Newsletter #30 Building your momentum for 2024
Hi everyone
Just dropping in to freak you out about how there’s only 2 months left of 2023.
But also to comfort you about the fact there’s only 2 months left of 2023.
This year has been a massive dumpster fire for most freelance writers, myself included, and we’re all going to be glad to kick it out the door.
Opportunities have dropped, layoffs are still everywhere, rates have dropped, and competition is more fierce than ever. Le sigh.
And even though LinkedIn is still one of the best places to find clients, the amount of freelancers scrabbling for work on there is now officially insane.
Check out the interest in that post above – 587 comments is absolutely nuts! Good luck Kelly…you’re gonna need it.
So what does this mean for your business in 2024?
You need to get really strategic about everything from finding new clients, to generating more work from existing clients, raising your rates, and running your business like a well-oiled machine.
Start with laying out your long term goals for next year, and then break them down into short term, highly achievable goals.
Whether they’re daily, weekly, or monthly goals, you need to be super clear about what they are, and then commit to seeing them through.
You’ll also need to put good systems in place to help you close better clients, make sure you’re pricing profitably, and make sure your client and project management skills are up to scratch.
(P.S. I am about to launch something to help you out with all of these things!)
If you show up as a professional to clients, you’ll already be ahead of most of those other 587 hopeful freelancers who think writing is “easy money” (lol) – but who don’t have a clue about how to actually run the business side of things, or how to really show up and deliver for clients.
Set immediate, actionable goals for yourself
Don’t spend time making excuses and putting off the important tasks in your business that will help you stay financially stable.
Focus on clear, achievable objectives for your short-term goals to keep the money coming in.
Continually reassess these goals, and your progress
Check in with yourself regularly and adjust your goals and approaches whenever you need to.
I love setting goals, but I also get derailed by daily life as much as everyone else (I’m looking at you, wine and Netflix).
And that’s totally okay!
Beating yourself up if you sometimes can’t meet the goals you’ve set is like swearing off cheese forever — and then berating yourself in the cheese section at the supermarket every week while you cry into the tasty cheddar.
It’s not helpful.
Instead:
- Embrace your current state, wherever you are right now
- Aim to do one tiny thing every day to improve that state — whether that’s sending one outreach message on LinkedIn every day, making one social media post every day, reading one chapter of a self-development book every day, or sending one email a day telling clients your rates will go up on January 1st. (Hint: actually tell your clients that your rates will be going up in January for an instant win!)
- Accept and face new challenges and situations in your business as a learning experience that is helping your business grow. Freelancing is an endless series of problems to solve, and they never go away – you just get new and different problems.
- Readjust your goals and expectations to ensure you move forward and keep up your momentum
- Invest in upskilling in specific areas that you need help with
Learning how to balance your short-term and long-term business priorities to ensure everything keeps moving in the right direction is your key to success for 2024.
Til next week – go buy that tasty cheddar, you’ve earned it 🙂
Rachael
Memes Of The Week
Here’s how I can help you when you’re ready:
- Book a 1:1 Clarity Call: you’d be suprised what we can achieve together in 60 minutes!
- Make new friends! Join the Mighty Freelancer Slack group for micro-coaching, expert advice, support, live trainings, and a rad freelance community – just hit reply to this email and I’ll give you all the details 🙂
P.S. If you enjoyed this week’s newsletter and want to support it, you can:
- Forward this email to a friend and invite them to sign up here
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LinkedIn is still the best place to find clients under one roof – you’ve just got to get strategic about it
If you’re struggling with what to post, how to post consistently without losing your mind, and how to actually get clients from this godforsakenly boring platform – this is the course I recommend!
LEARN AND GET INSPIRED WITH MY FAVOURITE BOOKS ON PRODUCTIVITY, MINDSET, AND BUSINESS PLANNING
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