FEAR.

Good old fear, here we are again. It comes not-so-cleverly cloaked in post titles such as:

• How to get over the fear.
• Negotiating with fear to get your life back.
• Moving through fear to achieve your goals.
• 8 ways to harness fear’s energy like a frickin’ windmill.
• What’s that smell? Oh that? Don’t worry, I just went fear in my pants.
• “Mommy, I can’t sleep. The Fear Fairy is making a sandwich in my closet.”

(You wish other people were coming up with stuff that good.)

I swear, if I had a dime for every breakthrough method for living with fear, I’d have at least enough money for a sizable burrito.

Well, instead of just complaining about it, I’m going to continue complaining about it while also give you my unsolicited opinions on how to stop this madness and get on with life once and for all. You’re welcome.

Fear 101

First off, what is fear?

It’s an emotion. Like happiness, or sadness. It happens to not be a very fun emotion, but it is one nonetheless.

You’ll notice, if you’re paying close attention, that I just put fear-focused life-coaches out of business. See, because fear isn’t a bridge you can “traverse”. It’s not a mountain you “get over”. And it’s certainly not a used car salesman that you “negotiate with”.

It’s an emotion.

The bitch about emotions is that they come about by living life. Happiness is a reaction to awesome things happening. Sadness is a reaction to sad things happening. And fear, well, that’s what you feel when you think stuff is scary.

Life and emotions… they’re inextricable from each other.

If you want to feel no emotions, don’t be alive. (Disclaimer: That’s not a suggestion. I’m talking hypotheticals here. Sheesh.)

So excluding death and nonexistence, we’re left with one option: feeling different emotions.

If you want to feel different emotions, do things differently than the way you’re doing them.

Fear, decisions and you

Now that I’ve delivered that happy news, let’s look at what we do about fear.

Nothing. At least not directly.

Here, let’s start this off with an example, as it’ll help you see where I’m heading with this tirade. And it’ll also show you that I’m not “one of the lucky ones” who was born with the amazing capacity to feel no fear.

I’m afraid of flying

Fact: I’m afraid of flying. I hate it. You know the part I hate most? The part between getting on the plane and then getting off again hours later. I don’t just hate taking off or landing or the smell of those awful TV dinners they serve. I even hate making the reservation, knowing it means I’ll have to fly.

Problem: Recently I had to get to Florida from Seattle, a six-hour flight.

Result: I could either fly to Florida or decide not to.

Here’s the mental process that went on in my head (and this might drive it all home for you, seriously):

• “I have to get to Florida.”
• “Fuck me if I’m driving or sitting on a train for a week.”
• “Shit. Looks like I’m flying.”

Or, if you prefer a more stick-it-on-the-refrigerator-for-the-kids version:

• What do you have to do?
• What are your options?
• Make a decision and get on with it.

See where fear is in there? Nowhere, that’s where. It’s got nothing to do with it.

It doesn’t matter why I’m afraid. It doesn’t matter how I can harness it, what it feels like “deep down inside”, if I fill out your online coaching questionnaire, what it has to do with my cerebral cortex, or if it’s Freud’s left nutsack that’s responsible.

I either get on the plane, or I don’t.

Fear has a role, I guess, but a fairly minor one. Like the dude in the stands at the football game, whose entire contribution was showing up naked and holding up a big foam #1 finger.

Fear is a residue, a piece of baggage, a key fob. Fear is the little fish that rides around on the bellies of majestic sharks.

It’s nothing in comparison to you, the real you and what you decide to do.

YOU decide on your life. You’re the driver. Maybe you decide not to fly because you’re afraid. Or maybe you just go right on and fly anyway, urinating and white-knuckling it the entire way. It’s your call.

The very important thing to remember is this:

When you make a decision you’re going to experience some result. What matters is if it’s the result you want.

Let’s put this baby to bed, for now

Here it is, one more time: The Good Stuff:

• Look at what you want to accomplish
• Figure out how best to accomplish that thing
• Make the decision, get on with it and assume responsibility for all that that entails

Every second you spend traipsing through fear’s garden of yuck is a second you waste on being alive.

Fear sucks, but it just happens to be part of life sometimes. It comes about when things are changing, often for the better.

So go out, make decisions, choose your paths and take responsibility for how that affects others and yourself.

And if your life coach ever brings fear up, tell him I say he’s fired.

Yeah, Charlie, but what do we actually DO about fear?

Now, as a warning, we’re going to talk about this fear thing once more. Next week I’m going to put up the defining post on the practicalities of fear in life. And I’ll even give you some ideas on mitigating it a bit.

