Are you prepared for success?
What to do before you’ve reached the limits of your personal capacity
This is a reprinted post from a number of years ago, but its “lessons” are as relevant today as they were then. I start with 2 clients stories to illustrate what happens when emerging, professional entrepreneurs don’t anticipate success, followed by actions that can to prepare for it before it happens.
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A couple of my clients reached that enviable point in their respective businesses, success. Their docket is full and they’re confident that the work will continue to come as long as they serve clients well and allocated some of their time to marketing..
Now they face a new challenge. They can’t take on more clients without seriously compromising their quality of life. As a matter of fact, they’re already experiencing stress associated with competing deadlines and postponed projects. In both cases their postponed projects are central to their creative self-expression and possible future passive income opportunities.
Meet Ron*
Ron is a professional photographer in the Los Angeles area. He’s successfully built up his portrait photography business so that he’s consistently working with portrait clients 3-4 days a week. He’s got a staff of two, a full-time administrative assistant and production coordinator. If you didn’t know Ron, you’d assume he’s doing great. Instead, he’s feeling listless and frustrated. Why? No matter how much he says he’ll honor his intention to spend one full day each week doing the creative work that feeds his soul and will support his growth, he can’t seem to do it. Other projects related to generating income always take precedence.
I encouraged Ron to review his long-term business plan mix in order to get back in touch with his purpose and vision. He was astonished to discover that the business he’d built up, while providing a strong financial foundation, does not reflect his long-term goals. As a matter of fact, the time consumed by his portrait business was only ever supposed to constitute 30% of his revenue.
Meet Nancy*
Nancy is a freelance writer focusing on business writing. She’s making a transition from freelance journalism, specializing in finance and business, to corporate writing specializing in the same. Just 2 months ago she was worried about paying her bills. We used the Get Clients Now!™ program do develop a 28-day marketing action plan and developed her Visual Life and Workflow Planner (tm) to help her organize her high priority activities every week.
Things were going well. Nancy started to secure a few new clients and sensed that success was around the corner. Then blam! Nancy blew past her marketing program goal by over 200% and found herself putting off business activities that required reflection and creativity. At first she put those things off because she was focused on growing; then she put them off because she was too busy with client work. Although delighted with the results, she was worried that she’d continually put off other priorities, those that had to do with her long-term goals.
*Client names are changed to maintain confidentiality promised to all clients.
What do Ron and Nancy have in common?
They’re both professionals who developed a solid body of work and possess a marketable talent. They have a strong desire to succeed. They also value their personal time and say that part of their success includes regular time to be creative, to relax and have fun.
Neither one of them actually expected success.
They put a lot of their attention on activities to grow their business, but not much thought was given to the actual impact of their success in doing so. This is why many ambitious, creative entrepreneurs and freelancers find themselves overwhelmed.
Ron lost sight of the longer-term objectives and let the portrait aspect of his business extend beyond the boundaries of his original intention.
Nancy was simply not prepared for the influx of new clients in just 28 days. There was no one and nothing in place to handle some of the back-end tasks that she could easily handle when she had fewer clients. Now, she’s playing catch up.
Are You Prepared for Success?
Most independent service professionals wait far too long to put the people and systems in place to handle a full docket of clients.
Following are my suggestions for things you can do today to prepare for success. (If it’s already too late…well, it never really is.)
1. Assume it will happen!
2. Pay attention to the tasks you preform that you'd love to delegate to someone else.
3. Prepare job short descriptions for the people you would like to add to your team when the time is right.
4. Get help sooner rather than later. Virtual Assistants are a good way to go in the beginning.
5. Identify technology that will streamline your processes without making your brain hurt. If you're not sure, ask your colleagues.
6. Make sure to allocate enough time for your highest business and personal priorities every single week, including your strategic thinking work.
7. Eliminate activities, projects and commitments that drain your energy, are a poor use of your gifts, and don’t support your goals.
This sounds like a lot, but it’s not as much as you might think. If you aren’t yet there, but would like to be, I can help you get right-sided. My program, Work Inside Your Sweet Spot, shows you how to look at the workings of your business so you can make informed decisions about how to set yourself up for sustainable, rewarding growth. We can turn things around in 6-8 weeks. Could you use some help with this? Contact me. Let’s talk.
