It’s easy to get caught up in the daily tasks of working for yourself. Every now and again, I think it’s important to take a step back and ask yourself where you can make improvements. I’m big on reading self-improvement books and reading other blogs in which the authors give out their best advice. Below are some questions that you may ask yourself in order to keep making progress.
Is it Time to Raise Your Rates?
This is a big question for those who do freelance work. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have wondered whether or not you are under charging your clients. Chances are, you could make much more by raising your rates. You don’t necessarily need to raise them with current clients. You can try setting your price higher for new clients and see how it works out. You have to have the confidence to know that you are worth what you charge.
I read a story recently from another blog (sorry, I cannot remember the source) which went something like this:
Someone hired a carpenter to repair a squeaky floorboard. The carpenter nailed a nail into the floorboard in the right spot to stop the squeak and charged the customer $100. The customer asked “why so expensive?” and the carpenter replied, “$1 for the nail and $99 for knowing where to put it.”
Sorry if I hacked up the story for anyone who is familiar with it, but basically the point is, don’t underestimate your worth.
Is it Time to Outsource?
Do you want to get more done or expand your business to take on more work? It may be time to consider outsourcing to take the stress off of you and to get more done. Consider the daily tasks you do every day that could easily be done by someone else after you have given them direction. Wouldn’t it be worth it to you to outsource those tasks in order to get more of the important stuff done? There are tons of places to outsource to and I am considering it myself as I develop a long-term plan.
Set New Goals
Are you setting any new goals for yourself and your business? It’s easy to fall into a rut but it’s important to keep growing as well. Maybe you want to make more money or work less while increasing your income. Or maybe you want to try a new career all together. Set some new goals and take action every day to get closer to accomplishing them.
Improving Yourself
Are you growing as a person? I believe there is always room for self-improvement. Maybe you are weak in some areas. You may be a very creative person but so unorganized it feels like nothing ever gets done. There are tons of self-improvement books that you can read. I just finished reading Personal Development for Smart People: The Conscious Pursuit of Personal Growth and the sections about relationships and money were very good.
Learn Something New
It’s important to never stop learning. I am constantly seeking out new information in terms of business, marketing, web programming and more. It’s a good idea to learn new things and apply them to yourself and your business. You just never know what could develop from trying something new.
I have taken the outsource way, it really helps me a lot and i can do a lot of things i usually never did. Improving myself is a good idea, but i never have enough time.
I agree with the previous poster. In specific African philosophies there is a term called the Utamawozo and Utamarojo. One keeps the human being going/living concerned only with keeping alive, while the other is concerned with learning/growing, moving forward.
Businesses expand very much in this way. It is important to “keep alive” (being focused on sales, clients, revenue…etc) But those things stem from having a a clear vision of where you want to go and learning what is necessary in order to reach the next level.
We generally act as outsourcers, rather than outsourcing work ourselves, but we do use a number of part-time specialists when the need arises (they come in to work for us, rather than us sending the work out – a small distinction, but important).
It’s vital to make time for self improvement though – identify core weaknesses, especially in management or organisational skill areas – and deal with them urgently!