Itty Bitty, Teeny Tiny Increments
Years ago, my husband worked as a landscaper. It was grueling hard work, but he made a good hourly wage. The problem was, the hours were unpredictable. If it rained, no work. Not enough rain, no work. Snow, no work. If there was rainy weather for a week, he didn’t get a pay check at all.
Sometimes, he would talk about getting another job –any other job. The problem was that any other job wouldn’t have the same good, hourly wage he made landscaping. At the time, he made about twice minimum wage and worried what taking a lower-paying job would do to our budget. My argument was that we would be better off because we would know exactly what to expect if he had a more regular schedule.
Eventually, he did take a different job working third shift at a convenience store for much less per hour. Our budget was more stable, and it was much easier to plan for a month or two at a time.
Happily, my husband now has a job he loves and is good at and that pays far more than a convenience store. But I learned something important from his experience.
Even though he earned less money, the consistency of his pay check turned out to be the more important factor. When I think about building my freelance business, I try to apply the same logic.
For the last several months, I’ve been frustrated because it is nearly impossible to make calls to prospective clients because I work a regular, 9-5 job for someone else. For now, that job must take priority over my budding business. It has felt like there is no way around the problem and I’ve been tempted to stick with writing content articles and putting other, better, bigger plans aside.
Then, I remember the logic of consistency. I remember that taking a tiny action every day is more important than doing a few flashier things here and there. So I have come up with a plan to make business calls for an hour or two a week. Not much, but if done consistently there should eventually be some results.
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