Note from Jennifer: Today I am sharing a guest post from a fellow freelancer that I had the pleasure of meeting at the ASJA Atlanta Regional Conference last year. I especially love #4 and really think it is the key to being a happy and successful freelancer. 

By Chuck Leddy

It can be scary starting and running any business. Actually, if it’s not scary, then you’re probably not doing it right. So many things are unknown, from whether the market will demand what you’re selling, to the price at which you’ll sell it,and more. Managing uncertainty, both within yourself and outside of yourself, is what business is all about.

For me as a freelance content marketer or solopreneur, the best part of running my own business is that I get to learn. As a business owner, I am responsible and accountable. If things aren’t going well, it’s up to me to take initiative and change direction.

So what should someone who starts a business be focusing on? Here are the pillars upon which I build my freelance content marketing business:

1. Understand the “why?” You have to stand out and stand up for something in this world. Customers want to be able to differentiate you from other businesses in the market, so you had better be different somehow. You can be cheaper, or offer higher quality, or focus on a specialized niche’, or whatever. But you need to know why you exist and how you’re special. I believe values are what make me different. I believe in helping and sharing, both with my content and as an individual. I seek to build a community of people who help and share. And I want to work with clients who believe in helping and sharing as much as I do.
2. Follow passions to learn. As my writing business has grown, clients have given me more autonomy in selecting topics to research and write about. They’ve gotten to trust me, and I’ve worked hard to earn that trust. But this autonomy comes with a hugely important question: What ideas do I want to learn and share? Where do I want to focus my curiosity? I’ve decided to spend more time focusing on employee engagement and employee wellness, which concerns the physical, emotional and spiritual well-being of people in the workplace. These subjects are complex and multidisciplinary, involving psychology and nutrition and mindfulness and much more. These topics also connect with me personally, not to mention the struggles of friends and family. There’s a lot to learn, and I’m learning by reading and listening to smart people.
3. Prioritize self-care. Any business is just people doing things people do, whether it’s a Silicon Valley tech company, a Wall Street investment bank, or a mom-and-pop retail store on the corner. The people in the business define the business and its culture. Since I’m my only employee, I preserve and value myself, my energy, my creativity, my health, my connections, and my soul. I am called upon to be creative every working day, and in order to do that I must be fully human and fully present each time I write. So I rest, eat well, exercise, meditate, exercise, go to church, spend time outdoors, love my family and cherish my friends. When any business takes care of its people, those people will bring their best selves to the work they do and this will help the business grow — whether it’s a business 100,000 employees or one, like mine.
4. Don’t change who you are to satisfy clients. You must define yourself by saying “no.” The fastest way to failure is to try to be all things to all people, to become a human Swiss army knife. I work with clients who understand how I’m different and how I work. If client expectations don’t align with what I do and how I do it, then I won’t work with that client for long. It’s never personal, but it’s about respecting the way I work and the way they work. Either the fit exists or it doesn’t, but you need to be you. Being NOT you is terrible for business. It’s much easier to find a client who does fit how you work. I am fortunate to have a lot of them, and nothing beats mutual appreciation.
5. Have mentors and great examples. Running a business takes a clear vision of who you are and where you want to go. Find mentors who support you and want what’s best for you, and call upon them when you’re unsure of how to proceed. And look for examples of how you’d like to run your content marketing business. My favorite all-time entrepreneur is Yvon Chouinard, who founded outdoor apparel company Patagonia in Ventura, California. Chouinard loves the outdoors, especially rock climbing and surfing. As a young man, he’d been to Europe for rock climbing and noticed that the equipment and apparel was of higher quality there. So when he returned to California, he started making European-inspired equipment and apparel for rock climbers (he and his friends, at first), using European designs as his prototypes and accessing local materials.

Although he founded a billion-dollar global business, Mr. Chouinard has never lost his deep connection to the outdoors or his values. He still spends 5 months per year fishing in Wyoming, and encourages his California-based employees to surf whenever the waves are good, even on a Tuesday afternoon. When asked his secret to success, Chouinard responds “simplicity.” His values pervade everything Patagonia does, and his customers identify with these values in a powerful way that goes far beyond money.

I’m still growing both my business and myself, and have a lot yet to learn. More than anything, I try not to judge my business by “revenue generated” alone. Yes, I want to make money, but I also want to discover, over time, more of the good things in myself and others. I want to express my creativity, to educate, inform, and help others, to set an example of caring. Success, as I define it, is the capacity to be fully yourself, and find clients who pay you to do so, which isn’t as easy in business as it might sound.