Planning for Next Year: Your Professional Development Plan
We’ve reached the end of our series on New Year’s Planning. The previous three articles covered:
Now we’re going to talk about you. Specifically, about making you into a smarter business person. Here, my rule of thumb is that it’s not enough to be in business. You must also be a student of business.
So, it’s time to talk about your professional development plan for 2009.
This begs the question: What should I study? I suggest that you focus on the three major things that a freelancer must do:
- Do what your clients pay you to do.
- Get more business.
- Run your business.
You probably remember this trio from my previous article on weekly accountability.
If the prospect of returning to school makes you want to crawl back into bed, fear not. There are learning strategies that don’t require you to set foot in a classroom. Here are just a few:
- Read. Not just books, but magazine and journal articles, websites like this one, and blog posts.
- Listen and watch. If you’re not the type who learns well through reading, listen to podcasts and other audio media. Or, if you’re the visual type, watch DVDs and videos.
- Apprentice yourself to someone who knows what you want to learn. Since this is the business world, you’ll probably have to pay for his or her knowledge. For example, if you want to learn how to use computerized accounting software, you’ll be paying an accountant or bookkeeper for one-on-one training.
- Do volunteer work. Yes, I know what you’re saying – volunteering is working for free. But hear me out. I’m sitting here at the computer, working by myself. But there’s more to life than that. I recently decided that it was time to develop some community organizing skills. So, I’m in a local volunteer training program to do just that. In my work life, community organizing will translate nicely into project management, and I really need those skills.
- Take online classes. You name the topic, it’s probably being taught online.
- Join a group of other people who are looking to learn and improve the same skills that you are. In the computer world, you’ll hear these referred to as Special Interest Groups or SIGs. You can find a treasure trove of “learners helping each other” groups on Meetup.com.
- Combine one or more of the above! To go back to one of the previous examples, you could beef up your computerized accounting skills by getting an accountant to train you, then you could volunteer to keep the books for your garden club.
So, what’s on Martha’s 2009 professional development agenda? Here it is:
DO
- Quite a few of my website designs start out in Photoshop. I want to improve my skills at converting PSD files into valid CSS and XHTML.
- I’d like to take that valid CSS and XHTML one step further by learning about WordPress theme creation.
- This longtime film shooter needs to improve her digital photography skills.
GET
- I want to get better at qualifying my design sales prospects so I don’t waste time writing proposals for quote collectors.
- I want to improve my editorial stock sales skills.
RUN
- This is an Office/Business Management issue: I’m looking for a new telephone. My current model is 14 years old, and I don’t think it interfaces properly with my VoIP. I’d also like a more comfortable setup for those cold- and warm-calling marathons.
- Have you created a book of your photos using Blurb.com? I’d like to learn how to do that too.
And that’s my professional development agenda for 2009. What’s on yours?
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Great article! Learning is a never ending process and anyone who wants to grow and be continually successful should know that. You have to sharpen the sword between each battle. I think it’s great that you have been able to condense the process down to a few achievable goals, it allows for better focus. Good luck to you in the coming year, though I doubt you’ll need it, you seem to have your priorities straight and will more than likely generate your own good fortune.
I try to write a personal plan for the year around this time as well as a business plan update. That way I can try to ensure that my personal goals and my business goals mesh. Work/life balance (or lack of it in my case) is a big issue for freelancers.
The other thing I try to do each year, and it may sound trite but I find it very helpful, is to come up with a theme for the upcoming year. It’s easy to forget details in plans but a theme, especially if it is gnomic and catchy, is easy to remember and helpful.
Last year was “the year of being friendly” (on a business level this means Maister-ish trusted advisor stuff but it was more on a personal level in 2008). The year before was “the year of work hard, play hard.” I’m leaning towards 2009 being “the year of quality not quantity” but I’m still not sure. I’ll have to eat some minced pies and think about it more.
