Category Archives for Entrepreneurship
What Classic Monsters Can Teach Writers About Monster Clients
The night is dark.
Your lights flicker — and then go out.
Your heart is pounding. Your palms are sweating. The hairs on the back of your neck stand up.
Suddenly, you hear a soul-piercing sound echoing through your empty house, seemingly coming from everywhere at once, causing a chill to race up and down your spine and your skin to break out in a fevered sweat.
Is it the howl of a monster?
No, it’s worse.
It’s your client.
Healthy Boundaries for Professional Writers and Freelancers
When you love what you do for a living, it’s hard to establish boundaries around your work.
I’ve never had a regular job where I could motivate myself to wake up at five in the morning and get right to work, but being a professional freelancer does it. I want to spend as many waking hours as possible (and sleeping hours, if I could work in my sleep) writing, editing, and brainstorming new pitches and marketing strategies. Hell, I don’t even need coffee that early — my adrenaline kicks in and I’m ready to dive into work.
But recently, I’ve experienced what happens when I don’t put boundaries around my work. When you’re working 60+ hours per week, even if it’s doing something you love, there is a lot to balance.
There’s Only One Solution for Burnout and You’re Not Gonna Like It
As we are now halfway through October, I’d like to think that summer is finally over.
Thank god.
To a kid, summer means three months of ultimate relaxation and fun. It means no more classes, no more school work. Tons of time to chill.
But after you enter adulthood, summer really loses its meaning. Yes, we continue to have — and be affected by — the seasons, but there’s no more vacation mode. No more time to rest and recharge. It’s just another season you have to power through.
This was my first real summer of just “powering through,” and boy did I learn a lot.
Primarily, I learned that burnout is not at all fun and something you should try to avoid at all costs.
How to Get the Most Out of Hiring a Freelance Writer
How often do you ask for help with your work?
For most people, and especially for entrepreneurs, asking for help carries some stigma — there’s an unfortunate stereotype that suggests we should be able to do everything ourselves, and that asking for help is a sign of weakness or failure.
But in reality, no successful person has ever achieved what they’ve achieved alone. In fact, many of the most successful people are those who ask for help readily, intelligently, and without embarrassment.