New Year, Fresh Start: How to Recalibrate Your Freelance Business in 2009
Happy almost-New-Year!
Once the confetti is cleaned up and the hangover is over, it’s time to start thinking of your 2009 plans for freelance writing. The new year is a great time to clear space in your business life and get set for the next year. Here are some suggestions:
1. Buy holiday cards for Christmas 2009. I like to send my editors holiday cards, and I tend to choose pricy ones with fold-outs and pop-ups and all kinds of goodies. Now’s the time to get your cards on sale at Borders or Barnes & Noble. You can also find beautiful cards at a discount from The Museum of Modern Art.
2. Update your business plan. You do have a business plan, don’t you? Mine is both a personal and a business plan, and I update it twice a year. It contains goals, roadblocks, and ways to overcome those roadblocks for categories like health, home, and work. If you need help, check out The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Business Plans by Gwen Moran, who teaches Build the Freelance Writing Business You Want.
3. Clean off your desk. New year, fresh start. Go through the piles of papers and sticky notes on your desk and in your in-box and either do, delegate, trash, or file them. This is also a good time to clear out your e-mail in-box, reorganize and streamline your e-mail folders, and clean up your computer desk-top (how many file icons do you have cluttering it up?).
4. Back up your computer. If you don’t regularly back up your computer, now’s the time to make a plan to do so. Research back-up options such as Internet back-up services, set a back-up schedule, and set your calendar to send you reminders when it’s time to back up your files. Here’s a slightly outdated but still good article on backing up in AARP.
5. Create clips. If you’re like me, you have a stack of magazines with your articles waiting to be turned into usable clips. Do it now! I cut mine out with an Xacto knife and then recycle the rest of the magazine. I store the clips in files labeled A-Z, and every once in a while I send a bunch to my personal assistant to have them turned into PDF files. No matter how you create your clips, imagine how good it will feel to be rid of all those magazines cluttering up your office.
6. Educate yourself. Restock your bookshelves with books that reflect where you want to be in 2009. For example, if you plan to move into corporate writing, get Bob Bly’s Secrets of a Freelance Writer and The Well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman. Looking to sell more magazine articles? Well, even if I do say so myself, you can’t go wrong with The Renegade Writer’s Query Letters That Rock. While you’re at it, sell books that no longer serve you on Half.com.
7. Get rid of your tolerations. Tolerations are those little things that bug you every day and drain your energy: My computer’s fan makes a lot of noise. My friends keep calling while I’m working. The contract for my new assignment still hasn’t arrived. My office is too dark. Make a list of all the tolerations that are getting on your nerves — life coach Kristin Taliaferro suggests writing down 100, which is easier than you might think — and then brainstorm ways to put the kibosh on them.
8. Stock up on supplies. Go through your stocks of computer paper, CDs, paper clips, stamps, ink cartridges, pens, notebooks, and other business supplies. Make a list of ones you’re running short on, and make a run to the office store to replenish your supplies for the new year.
9. Shoot for the stars. What do you really, really want to accomplish in your business in 2009? This will be part of your business plan, but it can help to also write your primary goal on an index card that you look at every day. Whenever you find yourself procrastinating, look at the card and ask yourself if what you’re doing now will lead you to your goal. Mine is to land five new corporate clients in 2009, so I plan to do more cold calling and following up.
What do you do to set yourself up for the coming year? Please post your advice in the Comments below.
May your 2009 be full of fun and lucrative writing assignments! [lf]
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I’ve found that Jan. 1 is a great date to get started on my taxes. It gives me enough time to wind up last year’s business, without stressing about that April 15 deadline. I can take finalizing 2008 at my own pace if I get moving on it.
All great tips, as usual. My favorite? Addressing the tolerations. It’s something I don’t do enough of, but I suspect that clearing these will have the biggest impact on my work day.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Going to print this out and use it as part of my New Year resolutions list … Thanks for this!
Thanks for the great tips.
I agree with Dara about the tolerations. I used to call it my To-Do List. I like “tolerations” much better, and I’m sure I can easily come up with 100 of them. The question is: will I be able to resolve them all ….
Heh. As I type this, I am in the middle of uploading clips to my website. And updating my business plan is on my to-do list for this week.
I like your idea about slicing out clips with an Xacto knife and recycling the rest of the magazine.
I’ve picked two new areas I want to expand to in 2009, and I’ve been reading the blogs of writers in those areas. I’ve already figured out ways to tweak my cover letters to better suit those areas, from reading the blogs. Don’t discount “abandoned” blogs either, I’ve found good stuff in their archives.
Make sure you bring your business cards everywhere — my friend’s mom took a whole stack from me when we were chatting at a holiday party.
Hmmm, that’s all I’ve got. Best of luck to everyone in the new year!
This is a great post! I find numbers 3 & 7 particularly crucial.
These tips are great. “Shoot for the stars” will bring me the most mileage so I’ll be picking out my primary goal for the year to post on an index card near my desk.
Thanks for the motivation!
I’ve got a ton of writing goals for 2009! I’m focusing on creating 3 new pitches a week, recycling my old ones, earning a few thousand a month, blogging 7 times a week, and writing one Suite article a week.
And, I’ve found that breaking my goals into a daily and weekly “to do” list really helps me achieve them.
Tolerations! What a perfect description. Many of my tolerations seem to be projects I never get around to finishing, so this year, I’m putting a major focus on completing projects. Especially my own writing projects that get sidelined in favor of deadlines, and developing new writing clients instead of just relying on existing ones. I’ve made a start already this year, by finishing revisions of two short stories in my drawer and sending them out.
I think as part of my planning, I’m going to make a list of all those projects, give each a priority (anywhere from “Do first” to “Don’t Bother”) and start crossing them off.
PS, I just discovered this blog, and I love it. The perfect practical, daily inspiration for the working writer
The only thing I would add is: vision!
Sit down with your vision over a hot coffee and make sure that you’re in tune. Brainstorm ideas for new ways to exploit your vision. Doing anything you shouldn’t be? Drop it.
Thanks for this list, Linda. I especially need to do #7. I like the idea of listing out all those little nagging things. I’m the visual type, as well as a wee bit compulsive, so if I see a list of things, I immediately want to convert it into a list of DONE things that I can cheerfully slash a line through.
Excellent tips, as usual!
Tolerations have been on my mind (and I always think of you and your apt description of them when they are).
Working on giving them the boot!
Happy New Year!
It’s the old “urgent/important” conundrum. I think it’s behind advice like “no email in the morning.”
My goal is to work from my own editorial calendar this year – building it out now so I have the framework of what I need to accomplish literally mapped out and can incorporate client work as it comes. Pitches will go on the calendar, as will some occasional maintenance stuff. Maybe a reminder or inspiration here or there like “get to the gym” “sometimes done is better than perfect” and taking your advice, I think those hacks that are productive procrastination techniques will go on there, too.
OK. Now I’ve made it public. I am going to try to make this happen (Yoda voice “No try. Only do.”)
Cheers,
Jacqueline