12:07 PM
CR Zaman
Earning more by Learning...
How to become a freelancer is not some simple 1-2-3 checklist, which is what most people want: A one-size-fits-all solution that they can “set and forget” and then magically start earning more money. Here’s the good news, though: Because it’s so challenging, the rewards for earning more are likewise extraordinary. That’s because 90%+ of
ordinary people will simply go away and play XBox at this step, leaving those who rose to the challenge to collect the lion’s share of the rewards.
You’ve been warned
- If you expect this to be easy, or if YOU’RE one of those people looking for the one-size-fits-all, then just go away.If you expect a set of guaranteed earning more ideas to be painstakingly tailored to your situation, go away.
- But, if you’re ready to step up and really change your finances in the second half of 2010, then I can help you get there.
- With that, let’s get started on the first steps of examining your skills and finding your $1,000 idea.
No more “analysis paralysis”
There are two major areas of finding an idea where people break down.
1. They can’t identify an idea at all
2. They have too many ideas and don’t know where to get started
Let’s break them down. “I don’t have an idea at all.” This one is common. Here’s a hint: Most people think only of themselves and what they’ll pay for. And since most people are cheap asses, they think that nobody will pay for anything.
Wrong: Go walk in a mall or at a local market. People pay 5x for organic beets at a farmer’s market. They pay $5,000+ for weird-looking art. And they pay virtually anything for their kids and pets.
People pay for value (Wal Mart). They pay for convenience (house cleaner). They pay for simplicity (Apple). They pay for motivation (personal trainer) — even though they “could” technically work out on their own.
The question is
What can you offer that they’ll pay for? And how can you find out? Let’s start by analyzing the two major failings with “finding” an idea.
“I have too many ideas and I’m overwhelmed.” Having too many ideas can be just as paralyzing as having no ideas.
A comment from last week:
My other hesitation is with ideas. I have over 10 ideas that recirculate through my head on a weekly basis (i’m an Aries, it’s normal.) Some I have put into practice and then let slide, while others never got finish or started. How does a person like me stick to one idea? Or is there a way to use all my ideas in one business?
First of all, are you seriously telling me your horoscope when it comes to building a process for earning more money?
Anyway, see if this sounds familiar. You’ve spent all day thinking through your 50 competing ideas for earning more money. You could be a chef! You could create iPhone apps! What about a website? Maybe teaching music. By 9pm you’ve run a mental marathon, yet you have nothing to show for it. You’ve reached analysis paralysis, where your quest for finding the “perfect” freelance idea (by thinking and analyzing the idea but not doing it) keeps you frozen at step 0.
Then, even if we get past this initial paralysis, we can end up spending so much time building up an idea — naming the idea, designing business cards for the idea, putting up a website and figuring out exactly how to describe it to our friends — that when we forget the most critical part: seeing if there’s actually a paying market for that offering. After all that work, it’s easy to give up, exhausted and frustrated. I’m getting frustrated right now writing this and I’m contemplating violence.
Remember, just like in the dating world, you probably won’t find your right match the first time, second time, or even the 5th time. That’s where MOST people give up. Instead, I want you to think about building your idea generation system to test, measure, and refine until your idea is earning you your first $1,000 on the side.
