s the place it will possibly turn into so: design and write an eBook, a video course or a equipment however simply create one thing that you could provide in alternate for an electronic mail deal with.
29. Upon getting a advertising listing, ship out weekly academic newsletters with fast ideas and hyperlinks to your weblog. It by no means ceases to amaze me the quantity of inbound leads we get that say “I’ve been getting your newsletters for over a 12 months now and I like them… so I’m not even getting different quotes, I’m prepared to purchase now.” No joke.
30. Be assured. Don’t be afraid to simply be you, warts and all. And don’t examine your Chapter 1 to another person’s Chapter 20. Everybody’s distinctive. There’s solely certainly one of you and belief me, folks need to hear what you must say.
31. Get proactive on Twitter, it’s like networking on steroids.
32. Learn to market your self correctly on Fb. Fb is lead metropolis for me!
33. Don’t simply give attention to new advertising mediums, go old style and get in entrance of individuals. It’ll make you stand out from the muddle.
34. Discover out who’s already speaking to the folks you need to goal and work out the best way to work collectively to leverage off their listing. (Be sure that it’s mutually helpful in fact.)
35. Visitor weblog on different blogs in your area of interest. I apply the three:1 rule for max outcomes. I purpose to put in writing 3 visitor posts for each 1 of my very own blogs every week.
36. Take care of the people who ship you enterprise. Present them you admire it in any other case they may cease. Take into account a referral program, it really works nice for us. We maintain our referral program easy; we don’t need to muck round with items and postage, so we follow chilly laborious money. You refer a web site consumer to me, you get a cost as quickly because the consumer pays their bill. You refer a ProPartner designer consumer to me, you get a money bonus too. Money referral funds are simple to switch on-line, quick, and at all times appreciated! And, if you concentrate on how a lot it prices to FIND and convert new enterprise, it makes monetary sense.
37. Shock your current purchasers once they least anticipate it (with good issues in fact!)
38. Zig once they zag. Analyse what your freelance opponents are doing and do the exact opposite. After I moved into net I realised my opponents have been charging for assist, CMS software program upgrades, electronic mail accounts, bandwidth, re-designs, cellular web site designs, every thing! Purchasers would by no means know what they’d be up for till a 12 months or two later once they added up all the additional prices and nearly died. I used to be morally against this manner of doing enterprise, so it was a no brainer that my enterprise mannequin would come with a hard and fast pricing construction that will incorporate all this stuff for one low month-to-month price. It wasn’t simple discovering a value that was price efficient for the consumer AND was worthwhile for my enterprise, however we did it. This fastened value service is now our most important level of distinction and wins us a LOT of recent enterprise. It’s our purple cow.
39. Put money into an incredible (and search engine optimisation savvy) copywriter for all your individual web site and advertising copy. They’re so price it!
40. Should you can’t afford to rent inhouse specialists but, get your gifted possie of professional copywriters, entrepreneurs, illustrators, branding, search engine optimisation & PPC specialists collectively and work laborious at creating sturdy relationships. Collectively you’ll be able to revenue extra.
41. Create invaluable content material that helps your purchasers remedy an issue and makes you appear to be a guru who severely is aware of their stuff.
42. While you get an inbound enquiry out of your web site, drop every thing, and name them right away, hopefully while they’re nonetheless on the positioning. Should you can’t, delegate to somebody who can. Your likelihood of conversion, with all issues being equal in fact, will improve immensely.
43. Set a aim to make 20/50/100 private connections per day, no matter you’ll be able to handle and follow it. Whether or not it’s tweets, weblog or discussion board feedback, emails, Fb feedback, you get the image. Simply set a quantity and follow it.
44. Focus. Try to choose your area of interest market then staff that with what you like doing most and simply give attention to that. I used to be so busy attempting every thing and getting pulled in so many various instructions that after I shifted my focus to only one large main challenge, it was a serious turning level for our enterprise.
45. Make customer support your primary precedence. Sounds corny however we purpose for 100% consumer satisfaction, each time. No much less. And work laborious to implement it throughout your staff.
46. All the time go the additional mile, at all times. While you stroll in our entrance door, you’ll see this quote printed actually large on our wall: “There are not any site visitors jams alongside the additional mile” – Roger Staubach
47. Assist, don’t promote. Your purchasers don’t actually simply need beautiful designs or flawless writing (or no matter you provide), they need outcomes. They need extra leads, extra gross sales, extra telephone calls and in the end, more cash. So assist them get it. Which results in…
48. Make ‘getting outcomes for purchasers’ the mantra for each challenge you do. That’s what you’re getting paid for.
49. Always remember that it’s your purchasers that put meals in your desk so by no means disrespect them. Should you don’t like them, sack ‘em and spend extra time with these you do.
50. Should you can’t sack ‘em, add a loading tax. That’s all I’ll say on that. 😉
51. Be a counselor to your purchasers. They need your professional opinion, so give it to them truthfully, even when it’s troublesome on the time. They’ll respect you extra in the long term.
