Transitioning from a full-time job to having your own business and working for clients takes some time to get used to. For the right personality, working for clients instead of “the man” might just be the most awesome career move you could ever make.
In fact, everything about this is entirely different from having a regular J-O-B where you work for a company and report to a boss… and can be infinitely more rewarding (in terms of your bank account AND your personal satisfaction), if you open your mind to the experience.
Some awesome things about working for clients:
- You get to decide how big or small you’ll scale your business
- You choose who to work for
- You’ll gain a ton of professional skills
- You’ll become better at managing your time
- You can thrive in a flexible work situation
- You can add other forms of passive income
- Your clients who love you can become your best advocates
What are some basic yet major adjustments you’ll need to make when switching from working for a company to working for yourself, and managing client projects?
You must be willing to roll with uncertainty.
Your income is variable. When you work for a boss at a company, the initial handshake, and every promotion and pay raise, thereafter, determine what your approximate yearly salary, or hourly rate, will be.
The terms of your commitment to the employer remain set until change is requested by either you or the person you report to. You can pretty much count on things not changing much, unless of course you’re let go from your job, or you choose to quit.
When you work for yourself, the potential to make much more money is there, but the risk is also greater, or at least it may feel that way. Some people thrive with this type of daily challenge. Others may find it stressful.
One way to make it less stressful is to manage your finances with the understanding that there will be an ebb and flow to your financial acumen.
Some freelance newbies might find it stressful to work for clients with no perceived safety net of a company backing them. Later, though, as their business grows, the fear may subside.
Nervousness and uncertainty can eventually give way to a feeling of deep satisfaction in going after what you want in life, living on your terms and choosing how and with whom you do business.
But how risky is it really?
Maybe not as risky as you think. Let’s take a quick peek at the risks:
- Your clients may not pay on time.
- Your clients could potentially waste your time.
- Late payers and invoice dodgers might cause a temporary money shortage.
- Some of your clients might have poor boundaries and expect you to be at their beck and call.
- Communication with clients could be hit or miss.
- You and your clients may not see eye-to-eye on how things are done.
- One or more clients could decide to end your work together at a time when you could really use the income.
Now let’s look at the risks of working for a company.
- Your boss might turn out to make your life a living hell.
- You might not fit in with your coworkers.
- You could encounter high amounts of daily stress.
- You might not be compensated fairly for all the work you put in.
- Your company could go under, or they might decide to let you go.
- You could get trapped in a dead-end job for years or even decades, then come out on the other side lacking in professional skills that are essential for today’s business environment.
Truth be told, the risk factor comparison is now leveling out between working for yourself/consulting for clients versus having a traditional job.
How so?
In past generations, if you found a good, reliable position within a company, you could count on being set for life there. You could likely expect opportunities for advancement within the company, and a nice, cushy retirement package including pension. This is not so anymore.
It’s much more likely today to find yourself hopping from job to job at “pop-up” companies promising short-lived, short-term rewards. Like the sales professional who accepts six figures only to learn that the company is changing hands next year and his role at the company is about to dissolve.
Therefore, more and more people are trying their hand at the freelance consultant lifestyle – and finding it’s not nearly as scary as they initially thought.
Working for clients holds many opportunities if you’re poised to jump when they arrive. And the great thing about this is that you can scale your level of busyness at work to your situation. If you have a lot going on in your personal life this year, it could be the year you lean on your bank account and take a pay cut… but maybe next year you’re bringing in triple.
The Best Part of Working for Clients: You’re in Total Control
Being in control of your freelance work situation is simply a mindset. If you think you’re in control, you are. But if instead of being in control, you feel tied to, trapped into a relationship with, and beholden to your clients, then that’s what your freelance experience will be like. It is truly how you look at things.
You are in complete control of how many clients you take on, what the payment agreement will be for every contracted client (or if there will be contracts at all – you don’t have to sign papers to start working for and being paid by a client.)
As mentioned, some may not be able to handle this level of freedom and the risk that comes along with it. But for self-starters and entrepreneurial types for whom it feels natural to go after what they want, and for whom every day brings another opportunity to create potential income… freelancing can be the most freeing thing that they’ve ever known.
To stress the point, your success as a business owner who works for clients will largely be determined by your mindset. And the good news is that as your business evolves and your client base grows… as people come and go through the rotating door of your small company… your mindset will change, potentially for the better.
What does this mean? It means that as you gain experience, your emotional intelligence will grow. In time, the challenges that kept you up at night for the first few years will seem like child’s play. You’ll be able to spot a golden client opportunity, and you’ll also have a sense of who’s dodgy and should be avoided. So, time won’t be wasted making those mistakes you once made.
Your business success mindset may not happen in a day, a week, or a year… but the transformation will come if you continue to work on it.
Mindset also comes as you get to know your clients. You’ll develop a relationship with each one. That relationship can be short term with some people… it can be on and off again with others.
