Checking in & business lessons.

I haven’t written a blog in a while.

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Not because I don’t want to, I actually keep an ongoing notes file in my phone and update it all the time whenever I get new ideas that I want to write about. Only to never really do it.

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The real challenge is just staying consistent. It always sounds like a good idea in my head, but whenever I have the change to do something else I end up choosing it more often than not.

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Being consistent is a hard thing to do with anything really. It’s so easy to always push it off until the next day or the upcoming weekend.

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Not to mention how there’s just infinite entertainment sitting in everyone’s pockets on a daily basis. I’m surprised anyone gets anything done these days honestly, it’s an impossible task.

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If caveman had Instagram Reels then maybe they would have never created metal tools and learned how to farm. We’d just be sending each other memes until eventually we all just get eaten by tigers because we were too distracted to hear them in the bushes.

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Anyways.

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Things have been moving pretty fast recently.

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Ever since I got back from Asia in March, it’s been a nonstop slate of out of town trips, vacations, and design projects coming in to where it feels like I’m either moving super fast or super slow. Absolutely no in between.

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It’s made it hard to grasp some consistency, which I actually have for the first time now so I can start to get back into a groove.

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My business is doing well month after month, with slow growth that I can keep up with, but I can definitely see it getting out of hand down the line if I don’t change some things. Right now it’s okay, but if tomorrow I suddenly landed 2-3 clients, I’d be so screwed.

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I’m actually slated to have my best month I’ve ever had this month which is insane. I’m definitely starting to feel the burn a little bit because I do all of the work, admin, billing, accounting, marketing (which I barely do), and basically everything else all by myself and it’s gets to be a lot after a while.

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I guess at some point I need to super optimize everything so I don’t have to spend so much time doing random tasks that have to get done, or maybe even hire someone to help me.

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That’s down the line though. I don’t want to hire anyone if I don’t have to, but we’ll see.

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I feel like I’m still learning so much every day, every week. Sometimes I get frustrated and have these self doubting thoughts.

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Things like, why did this client try to haggle me down so hard, do they think they can take advantage of me?

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And, why am I annoyed with some of my clients, am I doing something wrong?

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What I’ve realized is, yes in fact I am doing something wrong. If I’m unhappy running my own situation then at the end of the day it’s up to me to decide how it’s all going to work.

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I didn’t start to freelance just to begin to resent my work and the people I work with. It’s up to me to call my own shots and tell people how things are going to work.

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Since then, I started to put my foot down.

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Hold firm on my price.

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Improved my communication.

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Improved my project management skills and emphasized extra deliverables cost extra money.

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Set clear boundaries from the very beginning.

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And would you look at that, it actually started to work. People felt less inclined to try to get one over on me. And being as green as I was when I first started freelancing, if you give people a chance to take advantage of you, they surely will.

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It might not even be so much of a judgement of their character (it definitely is to some degree), but it’s also just how people are.

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Lesson learned is:

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You can’t expect people to treat you respectfully in business, because everybody is always acting within their own best interest anyway. It’s probably not a slight at you, they just want what you have in exchange for as little as they’re willing to give up for it.

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And you shouldn’t take it personally, because more often than not, it isn’t.

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You also have to tell people how you want to be treated and make your boundaries crystal clear at the beginning of each new working relationship. If people don’t know what you’re not willing to tolerate, then they wont know and will do it, and it will piss you off. So you have to tell them.

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And if they continue to do it, then kindly remind them.

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And if they still continue to do it, kindly fire them as your client and find someone who respects you and your work (but not before you get paid).