How’s 2011 Going For You So Far?

July 06, 2011

Towards the end of December 2011, I published a post here on Get Paid To Write Online about my goals for the coming year (What’s Your Plan For 2011?) and encouraged you to set your own freelance writing goals for 2011.

As we’re now half way through the year, I thought it would be a great time to review the goals that we set, see if any have been completed, if any need changing or if there are any particular comments on any of the goals.

1. Stop working 70 hour weeks

This was one of the goals that I wanted to achieve the quickest, as after well over a year of working 70 hour weeks, it was starting to take its toll.

I’m happy to say that I made a concerted effort at the start of the year to reorganize my work load so that I could have every Friday night, all of Saturday and Sunday morning completely free of work.

Honestly, it did mean some of the tasks that didn’t have a fixed deadline got drawn out a little and it meant I had to play a little bit of catch up every now and again, but — as simple as this may seem to some — being able to have even just one full day off on a weekend from any type of work has been absolutely fantastic.

2. Develop my client base

What I wanted to primarily achieve here was to not only extend my client base, but also develop how much work I carry out for clients, working on bigger, regular projects rather than simply the occasional piece or two for clients every now and again.

I’m going to talk about this more in point seven (you’ll understand why when you get to that point!), but I have made an effort to work on larger, more regular projects with a number of clients, both new and existing.

3. Learn a language

I haven’t started to learn a language. It’s not because I don’t want to or have kept putting it on the backburner in favour of other activities, but it’s simply because I haven’t had the time to start.

However, a week or two ago I came across a guy online who says that he learns languages in just two months and he does it because he goes to the country, learns a few basic words and phrases and then makes every effort to speak the language whenever he gets the opportunity.

He doesn’t sit down and read through text books or attend any courses, he just says that effectively being forced to speak the language every day works for him.

So, over the last few weeks, my Better Half and I have started to learn eight French words a day. Some of them we already knew from school, others we’d heard of but couldn’t remember how to use them properly and some are completely new.

We’re not being strict on this and some days we don’t get chance to learn new words, but we’re making an effort to speak the words we have learnt whenever we get the chance at home.

And so far, I’m pleased to say it’s working well.

4. Work on a kick start / support / assistance idea I have

I’ll be honest here — I’ve made absolutely no move on this whatsoever, except for sending one very brief e-mail about it for some thoughts and feedback. I am still hoping to push it forward a little by the end of the year, but I’m not expecting anything more than somewhat of a basic plan or strategy being put together.

5. Look at a move to London

Around this time last year, we were really into the idea of moving to London — we both love the city, have a lot of family down there and thought it would be a great idea.

After thinking it through a lot, we realised it wasn’t really that practical and looking at a few different aspects, maybe wasn’t the best move for us if we were to do it full time.

We still want to spend more time down there, though and so our aim is to spend a substantial amount of July and August in London, if not the full two months.

It’s not going to happen this year as we’ve simply got too much going on that’s been planned for a while now (more details in point number seven), but we are managing to spend two weeks in London throughout July and August and most probably a little time in September, too.

6. Increase my rates

I’m not ashamed to say that when I started my freelance writing career, I was writing for $10 per piece.

Over the last few years, I steadily increased my rates, but still believed I was under pricing my work. I know it’s quite a big headed thing to say, but the more I saw how much other writers were receiving for projects, it hit home that I was offering my services at too low of a price.

I haven’t increased my rates for existing clients who have been carried over from 2010, but I have developed a new rate card and used it for new clients, which has so far been well received.

7. Look at other opportunities

Although I put this as my last goal for 2011 and it is somewhat of an ambiguous one, it’s the one where I’ve seen the most development.

For years I’ve always wanted to work for myself and after trying out a number of different careers, I discovered freelance writing and realised that it gave me everything that I wanted from a career — mainly the ability to work for myself and the flexibility and freedom I was looking for.

Earlier this year, I started to look at different opportunities that would allow me to stop the salaried work I was doing and focus full time on freelance.

Things changed slightly, however, when I was offered two positions — one on a freelance basis and one as a salaried position.

It was then that I realised it wasn’t that I wanted to work for myself badly, but that I wanted change.

I accepted both positions — the freelance writing one started in February as a writer and over the last few months has developed into a Head of Online Communications role and the other is due to start this week, which is working as a consultant for an IT company on a part time basis.

What I love about them both is that the freelance role has developed into an area where I’ve realised my skills as a writer can be put to use in other ways and the salaried role, aside from only being part time (which is what I was looking for), takes several positive aspects from freelance writing, most notably the ability to work with various clients on a regular basis, providing them with a service that will help develop their organization.

My initial intention was to leave my current salaried role completely, working part time as a consultant and splitting my remaining time between the Head of Online Communications role and my own freelance projects (my aim is to only work on projects that I really want to be involved with, rather than smaller projects that I’d work on more for the financial benefit than a personal interest).

However, the company who employ me currently have asked me to stay on for a few months on reduced hours, so while I’m likely to be back up to working 70 hour weeks for a little while, I’m hoping that it’s all going to be worthwhile in a few months.

In my view, 2011 is going extremely well so far. It’s been a busy six months, but I’ve learnt a lot and one of the most important pieces of information I’ve taken on board is that if you step outside of your comfort zone and push your normal boundaries, it will pay off — it might be in the sense that you secure a new project or get a new role, but it will help your confidence and develop you as a person tremendously.