It’s Time To Tie Up Those Loose Ends From 2011

December 01, 2011

As soon as December starts to beckon, it seems as though Christmas is only days away.

I’ve always been a relatively organized guy who likes to plan and prepare to a certain degree when it comes to business, but around this time of year, I used to always think that there wasn’t a great deal of time left before I took a break for the holidays and so I wouldn’t start anything new.

Even now, I tend to use December primarily to get ahead of schedule, giving me an easy, smooth run into the coming year.

As I was looking at my schedule here for the next few weeks, specifically a post or two around how the last year has been for you and what you’ve got planned for 2012, I realised that it’s all about reflection and preparation.

Although I love looking back at what I’ve done and using it to help me prepare for the future, it’s become apparent that while reflection is fantastic for future preparation, it’s also great for looking at any obvious gaps in your work or missed opportunities.

So, while we’re going to be looking at how 2011 has been for you as a freelance writer and preparing for 2012 in the coming weeks, it would be great now to think back over the last 11 months and look at any areas of your work or your career where an opportunity was missed, wasn’t taken full advantage of or wasn’t finished properly.

For me, there are two main points that I want to go back and tie up before the year is out:

1. Towards the end of the summer, one of my regular clients reduced their workload massively. At one point, I was producing over 55,000 words a month for them, but at the end of August they sent through no work requests at all.

They did start requesting work again in September and have continued to do so since, but it’s still only minimal compared to the previous levels.

Due to various other projects, this drop in work wasn’t a massive issue and I never followed up on why there was such a substantial decrease in the workload.

What I’m planning to do is contact them and simply ask what the reason was. Was it the work I was producing or was there no longer the need for the work?

From what I can understand, there has been a change in staff and within departments as a whole, but it would still be great to know the answer, as if it was the quality of my work, I need to know so I can improve.

2. Over the last six months, I’ve made a concerted effort to send pitches out to potential clients.

Some pitches were blatantly ignored, others I received a reply back saying they weren’t interested and there were several who expressed an interest in working together.

Although some of those who expressed an interest did turn into clients, there were several who I never received any further correspondence from, even after contacting them once or twice again.

It’s been a few months since I contacted several of those who showed an interest and so I’m going to go back and try and reconnect with them — not in a sales way, re-sending my previous proposal, but in a way that simply lets them know I’m available and it would be great to work with them.

Reflection is fantastic, but it’s important that you don’t use it exclusively to look at what you’ve done and learn from your mistakes. With four weeks left to go until Christmas, that’s enough time to at least attempt to fill in any gaps and tie up any loose ends from earlier in the year.