I mean, for all my grandiose talk about just getting on with things, fear certainly makes it uncomfortable to do so sometimes. It can lead to poor decisions and a life going the opposite direction from where you intended, and that’s no good.

So we’re also going to talk examples next week. Practical, real-life examples. We’ll look at what happens when you make decisions based on what you want, and what happens when you decide based on avoiding fear.

Until next week!

Doctors and internet specialists have just discovered an awful new disease called Subscriberitis.

It infects people of all races and income levels, but those most susceptible are young, very young, elderly, middle-aged, super old, male, female and anyone who subscribes to newsletters and blog feeds they don’t need.

There are many symptoms of Subscriberitis, including but not limited to:

• A full inbox
• Rapid and psychotic bashing of the “Delete” key
• Repeated dishonest use of the “Mark as Read” function
• Fear that your feed reader must be malfunctioning
• Paranoid suspicions that people update their blogs for no other reason than to piss you off
• Flagging interest in the affairs of others, even family
• Also dry eyes, cotton mouth, shriveled privates, swamp foot and constipation. Possibly also stunted growth and death.

Luckily there’s a free and somewhat ticklish self-exam you can perform in the privacy of your own home…

How to know if you have Subscriberitis

This simple and 100% accurate exam can be completed by simply answering Yes or No to the following questions:

• Do you have too many blogs to read?
• Do you even care about all those newsletters?
• Can’t be bothered?

If you answered yes, no or maybe to any of those, you have Subscriberitis really really bad.

Luckily there’s a cure.

How to cure Subscriberitis…at least for a little while

If Subscriberitis is the unprotected exposure to too many blog posts and newsletters, a logical cure would be to just get rid of a bunch of them.

And that’s exactly what we’re going to do. It’s time to start practicing Safe-Subscribing.

But wait! We don’t want you unsubscribing to everything under the sun or doing something you’ll regret later. Take IgniteLiving here. Unsubscribing to this blog would be a terrible life decision.

So, here’s a handy system that can help you determine…

Which subscriptions to keep and which to throw out.

1. I mean, really? Do you even read it anymore?
It’s painfully obvious, but why not just dump the ones you don’t read? I had a bunch of blogs in my RSS reader that I didn’t read for months. There was even one in there about math. Math?! What the…I’ve never even heard of that.

So a couple times a week, without even glancing at them, I’d highlight a handful of these feeds, click “Mark as Read” and go on my way. After a while, I realized I can save myself a bunch of time and just unsubscribe altogether.

2. Money, honey
Does the newsletter or blog subscription make you money? Does it increase your bottom line? Does it help you in any way to improve your business?

3. Time
Any newsletter or blog post is an investment on time. You have to read the stuff, right?

Well, is it worth your time? Does spending 15 minutes reading the information improve your life by 15 minutes? Will those 15 minutes have a return on investment? Or does that time just disappear, leaving you with nothing but a lasting rash?

4. Must-have Interests
I love playing guitar. It’s more than a hobby, but not at all related to my business or income. But that said, there’s more to life than money, and I can’t live without a bit of frivolous guitar immersion. It’s a must-have for me, lest I lose my angelic disposition.

And that’s the dividing line right there: is it a must-have or just a frivolous infatuation?

I mean, for three days last year you took a passing fancy to earthworm reproduction and the migratory patterns of cabbage, and now your feed reader looks like you’re preparing for a quiz show.

These and a bazillion other subjects don’t really warrant invasions into your life whilst you’re busy getting your show on the road.

And in those times when you do need a quick fix, well, that’s what Google’s for.

5. Happiness
A lot of people like TheOnion, a website devoted to humorous fake news. And certainly a lot of people visit YouTube. While neither TheOnion nor YouTube give us much, if any, monetary return on our investment, we don’t need to live spartan lives either. A certain amount of laughter and frivolity is absolutely as necessary to us as money and food.

Do the newsletters and blogs you subscribe to at the very least make you happy or provide laughter you might not otherwise get?

6. Broken Record Phenomenon
Here’s an example of the Broken Record phenomenon. I used to follow a guy who had great info about increasing sign-ups to your site and newsletter. I watched a video he made, learned about strategic spots to place sign-up forms and some resources to put in my sidebar.

Fast forward a couple months, now he’s got another handful of posts up and a dozen other videos and guess what they’re about? Strategic newsletter sign-up areas and sidebar resources. It’s a snooze-fest all up in here now. Deleted.

