After listening to Free
Agent Nation, by Dan Pink, reading the
comments Ann Handley and Michael Pollock made on Becoming
a Solopreneur, and talking to some of my “solo” colleagues, I started to consider
the transitions we go through when we leave corporate life.
On our own we need to
diversify our client base. If we
devote too much of our time to one company we run the risk of being out of
work. If we spread ourselves between a
few clients, we may occasionally be “under” worked, but we’ll have an income.
On our own everything is
performance based and what we did yesterday quickly becomes irrelevant. All that matters is what we’re doing today
and what we could do tomorrow.
On our own, even if we’re generalists, we have to market specific expertise, applied to
specific industries, or people won’t know why they should hire us.
On our own, our record
keeping is completely different. Items
that we never thought about before are tax-deductible expenses we need to
track.
U.S. Independence Day was
my “solo” anniversary (isn’t that ironic). After one year, I’m JUST now fully in the
entrepreneurial mindset. Here are some questions that might help you get there more quickly than I did!
I’m on my own – now what?
- What are my
goals? What do I want my business to
look like? - What do I need
to do every day to meet my goals? - How will I
measure my progress? - What work should
I do myself? What shouldn’t I do? Do I know anyone to whom I can refer work
that isn’t right for me? - Do I know
people in similar situations? Should we
get together periodically to compare notes and share ideas? - Am I too dependent
on one or two clients? - How will I fit
in business development activities while I’m working on contracts?
need to ask ourselves?
Technorati tags: Free Agent, Solopreneur, Transitions
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The
New Cottage Industry: Knowledge Work
The
New Cottage Industry: Part Deux
Location,
Location, Location
Becoming a Solopreneur
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