The hardest season in my business
I have felt like giving up on my business so. many. times.
I remember as soon as I started marketing hard, I landed 3 clients in 3 months.
"This is easy," I thought. "I'll be able to quit my full-time job within another few months."
One month turned to two, turned to three, turned to four...
Still nothing.
Keep in mind, I had NO network. I'm still, to this day, so jealous of people who were able to rely on their strong connections when they started off freelancing.
All I had were my skills and marketing efforts.
And those marketing efforts were exhausting.
So in that period where nothing was happening, I began to shift what I was doing. I decided to, in this exact order:
1) Pivot from hourly rates to packages so I wasn’t tied to every hour I worked
2) Concentrate only on the marketing efforts that actually got me leads
3) Build a simple marketing schedule I could actually stick to
4) Proactively outreach to potential clients daily
5) Create an incentive plan for myself so I actually celebrated progress
I stuck to my plan like my future depended on it. If I wanted to leave corporate, something had to change.
I closed another client when I was closing out my 5-month famine.
Two months later, I closed the final client I needed to quit my job.
Since then, I've realized that the strategy I had is the bedrock for picking up the pace and getting the clients for any of my businesses.
Do I still feel like giving up sometimes?
You betchya.
When everything feels slow, I remind myself that nothing changes unless I keep choosing the version of me who recognizes when something needs to change.
I'm the only one who is responsible for my future. And my future is too important to ignore.
***
If your goal is to work fewer than 25 hours a week and still earn the income you had in corporate, I can help you get there. I coach freelancers and service providers to scale their businesses with strategies that actually work. Connect with me here.
