Here is a New Year’s wish for all self-employed Sitepoint readers:
Work hard in 2006 to be lazy in 2007.
What does that mean? Some of you already know. Some of you don’t have a clue.
Too many of you are working too hard to continue to work hard. You are working with clients, doing it all yourself, building nothing with lasting value, failing to put systems in place. So your life is destined to be about constantly chasing clients, working for clients, and chasing new clients. This is a recipe for a decent living, but not for achieving your most ambitious financial goals.
Instead, work hard to stop working so hard. Work on your business. Put automatic marketing systems in place. Get known as a “go to” professional in your field, a guru if you will, so clients come to you. Develop repeatable products and solutions, so you make it once and sell it thousands of times. Create income-generating websites that you own, and that you can “set and forget.” Build a network of experts/contractors/employees that you can hire onto projects for you.
Work all of next year, really hard, on doing the above. Then in 2007 you can start reaping the rewards of this strategy. You can start getting a bit “lazy,” as revenues come to you and you have a business that’s worth something.
Lazy doesn’t mean complacent. It means you have incredible sources of leverage, thanks to smart business practices. So you make lots of money even if you don’t spend all of your time with clients. And you continue focusing on building other sources of leverage, while improving existing products and processes.
Have a prosperous New Year!
Andrew Neitlich
