Nothing will kick your ass in gear to learn more about time management than when you land a boatload of clients at once. We have a lot of personal projects on our plate – such as redesign this mess that you’re looking at right now and get a business license and new cards and there are 100 things we need to do to have a stronger freelancing business. At the moment, we’re just making it work remembering that client deadlines are sacred and our work, unfortunately, has to come second.
The reason we let ctrlP die a horribly long, slow and miserable death was because we kept getting clients from Etsy and it was money. We’ve never really been ones to turn down money when we’re in a tight spot, even if it comes with a horrible bitchy client at the end of the string.
Part of growing our freelance business and lifestyle is giving Isaiah a job that will pay bills and keep his portfolio and skills up-to-date and “warm” while he’s in school. (Guys, can I just say that I’m dying to share some of his recent drawings and paintings? That’s coming soon.)
The other part is our ultimate desire to be autonomous and work together. We don’t want to be those crazy entrepreneurs with a million ideas and no action … or 100 small ventures – a blog, another blog, a stationery shop, a graphic freelance business, a writing freelance business, a graphic design blog and oh. my. gah. are you as tired as I am? I don’t want to fail. I never want to fail. But you can’t succeed at everything you try and your best bet to move forward successfully sometimes – at least ours, at the moment, is to either a) pick one thing that you’re excellent at and continue working and learning and getting better at that one thing or b) find a way to infuse a few of the things you love and are good at together in a way that works.
We’re still trying to figure out which path we’re taking. All we know is that we can’t continue with ad hoc business for very long. It’s difficult to keep everything straight, to find clients you like and to keep recurring clients when you’re operating in a fly-by-night manner. When you stay up until 4 a.m. on Saturday nights to finish client projects, you’re bound to let something fall eventually and you don’t have enough energy to seek out new, bigger & better client-fish and your relationship can be strained from lack of sleep and energy.
I was talking with my dad this weekend about how I never know where I want to go and I wish things were clearer. I am naturally geared to be extremely career-oriented. I think about work far too often and I am concerned with people’s perception of me at work and my opportunities for advancement to the point of fault. I was worried I wasn’t “playing the game” well enough and that I would be overlooked at work and I was freaking out that we weren’t charging enough for freelance work and oh my gah, dad, I don’t even have a business license yet.
My dad has always “gotten me.” He told me that Isaiah and I have something a lot of people don’t get the chance to have. (My dad’s a big fan of Isaiah’s and has always said he gets it and that Isaiah knows me far better than anyone else). He told me I would be a fool to overlook that for something I don’t even care about. He told me not to play the game.
You need to just go to work. Work your ass off while you’re there. Then relax. Spend time with your best friend and work on the weekends together toward your dream. If that ever gets to be too much for your relationship or ever threatens to tear you apart, just drop it. But you don’t want your whole life to be wrapped up in your job or a million “goals,” do you?
I didn’t. I don’t.
From here, we’re excited about the possibilities, but we’re taking slow, deliberate steps to make sure we don’t wind up with another set-up-at-midnight-Etsy-shop with little to no planning or forethought.
What about you guys? What dreams/goals do you have that you’re working toward? Are you working slowly or trying to get it done as soon as possible? Do you have a reason for doing it that way? Tell me all about it. I’m dying to know.
Photo: Melissa Textor’s graphite drawings, yes graphite, found on Erin Loechner’s Design for Mankind
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