Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back to the Boss Responses podcast and day three with our guest co-host, amy Ragland. Today, we're talking about the fact that freelancing running a business is not for everyone. What happens if you've been laid off and you're using freelance to pay the bills? What if you don't love it? What if you actually really don't even like it? Let's jump right into today's question. If you're a freelancer, business owner or anyone who deals with clients, you're in the right place.

Speaker 1: 0:32

I'm your host, teresa Edmond. I've been dealing with clients and running my business for nearly two decades and in that time I've dealt with my share of doubt, imposter syndrome and not knowing what to say when a client asks a question. I wasn't ready for. I created this podcast to empower you with the Boss Responses you need to grow your business. Each week, my guest co-host and I will bring you five episodes packed with practical insights. Monday through Thursday, we answer your questions, and Fridays we dive deep to explore how our co-host embraced their role as the boss of their business. Welcome to Boss Responses. We are back for day three with Amy Ragland. Amy, what's the question?

Speaker 2: 1:18

for today. So I think this is one a lot of freelancers can relate to right now. They say I've been freelancing for a year while casually looking for another job after being laid off last summer. I want to love it, and I read so many stories about people living their dream life while freelancing, but that hasn't been my experience. It's stressful, always trying to find new clients, getting the right rate and let's talk about what a shock taxes were. I feel like I'm constantly working and I'm barely getting by. Is this just me? Should I step up my job search? Should I figure out what I'm doing wrong and stick with freelancing? The current job market is me. That seems to me like the freelance world is too.

Speaker 1: 2:00

I remember my early days. I was blessed I had a client right out the door that I really enjoyed working with and they gave me opportunities to do things I didn't think I wanted to do as a freelancer and that was huge for me. But about a year into it I went through a phase like this, not wanting to go back to a full-time job because I really didn't want to work for someone again. This is so hard. This is going to depend on the person. I think this listener they really need to do some soul searching and are they more comfortable working for someone else? Because some people always are, and that is okay. There is nothing wrong with that. It depends on the individual.

Speaker 1: 2:43

Same thing with freelancing If you are going to be freelancing, you're not just doing work for a client, you are running a business, and if you're not prepared to do that, then freelancing is just not right for you. It's not a right fit. There's nothing wrong with that. I don't know that I can give advice on this other than say really look at what makes you most fulfilled, don't think about happy, think about fulfillment here, which one feels right to you, and then go for it. So if you decide to go back into the job market, you need to be spending 80% of your effort on that and 20% paying your bills with freelancing. And then if you go freelancing, then you need to stop searching for jobs and you need to go all in on your business and set up your business so that taxes aren't a shock. I love the book Profit First for that. Set up your systems so that your business is doing business things and you can focus on the part of freelancing that you actually do like.

Speaker 2: 3:45

You know, I think there's so much information out there that I think does potential freelancers at this service, in that it sets up freelancing as an easy way to make money and it sets it up as oh, you can make, you know, six figures in five hours a week and you don't have to have any experience, and it portrays it as a very low barrier to entry pursuit, that it's going to be easy to immediately ramp up and to find clients and you're immediately going to build this big business. And for some people, yes, that is the case because that's usually because they've had an extensive career in the field that they're freelancing in or they have some sort of leg up that kind of gives them a boost as they launch their freelancing career. If you're coming at it cold, you may not have those same advantages that other people have had to get launched. I think that some people may come at it with two, with the wrong perceptions about how easy it's going to be to get started. But I think for somebody who does decide that freelancing is the decision that they want to go, the direction that they want to go, maybe they need to do a complete hop to bottom audit of their business, of their freelancing.

Speaker 2: 4:57

Yeah, am I in the right niche? Am I in one that's profitable? Do I know people that can help me get a toehold in that niche? What do I need to change? Is my messaging wrong? Am I portraying that I'm a budget writer when I actually want to go after more lucrative clients? How do I reposition myself to create the type of business? Maybe I need to pivot and offer different services? So I think, if you do decide to go that direction and stick with it, you really need to take a full, in-depth look at your business and say, okay, what do I need to change to be successful?

Speaker 1: 5:32

And one thing that I've seen lately and I'm seeing this because more people have been laid off and they are doing freelancing to make ends meet or they're just transitioning to freelancing and it's not all they'd hoped it would be they miss that office camaraderie, that relationships they have with office people. There are ways to get past that, but you have to work at it. You have to join groups, you have to find a mastermind, you have to do whatever it is to form a relationship with a couple of people. You don't want to depend on just one person because they're going to be busy. To find a group of people who can lift you up. Don't find people. This sounds harsh but it's absolutely not. Don't find people who are lower on the career ladder or the freelancing ladder than you are. Yes, so always friend up.

Speaker 1: 6:19

I'd been in business for about 10 years before I found Jennifer Goforth, Gregory and some of her things. Some of them I had been doing because business sense it makes sense. Some of them I'm like I never would have thought of doing that and it's so much easier than what I'm doing. And then I found at Gandia and his podcast completely changed how I thought about a lot of things. So find those experts, those people who have been doing this for years and they've built a successful business and they've made this natural transition into passing their knowledge on and absorb from them, because there's no reason to do everything from scratch every time, Totally agree, totally agree, and I think too.

Speaker 2: 7:02

I think sometimes, if you haven't specifically chosen to be a freelancer like I see some people who get laid off and freelancing is a stop gap, build the time and build the budget until you know, build the income need until I get something different and I think you're going to approach it with a much different mindset if that's the case than if you have deliberately chosen and specifically chosen to pursue freelancing as your career, I think you really, here again, I think you really need to do some soul searching. The freelancer asking this question needs to do some soul searching about what do I really want and where do I want to go and who do I want to be. And that's so hard to answer and that answer may change year to year and it may change even week to week sometimes. But yeah, I would start there with some real soul searching about what do I really want.

Speaker 1: 7:51

Have question. No one right answer, as with all of these questions, but you really need to look inside yourself for this one. All right, join us for day four tomorrow with Amy our last question of the week and then on day five, we're going to talk all about her and her business.