Many people go self-employed and gleefully say, “look at all the things I can do.” Self-employment offers the freedom to say YES to all sorts of interesting projects that they wouldn’t have time for with a full-time job.
But the true freedom offered by self-employment is the ability to say NO. Now you can choose to avoid mediocre projects, uninteresting obligations and avoid the drudgery of chores you had no choice but to do when you had a job.
Your time is precious and irreplaceable, so you should absolutely be saying NO more often than YES. Now you can focus your time on the projects that actually excite you, your family and loved ones, your calling – i.e. the stuff that truly matters.
I’ve been playing a game on my iPad called Subway Surfers (it’s available for Android too). In the game you control an avatar running along the train track. You have to pick up trains, jump over barriers, and dodge trains! As you progress the speed increases so you’re almost flying past the tracks and trains. Sooner or later the inevitable happens – you smash headlong into a train.
It occurred to me today that running your own business feels like a lot like playing Subway Surfers. You’re constantly chasing your paycheck, you dodge problems after problem, but inevitably you smack into one. In the game, you can simply restart but in your business you’re going to waste time, lose money or worse – your reputation.
Moral of today’s random musing: Practice running your business, not Subway Surfers 😀
Bill Erickson shares a few thoughts about the benefits of running a consulting / service-based business. His post is in response to the notion that product-based business models are more scalable and therefore profitable.
Bill covers the pros and cons of the consulting business model, and what people frequently forget when thinking about product-based business models. One thing resonated with me:
As a service provider, find the more scalable aspects of your business and focus on them. Likewise, find the aspects that are less scalable and decrease your focus on them.
This is something that I’ve been working on at ClickWP. In service-based business models, decreasing focus on the less scalable aspects are usually handled by automation. However it’s important to remember not to automate too much because your business will become cold and your relationship becomes transactional, when customers frequently choose you over other vendors because of that high-touch relationship.
I’m trying to go for a mixed model of selling (digital) products and providing services. At the moment, I’m focusing on my online marketing coaching. I’ll hopefully have some products to announce soon.
Before you say anything, yes I know I wasn’t looking directly into the camera. I was looking at the preview, which was just to the left of the lens and didn’t think it would be so obvious. Besides that, I would love any more feedback you may have about the review.
It’s been roughly 6 weeks since I’ve started up Buzzmedia again. This is a post to update you on what I’ve been up to and try to explain what it is that I do (since lots of people don’t understand).
First, God has been good in providing me with a steady stream of projects so that I don’t starve to death. In fact, my income for July was almost equal my last drawn salary at AGENDA. Encouraging, but still a long way to go.
Second, I will not attempt to explain what is it exactly that I do for a living now, with examples from the past 6 weeks. Read More »
After about a year since I joined AGENDA, I am striking it out on my own again. Lot’s of friends and colleagues have asked me why and it’s quite difficult to explain. To help explain (and remind myself why I made this decision), I’ve created this little graphic:
A year ago I ditched my old job and began life as an entrepreneur. But this past month I’ve gone back to work for ‘the man’. In this case the man is AGENDA, a forward-looking interactive, digital agency. They’re forward-looking because they realise that the web is changing and that the social web is the next big thing. Which is the reason they’ve hired me.
At AGENDA, I’m the ‘social media guy’. I’m helping them wrap their brains around what social media means and to help build up their social media capabilities. My CEO is an early pioneer of web technology in Malaysia but he’s still learning and always wanting to improve.
Lots of people have asked why I decided to join AGENDA. Well, AGENDA gives me lots of opportunities to do social media work, with some really great clients. In this first month, I’m already working on clients like Xbox and Maybank. AGENDA is already a leader in digital media and once it incorporates social media into its portfolio, we’re pretty darn kick-ass.
Also, it turns out that I’m not such a great entrepreneur. Yes, I’m not afraid to strike it out on my own but I’m also not afraid to admit my shortcomings. Sure, I was paying my bills and I could probably also work with blue chip clients if I had continued on my path, but it would have taken much longer. AGENDA is a shortcut to my career goal I guess. Plus, I was disorganised as hell and a steady income and job security isn’t bad either…
So what happens to Buzzmedia? Well, existing clients will continue to be supported. I won’t be actively soliciting clients, but I’ll still help friends with their online marketing. In the meantime, the website will be a holding place for my upcoming book… 😛
