How can a freelancer afford to _______?
When I moved to San Diego, I got a few comments from fellow bloggers and freelancers wondering how someone who is self-employed might move to such an expensive city. A question which threw me off a little because I’m not sure why we still equate being self-employed with not being able to afford nice things?
Now I did go from a three bedroom house to an apartment and that apartment of course costs more. But after paying off my car, my monthly bills are actually $100 less than they were in Michigan.
So I wanted to write this post to remind you that if you are self-employed and if you want to ( fill in the blank with that costly thing you totally want to have/do ) YOU CAN.
Let’s start by throwing away the notion that if you are creative and you work for yourself that you will be living paycheck to paycheck by default. A little tough-love reminder…as a freelancer, the amount of money you make is a CHOICE.
WHAT??
Yes – YOU decide how much money you make in a year.
You decide with the way you think and talk (or don’t talk) about money
You decide with the way you present yourself online (are you a pretty good photographer, or are you THE best wedding photog in Texas?)
You decide with the value you put on your time and work (you should feel excited when you share your prices, not nauseous when the client asks for yet ANOTHER revision and drowns your hourly rate)
You decide with the amount of effort you put into honing your skills and growing your business (what did you learn this year? how did you improve?)
If something is important to you, you make the time for it, correct? So when Game of Thrones comes back with a new season, you never miss an episode. When your daughter falls in love with ballet, you take her to every single lesson. When you want to learn Photoshop to improve your sales pages . . . . . .
CLICK TO TWEET: A tough-love reminder: As a freelancer, the amount of money you make is a CHOICE http://ctt.ec/6fyfU #freelance
So, here is my challenge to you today.
Take 30 minutes to decide your salary for next year and then (most important!!) figure out what needs to be changed to nail that goal.
- Do you need to improve your skills so your work is more valuable?
- Do you need to change the type of clients you take on to increase your prices?
- Do you need to work on your networking skills and meet more people?
- Do you need to blog more often to grow your readership?
- Do you need to be more confident about the work that you do?
- Do you need to learn marketing/social media/blogging/html/photography/etc?
- Do you need to change your process or your daily schedule so you’re able to complete more work?
Don’t say, “I’m not good enough to make _______.” Work harder to get better – it’s the only way to do it.
