I spent last weekend taking a 30-year-old campervan to the garage to get it checked over. It runs smoothly for its age and seems to be in good nick, but there’s always something that can be done to make it better (like add power-assisted steering to make it a whole lot more manageable!).

This got me thinking about our businesses and the freelancing life. Sure, it might seem like we’re doing well. Everything’s running smoothly and in good nick – but is there something we could do to make it even better?

For the first 6-8 months of my freelancing career, things were pretty stagnant.

I mean, I was earning enough, and I had a great set of clients, but I just didn’t feel like I was moving forward. It felt like I could carry on like that forever – the same size, working with the same clients, earning the same income.

Suddenly things feel a bit different when you imagine them being the same forever. Because, even though as humans we’re creatures of habit, we also like growth. Think of spring when the new blossoms come out.

So, today I want to lay out a couple of ways I’ve taken the reigns of stagnation OFF my business in the last year and how you can, too. Onwards and upwards, you mover and shaker, you!

Warning Signs Your Business is Slumping Hard

1. You don’t analyse what’s working and what’s not

For the first part of my freelancing career, I did the equivalent of throw spaghetti at the wall and hoped it would stick. I was doing a bit of this, a bit of that, a bit of EVERYTHING.

The only thing I wasn’t doing? Checking if all the things I WAS doing were working well for me.

This might include:

• Figuring out a marketing strategy with the highest ROI (return on investment). I started experimenting with different methods and swapping out ones that didn’t work for ones that brought in a bigger return (a.k.a. more leads and more clients)
• Putting systems into place that worked for my business. That’s things like the on-boarding process, sending invoices, keeping a track of your accounts etc etc. Having a system that works for YOU for these things saves you precious time and helps you determine where you could be making efficient changes to your business.

Boost your biz today: The best way to work out what you need to change is to write down everything you do for your business (from marketing strategies, to blogging, to pitching, to invoicing – everything!), and then write down WHY you do them and the RESULTS they bring.

2. You aren’t thinking big enough (and suffer with the “I have enough” mindset)

It’s difficult to think big when all we’ve known is fairly small. For me, I was happy when I replaced my employee income as a freelancer. Once I’d hit that stage, I knew I’d made it work because, well, I was earning just as much as I was in my full-time, 9-5 position.

But guess what? When I was working in that full-time position, I wanted to earn more. Sure, it was enough to live on comfortably, but I knew I didn’t want to be stuck in that tax bracket forever.

So why did I feel content when my freelancing income matched it? Perhaps it was because I’d been so worried about going freelance in the first place and actually earning ANY money at all. Who knows.

After a while I realised I was suffering with what I like to call the “I have enough” mindset. I’m definitely not a fan of greedy peeps, but if you’ve hit a plateau in your career, it’s time to ramp things up!

Boost your biz today: It’s time to dream big folks. Write down one thing you’d love to complete in the next year HOWEVER big and scary it might seem. Below it, mark out 12 sections and write down something you can do each month to help you get to that one big milestone.

3. You aren’t diversifying enough

I know, I know. I regularly go on about honing down your niche and becoming known for one thing in particular, but when you find yourself doing the same things, day in, day out, it can really limit the possibilities of your business.

You don’t have to switch up anything major. In fact, it could be something as simple as landing a new, higher-paying client each month, or expanding your services to include social media copy as well as website copy.

Diversity keeps things interesting, so by adding to your skills or building on your business month by month with fresh clients and new projects can really keep your motivation on top. Plus, you’ll be getting seen in different areas by different people for different things – think of all the new work you could land along the way!

Boost your biz today: Write a list of the skills you have that might not be directly associated with writing/designing etc. Are there any ways you can leverage these for your clients? Now, set yourself a “new goal” each month where you try something new in your business. For example, you might reach out to a client in a new way, sign up for Pinterest if you haven’t got it already, or go to a networking event. Rinse and repeat every month.

4. You aren’t taking enough risks

Some might say that being a freelancer is a big enough risk to take. But if we’re not constantly taking little risks (or gargantuan ones, if you’re that way inclined!), we’ll never know what we’re capable of.

For example, I’ve been guilty in the past of not pitching certain brands and projects because I don’t think I’m good enough. Even though I have the testimonials, results, and portfolio to back me up, I’m too scared to take the risk in case it ends in failure.

And that’s the thing with freelancing. We often stop ourselves taking risks because of our fear of rejection or failure. BUT (and I mentioned this in one of the Facebook groups I’m in the other day), when you start seeing YOU and your SERVICES as separate entities, it gets easier to put yourself out there and take risks.

Boost your biz today: Start small and take baby steps – this is the best way to do anything. Diving headfirst into a massive risk can be, well, risky, so if you prefer the safer things in life, build up to bigger risks month by month. Write down one thing you want to achieve each month that seems WAY out of reach. Now right down WHY it’s way out of reach. And finally, write down the WORST thing that could happen if you went for it. Suddenly it doesn’t seem so bad, right?!

5. You’re trying to do it alone

There’s this image people have of freelancers where we’re all tucked away in our respective basements, drinking whiskey at noon and not washing for days on end. But, while the not washing and whiskey usually isn’t true, some peeps do find themselves locked away in their homes all day, every day.

One of the biggest ways I’ve boosted my business and taken it from stagnant to successful in the past year is to network with others and create connections with colleagues all over the world. Even if I don’t SEE anyone all day, I still speak to people about business. We bounce ideas around, we draw inspiration from each other, and we generally support one another.

When you’re self-employed, it’s easy to try and do everything by yourself, but this only limits our capacity to imagine what we CAN do.

Boost your biz today: Start by writing down a list of time-consuming business-y things that you don’t enjoy doing (is it social media scheduling, invoicing, emailing?). Would it be worth outsourcing these tasks to someone else to free up time for you to actually, well, work?

Secondly, you want to get a support system going. Join a Facebook group (like Creative Freelancers Unite!) and start chatting to other freelancers – you never know what awesome things might come out of it.

Don’t feel sad or deflated if your business has hit a plateau – it happens to all of us continuously throughout our careers. Our job is to push past that plateau and inject some more life and soul.

So, what will you do today to get your business out of a rut?

Your turn!

Do you feel like your freelance business has hit a plateau? What do you do each week or month to make sure you’re moving forward?