I’m going to attempt to avoid the cliche “X Tips to Start Your Business” blog post and just write from the heart about an experience that has been uniquely personal.In early August I founded my company, a service that attempts to right some of the wrongs in the world of professional freelancing. This company is mine, wholly and unconditionally. It may exist physically on a collection of servers somewhere in the world, but the “business” that I run exists on my laptop that is currently sitting in my living room. My mornings consist of getting my infant son ready for the day, dropping him off at daycare, then starting work on something that is as dear to me as my baby boy.The first lesson learned: Identifying a need or a void in an existing marketplace. Easier said than done.Like most businesses, the beginnings of my company were wrought from the notion that something can be done better. I was growing tired of being asked to do more for less at my day job, so I turned to freelancing to provide a creative escape; I went online to find a service to pair me with clients. What I found was another system where people were expected to work harder for less. The services available at the time took up to 20% of a given freelancer’s invoice payments. I thought this was completely absurd. Why are they charging the freelancer this invoice fee? They should be charging the clients! After all, the freelancer is the one providing all the value in this transaction.Come to find out, the freelancing community at large thought this was a bad deal as well (insert Trump “worst deal ever” meme).The very first thing I did with my company was move to implement a flat lifetime fee system for our freelancers, and have our clients pay a small percentage fee on the budget of their project. The response has been overwhelmingly positive. Our clients immediately realized the value my company was bringing their businesses, and our freelancers were overjoyed at the fact that they could keep ALL of their money.The second lesson learned: To get your first customers, leverage your existing network.Okay great, I did it! I officially launched my business!Now what?I remember sitting at my desk, staring at my newly christened website. Not a single person on the entire planet was on my site but me. All 7.4 billion people were living out their lives as they would normally, completely unaware of the momentous (to me!) thing I just did.Our first freelancers were some of my Facebook friends. Our first clients were business owners that I had connected with through LinkedIn. We’ve worked with businesses as diverse as a cyber security to a local realtor who needed a new logo. All of them led to referrals to more freelancers and more clients. But behind the scenes there were long hours of monotonous busy work, desperately trying to find someone to pay me.The third lesson I learned: Anybody who says “patience is a virtue” has never created something from nothing on their own dime…but damn, are they right.It took three weeks of networking for my company to get it’s first paying client. When I wasn’t at my day job or interacting with my family, I was networking. My average came to about 4 hours per day of email writing, Facebook posting, Quora answering, tweeting, blogging, LinkedIn stalking, etc. You name a forum, I was creating content and hunting potential leads.In that three weeks, my company had recruited a bunch of really qualified, skilled, and eager freelancers…who had nothing to do. I was beside myself with doubt and fear. All of these wonderful freelancers are going to leave if I can’t find them any work! My company is centered around being a service that freelancers WANT to use; nobody WANTS to pay for something and get nothing in return.After weeks of worry, the buzz of my phone alerted me to my company's first paying client. I was through the roof with my joy! An aside to this lesson learned is that you have to get comfortable living with fear. Control the fear and use it as motivation on your journey.Final thoughts: This has definitely been a trying experience thus far, but owning my own business has taught me patience, empathy, and made me a better communicator. It is a privilege to be able to do what you love and make money doing it, so be thankful, eat a big piece of humble pie and be good to those who continue to support you. via /r/business http://ift.tt/2vINERB
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