2008 Has Started!
The quiet interlude between Christmas and New Year presents a brilliant opportunity to get the decks cleared and ready for the New Year. Unlike our American cousins who seem to accept that Christmas and New Year are two different and seperate holidays, we Brits seem to merge the holidays into one big one. You can call it “thinking time” all you like however now is the time to consider stealing a march on your competition and get some work in for a good start to 2008.
I’ve bid on half a dozen projects on GAF in the last couple of days and won three of them. I have bids on several other sites too as I fully intend to be swamped for January, immerse myself in my new offices (aka daughter’s old bedroom) and now is the time to be getting the work in.
While your competition are taking a well earned break from the keyboard, demand for someone to fill the needs of clients is high. You can charge higher rates, get more work and make yourself indispensable to a whole raft of new clients who are going to remember your work ethic in the New Year. Now is an opportunity to be different from the competition, and make some good money to settle those fattened credit card bills that are being prepared to drop through your letterboxes in a couple of weeks time.
This is also a very good time to get yourself organised and clear out any lingering, non-productive administration tasks. I have bought several adsense domains and have been working on getting them set up and hosted properly, plus I’ve taken some time to get my bookkeeping in order. Whatever you have lying around that has been put off, get it done now so you can ride into the New Year unencumbered.
If you are working on a calendar year for your business, now is the time to make sure you have a business plan in place for 2008. Truth be told, you already should have one in place anyway but if you don’t, use this couple of days to get one down on paper and give some serious thought to what you are looking to achieve for 2008. Mine is already prepared but I’ve been taking some time to look it through and cogitate on the ramifications. I know what I earned last year and the effort I had to put in for it, but there have been some learning experiences along the way and one of my ambitions for 2008 is to double my income over 2007. Just as we are exhorted to be passionate and definite when it comes to our writing, the same applies to business planning; there is no point in being wishy-washy if you need to make enough to pay the bills and keep the wolf from the door.
2008 is going to be a year of plenty and my third year scribbling but while my competition is still gorging itself on turkey, ham and christmas pud, I’ve already started the New Year.