7. What happened to the old you?
One fella I used to follow focused on 3D modeling, something I’m rabidly fanatical about. And it’s not the most popular topic, so I was thankful I’d found him. But he suddenly changed tack on me, and pretty much all he talks about anymore is pinball. Yeah. From computer modeling to pinball.

I believe that’s the first lesson of How to Misuse Your Audience 101.

8. Is it an aggravation?
A while ago on Twitter I saw this witticism:

“Wealth impedes knowledge.”

And I just sort of went, “Gosh, really? That’s idiotic.” And because it was said by a guy of at least a little influence, I started envisioning all the kids out there taking it to heart, saying: “Hey, Pa, I hope I’m dirt-poor when I grow up so I can be really smart.”

It’s very petty of me, but I hate seeing stupid information like that because I get all bent out of shape and cry like a little baby. (Hey at least I’m honest, right?) To keep from losing the limited sense I still have, I don’t subject myself to the festering pustules on the underbelly of the web.

If it’s an aggravation, it’s probably best to be rid of it.

To be cured, you have to act

You brought Subscriberitis upon yourself, and only you can get rid of it.

If any of this seems complicated, just remember this simple bottom line:

If you don’t need it, don’t read it, and don’t get any joy from it, toss it out.

Also remember this:

It’s your inbox. What shows up in it is your responsibility.

I really hope the above helps you manage your Subscriberitis a bit better. With time, dedication and ongoing vigilance, you can expect to be cured and experience a full recovery.

Oh, and also remember to apply lotion. It’s got nothing to do with the cure, but it’s still nice.

“Should I start a business?”

“Should I write a book about that?”

“Should I try to sell my paintings?”

Of course the answer is: Yes, if you want to.

And you probably DO want to, else you wouldn’t have asked the question.

It doesn’t even warrant discussion. But then it gets “discussed” anyway:

“But what if I fail?”

“What if I lose money?”

“What if it doesn’t work?”

Nah. Forget that “What If” garbage.

It doesn’t matter What If.

You’re gonna find out What If once you get started, and not a moment sooner.

If you don’t get started you’ll never know. You’ll never know if your book would have sold a zillion copies. You’ll never know if people will like your paintings. You’ll never know if you’ll “make it” in music. Or show biz or whatever.

You will never ever ever find out what’s going to happen unless you start in that particular direction. You have to walk towards Point B to find out what the trail is going to be like and what you’re going to think about it.

You cannot figure this out with research. You cannot figure it out by looking at case studies. You can only find out what happens on the trail by getting on it and starting to move.

And then you’ll know. Better yet, you’ll know it by first-hand experience.

Those who don’t do…need advice.

But what if you don’t start, don’t get on the path?

From that point on, from the moment you fail to start, you’ll need advice.

“Do you think I should do it?”

“Should I try it?”

“What do you think about…?”

You’ll keep having to bounce your ideas off of other people until you sack-up enough to just do it already.

And of course some folks will say yes, some will say no, and you’ll be no further along.

No matter how much advice you get, you’ll never know until you start.

So just do it already.

And now I’ll leave you with some advice

I think of advice I’ve gotten over the years, some solicited and some not.

The least favorite was probably, “Go to college. You need to have a backup plan.” My dad was right when he said this. You do need a Backup Plan. But neither of us realized at the time that Backup Plans and Real Plans are almost exactly the same. The only difference between them is that if you fail at the Real Plan, you try even harder. Thanks, Pop.

The best advice was also from my father. We were on the phone talking about whether I should quit my comfy corporate job, something we’d been discussing for right around, oh…you know…three years.

At the end of the conversation I said, “I don’t know what to do.”

He laughed and said, “You just keep on saying that and we’ll keep on having this discussion. If anyone knows what you should be doing, it’s you. Just do it. We’re behind you all the way.”

And I did it.

And then I found out.

Thanks again, Pop.

And you?

What are you waiting for? If you’re waiting for someone to tell you “yes,” what would they be saying yes to?

Being competent at something is a goal we all embrace. And so we study, read, hire coaches, ask questions in advice columns, and the list goes on.

Study study study…that’ll get you there.

But it won’t.

Because the problem is:

• You cannot learn to write only by reading about writing.
• You cannot learn guitar only by watching videos of guitar players.
• You can’t become adept at braiding hair without touching someone’s head.

There is no replacement for doing.

As a writer, you learn pacing and style and voice by writing.

As a musician, you learn and become skillful in proportion to the amount of time your hands are on the instrument.

