In the background

When you went out on your own, did you expect “business stuff” to take up so much of your day?

Or did you expect:

• to still be doing your craft, just a whole lot more of it
• on your own terms
• for your own clients
• while keeping the whole cash pie, rather than just a slice of it?

Some of the stuff that can take a new soloist by surprise, particularly when switching from employment to self-employment, can include (but is not limited to):

• Drumming up new business (your employer took care of that in the background)
• Invoicing, bookkeeping, and accounting (they probably had an accounting department, or the owner was doing it in the background)
• Writing proposals (this also happened in the background)
• Dealing with faulty laptops, crashing hard drives and other frustrating IT stuff (we all deal with some of this most days, but most likely, you showed up at your employers office on your first day with all of this already in place, and any ongoing issues were dealt with in the background)
• Managing contractors or employees (happened in the background)
• Paying taxes (this was managed automatically for you, in the background)

Now that you’re running your own show, all of the “in the background” stuff has suddenly landed on your desk.

When you fully appreciate that, you have a few options:

1. Get better at all the background stuff
2. Get better at the stuff you can tolerate, and outsource the rest
3. Simplify things, so you have less of the background stuff
4. If it’s just not for you, swallow your pride and head back to contracting or employment

There’s no shame in that last option by the way – running a business is hard, and it’s definitely not for everyone. Even if you’re freelancing, you’re likely doing at least some of the above.

If all of that background stuff is making you shudder because it’s all on you at the moment… but you don’t want to throw it all in and go back to employment… options 2 and 3 are worth thinking about.