Wilson’s Words and Pictures

Don’t let the sun go down on you.

With a limited amount of energy it is easy to succumb to freelance business burnout.   Many of us have been programmed to work 9-5 jobs with the salary or hourly paycheck arriving in our checking account every two weeks. 

Suddenly set free from our 40 hour work week we go on over drive.  We have to get stuff done.  We have to get paid.  Like, right NOW! 

If you are just starting out with your freelance writing or photography business don’t be depressed if you don’t make as much money from your 9-5 job the first year.  Don’t be depressed if you don’t make a quarter as much money in your 9-5 job the first year. 

Your first year in business for yourself will be one of mainly education.  You will be learning the ropes of running and maintaining a successful business.  Think of all you have to learn:  marketing, finance, organizing, etc.  I’m sure you can think of many other things. 

I was reading in my local newspaper that entrepreneurs are on the rise in Michigan.  This doesn’t surprise me since we have the crappiest economy in the nation. 

The article talks about how it is no small trick staying sane while developing comprehensive business skills.  And if you don’t have a business background, like myself, it is even more challenging.  The trick, I guess, is staying sane while you figure it all out and are trying to make ends meet.  Because now you aren’t just thinking of just a couple of things, you’re thinking of everything. 

Signs of Burnout

There can be a change of personality and behavior, and are a lot like the symptoms of depression which include:

• loss of appetite
• increased anxiety
• can’t sleep at night
• lethargy
• don’t want to get out of bed in the morning

Ways to Combat Business Burnout

Put things in perspective

Recognize that there will always be difficult situations and people in your life.  The only thing you can change is how you relate to the situation.  Don’t let it suck energy from you.  Become the captain of your own ship, not the sailor of your buffeted emotions.  In other words, don’t get blown away. 

Give Yourself Rewards

If I have been working non stop on some tedious task like cataloging photos, or writing an article that I just want to be completed, I will promise myself a small reward when I finish.  Sometimes it is as simple as visiting a Website I really like, or getting a diet Coke. 

Let Yourself Be Free

No one owns you anymore.  You are the master or mistress of your time.  But don’t enslave yourself to periods of procrastination or frenzied work, either.  I know this is easier said then done, especially with writing projects with a deadline that suddenly require you to work 10-12 hours a day.  No one can maintain that type of overdrive.  Instead, develop a healthy schedule you can stick to for the main, with revisions if need be.

What do you do to keep from getting burned out in your business?  Is is a problem for you? 

Photocredit: © Ellen Wilson

What is bloggery?  The art and science of blogging, of course. 

I used to have this professor who was fond of slapping a plastic overhead on the projector exclaiming, “Have a look at this piece of Tom Foolery.”

We would all glance over at eachother and groan.  He wasn’t kidding.  This was Tom Foolery.  It was one of Dr. Wildebeest’s famous equations.  Equations he had invented all by himself.  Equations that had four or five variables that were a mixture of convoluted calculous and mystical algebra. We would soon be invited to solve one of these foolish equations on a test. 

Sometimes you will wonder how you stumbled into this foolish equation of a blog.  Oh, you will try to decipher it all, pondering the various variables involved: site design, writing, comments, growth…what it’s all about? 

It is said that Albert Eistein had a flash recognition of his theory of relativity - he was riding on a ray of light - and it all fell together for him.  This probably won’t happen to you on your blog.  Your blog will probably move ahead like an elephant clumping through the Sahara, not like a ray of speeding light. 

Site Design

I’m convinced you can put your site into motion yourself.  When I figured it out I wrote up a tutorial to share with others.  If the mechanics of design and implementation still elude you, hire someone to put it together for you.  But keep in mind you will still have to learn the bare bones of blog care yourself.  It’s a lot like cleaning the house and moving the furniture around. 

Writing

This really is the meat and potatoes of your blog.  And for you vegetarians, the tofu and beans.  Recognize it may take awhile for you to get your footing, and that is okay.  Some very successful bloggers, like Vered, of MomGrind, for example, start out writing about a certain topic and switch.  You might get bored writing about one thing and want to diversify.  You can often do this by slightly diverging from your original topic.  Many business bloggers also write about inspirational topics.  Karen Swim, of Words for Hire, does this very successfully.

Growth

This is probably one of the hardest things to quantify.  Sure, you can measure your blogs growth by setting up a feedburner account and checking on how many people subscribe to your blog.  I check on these numbers.  But that is only one way to measure where you’re going.  Recognize that the art and science of bloggery is a process.  It is a journey that you have set yourself on. 

If you get clear about your purpose, how you want to inform, enlighten, or entertain, then your statistical program can inform you who is linking to your blog and why.  I get really excited when I write a knock down article and I get a links from Trisha, at Ideas for Women , Ian Mackenkie, of Brave New Traveler, and Amy Derby, of Write at Home, for my post about Ethics in Photography.  It shows me that I can write stuff about topics that are important to me and people find it interesting. 

Many bloggers lose their focus along the way. They get bored with blogging, or part of the blogging equation is not working for them.  Boredom is a fact of life.  I do not advocate giving something up just because you are bored with it.  But if you are encountering great resistance to blogging maybe you should give it up.  Only you can answer that question.  

One way of looking at it is that the art and science of bloggery is challenging, and that it will help you grow.  After all, you do have to sweat over an equation before you solve it.  I’m thinking of the elephant analogy here, not the speeding ray of light.  But if you are one of these Albert Einstein bloggers who have it all in the bag - more power to ya! 

To be continued….

Photocredit: © Ellen Wilson