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Self Assessment
4:04In our final video of the stage, we're going to ask ourselves a few questions. This self assessment is a chance for you to figure out whether a freelance career is right for you.
That was a lot of information to digest
all at once, so
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let's talk about what the key takeaways
are from everything we've discussed.
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Freelancing and being your own boss
requires knowledge and
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a set of skills that are quite different
from being a great employee.
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To understand if you would be good at
freelancing,
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you need to understand your capabilities
and your limits.
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In other words, you need to complete a
simple self-assessment.
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Ask these questions of yourself, and
evaluate your answers.
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If you answered a resounding yes,
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then freelancing is absolutely a career
path for you.
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If you answered no to all, or
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are unsure, then you might have to rethink
what you want to do.
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No's don't mean that you can't freelance,
it just means that you might be lacking in
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certain areas, and need to work on them if
you want to have a successful career.
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First up, are you self motivated?
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No one is going to tell you what to do, so
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you need to be able to get up on time, get
yourself to work, and get things done.
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The self motivation should manifest itself
in different areas of your life.
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You should be motivated to teach yourself
new things, so
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you stay on top of the industry, and
always be in demand.
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You will need to break out of your comfort
zone, and
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tackle hard things like business
development.
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And, you will have to seek out events to
attend, so you can grow your network.
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All these things will be hard if your
strengths are solely technical.
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Bu, if you're motivated to learn, you
shouldn't have any problems.
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Do you have good time management skills?
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One of the advantages of freelancing is
being able to work whenever and
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wherever you want.
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But, the downside of that is it's easy to
get distracted.
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Can you set a strict schedule for yourself
to get things done?
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Can you dedicate time towards things which
are necessary for your career as
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a freelancer, but seem like they're
getting in the way of making money?
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Things like conferences, networking
events, and
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side projects, and even more important,
administrative work.
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All this can take up significant time out
of your week that you could spend working.
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Are you good at project management?
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If you don't get a handle on managing
projects,
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you won't last that long as a freelancer.
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Finding and securing work is one thing,
but
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keeping the client happy throughout the
entire process is quite another.
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Hitting your milestones and delivering
work on time is very important.
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Are you a good communicator?
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You will be the point of communication for
everything in your one-person business.
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You will need to be good at talking to new
clients,
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good at pitching to these clients, good at
keeping them updated, and
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great at appeasing them if they get
annoyed or angry.
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You have to be amazing at keeping your
cool with difficult clients, and
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getting them to work with you, and pay
you.
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Being a good communicator is essential to
succeeding as a freelancer.
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Do you embrace change?
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Nothing is steady about freelancing.
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Clients come and go, and your paycheck
fluctuates often.
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You have to be okay with that.
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You have to be able to adapt to the
situation, and
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work as hard as you can, and as smart as
you can, to overcome the obstacles.
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As daunting as it sounds, it can be fun.
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You can branch out and try different kinds
of projects, be an author,
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write a book, get paid to teach other
people.
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There's many things you can do, but at the
core of it, you have to be okay with
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trying all these different things, and
being prepared for the unknown.
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Like I said earlier, answering no to any
of these questions doesn't make
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freelancing a bad career choice for you.
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If I had to pick a few characteristics
that are really important,
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it's that you are a self-motivated
individual, and that you embrace change.
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There are lots of people who start out
freelancing being bad at
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most things required.
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But, that didn't stop them.
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They were motivated enough to overcome all
of their shortcomings,
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learn what they needed to, and succeed.
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Spend some time answering these questions
for yourself.
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Again, it's not about having all these
skills right at the outset, but
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determining whether you're the type of
person that can learn these
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things as you go.
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