My business owner reflection post for 2024: 12 things I’ve learned the easy way
Last year, I wrote a LinkedIn article that reflected on my first year taking myself more seriously as a business. Since then, I’ve even managed to set up my company blog, which has all of—what—five posts? And, as I predicted, my website is still unfinished (all those client logos are in a file somewhere, and I still haven’t added my “past projects” section). Oops!
I started writing this as a goofy “12 days of consultant Christmas” idea but then I realized that posting something gimmicky over 12 sequential days on LinkedIn would do something damaging to my sense of self-worth. And I also realized that these insights are actually 12 days of client something-or-other. Which, of course, I’m writing because I can’t face my PhD chapter deadline (client deadlines? no problem! dissertation deadlines? I’ll be in my blanket fort.).
In the past few years, I’ve had two kinds of luck: I’ve had a string of great clients, and I’ve had coaching both formally, through Active Voice, and informally, through mentoring and fellowship with other people who really care about the relationships we have when we work. For me, this means the relationships in my content and UX communities, and also the relationships I have with the people I work with in client organizations (some of them have become my friends!).
In part because of this luck, I’ve had the space and time to think about what good clients have in common, and I wanted to share that with people who hire freelancers and solo consultants, and who want to be better clients for them.
So here it is, all at once, 12 days of [insert nonreligious holiday reference because calling it Clientmas would feel like a mild form of self-harm], a list of what good clients have done for me.
If you recognize yourself here, you probably are the reason I know this—so, thanks!
Pay their invoices ASAP. This one is obvious, but things can fall through the cracks, and suddenly the 14-day terms have become a 30-day long-finger task. Especially right now, it’s hard to know if that person who always comes through for you has a healthy cushion, or if they’re living hand to mouth, and that “just checking in if you got my invoice” email is being typed with shaking fingers that just turned the household heating down and still hits “save for later” on all their kids’ holiday gifts. I’m personally in an OK position, but I also know how much of it is luck—and it hasn’t always worked out in my favor. My group chats are not all jolly, and they won’t say this themselves: please, pay your freelancer and solopreneur invoices right now, then come back and read items 2-12.
Make it easy to understand how to sell to your organization. This isn’t a holiday-specific one, but I was revisiting my post from last year, where I wrote about how clients want consultants who are good at sales because everything is smoother when you’re easy to buy from. If you hire freelancers or consultants, it’s also great to help them understand how things get bought and ordered in your organization. You’ll get better proposals up front, and you might be able to keep this person in projects within your organization, which is great for everyone—it’s a lot easier to onboard a consultant who already understands what you do.
Don’t say “let’s check in in the new year” if you don’t really have to. Prioritizing things for senior stakeholders and kicking all the other cans down the road can bring you that satisfying, well-earned rest a little earlier. But for solopreneurs and freelancers, the ability to plan ahead is what offers their badly needed rest over the holidays. If you can force a decision internally, get budget sooner, or find a way to get something in writing, you could be giving them a holiday miracle. And it’s good for you, too. They’ll return refreshed, having not spent the holiday period anxiously hustling and regretting every penny they spent in November.
Include them in holiday parties or gifts: In Sweden, at least, there’s a pretty strict price limit for employee gifts, so adding a few extra for your consultants, or an extra seat at your julbord is worth more in relationship-building and mutual appreciation than it will cost you in cash. Your non-permanent workers are there to help your organization when you need them, so don’t forget about them when it’s time for some fun.
Credit them for their work, internally and publicly. A lot of us (myself included) can be overly cautious about NDAs and wary of spilling internal information, even inadvertently. And a lot of us aren’t particularly credit-seeking. We’re used to using our skills and relationships to set other people up for success and lighten their load on the road to it. We really appreciate clients who also set us up for success and share it with us when we get there. In a conventional job, a manager might do this, and while a lot of us don’t want managers at all, everyone wants a bit of appreciation. It can be hard to move through the business world with confidence, so knowing that others see what we’re good at can be a welcome dose of validation and encouragement—especially when it’s within earshot or post-shot of others.
Think of ways you can challenge them in 2025. Again, a lot of solo consultants don’t want managers, but that doesn’t mean people don’t want to grow professionally. Where it’s possible, and where you have the sort of relationships that allow you to give some space and support, offer them things to stretch into. You’re probably hiring them because they have skills you don’t have internally, so they’re already bringing value. If you can, help them finish the project with skills they didn’t have before. Everyone likes to feel they’re finishing the year ahead of where they were when it started.