52. Create services and products which are an ideal match on your goal market. Don’t strive match a sq. peg in a spherical gap… ask prospects and purchasers what they really need and work out a option to give it to them, at a value they will afford. Instance: after I created a funds web site product, I needed to create a funds emblem product to match. However you don’t get the funds emblem value except you pay for the web site on the similar time.
53. Don’t wait till a product is ideal earlier than you launch it (and that’s coming from a recovering-perfectionist!). “If you’re not embarrassed by the primary model of your product, you’ve launched too late.” – Reid Hoffman
54. Work out the merchandise/providers you presently provide that make you essentially the most revenue… and in the event that they’re additionally the providers your purchasers need, you’ve obtained it made!
55. In case your hottest providers are your least worthwhile (and should you’re uncertain, consult with all my notes below Finance!)… then discover a option to flip that round. Is it time for a value hike or do you chop unprofitable providers altogether? (We stopped providing social media administration as a result of it simply wasn’t worthwhile sufficient on the price-point our purchasers have been ready to pay.)
56. Supply mind-blowing, knee-trembling, town-talking unbelievable worth. Then shout it from the rooftops that that’s your USP.
Staying Artistic
57. Spend 1-hour per day studying one thing new, whether or not it’s studying blogs, doing programs, watching webinars, studying books, speaking to friends and so on. It’s simply 4% of your day so make it a behavior and your backside line will thanks for it.
58. Be sure that your artistic life doesn’t end whenever you shut the door at 5pm (or 11pm!). Get artistic with the meals you prepare dinner, your garments, your pantry cabinet, your walk-in gown, your children and so on. Make creativity your ardour, your passion, and your life. It’s not a job, it’s a calling.
59. Get exterior your consolation zone, that’s the place the magic occurs.
60. Don’t relaxation in your laurels. Simply because your purchasers are nonetheless accepting your work, doesn’t imply it hasn’t gotten a bit stale. You might not realise you’ve gone stale, however your friends will! Critically, pushing these boundaries will imply BIG issues to your online business.
61. Showcase, talk about and get suggestions in your work on-line. I’m a designer which suggests I’m on locations like Dribble, Behance Community, TheLoop, Deviant Artwork, How Design, Creattica, Forrst, ColourLovers and so on and that is only a handful.
62. Push your self. Make each job your greatest. It is advisable impress your self simply as a lot as your consumer!
63. Swap off (typically) and get bodily!
64. Make your house a lovely, calm and stress-free place to work that you simply love and that feeds your creativity.
65. Feed your mind with artwork and popular culture. The very best creatives draw inspiration from the works of different artistic folks… no, it’s not stealing! 😉
66. Community with fellow freelancers. Don’t get caught in your bubble, particularly should you make money working from home like I now do. Be part of the dialog in numerous freelance communities. Should you’re regional like I’m there’s at all times Fb teams, LinkedIn Teams, boards, blogs…. there’s a courageous new world on the market!
67. Watch much less TV… Get off the pc too!
68. Do extra stuff together with your arms. It’ll get your artistic juices flowing.
Techniques / Instruments / Time
69. Perceive that your time is proscribed and valuable.
70. Don’t have conferences with each inbound lead simply because they ask for one. Uncover their wants on the telephone, ship them a proposal then should you get the inexperienced gentle, get a deposit within the financial institution and THEN meet face-to-face.
71. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Create standardized processes wherever you’ll be able to.
72. Create superb quote proposal templates which are the proper gross sales mixture between copy and visuals and streamline this course of so you’ll be able to create proposals quick. The faster you ship the quote, the upper the conversion fee. Plus the much less time you waste on it, the higher!
73. Template as a lot of the admin as you’ll be able to! I’ve oodles of pre-written emails for issues like ‘Right here’s your private home web page idea’ with a kind that asks them exact questions for his or her suggestions. We even have emails for ‘Thanks for cost’, ‘Your staging web site is reside, now it’s time for content material’, and ‘Congratulations, you’re reside, what’s subsequent?’ I most likely have over 50 of those pre-written templates now. It saves us a lot time and ensures a constant message throughout all workers.
74. Log each minute on each challenge. How will you realize you quoted sufficient should you don’t observe your time?
75. Have an motion plan/implementation plan for all of your recurring ‘advanced’ jobs (like an eCommerce web site challenge, and so on). It ought to define all of the duties required and how briskly they should be circled with the intention to stay worthwhile.
76. All the time observe the progress of your initiatives towards your motion plan. That is your benchmark, and the one option to know should you’re profitable or shedding!
77. Create checklists or procedures for repetitive duties to keep up high quality, particularly as you tackle workers. It’s taken me years to develop an internet constructing course of that’s environment friendly and worthwhile, I would like it adopted to a tee. That’s why every thing ‘non-creative’ in Web123 has a guidelines or a process. For instance, importing content material is tremendous vital and time-consuming however fairly menial. It’s simple to neglect one thing should you don’t have a guidelines. That’s why I give my junior designers an 8-page guidelines to comply with. Once they’ve completed the add, all my challenge managers examine the guidelines towards the positioning earlier than giving the consumer the inexperienced gentle to view their web site. You may suppose that’s overkill however sloppy errors on the content material stage creates sad purchasers who gained’t refer you extra enterprise.
