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by Claudia Folgore-McLellan\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
It quite aptly feels like January and February are one long, drawn out month and I\u2019m sure most of us are suffering latent fatigue from having had to push that much harder in the past year. As solopreneurs and freelancers, the demands on us are just that much greater, it\u2019s literally a permanent no work, no pay situation. The \u2018holidays\u2019 also often feel like an extension of the year that casually morphs into a new one with the only change being the date. With Covid fatigue we\u2019ve all felt the exhaustion from being hyper virus vigilant. The easy option is to simply give up (even just a bit to have a rest) \u2013 the better option, though, is to KEEP PUSHING!<\/strong>
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Running a business in South Africa, during a global pandemic, battling with intermittent load shedding and failing wi-fi connections, during a double recession, is NOT for the feint hearted. Alas, we do it, we battle all odds to get the work done. If anything, our resilience is a force to be reckoned with.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Take a deep breath\u2026<\/p>\n
Plan a few days of reprieve and start next week with a solid plan of action. A plan that you haven\u2019t tried yet or at least made an effort to jot down and follow. There is magic in trying new things, experimenting with what you know you\u2019re capable of.<\/p>\n
How inspiring is this thought?<\/p>\n
\u201cYou are\u00a0never too young\u00a0to build an\u00a0empire\u00a0and\u00a0never too old to start\u00a0a new dream.\u201d <\/strong>Keep that in the back of your mind while you recharge and allow it to motivate you to find your bearing.<\/p>\n
Being a freelancer takes tenacity, considerable grit, and self-belief that very often needs to be inflated so as to not suffer the creeping lurgies of imposter syndrome and all those other complex insecurities. <\/strong>I recently read a tweet from York Zucchi that seemed perfectly accurate, he said, \u201cEntrepreneurs are neither born nor made. Entrepreneurs are panel beaten.\u201d \u2013 how true is that? I\u2019m sure we all feel a bit battered and bruised after 2020, 2021 and making it to 2022. It\u2019s now February 2022 and I\u2019m feeling cautiously optimistic about the economy opening up and things normalising somewhat. I\u2019ve already had two in-person meetings which is more than I\u2019ve had in the past two years. Zoom is still a time-saving, safe commodity but I\u2019ll be honest and admit I\u2019ve missed visiting busy offices and enjoying coffee with a potential client over a casual introductory meeting \u2013 I\u2019ve noticed I\u2019ve become quite chatty and perhaps I\u2019m making full use of my daily word quota.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s no time to give up, trust me. Put your \u2018A\u2019 into \u2018G\u2019 and start March 2022 with a clear mind and a healthy dose of positivity about your future.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a list I\u2019ve compiled as a guide for you to use as a starting point:<\/strong><\/p>\n
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Get over the \u2018I can\u2019t\u2019 attitude, it takes up too much space in the mind and apply yourself to making a list of what you CAN do and WANT to do.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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What\u2019s your best offering? Build on it, price it right, and then package it.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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Be consistent with how you describe your offering across all marketing channels ie: LinkedIn Profile, Website, Twitter Bio etc.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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Define your Goals: An example of a goal is \u2018to increase your client base\u2019
(four goals is a good starting point and not too overwhelming)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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Work on your Objectives to reach those goals: detail \u2018how\u2019 you\u2019re going to go about achieving them.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n
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Start advertising yourself where you know your ideal customer will learn about you and start conversations.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
I\u2019ve included a valuable link to a FREE online course compliments of my associate York Zucchi (Founder of The StartUp Tribe) has put together to help get you on track https:\/\/www.thestartuptribe.org\/courses\/how-to-find-clients<\/a><\/p>\n
If you are a solopreneur, entrepreneur or owner of a retail or corporate business and would like to know more about how you can leverage your brands\u2019 potential, get in touch with me.\u00a0Email me at\u00a0 hello@visual8.co.za<\/a>\u00a0and visit my website at\u00a0 www.visual8.co.za<\/a>\u00a0to know more.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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by Claudia Folgore-McLellan\u00a0 It quite aptly feels like January and February are one long, drawn out month and I\u2019m sure most of us are suffering latent fatigue from having had to push that much harder in the past year. As solopreneurs and freelancers, the demands on us are just that much greater, it\u2019s literally a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-feed"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nileharvest.us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}