Sunday, May 25, 2008

Freelancing Tips - Don't Do It All Yourself

Today's tip is through inspiration by Suzanne James, one of my mentors. Suz talks about doing everything yourself. This advice is very worthwhile. Even if you're a jack of all trades, that doesn't mean you're a master of all of those trades. Sometimes you need to make an investment in a particular area and get someone to do it for you.

As a writer running your own professional business, you should definitely learn a bit about every aspect of running a business but that doesn't mean you shouldn't delegate or outsource some things you're not awesome at. Take the time to hone your skills on specialties but don't be afraid to ask for help with various aspects of running your business such as SEO, bookeeping or accounting, graphic design or web design.

I firmly believe in learning as much as I can about every aspect of my business but I'd much rather pay $99 for a kick butt logo or pay to get my book cover designed by a pro than toil for days to make it myself and get a result that is just so-so.

Suz's post:
http://writer-writer.com/2008/05/19/the-diy-trap/

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love going around the net and finding people who have responded to my articles.

I think this is a very tender point for me. I was a loyal DIY for 4 years - and never made money.

Last summer a friend told me I was an idiot and said 'try outsourcing' for 90 days. I did this and within weeks I was making more money, getting more page hits, and more productive than I had in the last 5 years.

Annie said...

Um, this is so true though I hate to admit it because my DIY addiction is fierce. But after spending a couple of hours today on a front page redesign for one of my sites... yes. I must admit that outsourcing is a wise move. The page is okay, but I could have written a couple of articles and made enough money in that time to pay to get it done and have a great result. Okay, I'm getting there...

Anonymous said...
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Dana Prince said...

I hear ya, Annie! Sometimes I get extra stubborn and decide I have to figure out something myself even if it means loss of productivity but I'm trying to grow and learn to let go of some of it :)

Thanks for stopping in.

Anonymous said...

The page is okay, but I could have written a couple of articles and made enough money in that time to pay to get it done and have a great result.

Anonymous said...

I think writer as a professional business is not too bad.A good writer can represent many important thing to us.