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Are you trapped selling buckets of time? Bouncing from one freelance project to the next? There is a better way – develop a synergistic approach to your freelance business.

At times we all need to take the work that comes before us to generate income, yet we should develop a personal strategy to minimize this. I propose that we do so by building synergy among a range of products and services. This approach maximizes your time, utilizes your energy, and when done well builds long term income.

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There is an old adage in the business world that “employees don’t quit jobs, they quit managers.” The idea is rather basic and reminds us that it is most often the people and not the actual job that generates turnover.

I think this philosophy holds true to running a freelance based business. But consider it this way: “clients don’t quit projects, they quit freelancers.” Heck, a client might be using a freelancer to begin with because they quit an agency that was driving them nuts.

What I want to talk about here are some ways to develop a business based on clients that don’t want to quit. After all, if we effectively retain our clients we will spend less time searching for new ones. Not to mention that extremely happy clients will most often refer new business.

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For as much as it seems that talent is a real driving force that allows people to excel at certain things I am equally convinced that it is totally overrated. Sure, some people have developed a knack for certain types of things. In my opinion anyone can learn to do anything and in reality talent is irrelevant and a myth.

If you happen to be pursuing something you feel you don’t have a talent for then you will likely find this perspective encouraging. I for one have come to make a living off of writing; something I most definitely don’t have a talent for. As such, I can’t help but consider how it is that I have succeeded at it, and ultimately what the real formula for success might be.

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One of the most powerful lessons I have learned is to cast a vision and stick to it. This lesson applies to freelance work, but it also applies to life in general. Casting a vision for your career is hard and can take years to fully develop, which requires sticktoitiveness. But, if you apply tenacity over time, you will find the end result is powerful and motivating in a way nothing else can be.

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I have had the good fortune of being both a freelancer and a consumer of freelancer services. In fact, I have done both extensively (and simultaneously no less). There is a lot of talk about the importance of finding the right rate, and this relates a lot to what I want to consider here. I want to share some of my experiences from the point of view of hiring freelancers.

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Perhaps one of the most important lessons to a budding programmer is the idea of abstraction. I still remember the words used to describe it to me, “If you find yourself copying code, don’t do it.” The idea is so dead simple; any time you find yourself replicating a piece of code you generate a function or sub routine to handle it.

Fast forward about 20 years and this basic principle has become a critical part of almost everything I do. The notion of abstracting code to ensure it is as easy to manage as possible is a great fundamental business skill to have. Want to make yourself a valuable commodity on your team, your clients happier, and your freelance business more successful? The formula is simple, any time you find yourself doing something repetitive; find a way to do it faster. Here is my simple formula to identify what to do:

• Document the process for the system in question.
• Identify the most time consuming step of the process.
• Figure out how to automate or minimize the time required for this step.
• Repeat

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