Freelancers & Consultants: Take Care Of Business

Freelancers and consultants – fit your own oxygen mask first!

One of the challenges of being a freelancer or consultant is combining the work you do for your clients helping them build their business, with the work you must do to build your own business.

Every day, before you start on client work, I believe you should work on your own business first. Make sure invoices are up to date, monies owed are chased and your marketing tasks are completed.

In short, you should fit your own oxygen mask first, because if you hit a patch where you have no work because you haven’t been marketing then you put your whole business in jeopardy. If you don’t have your own pipeline of clients and a strong cashflow you may find that you are no longer able to maintain being self employed and will therefore not be able to service clients anymore. By taking care of your own business, you are making it possible for you to continue to assist your clients with theirs.

You may choose to set aside 30 minutes (if you’re busy with client work) or a couple of hours a day. I recommend you either do it first thing, or if you know when your most motivated period of the day is then do it then. Prioritise your business and you are prioritising your clients.