As a chef, you learn by burning everything to cinders in the process of perfecting your Five-Alarm Chili.

And, no, I’m not calling for an instant ceasing of all study.

Study as much as you want. Heck yes.

But then DO THE THING even more. And doing, of course, is in itself hands-on study.

How much time do you devote to this hands-on practice? That’s entirely up to you and the levels of proficiency you want to achieve.

And don’t just copy your competitor. It doesn’t matter how much time your competitor puts into it to achieve similar results. Fact is, everyone is probably built with different abilities. Ten hours of practice for Bob is not equivalent to ten hours of practice for Nancy, or you.

There is no replacement for doing.

What does matter is how much time you DO put in, in contrast to the time you DON’T put in. The ratio that really counts is how good you will be after putting in ten hours of practice, as compared to how good you will be if you only put in five.

And to get things done you also have to confront the tools of your trade, the space in which that trade is practiced, and even the actions involved.

How NOT to Get Things Done

Some people go about painting in this fashion:

“I’m going to paint something now.”

They go into the studio. They get their paper ready. They clean up a brush. They find a pile of empty paint tubes and make funny animal sculptures out of them. Then they clean up another brush. They leave the studio to make a sandwich. They go back in the studio and realize the paper they got out isn’t the right kind. They go do some research on the internet about proper papers. They clean some more brushes. Then they pick up the kids and that day is over.

That’s not confronting. That’s not painting. That won’t make you a professional.

How to REALLY Get Things Done

Confronting painting, on the other hand, would be this:

You go into the studio. It’s already clean because you confronted the mess the last time you were in there. You set up your paper, prepare a palette with paint, grab a brush, and start painting. The phone rings and you ignore it. The empty tubes get put in the trash and ignored. Your stomach grumbles and you keep on painting.

That’s doing.

No excuses, no sandwiches, no other fish to fry. Just painting.

And what about you?

What should you be doing? Is there anything you’ve been putting off?

Perhaps even more difficult to notice: is there anything you’re coyly dancing around? Something you’re putting effort and motion into, but only as an excuse to not really do The Thing?

What is it? Seriously, let me know. I’m really curious…

“I was wondering what your thoughts might be on my particular story. I started selling my artwork online last summer, using a venue in which I bid on requests for custom artwork. I had a modest success rate, and won a lot of the bids I placed. I also spent a lot of time bidding on more projects so that I would always have jobs lined up. Well, in addition to a number of personal circumstances that prevented me from working to full capacity, I took on too much work, neglected to communicate properly with a number of clients, and found myself working, sometimes, for about $3 an hour by the time I finished a project (drafts, revisions,etc etc). And in the meantime, a number of customers were understandably fed up with me. Quite a few went elsewhere, I’m sorry to say. The stress was incredible. I am a case study for what NOT to do.

“I want to learn from this mistake but now I have this terrible fear of putting myself out there again and making claims that promise prompt attention and fast work. I know I can keep the promise if I pace myself better, but I am rather humiliated by the way I ran everything before. Do you think I should change the name of my business and start over? Should I place a public apology with a brief explanation in my online shop? Open a different shop? I feel so paralyzed with indecision, with the overwhelming stress of dealing with my husband’s condition, the need to make some real money (not just enough to buy some groceries week-to-week, and also a number of personal issues. I feel like I have to apologize to the entire world because I botched things up so badly. Do you have any suggestions at all? Is it possible to rise above this?”

Basic Fundamentals

First thing I want to do is examine this as a business and keep the personal stuff out of it ‘til later.

You were winning bids, having at least a modicum of success, and things were going pretty well for a time. That’s good. That’s a business. It might not be a millions-a-year business, but it’s a business and you proved that it was a working machine.

Any business needs:

• a service or products or both
• customers who like your stuff enough to exchange money for it

You had that. Excellent! Now we need to organize around getting that product or service out the door efficiently.

Communication with Customers

This should be a whole post in itself, but I have to mention it here.

Communication is the most important part of your business and keeping the ball rolling and rolling smoothly.

Customers get pissed when they don’t know what’s going on. Being late angers customers. Being late and NOT communicating makes customers pretty much homicidal.

You. Have. To. Communicate.

There is no way around it.

And you don’t have to tell customers about every problem. Your job as a professional is to deliver by deadline despite the problems that arise. That’s on you and it’s your job, so don’t put every little thing on your customer’s plate.

However, if it is a problem that will affect the deadline, tell the customer immediately…the second you discover the problem. The time to tell the customer, “I’m going to be late,” is NOT after you’re already late. Don’t wait until the day of delivery to tell your client you have to move the delivery date.

I have never ever ever in three years lost a client due to too much communication. I have never in three years of business angered a client for being honest about a problem, delivery date, etc. I have never failed to win a commission because I communicated in a personal, fast and friendly fashion. I have won a number (at least a couple dozen) commissions based, according to the client, on the fact that my communication was fast and ever-present.

Communication wins and wins everything all the time.

Pacing

Pacing is extremely important. There was a time in my own business where, to make ends meet, I had to work about 14 hours a day, 7 days a week. It was fun because I like working, but that schedule doesn’t leave room for much else. If I’d had kids, or needed to run 3 hours a day to train for a marathon, something was going to snap.

A lot of this just gets down to math.

Let’s say you’re a painter.

Your rent is $1000.

You sell each painting for $250.

You need to sell 4 paintings just to make rent.

If each painting takes you two weeks to do, you’ve only got time for two paintings a month and that equals $500.

End result = you’re not making enough money.

What do you do about that?

You either raise your prices or speed up the painting process (without diminishing quality and sabotaging your product, of course). Let’s talk a bit about each…

Pricing

I’ve raised my prices 3 times in the past couple years and I’ve never seen clients run off or complain.

If you’re selling 2”x2” panels of fabric for $10,000 you’re not going to move much product. That price isn’t justified by the material cost, creativity, production time, nothing. It’s a rip-off and that’s that.

Your prices should reflect and encompass material costs, your time, etc. They also represent your creativity, which nobody else in the universe has.

Your prices shouldn’t be exorbitant, but they shouldn’t be piddly either.

There’s an old saying that, “Something is worth what people will pay for it.”

It’s sort of true but sort of BS at the same time. You might get some schmuck to pay $10,000 for your fabric sample, but the majority of people will maybe only give you $1. I’d say your product is worth what the majority of your target audience will pay for it.

Organizing For Production

There’s a difference between being organized and being organized for production. Organized means your house and office aren’t a total disaster. You know where stuff is and you don’t have to go searching around for things and waste time.

However, that’s the bare minimum of organization.

Organized for production is different. Keep your production area neat, yes, but don’t put away all the shit you’re gonna need next time you get down to business.

Case in point. I’m a musician and I like to record guitar music using my computer using a guitar-to-computer interface. I plug my guitar into the interface, then plug the interface into the computer, change some settings and I’m off. Only thing is, I hate fiddling with the interface and cords and all that crap so I just never end up recording. Don’t be me.

You Just Dropped a Bomb on London…Now What?

Now we get to the beefy part: you screwed over and/or pissed off and/or lost a bunch of clients due to lack of communication and delivery of product. Your business name is scarred and your reputation might be a little worse for the wear. What can you do? Couple options:

• Start over from scratch
• Face the music, be honest and keep on truckin’

Starting over from scratch?

Yes, you could start over with a brand new company with a new name. Of course that means that any favorable reputation you have out there will disappear. I doubt your entire reputation is destroyed from your previous rough patch. I mean, you did have happy customers, and with them your rep is solid.

Starting over from scratch also carries an inherent risk: people finding out about you. Then you look dishonest, look like you’re hiding. Not good.

Real-life example: there is an internet marketer who screwed over a whole lot of people. It wasn’t even massive fraud or anything illegal, he was just sort of an ass. The feedback about him online was overwhelmingly negative so he decided to start over from scratch. He even went so far as to legally change his own name along with forming a new company and web presence.

Can you guess what happened? Within a matter of days people discovered who he really was, word spread and his new name and company were demolished. Instead of apologizing or making amends for what he did, he started over, hoping to hide behind a new sunny disposition. Unfortunately that sunrise didn’t come and his internet days are over unless he does some serious reputation rebuilding.

Facing the Music

In theory and in practice, I like honesty. If you messed up, call it and call it first, before anyone has a chance to beat you to it.

That goes a long way. People expect transparency on the web, and while I’m not for complete transparency, I am definitely for it where business rubber hits the road.

Feeling Humiliated and Worried About the Future

Get over it.

Everybody messes up. Everybody gets lazy and ignores a client at least once. It happened, you can’t change that, so move on.

I once worked for another online agency who threw a lot of work for me for pretty small pay. Because of that I missed a couple deadlines and, rightfully, was chewed out for it.

