Last year, when I was clarifying what sort of direction I wanted to take my (then non-existent) business in, I took Jen Carrington’s Writing for Dream Clients course.
One of the exercises was to think about what your brand values. Now, I am just one person, working mostly from my sofa or in the library, but I absolutely believe that if you represent yourself online in some way, you are essentially creating an online brand for yourself.
So the question was, when people come across you online, what do you want them to see? What values do you want to get across when they find you?
Since taking the course, months ago, my business has changed pretty significantly, and I’m soon going to be taking the plunge to go fully self-employed. With that in mind, the question of what my values are seems more important than ever. Because it’s not just about how I represent myself online now, it’s about how I want to work, and how I want people to work with me. So, I thought maybe it was time to share what I came up with.
1. Ease
This is the one that came straight away. Anyone who has worked with me in an office environment knows that my preferred default position is calm. I often get people coming to me with office stress because I’m good at finding the reason behind the stress and coming up with solutions.
It is unlikely that being self-employed will be easy. I know there will be challenges to come. But I do want to approach it from a starting point of ease, not hustle. Hustling, to me, is stressful.
That means planning my finances carefully. It means thinking in advance of how much work I need to (and want to!) get done per day. Finding regular clients to help stave off the feast vs famine I’ve seen so many freelancers go through. Planning in self-care from day one.
I also want this sense of ease to flow through to my clients. What systems can I put in place to make hiring me as easy as possible? How can I work with them so that they enjoy working with me and want to come back to me time and again?
Hopefully, it’ll be hard but rewarding work to get there, but the result will be less hustle and more space, and that can only be a good thing.
2. Be of service
I’ve set my rates at a reasonably high level. I know they are in line with the market, and what I have paid freelancers in the past, so I’ve not gone crazy. But I know my work is not cheap.
With that in mind, I want to make sure that what I’m delivering is valuable to my clients. I’ve been putting a lot of thought into different packages I can offer people.
First, I have the Empowered Author Facebook group, which is totally free, as well as my fortnightly email (also free).
Then, I have my digital products, which I put out at a super low cost to help people who just need something they can work through, step-by-step, on their own.
And finally I have one-to-one solutions, which are more expensive.
I know that because I’ve set realistic prices for that one-to-one work, not everyone can afford to work with me. And that’s fine – I can’t do a full day’s work for free.
But, if someone just needs a couple of pointers, I want to be able to help them with that. If you ever just need a quick pair of eyes over something (rather than an in-depth analysis!) I’m always happy to help.
3. Community over competition
This is a huge one for me. I enjoy working with my colleagues in the office so much, and always have. I hate the idea that, as a freelancer, I am now in competition with other freelancers for work. I strongly believe that if we can help one another to do a better job, then we create more word of mouth for our services, which means there is more work for everyone.
How am I trying to foster this? Well, I’m part of a whole bunch of Facebook groups where creative small business owners help support one another. That’s been an amazing resource for me, getting help as I set this whole thing up. And hopefully I’ve been able to help other people, too, in their ventures.
I’ve also created a small whatsapp group with some friends who are now freelance marketers. If we need a second look over a plan we’ve written, we’re there for one another. If we get a client who needs help we can’t provide, we’re there for one another. It’s teeny tiny for now, because I only wanted to include people I felt would absolutely be supportive. But at some point I would love to make it a bit bigger, because I know there are a lot of other people out there who feel the way I do.
I also want to try to encourage it in the industry as a whole. Big goal there. I know there are anti-competition laws, and we can’t share how much we pay people etc etc, but the more people that read, the more people that read, right?
Have you ever run any projects that encouraged collaboration among competitors? How did you get people to open up? Is it just me being overly ambitious? Probably. But it’s got to be worth a try, right?
So, those are the values I am starting this business from. They are the reason I am pursuing it with such drive, because I want to be able to integrate them into everything I do going forward.
Have you ever run this kind of exercise on your business? Or if you’re not self-employed, is it something you could think about within the context of your career? As always, I would love to know your thoughts!
Want to work together clarifying your online presence? Get in touch about how we could work together.
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