Why Do You Want To Own A Job?

In the previous article, we looked at a technique called “fear-setting“, which is a little like goal setting. The difference is, you are facing your fears and examining them, seeing them for what they truly are.

Five of these fears are listed with potential ways to look at them. You might have other fears to which you can apply similar techniques.

Now, a question…

…why do you want to own a job?

I do not mean to be, well, mean…or maybe I do!

Yes, in this article, we are going to talk about getting started as a freelancer.

However, before you rush out and sign up to all those freelancing sites, ask yourself – why do you want to own a job?

“What are you talking about, Fionn?” You ask.

“I have to pay my bills, the mortgage, and I need the money, etc.”, you say.

OK, I get it. I acknowledge it is where you are at right now.

Do realize that while anyone can do freelancing and there are several benefits to it, it might not be right for you.

Not everyone can be a freelancer.

For one thing, you are your own boss and you are, therefore, responsible for ALL aspects of running your business.

And yes, that may be very liberating on the one hand…

…on the other hand…

…Something else to bear in mind is that you may end up in the 60% (approx) tax bracket.

It might also take you some time, depending on what you are doing, to leverage the skills of others and you will need to work with these people.

You still up for it?

Time to do some soul searching

Approaching freelancing is a bit like doing career development when you are seeking to change jobs.

So, in this article, I will take you through a strategic approach in which you will provide the answers to three questions:

• what is my present situation?
• where do I want to be?
• how do I get there?

To answer the first question, follow these three steps:

Step One: Do a Skills Audit

What are you good at?

Ask yourself what kind of skills you’ve acquired in your life experience (including work) that you could bring to freelancing.

Download the Skills Audit attachment and fill it out. Or have a special notebook for this.

Note: if you are unable to download the resources with your smartphone, use a desktop or laptop.

There are other types of skills to bear in mind, so don’t limit yourself to the examples on the handout.

Consider the following:

• problem solving skills,
• ability to take the initiative,
• the ability to manage yourself,
• adaptability,
• awareness of the sector of your chosen field,
• business skills…

…and so on.

The Personal Development Plan from MindTools (see Additional resources below) can also help to focus your mind. Feel free to combine approaches listed in this article. It is your life, after all.

Download the Personal Development Plan. Check the Mind Tools website if you need additional help filling it out.

Step Two: Do a Passion Audit

What could you do for hours on end and not even notice that the time had flown by?

Granted, once you start freelancing, you will need to TAKE CONTROL of your time.

Download the Passion Audit Sheet and write those ideas down.

Step Three: Do a Money Making Potential Audit

Taking your skills and passion into account, what could you make money from?

Download the Money Making Handout and fill it out.

Next question: where do you want to be?

This is your goal writing stage. There are so many ways you could do this. Some methods I found useful:

• the Brian Tracy method where you start by looking at your life 20 years from now and setting goals for 20, then breaking them down into 10, then 5, then 1-2 year slots (if money was no object)
• the S-P-E-C-I-F-Y I-T method from the Advanced Law of Attraction Mastery™ course by Dr. Symeon Rodger, Kit Furey, & Kathy M. Gyimesy. I don’t think this is available anymore. Check out the SPECIFY handout.
• you could also look at Karim Hajee’s Creating Wealth program. This was one of the first personal development tools I bought. Cool program for goal setting as well as changing your mindset about money.
• the SMART goals video by DecisionSkills
• the Silva Life System has an excellent exercise on goal setting which is in the foundation section for achieving what you want.

Download the Goals Handout and fill it out. Feel free to adapt it to your needs.

Whatever goal-setting method you choose there are some questions you MUST ask yourself:

Download the Goals Questions Checklist and fill it out or use a notebook.

Next question: how are you going to get there?

This is your Action Plan.

Here you set out

• what resources you will need to achieve your goals,
• how much money you may need to spend,
• any additional online/offline learning resources you will need,
• how much time you are prepared to put in given your current circumstances.

It is important that you are able to take action on at least one thing, no matter how small it is, IMMEDIATELY.

Take care that you do not strive to make this process perfect. You will never get going otherwise. On the other hand, you do not want to do too little analysis. These resources should be more than adequate to get you started, at least in the planning stage.

Use a resources that feels right for you. Indeed, you may have better ways of going through this process.

You can always go back and change things too.

In the next article, we will look at a few ways to get into freelancing as well as share my story of how I got into it.

Additional Resources:

A subscription at LinkedIn (includes LinkedIn Learning [formerly Lynda.com]) costs about $40 per month.

If you are looking at flexible working, a subscription at FlexJobs costs about $15 per month. But what you get is so much more value for your money. They are also very good at alerting you to scams.

Personal Development Plan. Located at Mind Tools (online) https://www.mindtools.com/courses/lnV924x0/PersonalDevelopmentPlanning.pdf [Accessed December 4, 2020]. These people have been around for years!

Daniel Constable and Andrew Lantz of Lurn.com offer a free course called Freelance Bootcamp which is the entry level program to their Freelance Blueprint program which costs $397.

PS: Just in case you are wondering about the I and T in S-P-E-C-I-F-Y I-T. The “I” matches the “M”(Measurable) in SMART, while the “T” matches the “T” (Time-Bound/Timely) in SMART.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay