Note: I decided to write down my goals for 2015, so here's part 2 of that list. My previous blog post "My Goals for 2015 - Part 1" explains my reasoning why. In short, I want to feel accountable in a public manner, as well as be able to measure how much I got done at the end of 2015. It should be interesting. Now let's continue with this list!
Goal #2 - Grow my freelancing business
A few months ago, I made freelancing my full-time job. Those fears that I mentioned in my previous blog post, the ones that appear whenever you're thinking about doing something different? Oh man, they were out in full force when I made the decision to do this. My brain produced a million excuses to keep my stable job, even though it was not a good fit at all. But I took the plunge despite not knowing how things would go. I even gave myself three months to see if I could find enough work to at the very least pay my rent. If I couldn't manage that, I would go back into full-time employment even though that's not aligned with my longer-term goals.
Thankfully, I'm happy to say that taking that plunge worked out really, really well for me. I've been able to get a fair amount of work - both short and long-term projects - and I've gained many great new relationships out of this. It's a lot better than I expected it to be, and it surpassed the financial goals I set up for myself, as well as getting the freedom I wanted out of it.
I've only been at this for less than two months, so I still have a long way to go. My goals are simply to expand my financial goals (earn more money), getting more interesting projects to expand my knowledge, and gaining more freedom to be able to travel and be with the people I love the most. I'm being a bit vague here, but I do have specific numbers I want to hit, like how much money I want to make, how many days off I want to be able to afford to take, and so on. I need to know exactly what I'm aiming for if I want to reach my goals.
I'm not 100% clear on how I'll accomplish this, to be honest. But I'm sure as I continue freelancing and gaining experience, I'll know what things I need to do to guide me towards this goal. For now, I'm going to begin trying to get more work in different avenues. Most of my work currently has come through oDesk (more on that topic in an upcoming blog post), and it's been good for me to start, but I want to grow out of that. I also need to structure my work in a better way to be able to help people more efficiently, allowing me even more freedom for what I want to do in the long haul. More things will come as I get better at the business side of things, I'm sure of it.
Tomorrow, I'll share Goal #3: Learn a new programming language really well. See you all then!
Update: I published that blog post! Read about my next goal: Grow my freelancing business.