But then the attitude never changed. I was forever afterward the recipient of, “Ah, yes, but remember that time you screwed up? Tsk tsk.”

You’re going to have customers/bosses/associates like that. You’ll lose an order or piss someone off and that’s the way it is. And even when you make reparations to them, give them money back, send them a chocolate cake, they’ll still think you’re scum.

Don’t sweat it. 90% of the people you associate with will be just fine, but you’re bound to run into the other 10% from time to time. Usually the downtrodden bitter types are the more visible ones because they whine a lot. Don’t let the vocal minority cast a shadow on the happy customers you’ve got.

How to Do Damage Control

If you’re going to choose the route of facing the music, and just being honest with your customers and starting over, I have some ideas that might help.

1. Don’t apologize unless you need to.
   

   Do you really have to apologize?

   Here’s the thing. You’re not Microsoft. You didn’t just ship out Internet Explorer and insult the entire population of the planet.

   If you were Apple and shipped out 13 million iPhones that don’t work, you better start talking.

   But that’s not you. You’re not a huge corporation with millions of eyes and media outlets watching your every move. Sounds more likely that you just pissed off Jill and John from Bakersfield.

   K, so what? Sucks for Jill and John, but you’ve learned your lesson and things will be different now. Case closed.

   See, Jill and John don’t like you anymore and they won’t be coming back. Any apologies or damage control you do on your site might not even be seen by those who need to see it.

   Problem is, everyone else is going to see it, too. I guess there’s nothing wrong with a bunch of new customers having their first impression of you being a public apology. But then…it doesn’t do a great job of selling does it?

   That’s sort of like Obama starting every press conference with, “I did a lot of cocaine in college. Now, who’s got the first question?”

   Uh, k, thanks. Awkward. I think I’m gonna go get a cheeseburger now.

   Obama should be running a country, and you should be running a business. Point is, get down to it and don’t worry about back pedaling unless you need to.

2. If you do apologize, go easy on it.
   

   You didn’t destroy a population or pour bleach into a quaint little village’s water supply, so go easy on your apology. Just be honest and tell people what happened. “I overbooked myself, failed to deliver, and I’m sorry.”

   Don’t start going off about how you’re now donating 99% of all your income to destitute children to make amends or anything like that.

3. If you’ve changed your work process to account for prior mistakes, tell everyone how you’ve changed.
   

   It’s great to be sorry and be accountable and everyone will like you for it.

   But what goes a step further is letting people know what you’ve done about it.

   “I no longer take orders I can’t fill within two days.”

   “I’ve found a better and more dependable supplier.”

   “I’ve increased my output by 20%.”

   “I’ve hired a new secretary to do admin duties, leaving me more time to paint.”

   If you screwed up and you’re sorry, well, I guess you’re normal.

   If you screwed up and are sorry and have fixed the problem so it never happens again, you’re above normal and a savvy business person as well.

   Let people know how you’ve bullet-proofed your business and they’ll be much more at ease.

4. Get testimonials from everyone under the sun.
   

   Go get a bunch of testimonials from happy customers. These might be written testimonials, feedback given on eBay, Elance ratings, etc.

   Whatever the format, go get feedback.

   Write old customers and say, “Hey! Remember me? I’m in the middle of an exciting new business expansion and would love to feature a testimonial from you.”

   Just something simple like that works like a charm.

Moving Forward

There’s one more thing we need to touch on. We’ve talked about damage control and pricing and pacing and all that. But we haven’t talked about the future.

If you’re going into business, and you’re gonna stick with it and make a good go of it, better have a day of planning it all out.

I understand being worried about making promises you can’t keep. Obvious solution to that is don’t make those promises. But you won’t know which promises to make unless you figure out some fundamentals first.

First, your schedule. What is your day like? What is your needed production time, time needed for administration, time you need to take care of your family, how much sleep you need, etc. Plan out your day to the last minute.

Then plan your finances. You need to have some financial planning done, and that’s more simple than you’d think, though it can get time consuming.

List all your expenses. All of them. Obvious ones are rent/mortgage, car payments and the like. Then there’s insurance, phone bills, your morning latte, groceries, etc.

Once you know your expenses, you know the bare minimum income you need to survive.

The rest of the process comes down to reconciling your new daily schedule with the new financial garbage and getting an idea of what you need to charge for your products.

Closing Arguments

Be transparent. But not so transparent that you are telling people all the shit about you they didn’t really need or want to know.

Be honest.

Be responsible.

Pace yourself intelligently.

Charge more. At the very least, charge what you’re really worth.