Do you have some downtime over the summer? If so, you might want to spend some time focusing your business vision. Do you have downtime most of the time? If so, you really want to spend some time focusing your business vision.
Most freelancers I know do not have a business vision. Nor do they have a business plan. That’s unfortunate because your business vision defines the business life you want to live. The business plan includes the concrete objectives and marketing tasks that support your vision, but it all starts with your business vision.
Defining your business vision is not as onerous a task as you might imagine; it is more important a task than you might think. Without a business vision, how will you know where you want to go? How will you create a road map (business plan) to get you there?
To define your vision, answer the five “W” questions — who, what, where, when and why — from a business perspective. Allow me to briefly review the W5 questions from the perspective of someone who aspires to be a freelance writer.
- Who do you want to be? A freelance writer.
- What do you want to do? As a freelance writer, you could go corporate or you might write for newspapers and magazines. You need to decide what you want to do before you write your business plan and start marketing your services.
- Who do you want to do it for? There are many corporate sectors and many types of periodicals. You will not write for all of them. Logically plan the sectors or types of publications you will target before your write your business plan and start marketing your services.
- Where do you want to do it from? If like me you want to work from home, it means you will not take contract positions that involve commuting to work. In other words, you business vision will help you both accept and reject various types of work.
- When do you want to do it? Will you take the whole summer off? If so, you don’t want to be doing any marketing in June!
- Why do you want to do it? Knowing why you want to freelance will help motivate you to do the work required to get your business off the ground.
Once you have completed the above, review your answers and use your business vision to help you formulate your business and marketing plans or figure out how you will make your visions real.
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Paul Lima is a freelance writer and trainer and the author of Everything You Wanted to Know About Freelance Writing… and Build A Better Business Foundation: Create a Business Vision, Write a Business Plan, Produce a Marketing Plan. You can read more about Paul’s books online at www.PaulLima.com/books.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I like the idea of having a business vision, especially as I start out in my freelance writing business for the second time here
If you don’t know the possibilities, how can you have a vision of what it looks like? It’s like saying pick your favorite food in the whole world…but you’ve never been outside of Idaho.
Presumably, if you want to start a particular business, you have some sense of the possibilities — so at least you know where Idaho is! If you think you’d ‘just like to start a business’ because you want to quit your day job or you were laid off, you have some homework to do, to determine what you want to do, so that you can create a more detailed vision. Most of the people I coach have been writing or editing for a while and they have a sense that they’d like to expand their business or shift directions–maybe move from writing for periodicals to writing for the corporate market. The business vision exercises gets them thinking about what, specifically, they want to do and who, specifically, they want to do it for. Sometimes it leads them to find business under their nose, in Idaho so to speak, and sometimes it leads them to explore territory outside of Idaho, as in outside their comfort zone, which can be a constuctive thing to do. And yes, sometimes it leads them to do more thinking about the who, what, where, when and why. However, without answers to those questions, it sure as heck is difficult to figure out the ‘how’, so the time spend upfront on the business vision helps make the time spent on the ‘how’ much more focused and productive.
Thanks for your answer.
It just seems like when you’re writing as a career you really have to throw yourself into whatever it is you’re working on. Example: If I wanted to write for trade publications instead of what I’m writing now, I would have to research trade publications and how to write for them, then try it out.
It’s just not feasible to try *everything* out because there are too many types of writing assignments out there to become an expert at all of them. Is that what a coach is for? Someone that knows what the different kinds of writing are like and then can help someone go the right direction?
Because my business vision could be to write for trade journals, but if that turns out to be boring and awful (I don’t know if it would be or not, so I’m not judging trade journals) do I just scrap it and start a new business vision and start researching all over again?
It seems like just because you have been writing “for a while” it doesn’t mean you suddenly have an inherent understanding of how different types of writing differ as well as how the industry that surrounds how that writing gets edited and published differs. *grin*
Again, I appreciate your answers and thank you for your time!
In some ways, you have stated my case more eloquently than I have. If you wanted to write for trade publications instead of what you are writing now, then you business vision has shifted. As your business vision shifts, your ‘how’ (or marketing plan) shift. You still need your vision because, as you say “it’s just not feasible to try *everything* out…” That is why you need the focus of a business vision.
I don’t know that you need a coach. I’d suggest some introspection first.
If your business vision turns out to be boring and awful, you shift your vision. It’s not carved in stone. I review mine once a year. Used to review it every 3 to 6 months. Having said that, if you do your research first, you might be able to forge a dynamic vision that evolves over time (rather than one you rip apart after 6 months).
All the best with it!
Wow…TheWealthyFreelancer is putting together a DREAM TEAM!
It’s great having you writing for this site as well, Paul.
I purchased your “Copywriting That Works” eBook a few months ago and found it tremendously helpful.
I’m looking forward to more articles from you!
I get it now. Plus I understand why it is important to have the vision even if it isn’t etched in concrete. If you’re going to try to do something, it makes sense to have a vision of being wildly successful at it in six months or a year. It keeps you on track.
I’m glad I found your site!
Dear Friends,
I started freelance writing initially as a hobby, then I took it for boosting my income as a part time work.
As some money started to roll in, I got satisfied, didn’t have any vision to further this business.
It ended in lack of confidence to go full time as a freelance writer despite having adequate online reputation and infrastructure.
Thanks. I will definitely work on it.
Regards.