Why You Are Failing Your Business And How To Stop
In these economic times, a lot of businesses are failing. However I believe in taking control and responsibility for your life and not blaming failures on outside conditions (like the economy). People will always need business, so during tough times the trick is to be the business that they need.
There will always be a lot of competition out there and in this day and age of instant communication around the world, there’s more competition than ever. But that doesn’t matter. You should not seek to be angry at your competition, hateful or even watchful. As a matter of fact, you should ignore your competition almost completely.
Is your business failing or slow? Why would you say it is? What if I told you that your business failing is your fault and your fault alone? Yep, the economy has nothing to do with it. I guess you can say I’m pretty tired of all the freelance posts around the web today that blame sucky businesses on everything but the person running it. (Bad clients, no money, “evil” debtors, bad clients, the other guy).
You’re Lazy
For example, I stay pretty scheduled up every day, at least three weeks in advance. And when things start getting slow (I know they are if I’m only scheduled up for a week), it’s always because I’ve been taking it easy for the past couple of weeks. While this is actually a great thing every once in awhile (like I’m hoping my schedule frees up SOON before I explode) if it’s not something you’re careful with, you can actually drive yourself out of business.
When I first started freelancing, I had zero work. So I would sit at my computer for an hour or two just messing around the web and then go upstairs and do the dishes or something. Once I finally realized that clients weren’t just going to come to me when I was a nobody, I started doing some major marketing on the web – and I spent no money on it either.
You’re Invisible
I haven’t done any marketing lately, because most of my clients now find me. How is this? Even if you’re the best in the entire world at what you do, nobody will hire you if they don’t know who you are – so make sure they do.
People have wondered how I’m everywhere and probably think I have no life. How is it that they see me on 7+ different blogs, plus my daily blog, plus twitter and facebook? And I’ve just launched my personal project, Codesnippit, and I actually manage to fit in several client projects a week while maintaining a personal life (yes, how? I need more mes!)??
The key is appearances. Yes I’m on the web a lot, but not all of the time. And no, I don’t use auto or scheduled tweets or anything. But it seems like I’m everywhere to my clients, so they remember my name when they need someone.
Here are some visibility tips:
- Strive to be on as many social media sites as possible, but only truly update one or two of them. Hook your twitter account to your Facebook and Linkedin accounts so that when you tweet, it updates the others.
- Write in your own blog and use a plugin to send a tweet whenever a new post goes out
- Schedule your blog posts in advance so it sends without you having to be at the computer
- Write one or two guest posts a week and take a week off from client work every once in awhile to write several.
- Answer all your fan mail - you never know when one of them wants an interview (yes, people like to interview developers and designers!)
- Have an optimized portfolio that’s updated daily (normally because of your blog). Clean code, semantics and accessibility have all boosted my SEO naturally without any of those stupid link campaigns.
- Tweet early, tweet often, but only about relevant topics & links to your area.
- Follow the RSS feed of tweeters for your area.
- Talk to people – an amazing marketing trick that no one actually does.
You’re a Stuck Up Know-It-All
People who think they know everything rarely do. While I don’t want to come off mean in this area, last week I wrote a blog post on project rates where 1-2 people tried to tell me what I could or couldn’t charge. Excuse me, but are you running this business? Just because they can’t charge that much, doesn’t mean I can’t or don’t.
It’s great to have opinions and to be sure of what you know. However, if you plug your ears with your fingers and scream “nah nah nah nah nah” like a 2 year old would, not only does it look unprofessional and immature, it also means you aren’t learning anything. When I starting freelancing, I definitely didn’t have all the answers. I still don’t. However, I now have the experience behind me to at least know what worked for me.
If people give you advice (which is what they’re doing when you’re reading their blog) don’t immediately dismiss them as stupid or dumb or lying. While you certainly don’t have to take the person’s advice, you should at least considering the knowledge they’ve just given you.
You Just Don’t Care
Yea I said it. This is the worst out of all the fails I’ve listed. Anyone can be successful at freelancing, but not everyone is. Why? Because most people don’t care enough or at all. They don’t have the drive it takes to sit in their office 8 to 10 to 24 hours a day to make it work. They drag their feet coming into work. They sit there and pout and whine and blame their troubles on dolphins, trolls and the economy.
Everyone has down days. There are certainly days I really don’t want to work at all (today!), but I know that if I take today off, it’s not going to hurt me because I’ll work extra hard tomorrow. I want to succeed and it’s that thought of being a failure that pushes me towards the finish line. 
what about you?