78. All the time put a restrict on what your prices embrace so if it’s a web site for instance, cap the variety of pages or merchandise you’ll add, or hours you’ll spend on doing the add however at all times cowl your butt.
79. As you develop, improve your private hourly fee. I’m now $220 p/hr, my senior designer is $165 and my juniors are $100-$120. It’s okay to have various charges based mostly on expertise and {qualifications}.
Administration / Management / Progress
80. If you wish to develop large, be sure to’re okay with doing much less of the artistic/each day work. Most of my time nowadays with 20+ workers is spent managing folks. Simply be ready for that.
81. Get a enterprise mentor. The very best factor I ever did was put money into a mentor. Sure it was costly nevertheless it’s paid me again in spades. I labored with my mentor for about 2 years and my accountant reckons it fast-tracked my enterprise income ahead by a few decade!
82. Don’t be afraid to rent your first workers member. There’s nothing to say can’t put them on contract and commit to simply 5-10 hours per week as a substitute of a full time week and wage.
83. Rent your first worker whenever you’re at 120% workload. Then, rent your subsequent staff when your present ones are at 120% workload. Yeah I do know, evil proper? 😉
84. Rent sluggish, fireplace quick.
85. Solely rent A-team gamers. Interval.
86. Rent folks smarter than you and makers who make issues higher than you.
87. Reward people who work laborious for you however keep in mind, ‘first comes effort, then comes reward.’
88. Lead by instance. Don’t wander in at 11am daily in order for you your staff to be there on time. Stroll the stroll.
89. Don’t do ‘love jobs’ pondering it’ll open extra doorways, they’ll at all times backfire and price you money and time.
90. Have a good time the wins regularly. Even the little ones. (We shout drinks & nibbles each Friday for our staff to have fun the achievements of the week, and every quarter we do one thing on a bigger scale to say ‘thanks’ and have fun reaching our targets.)
91. Be ready to let go. Sure, folks will make errors however you must let go to develop.
92. Be ready to take heed to all of your staff’s concepts and take a danger on the nice ones. (My advertising gal prompt the SAAS mannequin for my accomplice program and it’s the most effective factor we ever did!)
Planning
93. Create a one-page marketing strategy that provides you readability, accountability and outcomes. Print out your plan and stick it all over the place (even on the again of the restroom doorways in your workplace!)
94. Each January, after you’ve had a superb relaxation and consumer work is quiet, go to your joyful place and plan out your whole 12 months’s targets. Simply the behavior of writing them down will carry you a lot nearer to attaining them. I personally like to interrupt mine down into these 7 key areas of my life:
a) Artistic
b) Enterprise
c) Household / Mates / Partner
d) Well being, Health & Wellbeing
e) Within the Neighborhood
f) Self-Growth
g) Holidays / Enjoyable / Recreation
95. Trying forward, create your 5-year plan then work backwards mapping out the primary quarterly milestones you’ll want to attain to attain your targets. Then element it additional and work in 90-Day sprints to attain these milestones. Have a planning day away out of your workplace simply earlier than every new quarter begins. Professional Tip: We frequently overestimate what we will do in a 12 months and grossly underestimate what we will do in 5!
96. Should you make use of workers, at all times talk the ‘why’ to your staff. Have a mission and imaginative and prescient however make it cool – not a kind of ones you need to stuff in draw and never present anybody. While you share it together with your staff, it helps them realise the ‘why’ behind each day duties, and what these each day duties are going to attain in the long run. It makes them really feel a part of the larger image.
97. Always search for methods to enhance. In enterprise it may be the tiniest of issues however numerous these little enhancements quickly add up. In your private growth, purpose to raise the bar yearly indirectly. By no means sit nonetheless and relaxation in your laurels otherwise you’ll go stale and your progress with stagnate… and so will your revenue!
That is my private listing from 10 loooong years rising from a plucky freelance graphic designer in rural Australia right into a 20+ workers net design firm that’s making waves throughout Australasia (okay that was a self-promotion alert, *lol*).
Summing up
Do I do every of those 97 issues daily? Actually? Nope! The one factor I do with out fail is follow the 20-minute meditation each morning and I’m at all times on the lookout for methods to enhance myself and my enterprise.
As to the opposite 90-something habits, sure I do all of them… a few of the time! They arrive out and in of my each day routine as I would like them. I feel the vital factor is to strive. Should you get to do half the issues on this listing often then you definately’re going to be a mile forward of your opponents, and that’s precisely the place you need to be.
Do you’ve gotten any additional habits of success you’d like so as to add to this listing? Do you follow them?
Preserve the dialog going…
Over 10,000 of us are having each day conversations over in our free Fb group and we might like to see you there. Be part of us!
