4 Metrics When Considering Success As A Freelancer or Small Business Owner
Unlike being employed at an organization where someone is telling you what to do and when to do it, defining and understanding success as a freelancer or small business owner is directed by you vs. an HR team. As the boss, shall we say, you need to institute measures or metrics of success when considering your goals and opportunities of your business. Here’s how.
1. Get Clear On Your Financial Goals
When I started my side hustle business, this blog and career coaching services, I knew I needed to keep my full time job for things like healthcare, retirement and of course, a full-time paycheck. So the idea of simply replacing my full-time income with my business income was never going to happen for me, or at least, I didn’t have that intention when I started out.
Getting clear on why you started your business and what goals you have for the business will help you figure out what success looks like specifically for you. For me, I wanted to make at least $6,000 a year because that is how much you could contribute to a Roth IRA at the time and my goal with my business was to catch up on my retirement savings.
Knowing I wanted to make at least 6k a year, gave me a goal of $500 per month. I started out charging $75 an hour for my coaching services so simple math told me I needed to coach for about 7 hours a month to make a little over $500. Having a goal of 7 hours a month helped me formulate sales and marketing plans that focused on a smaller scale as that is all I needed. No sense in spending $500 a month on Instagram ads if I’m only trying to make $500 a month, right?
2. Assess Your Working Hours
As I built up my business, I started charging $100 an hour. At this point, I had a decision to make. I could either coach less (5 hours a month) and still make my Roth IRA payment each month or I could keep working 7 hours a month and make an additional $200 a month. For me, as I have a full-time job and commitments beyond work, I decided to keep my coaching business at $500 a month and save those two hours to work on something else- this blog!
Assessing where your time and energy goes throughout the evolution of your business is key to avoiding burnout. If you are working 7 days a week and doing everything from social media to front line work, consider what are the tasks that you absolutely need to be doing to bring in revenue or what tasks can you start outsourcing once you get some funds built up.
Need Help With Your Job Search?
Enroll in our online course, Find a Job Fast: The Job Search Accelerator For Career Professionals
3. Consider Outsourcing When It’s Right
At some point in your business, freelancer or solopreneur career, it makes sense to outsource. How do you know that time has come? Well some of it is money, do you actually have something to give to folks who are giving you their time or expertise? And secondly, you get to a point that your time is worth more doing what you do best vs. doing what you have to do to keep the business running.
For example, I could pay a marketing intern $10 an hour to post to my social media accounts or blogging. I charge $100 an hour for career coaching. It doesn’t make sense for me to spend an hour of my time valued at $100 managing social media when I can outsource it for $10. The huge caveat here is if you enjoy doing tasks you could pay someone less than you would earn yourself, then keep doing it!
I love writing, I’m an academic in my full-time job so long-form content creation is so liberating and attractive to me. Can I outsource blogging? Absolutely. But I still do a fair decent amount of writing on this blog because I enjoy it. It’s as simple as that.
4. Metrics That Provide Strategic Direction
In blog writing, while I can technically write on anything I want to (I’m the editor, writer and publishing boss all in one!) I do use some version of analytics to better understand how I can position content my readers would actually find of value. The whole point of my business is to help people. If I’m not doing that, how can I be successful?
I use website analytics and Pinterest analytics the most in deciding what topics and titles to write about next. Sometimes I ride the wave of what is popular on LinkedIn, other times I write on topics that come up in my coaching sessions. Metrics are a good thing when you use them in a meaningful way. Will my blog ever get as many views as the top career blogs ranked on Google? Probably not (or at least not yet!) but I’m not using analytics to compare myself against the top giants in my field. I’m using analytics to better connect with my audience and guide my strategic direction.
I don’t care what everyone in the world is searching for on Google, I care about my audience, my ideal client. What are they searching for? How can I best support them? Be intentional with your metrics, if you can’t see a way to incorporate them into your strategy, then they probably aren't that helpful in the first place.
Lastly…
Remember, only you can define what success looks like for you and your business. While it’s helpful to look around the market and see what your competitors are doing, never base your success off what others are seemingly doing on things like social media. You’re the captain of your own ship, take the adventure you want because you want to do it, not because someone else has done it before you!
Related:
Meet The Writer!
Hi! My name is Nadia Ibrahim-Taney and I help people design happy and fulfilling careers through authentic career coaching. My expertise includes career exploration guidance, resume writing, interview prep and LinkedIn profile optimization. My pronouns are She/ Her/ Hers and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I focus on how diverse identities impact and influence folks holistically and professionally. Please connect with me on LinkedIn or at Nadia@beyonddiscoverycoaching.com
