by Jacqueline Dooley
The end of the year is a time of transformation and change. The theme of moving on either spiritually, physically or otherwise is prevalent everywhere. No matter how often I’ve seen or heard the stories, I never grow tired of them. Whether it’s Scrooge realizing the error of his ways, the Grinch’s heart growing three sizes in one day or Harry finally realizing he’s loved Sally all along.
These lessons speak to the deepest part of what I want for myself and my kids. They hint of hope for the future, the goodness of all mankind and the concept of peace reigning at last. Still, it’s hard to keep these warm feelings alive after the ball has dropped and the glitter has been swept away.
Am I jaded? I just don’t feel like making a New Year’s resolution for 2007 even though I watched my favorite end-of-the-year transformation movies and read the Grinch to my daughter about a dozen times in December. These stories beg change, but I’m not buying it this year.
Perhaps my ambivalence to committing to a New Year’s resolution has to do with experiencing a tremendous amount of change in my life and my business in 2006.
I went from full-time to freelance in March, won half a dozen new clients and simultaneously dropped several longstanding, high-maintenance clients. I began writing a column in my local newspaper, started actively networking with people in my chosen industry and redid my bathroom.
My 5-year-old started kindergarten and my 2-year-old started two days a week of day care. I bought a fuel-efficient car, traded in my beloved minivan (for gas guzzling reasons) and turned 35. I lost 10 pounds, threw out all my old clothes and gave myself a complete makeover.
If it seems as if I can’t get my business versus personal changes straight, it’s with good reason. My personal life and my business life are entwined so tightly together that any changes I experience with one inevitably have a big impact on the other.
Enough already
Rapid growth is the most prevalent problem facing the companies I work with. Taking on many new projects affects the overall quality of what the agency can deliver, taxes its existing staff and makes for very unhappy clients. I call this the anti-growth phenomenon. Too much growth, too quickly can actually stifle success. I saw this phenomenon slowly kill the first agency I ever worked at (from 1997 to 2002).
Sometimes the best decision a company can make is to stay exactly the same for the New Year. It’s not about shunning growth, it’s about focusing on becoming a better partner to your existing clients, and striving to take the service you provide to the next level. This advice also works well on a personal level.
My biggest ambition for 2007 is to keep things low-key and work on improving the things I already have — my relationship with my kids and my husband, my 100-year-old house that is in desperate need of some love and attention, and my business as it is today. In my gut, I know that staying the same for 2007 is the best way to achieve success for 2008 and beyond.
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This article was published in the Poughkeepsie Journal on Saturday, December 30th, 2006
There are a number of contradictions which are an inherent part of being self-employed that I definitely did not foresee when I struck out on my own four years ago.
One huge contradiction of going solo is the standard 9-5 schedule, which I found so stifling when I worked as a full-time employee for someone else, actually lends itself more to work/life balance than owning a business. That’s because the delineation of work time versus personal time is so clear.
When you work for yourself and/or from home, consistent time off in the form of weekends, holidays and vacations is often just a happy memory. I’ve learned that the hard way this year.
Most ad agencies shut down during the week between Christmas and New Year’s. Last year I was a full-time remote employee at an agency in Manhattan and I got the entire week off with full pay. It was wonderful. I couldn’t work even if I wanted to because no one was around.
This year, however, is much different. I would love to take the last week of the year off, but the reality is that I have way too much to do to enjoy the luxury of five full days of time off. And while I’m thankful for the success of my business, I’m also in need of a good long break.
If I bite the bullet and work the week of the 25th, then I will have gone an entire year without taking any vacation at all (unless you count the 5 day weekend I took in July when my whole family, including myself, was sick with a horrible cold).
December is my last chance to have a “real” vacation and even though it means it will be a short month in terms of how much money I make, I still want to do it. I really, really want to. Unfortunately and fortunately, last week I got a call from one of my big agency clients offering me a very large project for a very high-profile advertiser doing a specific type of marketing that I love to do.
Project is suitable
I’ve been trying to get the agency to give me precisely this type of project since June and to turn it away could mean closing a door that may not open again. The catch? The project will require me to work Christmas week mainly because everyone else at the agency will be off drinking egg nog and shunning their computers.
Ah the irony of self-employment. I finally got the big account I’d been waiting for, but at the expense of my much-anticipated week off in December.
But don’t pity me yet. I’ve still got my flexibility card left to play. I can take a couple of days off to enjoy the holidays and then plan a week off in February (about the time I will get my first paycheck for slaving away the entire month of December).
I think working for yourself provides a lot of “careful what you wish for” scenarios. I have flexibility and freedom on one hand, but at the end of the month if my billable hours don’t amount to much and then I may end up broke.
Likewise, I can line my client roster with four, five or six big projects only to find that I’m swimming in cash (for the short term), but running myself ragged to the point where weekends and holidays are a distant dream. At least I can look forward to a week off in February (or can I?)
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This article was published in the Poughkeepsie Journal on December 16, 2006.
Although my workweek is dominated by my laptop, I start most days with a good old fashioned notebook and pen. I’ve found the best way to manage my work load, is to handwrite my to-do list over and over again each morning. I cross off what I’ve completed the day before (with any luck) and start with a fresh piece of paper and a new list each morning.
This very mundane system of keeping track of projects, deadlines, phone calls and tasks is the latest iteration of my valiant attempt to stay organized. And since I’ve been spending so much time on writing out my tasks each day, I’ve begun to realize my list is just a smaller component of a much larger issue.
At the root of my daily string of tasks is a client list I’m constantly working on refining and developing.
I’ve written in the past about learning to say no to taking on new clients or projects when I’m over capacity and how important it is to part ways with clients that aren’t a good fit. But the biggest takeaway for me in 2006 is realizing I still need to learn how to screen and select clients — and weed them out — before I become fully engaged with them.
Selecting clients who ultimately provide consistent long-term projects I actually enjoy working on, but do not become so overwhelming they crowd out my ability to take on new work and keep up with my existing responsibilities, is no easy task.
Often unpredictable
For one thing, there’s often no way to predict how much a project will grow and change from the day I sign the contract to three months later when some key internal resource (on the client side) has quit or an agency wins a huge new account it needs immediate assistance with.
On the other end of the spectrum, it’s very typical for a project that seems much larger at the get go (based on my own estimates or the client’s stated needs), to be smaller and shorter than planned.
Selecting clients that are a match for my needs, skill set and project preferences influences everything in my life — from how my workday is structured, to the amount of flexibility I have with my schedule in any given week right down to the amount of time I get to spend with my kids.
Ideally, I do not want to get stuck working on deadlines every weekend or more than a couple of nights a week. Likewise, I do not want, or need, a client that requires me to check in every day and report on my whereabouts. If I was happy with that arrangement, I’d have a day job.
Trial period
The bottom line is there’s no way to completely avoid working with companies that turn out to be a poor match for me. That’s why I often propose 30- or 60-day trial arrangements with new clients to see how well we work together and if I am indeed a good fit for what they need.
A key takeaway for me in 2006 is that I have to start trusting my instincts with new prospects more, so I can avoid wasting time with companies that ultimately would be better served elsewhere. Only then will my endless task list be consistently filled with the kind of work I love to do.
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This article was published in the Poughkeepsie Journal on December 9, 2006
