Freelance Writing & Business Communication

Why independent practitioners need to set goals

As my blog indicates, I am a six-figure freelancer, that includes my modest 4-figure income from my print on demand (POD) books on business writing and the business of freelance writing. Next year, I have set a goal for my POD books: to double the first figure of my 4-figure POD income. Then my goal is to become a 5-figure POD author by 2011.

Notice, I said “my goal is,” not “I hope to become.” It is important for every freelance writer, trainer, designer — for any independent practitioner — to set business goals, including (perhaps especially) income goals. Why will become clear in a moment.

My business has five streams:
- business writing and media interview training
- corporate and promotional writing
- periodical (newspaper and magazine) writing
- seminars and e-courses for freelance writers
- POD books on business writing and the business of freelance writing.

I am not saying that every independent practitioner needs to have as many irons in the fire as I do; in fact, there are days when I think I may have too many irons in the fire. But I enjoy variety and seem to enjoy juggling hot irons! However, if I did not have business goals — and overall revenue target and targets in terms of the income I want to generate from each iron, I would not know how to focus and spend my time.

By having an annual revenue target, I can determine how much overall I need to earn each month (each week, even). By having targets for each iron, I can determine how much I need to earn each quarter (checked on a monthly basis) from each stream of my freelance business.

I am not a number cruncher by nature; however, I have learned how to keep track of my income projections and my actual earnings in an Excel spreadsheet (I suspect other applications can be used even more effectively to do this; Excel works for me) so there is no deluding myself. Each month (or even each week) I can review my projections and my actuals; I know if I am on track or off track. If I am on track, I carry on. If I am off track, I make adjustments. But what do I adjust?

Before I set off on the trail, I determine, based on my goals, what I need to do in terms of sales and marketing to hit my targets. So when I say that I am going to double my POD income in 2010, that means I will sit down towards the end of this year and plan out the sales and marketing steps I need to take to do so. In fact, I have already started to take several production and distribution steps this year (slowly porting my books from my Lulu storefront to LSI for wider and more cost-effective distribution that will improve my return on marketing effort.

With goals or targets (or a business vision, as I often call it), you know where you are going. If you don’t know where you are going, you can’t create a road map to get there. If you don’t have a road map, you will most likely do a lot of wandering. And hey, I have nothing against wandering — if that is what you want to do. But if you want to achieve something specific, you have to:
- set a goal
- determine the tasks that will help you achieve your goal
- schedule the tasks that will help you achieve your goal
- implement the tasks that will help you achieve your goal
- monitor the results
- take corrective action as may be required.

Is this dull and uncreative?
I’ve has a few people say, “Where’s the room for creativity in that?” Trust me, it takes a great deal of creativity to plan ahead, to think about a.) what you want to do and b.) how you can make it happen. In addition, as you are going through the year implementing your marketing tasks, you can still be open to other great ideas that make sense. How do you know if they make sense? Review your goals. If the ideas that come up will help you reach them, put them into practice. If not, keep on doing what you planned on doing rather than letting an idea that makes no sense knock you off track.