Increase their rates with inflation (at least). Yes, a lot of rates for contract and freelance work have fallen off a cliff, but everyone doesn’t have to follow suit. You don’t expect your office supplies or rent to cost the same for 5 years in a row, and your solopreneurs and freelancers deserve it more (and definitely need it more than office supply chains and corporate landlords). Spare them the need to spend 2 hours crafting a 2-sentence email about rate increases and just fire off an email asking “How much will your rate increase next year, so I can budget for it?” (I understand that not everyone is in a position to do this, but if you can, it’s going to be so appreciated that it will be met with a little happy tear or two.)
Recommend them publicly with a LinkedIn testimonial and/or post. We live and die by our reputations, and you can lend your credibility pretty quickly by writing a great recommendation they can use. Try to focus on something that they do that nobody else can, since competence and reliability alone aren’t enough for us—especially not in this business climate. Even if you’re not parting ways, it’s nice to take the time, as you wind down for the year, to spread some of that cheerful reflection in the direction of someone who might be able to lean on that recommendation in the future. You can also thank them publicly on LinkedIn. Even if other potential clients are lining up to work with them on the back of your vote of confidence, nobody is leaving a good relationship for an uncertain one. I’m sure not. As long as you’ve got budget and I’ve got time, you’re stuck with me.
If you’re parting ways, do some intros for them for other potential clients. If you’re doing 2025 planning, chances are, someone else is, too. Take a few minutes to let your peers in other orgs know who you’ve worked with this year and see if they’d like an intro. Check with your consultant first, too, of course (double opt-in, always). Let the person know what your recomendee can do really well, so they don’t have to sell themselves too much. Again, I promise that, even if you don’t have a budget or need for us right now, a good client will always have priority on our time and effort in the future.
Give them some shareable impact data. A lot of the time, the work we do (definitely in my work) doesn’t get reflected in easily measured “number go up” impact, but there’s usually some contribution to an internal metric or key result—we just don’t always have access to it. Even though I personally don’t like having to sell my value this way, and I avoid projects that demand I help someone take an unreasonable shortcut to “number go up” (consultants aren’t an easy way to outsource your wishes!!!), the folks advocating for budgets and projects sometimes need to get past these people, so it’s nice to have something to give them that doesn’t feel insincere or fabricated. It’s also nice for our portfolios (note: I finish 2024 as yet another year without a portfolio). We usually have limited access to internal systems, and many of us are careful about what we share publicly about our work—not just because of NDAs but because we don’t want to break trust. So any data we can use, even a testimonial of a “soft” metric we improved, can help us more than you know. And letting us know you can be a public case study? That’s gold.
Ask them to recommend their peers. I love being able to recommend other solopreneurs and small businesses—even people who do the same thing I do. I sincerely believe that we don’t have to compete with each other, since there’s more work to go around than there is time for us to do it. Material support for our networks is helpful to all of us, and it also makes the business landscape that little bit more stable and less scary, especially for new entrants. We’re also a lot better value than big agencies who charge you super-senior rates, then send you a junior and an unpaid intern to execute cookie-cutter work. Contributing to the landscape of small businesses helps you get better deliveries, and it helps everyone in the long run, too.
Don’t shut off the billing tap over the holidays. Again, you might not have the power to do this, but depending on someone’s situation or financial cushion, your paid vacation days might be a stressful stretch of non billable days for those who work hourly or daily. Besides, some people like to work over the holidays, so if there’s something that doesn’t require collaboration time or synchronous work, find out if they’d like to do it. Personally, I shut off completely—laptop closed as of Friday the 20th, see ya next year, I’ll still have a mouthful of cookies—because I can, and it has taken me a lot of learning and failing to be able to do this, but I know this year is especially hard for a lot of people. And I’m always aware that I could have those years again, too.
I’m finishing 2024 in a state of mind that I couldn’t have imagined even 5 years ago, and so much of that is down to everyone that I’ve had the chance to work with. I know that I’ve made a conscious effort to work on my professional relationships, and I’ve (reluctantly) learned a bit more about how to navigate the politics of organizations (can reluctantly confirm: very helpful skills), but I also know that it’s only part of the answer.
Nobody can make better choices if they don’t also have better opportunities to choose from, and better people to choose them with, and a lot of that is out of our individual control. So to everyone who has helped me find those opportunities, and to everyone who has been one of those people—thank you!
Happy whatever-you-celebrate, and I hope you have whatever kind of end of year you choose. And to those fellow freelancers, consultants, contractors, solopreneurs—whatever you call yourself—who are struggling, I hope you’re able to get the predictability you need to take a rest at the end of 2024l and that 2025 puts better opportunities in front of you.