Have you figured out what causes others to fail? Are you failing? Do you know why?
image by normalityrelief
About the author
Amber Weinberg specializes in clean and semantic XHTML, CSS and WordPress development. She has over 10 years of coding experience and is pretty cool to work with. Amber is available for freelance work, so why not hire her for your next project?
Great post — all points are most certainly valid — the only point here that I would make is that as a freelancer you can become obsolete real quick if you don’t take the time to learn new technologies and tricks.
Like you said in the article, people rarely know everything, but even your niche can change, so it’s best to keep up with the times.
Right. You should basically aim to learn something new on each project you take on.
Hello
I think you have hit the nail on the head for most of the content, i myself are starting a company and i know what you mean by down days and find it hard to get motivated. In the end you need a lot of drive and a passion to do what you love. I think if you have these you can do great, also attitude is important. A lot of people i know that go into business whether it is freelance or Ltd or sole traders start to develope a God complex, this is never a good thing.
I think on the web especially social networks you have to be honest, tolerant of the comments and feedback you get and take it all the way it comes across. If it is good comments that make good points listen and take notice follow it if it feels right. Then again sometime you get stupid comments that are insulting or useless (you know the comment Amber)
Lol which one? I get a lot of those comments
I especially enjoy the emails I get from anonymous people who tell me I’m crap. Hey if you’re going to try to put me down, at least have the balls to leave your real name and email. Oh I forgot, bullies are cowards 
This is very helpful! Thanks!
Excellent article. Whenever I have a “fallout” in my business it means I haven’t quite worked those days. So was the case with my network. Used to run 40 sites, now there are way less. Carelessness has brought me from 800 USD/month in advertising (pretty much for the country I live in and my own expenses) to 150 now. Will have to work again and start caring again about my stuff.
People sometimes do not realize the effort that goes into marketing themselves or their business. You make it sound so easy here but that’s probably because you got it dialed in. Get into the practice, make them habits, and it will get easier. Good read.
Great read. I especially like the part about sounding like a stuck-up 2 year old!
While I am not lazy, try not to be invisible, don’t think I’m a stuck-up-know-it-all, I still find it difficult to find steady work. Finding a niche market and getting a bit more experience in it would be a great benefit to my biz. Time will tell.
-Jacob
It just takes time
a lot of people who have a business think they’re failing, but they’re not, they’re just in the development stages. It’s tough to hold out, I know, but I bet you’re on the verge of becoming busy 
Love the post! A bit harsh on the end but truly inspiring! I don`t run my business yet but still I have my goals in learning, in developing and in life in general. In order to achieve those sometimes just being really really tough on myself helps me make things happen.
I have one quite crazy boss now, but he does have some great knowledge. My favorite quote of his is: “If you need to do something, you just need to sit your ass down and do it! That`s the only way you`ll succeed.”
The econonmy is affecting some areas more then others, so its definitely a huge factor. I talk to my locals, long story keep it at that.
None of those tips are really going to stop failure from bad business mistakes individuals will make and failing isn’t always bad.
There is no such thing as failing its called reinventing yourself if you can’t do that you will just continue to fail. Negative thinking towards failure will always derail you.
I agree a bit with Jacob.
Just being honest.
Everyone has their own opinions, but I’ve seen everyone of these be a factor. Also, it’s these types of attitudes that make the business mistakes in the first place.
Also, I agree with 37signals that failure is NOT something to be coveted or proud of. A scientific study done a few years ago showed that people with failed businesses did not have more of a chance of making it the “next” time as the person who’s just starting out, but the person with a successful business did.
I just simple can’t agree with that. Of course failure is not something to be proud, it is unpredictable and at some point will be experienced one way or another.
Great visibility tips – thanks! And thanks for reminding us it’s always easier to fail than it is to succeed.
This is exactly what I was looking for from you, a “How to” about being everywhere at once! (which you seem to be). I like that you take 100% responsibility for the success or failure of your biz, I’m wondering how you came to that mindset. A mentor? Just your experience of life? some other way? It’s a powerful way to live and do business. My guess is that that mentality is a huge part of why you are successful (by your own definition of success)
Great Post. As much as I hate to admit it, my business is not doing the volume of work that I would like is because of me. I do not market my business as hard or consistently as I should. It funny, I operate a marketing business and have no problem pushing my clients businesses, but find if difficult to market my own business. I can cold call for clients, but find myself unable to cold for myself. I know that I have to crank things up and this is my plan. I could also use better time management skills, something I struggle with everyday. I don’t miss deadlines, but I could be more productive if I managed my time better.
Thanks again for a great post.
Jenn
You are too right!! You just made me see myself in mirror
I seriously need to improve!! Thanks..