I agree that planning helps you drive your success, but sometimes I’m not sure how to be realistic about what I can achieve in a year. I either over expect or under expect. I find that when I can’t figure out a big goal to plan for, if I plan small tasks everyday, even writing for 2 hours or writing one post per category per week I can at least get moving on my goals without necessarily knowing where I’m going.
Wonderful post. Exactly matches with my resolution for the year 2009, which can be read at my blog. Thanks once again.
Hi – nice inspiring post Martha, rings true to me.
I have subscribed to lynda.com to better myself in design, Flash, Fireworks, Photoshop and learn a little php applied to Wordpress.
I’ll also soon be launching a nice new app ( http://www.myows.com ) and this has been a fascinating learning curve, my resolution for 2009 is to not screw it up !
keep up the great work in 2009 !
I’m currently using Blurb.com to put together my first photography book. So far, it’s been very simple. You download their Book Smart software which provides templates for the size and layout of the book, plus choices on hard or soft cover. I’m hoping to finish mine up and place the order next month.
About volunteering… I have mixed feelings about volunteering to create web sites for a free. In my experience, people (and organizations) who don’t have money to pay are simply NOT serious clients. Because when people are serious they will find money to pay, they will negotiate a discount price, but they will find money to pay. Just my 2 cents…
I strongly agree with the idea of volunteering to get experience!
Of course it is important to choose clients who will appreciate your hard work.
For myself, I volunteer for non-profits–ones that are offering a valuable service to the community or the underprivileged. Not only do I get to feel good about helping people, my portfolio expands in new areas. It is a happy pairing.
Jess, I think Martha is talking more about volunteering outside of your usual work area?
For what it’s worth, I have written my “success story” for 2009.. as if it was a sales letter for the business strategies that I’m putting in place right now:
1. Where I’m at right now, Christmas 2008, and the challenges I’m experiencing
2. The strategies/products/stuff I’m putting in place now
3. The outcome (e.g. “In only four months… I had achieved…. X”)
Essentially the same as goal-setting but coming from a slightly different angle (a least in my mind, and that’s all that matters!)
Good Practical advice, great post! Thanks. I’m going to try to increase my passive income & learn Ruby on Rails. Maybe some more SEO knowledge too would be good.
Well in my case… i don’t have mixed feelings about volunteering to create web sites for a free. Specially if you are good at web sites designing. I remember a good quote from a bad person.
“If you’re good at something then never do it for free” — Jocker from The dark knight
anyway… nice writing Martha. Thanks for shearing !!
Excellent information. I am in the process of planning for next year and this post is going to be very helpful. Thanks.
Thanks Martha. I was just sitting down this morning to try and sort out what I want to do next year and what I want to let go of – I’ve been a little unfocussed this year and probably trying to do too many things in different areas. I really enjoyed this article – very timely.
Oh and Blurb books are really straightforward to make. As Clint mentioned above, once you download their software you can choose lots of different layouts for individual pages and it looks great. One of the pressies I got for my husband for Christmas was a hardback landscape book of photographs I took when we were in India last year. So you should definitely give it a go.
Here’s Martha with her take on volunteering…
Since I do enough sitting in front of the computer during my work week, I don’t yearn to do more of it during my off hours. So, I’m generally not the go-to gal for organizations looking for websites.
As for photography, I do that for two groups in Tucson and one that’s in San Diego. That’s it. Gotta do the rest of the photography to pay those bills. You know bills. They just keep a-coming.
This past weekend, I was a volunteer gravel shoveler and plant planter for a local group that’s seeking to green a neighborhood south of the University of Arizona. I don’t know how many pounds of gravel I shoveled, but my arms said that it was quite a bit. All in all, it was a nice break from the computer and the work-work world.
When it comes to professional development – I don’t think there’s anything more valuable than hiring a coach or joining a mastermind group. Every time I’ve needed to catapult my career – or jump to the next level – I work with a coach who helps me get there.