How do you get there from here? Goal update.
Posted by Theda K. on 21 Nov 2008 | Tagged as: Freelance writing, Home Business
A couple of weeks ago I shouted from the mountaintop that I had a goal and a plan for my freelance writing business. So how’ve I been doing?
Truthfully, I haven’t been as successful as I wanted. I couldn’t carve out 2 hours each day for making contacts, finding myself home only when me or my daughter was under the weather.
Am I giving up? NO!
Instead, I’m going to change my plans, though not my goal. It’s important to recognize when your plan may not work out. Otherwise you just spend day after day beating yourself up about your failure, and you find yourself no closer to the goal.
Imagine you’re taking a trip from your house to a nearby park. You plan to take a right on Main Street, a left on 2nd Avenue, a left on Park St., and then drive straight for about 10 miles. But you find construction at various points along the way, and realize there’s no way you can take that well-planned route. Do you just turn around and go back home, sulking while you eat a bag or two of chips? Of course not (I hope)!
You map out a new route and try again. It might take you longer, and you might get lost, but at least you’re still trying.
So, my new plan is to contact at least 10 prospects each day, via cold call or cold email. My goal is the same, though I realize it may take a little longer to get there. We’ll see.
Have you made changes in your entrepreneurial plan? Share your story with us!
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Theda,
Good for you for recognizing you need to change your plan to reach your goal. Good luck with your new plan.
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Thanks Lillie!
Hi Theda,
Thank you for linking to The Golden Pencil! I thought since it sounds like you’re in query/cold calling mode that you might like to join a weekly challenge I’ve started called The Rejection Letter Olympics.
I’m basing this weekly challenge on the sage advice of Thomas Watson, founder of IBM: “If you want to increase your success rate, double your failure rate.”
Along the same lines, someone early on in my freelance career told me that every “no” gets you closer to a “yes.” So taking that theory to heart, I am setting up this challenge to reward you for sticking your freelance neck out there and risking rejection.
I hope you’ll stop over and join us!
Jenny Cromie’s last blog post..Week 1: The Rejection Letter Olympics
Hi Jenny, Thanks for inviting me. I need a nudge, especially now that there’s Facebook along with a million other things to distract me from my plan and goal.
I’ll head over to your site right now (before I forget)!
Thanks for stopping by.
So it has been couple of days now. How is your progress going? Did you enjoy your weekend? It is a numbers game so keep up the good work and I’m glad you decided to switch up your game plan.
Hi Vanessa. I’m not doing as well as I’d like (life keeps getting in the way), but I did have a 10 contact day and another day with about 3.
My plan may have to change again, but I’m staying the course.
Thanks for asking!
You know if you want to work as a freelancer then you have to work for long time and quality work. With hard working skills you will be succeed in freelancing.
I sure hope so!
Well said about the writing business.And it was the basic principals of business you have said was right. and it helped me a lot thank u.
You’re welcome, and thanks for taking the time to comment.
Just hang in there. Rework your plan and see what happens!
Terry’s last blog post..Medium Base HPS
Thanks Terry!
There is no business that is dead-easy to do- be it traditional or online. We need to have persistence and focus to achieve our business goal and despite of the difficulties we are facing, we should be always hopeful.
Good point, Hans. If you lose hope, then you never get anywhere.
True that. You need to keep your eye on the goal, and make sure you don’t get tangled up in the plans. It might be difficult to carve out a couple of hours, but I think maybe if you carried around a wi-fi enabled laptop, you could do it bit by bit whenever you have free time.
I do have wi-fi, but most places I go don’t. I need to get one of those portable/plug-in modem card thingees. One of these days…
But I’ll keep my eye on the goal, as you said. It’s amazing how life truly does get in the way sometimes, though.
You can see, we all are there with you. so you can do it..Never give up hope….till there is hope , there is life..remember…
Thanks Monty!
Hi Theda!
That was an inspirational post!! The way I was going with work was taking me absolutely nowhere. And I was not much bothered too! But your post sort of gave me a pinch! Very nice post. Looking forward to reading more of you.
I’m glad I could inspire you, and thanks for the comment!
no problem! you are most welcome!
10 a day huh? Sounds fair. Im going to tell my partner that, she’s in charge of the contacts side of things and gets disheartened by the failure rate.
stumbled the site by the way and sent her a link to the post. Hope you get some bidness soon.
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