Or, it could be a long haul commitment that serves as a good chunk of your yearly income. And in having a relationship with clients, you’ll gain a sense of who is worth giving more to because when you work with this person, abundance just seems to flow your way.
If working for clients seems like something that you’d be comfortable doing, let’s go into more detail and begin putting some plans in motion.
Working With Clients Requires A Mindset Shift
We talked about the difference between working for clients and working for a company that someone else or a large entity owns. Let’s go into the mindset shift. What do you need to change about the way that you think, to cozy up to client contracts and freelance gigs?
Mindset is the first challenge. But it takes time. Why? Because when you work for a company, you can pretty much count on the fact that your paycheck will roll in at the same time each week or month.
That can contribute to a certain complacency over time. What’s our incentive to push ourselves when we know that the money will show up whether we push ourselves or not?
Everything comes with risk. Due to the sameness of a full-time job, the routine that we come to expect, and the repeating daily tasks, we kind of forget about that risk. At times, our traditional job can grow monotonous… and when this happens, it just feels like a never-ending sentence. This is indeed a mindset, and it’s this type of thinking that can prevent you from ever getting off the ground with your freelance enterprise, if you let it. But don’t let it.
How so? You’re still slogging away at that J-O-B. The doldrums set in. You don’t worry about performing. That’s because we typically let what’s happening around us dictate our actions, rather than the opposite.
Even with a 9-to-5, risk still exists. Knowing this is the first step of your gradual mindset shift.
Despite the complacency and false sense of security a job brings, there is in fact still a risk.
The risk is that, of course, you could be let go from your full-time job at any time. A little bit of cushion can come in the form of unemployment to aid you in your transition. But that typically is a nerve-wracking period of loud clock-ticking as we worry daily about what happens if we don’t find a new job before unemployment runs out.
So, all of this delivers a kind of low-level stress for the long term because you really can’t do anything about it other than wait for that next right opportunity. Being let go of your job and then having that unemployment check can be helpful. But if nothing good is turning up, it’s like sitting on an egg that doesn’t hatch.
This slowly eats away at us. Some people are not built for it. Remember that the option to freelance, have your own business, serve clients on your own terms and be an independent consultant is there. It’s hard, though, for people to get into the mindset of this type of freedom… but it’s exactly what needs to happen if you want to break free from the trap and begin to work for clients on your own terms.
The What-Ifs You'll Face When Working for Clients
The mindset shift of going from a job to a business of your own is indeed a breakthrough that needs to happen. Until we cement that vision, until we really believe that we’re built for success, we’re going to stay stuck believing that we just don’t have it in us to go after client jobs and find other ways to make money for ourselves.
Why? Probably because we’ve never done it before. And mostly because of fear. We fear the unknown.
- What if the very first client doesn’t pay us?
- What if the client isn’t happy with what we deliver, and what if they walk away ready to sling our name through the mud?
- What if the client gives us a bad review on Google, Yelp, Facebook, LinkedIn or another public platform?
- What if the client turns out to be a time-sucking, energy-sucking leech?
- What if the client constantly texts us while we’re busy parenting our kids?
- What if we just can’t handle it?
All these scenarios are possible.
But so is working for a company where you’re treated like a peasant every day, where people steal your ideas and where your boss delivers a heavy dose of daily stress and frustration with lack of recognition for your hard work as the soul-crushing cherry on top.
The first thing to realize about how to change your mindset is that the two may be different, but not drastically so. What’s different is your perceived comfort level.
Working with clients is not exactly like working for a boss at a company, but it’s not entirely different either.
In a way, each client is your mini boss for the time that you work for them. But the good thing about that is you get the choice to decide who you’ll be serving. So, your client, who could be considered a “little boss” of sorts, need not be someone who doesn’t fit with your goals, philosophy, and work style.
Another possibility if you work for clients is that even though you “serve” them, you might also take the lead in how the projects play out. Life coaches and business coaches, trainers and dieticians serve “clients,” but technically their role is to act as a guide – not a person who carries out orders that come from the client.
So if in your area of expertise, you could technically function as a teacher or guide of sorts, it will benefit you to truly regard yourself as such when dealing with clients. This is part of the mindset that you must adjust to. You might be the true expert, and your client might be the technical student.
In that case, own the role. Doing so will cause the mindset shift you need to really lock in success as an independent contractor, freelancer, or however you define yourself in small business.
Trading the Scarcity Mindset for the Abundance Mindset in Your Work with Clients
What other type of mindset shift is needed to be successful when working for clients and having your own business?
A major belief to work on is letting go of fear and the scarcity mindset. Scarcity mindset has to do with nickel and diming.
Of course, no one wants to throw their every waking minute, heart, soul, and creative power into their client’s happiness, but see very little financial compensation for that.
But as your experience grows, you’ll begin to recognize that there’s a potential to grow your business or gain income in every single client experience you have – and different clients will serve that purpose for you in different ways.
