Most people think and mull over one decision and then some more…

Super Mike’s analysis and pointers are spot on…

I believe If you read NO BS Business by Dan Kennedy You are pretty much ready for jumping into freelancing/business.

* If you’re going to be the type that takes too long to decide if you want to do this business, and do research for a year, then you’re not ready for this.

* I had to form two mildly successful one-person startups and have them fail before I could get to the confidence level I have now with my current business. I’m now doing extremely well. Once you get “startup” in your bloodstream, it’s tough to shake it. It infects your ability to do a normal day job ever again. And just think, all these businesses that “sheeple” work for — they all started with a one-person startup, and that person’s goal was to get “sheeple” to make money for him. Which person do you want to be?

* If you haven’t saved up 3 months’ salary, don’t form your own business. If you have no choice, then do it with gusto, sink or swim. Zig Ziglar and other motivational videos on YouTube are a big help.

* Think of fear like a beautiful deer on the road. You love it and don’t want to hurt it. Good. Now run over it and backwards again with your car or SUV in your mind. That’s the attitude you need every week when you go looking for clients or you fear you won’t pay the bills. If you’re going to have to cry or get scared or ask a relative or friend for cash to help make a payment, you’re already losing the battle. You make things happen, not others.

* Some things you just don’t learn until you jump head first into your business model of choice. So, given that, there’s no way possible to prepare for all the obstacles of a home-based business than to just simply do it.

* In daily decisions, your first gut feeling is usually fairly close to the right track. However, take a moment on risky decisions to at least give that decision 24 hours if possible, 6 hours minimum.

* Going to the bookstore and purchasing a few books with titles like “How to start a business in ___ state” are a great idea. They help you understand what you can and cannot do, and are very important so that you understand law and accounting.

* Lawyers and accountants can be scammers, unfortunately. I’ve never met one that gave me advice that didn’t turn around to bill me, even when I had the impression they would not. I even signed up with an accountant once for my business who kept calling me out of the blue, asking me how I was doing, and giving me advice or suggesting I meet with others similar to me in order to market my ideas. Sounds great and all, but then, without me knowing, he slipped me a bill of $400 after two months of this. Not fair!

* The trick is to get ahead of your bills by a few months. The good news, though, is that as a person working from home with clients over the Internet, you can often make 3x any normal day job salary, or, you could just work 6-7 months and take the rest of the year off, or work out any kind of vacation + learning/training plan that you want. Think about how much a day job employer abuses you. You can work in that cubicle or half-cubicle job, being given 3x your normal work, and you have to sit there and take it. But when you are a freelancer, you can do double, triple, and quadruple-book your month with clients and you reap the reward if you can handle the load. In my case, I’m working projects in two-week spans for clients, doing 2 clients a week, and in a given month I’m earning $10-$12K. Now imagine what will happen when I start hedging my bets by getting website projects up for Affiliate Marketing and I’m getting paid in auto-pilot? It will be even better. Some AMers pay off their house in the second year of operation!

* You don’t need to show someone a business plan if you don’t plan on getting any venture capital or loans, and I don’t recommend you do that. Don’t ask for favors, and don’t create a business plan. Instead, let your business plan grow organically, shedding leaves as they die, or nurturing roots that seem to thrive.

* Seek out our competition for mentoring advice. You’ll be surprised how friendly they are and how eager they seem to want to give you advice.

* Got a great website idea that seems to generate a little AM cash? Great, improve it a great deal, make it easy for admins to administer and programmers to install or customize, and syndicate it. I mean, sell it as a “site script” as is with a 30 day money back guarantee, provide a wiki and tweak script upload area so that users provide their own tech support, and sell add-on modules that make it even better. You’ll earn far more reliable cash with this than if you had simply focused on the AM for it. Then, turn around, fork it into another project that’s somewhat different, and resell it again as another sitescript.

I’ve had experiences with some of the ’special software’ you talking about that can take weeks to complete - especially business plan software! I found myself making stuff up just to fill in the blanks… how useful is that!?!?

Thanks for sharing!
Christine

I believe a business needs a plan. But it doesn’t need to be complicated - especially if you’re just writing it for yourself. Some of the special software you can get would take weeks to fill out.

Since I’m using a photo, I extend the image past the crop marks so when I cut it, you don’t get white lines if you don’t cut perfect. (That’s called a bleed).

Hope this helps a bit. Maybe I should create a little tutorial and put it up on my site one of these days!

Just discovered your blog through Gratitude-Magic and am loving the wisdom here. Thank you for busting these myths which hold many back from going for it.