Solopreneurs & Freelancers: How Do YOU Prioritize Your Workflow?

Okay, so I’ve finally decided that it’s time to put together an ebook I’ve had on my mind for a while now, and I’d like to get some input from readers and friends. Expect a few questions like this in the coming weeks, and please take some time to think about your answers and share this post with others so my resources are widespread!

Solopreneurs & Freelancers

Solos and freelancers are a special breed of business person. Not only do they have to actually complete the paying work (yes, thank me, Captain Obvious) but they must promote themselves, share their experiences, network, attend conferences, continuously learn about their trade and much more. They’re the “all in one” package for a business model. If you couldn’t guess, a successful solopreneur really, REALLY has to be organized and pretty structured in order to have that success.

Mixing of Tasks and Work

Sometimes, solos take on freebie work. There are many reasons for this: publicity, experience, generosity or sheer boredom. Often times this freebie work is done in a different manner than paying work (though it shouldn’t be) and sometimes it gets overwhelming and stressful. Especially once the paying stuff kicks back up and they’re still stuck working on the unfinished or never ending projects they’re not getting paid for.

Prioritizing and Balance

You’re never going to hear me say that a solopreneur or freelancer should never take on unpaid work. I will say that they should balance it out, weigh the pros and cons, and limit themselves to only one or two freebies per year. Be picky, just as you’d be when taking on a new client. (If you’re not being picky with taking on new clients, that’s an entirely different issue we’ll discuss later.)

It’s easy to get overwhelmed, in any event. Especially when you’re trying to grow your business, pay your bills, donate your time and knowledge to others in need and deal with all the other aspects of everyday life, all while not losing your mind (ie. taking care of yourself).

So, here’s a scenario for you: You’ve spent a few years trying to build up your client base. You’ve got some A-List clients (those you consider top priority), a few B-Listers, and then you’ve got freebies and your own personal projects. Add to that networking, events, conferences and marketing yourself.

Work slows down and you take on some high-profile freebie stuff. It’s seemingly never ending, but you’re cleaning up loose ends and all of the sudden you find yourself slammed with requests from ALL your clients, all at the same time. They’re all in need. Yesterday.

Let me break this down in list format…

• Two “freebie” projects you started and have pretty much accomplished, that still need tweaking or revising. Small amounts of individual attention, but frequent ones.
• Two A-List clients whom you’ve devoted much time and work to in the past, that are the “meat” of your income. They’ve got ongoing, immediate requests.
• Two or three personal projects you’re dying to get off the ground.
• Ongoing social networking, self-promo, events and conferences to attend and plan for.

How would you prioritize what needs to be done?

Do you take care of the freebie’s immediate needs, and notify them that they must be put on hold while you take care of other stuff, or do you try to structure your work days so you can touch on everything, every day, until it’s finished?

Please share in the comments… especially if you’ve ever found yourself in this exact position or something similar. If you can’t pull from personal experience, that’s okay too – just imagine yourself in this kind of situation and tell us what you think you’d do.

Keep in mind two goals:

1. Keep everyone (including yourself) happy with the progress and timing.
2. You’re not allowed to work more than 10 hours per day, in the interest of personal sanity.

So let’s hear it! And don’t forget to share this with your friends and colleagues!

A Very Special Announcement…

… but not just yet.

Times, they are a changin’ and for Ginkgo Consulting that means quite a few things.

1. We’re in the process of re-structuring. There are some amazing new projects in the works that I’m going to be heavily involved in, and therefore need to come up with some really cool ways to keep Ginkgo running but with less of my individual time. This means I’ll be needing some more really cool people to help me do that.

2. I’ll still be doing the consulting work. Be it on the phone or in person – I’m the one you’ll be speaking with when you have questions, be they about work we’ve done, work you need done, or simply training you may need.

3. Tying up some loose ends. Right now I’ve got two “charity” projects going on, and a few client projects still on the table. While I’ll always spend available time on a project I believe in for charity, at this time I’m not sure we’ll be able to take on any further clients. At least not until I get the restructuring done. If you don’t have an immediate deadline, you can always call and we’ll see what we can do. Worst case scenario, I can refer you to one of several colleagues who I’m confident can help.

4. I’d like to make it clear that I’ll still be blogging here, as well as at my other sites. I’m not going anywhere, that’s for damn sure. You’re actually more likely to see me than ever before, but that’s all part of the “Very Special Announcement” I just can’t make right now. I promise, you’ll be the firsts to know once I can! Your best bet to keep tabs on me? My hub, Lara Kulpa. It’s not finished yet, or designed yet, but it’s there.

So there you have it! Thanks for staying tuned in, and don’t go anywhere! It’s going to be an interesting Q4, and an amazing 2010!

An Experiment: Develop an efficient blogging timeline

Thanks to Darren and Skellie for the inspiration behind this, but I’ve decided to do a little experiment with my blogging.

For those of you who might not know, along with the work I do that comes in for Ginkgo Consulting, i also blog on two sites for b5media, my personal weight loss blog, a personal finance blog (because hey, it’s popular right now), and a few other blog projects I have going on. Yes, I’m a busy girl!

One of the biggest problems that I’m finding myself and other bloggers go through is how to develop a good routine with blogging. I’ve talked to some bloggers who just post whenever the mood strikes them. They get an idea, write it, hit publish, and move on. Other bloggers do loads of research and writing and re-writing before they’re happy enough to publish something – bringing their frequency down to even less than once a week.

It’s a pretty well known fact that posting frequency is one of the many crucial elements to your blog’s success. If you post too much, you might “flood” your readers and annoy them. If you don’t post enough, you risk losing their interest, which is super hard to get back once it’s gone.

I’ll point to the two “inspirational” posts now, but I’ve decided to do an experiment to see if I can, first of all, get myself on a good routine, and also see how it affects things like readership, traffic, and income.

Tips on Finding Your Blogging Rhythm by Darren Rowse at Problogger
How to Develop an Efficient Post Frequency by Skellie

So here’s my plan:

Ginkgo Consulting – 3 posts per week
Weight Loss Blog – 5 posts per week
b5 Blog #1 – 4 posts per week
b5 Blog #2 – 6 posts per week
Personal Finance Blog – 5 posts per week
(I’ll worry about the other projects once I get these nailed down, but only because they’re not really “live” yet anyway.)

So, that’s quite a bit, eh? 23 posts per week. It sounds a lot worse than it is, because by my own nature, I’m more of a get the thought, blog it, social media mark it, and be done with it type. Not that I don’t respond to comments on the posts (because I do), or that I just forget about the post once it’s done, but rather that I can sit down for two hours and crank out some decent quality stuff most of the time. Other times it takes a while, given research and so on, but I fancy myself a decent writer, so 23 posts per week doesn’t sound so scary to me.

Besides, if I can do that many, plus manage all the “regular” work through Ginkgo, and YOU, dear reader, have only one blog and/or a full time job… well, you can see where I’m going with this! You’ll have no excuses!

My goal is to mark out chunks of time to write for each site throughout the week. I love WordPress’s post-dating feature, so I can sit and write three posts and post date them for throughout the week, and be done with it until either something newsworthy comes up, or I reach my next chunk of time writing for that blog.

So, starting Monday October 27th, I’ll be posting weekly updates on “The Experiment” through the end of the year. We’ll see how things go, I’ll post traffic results and so on, and we’ll go from there!

Wish me luck, and let me know your thoughts in the comments…

• Do you have a regular blogging schedule?
• Are you a researcher/rethinker or do you just write, publish, and market as you go?