Part of having an abundance (versus fear and scarcity-based) perspective means that as more and more clients come and go, you’ll begin to recognize what needs to happen to “give to get” from this relationship and experience.
Some clients will pay you generously but remain detached from your circle of contacts.
Some clients will be more frugal, but they may offer an opportunity to connect with their network of people who can also become clients of yours.
Some clients will offer you a barter trade – you have a mutual need for one another’s services, and it’s an even swap, with no need for money to change hands.
Some clients don’t pay as much as your standard hourly, but their flexible work schedule jives with yours, so you take the opportunity because it will enable you to tend to other important areas of your life that need attention while still making money.
Some clients, despite their ability or willingness to pay you hourly, can become joint venture partners who help you amass big money in your business. Because you work well together and connect in how you think – you’re able to pool creative talents and go fifty-fifty on a joint venture without either of you getting caught up in a limiting mindset.
Lack of fear will enable you to make a big leap forward when the timing is right, because you’ll recognize an opportunity when one comes along, without a lot of nail-biting and floundering or asking everyone else’s opinion as to whether you’re doing the right thing.
BUT...
What Will You Learn if You Work for Clients?
Having a business brings huge leaps and bounds in your career. What will you learn if you have your own business, working for clients?
You’ll learn how to handle people.
Working with clients gives you a ton of exposure handling different types of personalities. This is something like working for a company in that with both instances, you’ll encounter many different types of people that you must learn how to deal with. But when you work for clients, you get a choice.
You can actively commit to partnering with one person. Or you can actively choose to let go of a client relationship because it’s not working out. This can be very empowering. The more clients you work with, the more you learn about yourself and what type of client is the ideal productivity and profitability partner for you.
Here’s what else you’ll learn when you have your own business serving clients:
You’ll learn skills.
Having your own business can require you to jump without a net in many instances. There will be times when you have absolutely no idea what you’re doing, and you must research, learn, practice and master an entirely new sphere of your business.
You’ll learn how to be a flexible thinker.
Being in business for yourself constantly serves up problems that you must prioritize and solve.
This will teach you how to pivot – quickly change directions to meet the need.
As a result, you’ll think differently than you did before, and this skill will impact your personal life for the better as well.
You’ll evolve past the worker bee mindset.
Once you settle into working with clients, and it becomes a daily flow in your work life, it will be difficult to return to working for a company and all the politics and policies and go along with this.
You will develop more of an independent streak after you’ve been on your own in your client based business for a while. If you return to a traditional job after having done this for some time, it may feel very stifling. Many of the rules and social behaviors may seem limiting to your creativity and kind of ridiculous and elementary.
You’ll learn the value of your time and how to manage it better.
Time is a huge thing when you work for yourself and serve clients. You’ll realize how very valuable every minute of your day is because every minute of your day is a potential opportunity to make money in a minute. If you’re not working or doing something that could go toward that, you’re really going to sense that your time is being wasted.
Talk to your average cogwheel worker in corporate America, and you’ll hear about how the hours tick by slowly, and they can barely get out of bed to face another work week. This is simply not so when you work for clients and love what you do.
In fact, you’ll know that the freelance grind is for you when you find yourself leaping out of bed for work… when the hours of your day fly by… when Friday rolls around, and you wish it were Monday because you have so many things on your task list that you’re excited to dive into… you’re wondering how you can sneak in work on your vacation because it’s so enjoyable, satisfying and freeing to do what you do.
You’ll learn how to control the flow of money.
Working for clients and having a business can help you begin to understand that you control the flow of your own money. And as you get better at this, you’ll start to see that setting up multiple income-producing opportunities is the way to go if you want to control the flow.
You’ll learn to take time off when you need it, but not to miss out on an opportunity when one comes knocking.
If you have a slow day or a sick day at your job where you work for someone else, someone might say something or criticize you… but your world isn’t going to come crashing down
A slow day or a sick day when you work for clients doesn’t have to be the end of the world, either. But it could mean a few less hundred at the end of the week, or it could mean a lost opportunity. When you work for yourself, a “sick day” might mean a “sick day plus a late night,” and if you’re wired for an alternate schedule, that will feel right to you.
Some people don’t thrive when working and living by the traditional clock. If you’re one such person, this will be a huge relief for you, to oversee your own time and how it’s spent on a 24-hour schedule.
You’ll learn when it’s time to take action.
Being a freelancer means you decide the pace, timing, intensity, and frequency of the actions you take on behalf of your career. There’s no sitting and waiting. But if you are waiting, it could mean that you’re not cut out for this freelance life — which isn’t the end of the world because everyone is different.
But it should be noted that self-starters will thrive in a freelance and independent consulting environment. People who have a more passive personality will not… and will likely suffer the consequences or lack of consequences of their inaction.
As a freelancer, it will take some time adjusting to this. But it’s not really that difficult of a situation, and in fact working for yourself and serving clients can be incredibly rewarding. It’s just something you’re not used to, and things that are different feel uncomfortable at first.
