“I’m a freelancer” sounds sexy because media imagery involves rich athletes looking to trade teams or courageous journalists helicoptering to the next international assignment. But in reality, saying you freelance is more like packaging a Le Beccherie tiramisu in a Tootsie Roll wrapper.

Don’t be freelancer.

Freelancers trade their hours for money.

This will, inevitably, stretch you. If not today, SOMEDAY, you’ll find yourself wondering how to scale, how to get more hours in the day, how to get to six or seven figures.

If you worked (and billed) 40 hours per week and never took a vacation or sick day, you’d have to charge $480 per hour to reach seven figures in a year.

Trading hours for dollars isn’t the way.

Freelancers are treated like crap.

When organizations do business with an individual freelancer they act differently than they do when the exchange is business-to-business.

They are less respectful of boundaries and more likely to expect you to be available 24/7. They request the draft on Saturday and the final on Monday. They count your hours.

Somehow freelancers are interpreted as part-time, not really fully employed, and therefore available at the ring of a bell.

Don’t freelance. Own a business.

Your business doesn’t have to be any larger than a company of one. This isn’t about breaking ground on a new HQ. It’s simply a very important shift in position.

The position shift happens in your own head.

When shift your mindset to owning a business, you carry yourself differently. You are doing something bigger than yourself. This might seem small but it solidifies your identity in a way that brings extra confidence and maturity

When you represent a business, other companies treat you as an equal partner. I don’t love this fact, but you get more respect.

To shift from a freelancer to a business owner you don’t need to file any new legal paperwork. You just need to shift the words you use to talk about yourself. And your entire concept of who you and your business are. You know – nothing major.

Do you know someone else who needs to make this mindset shift? Send them THIS LINK to get on my email list.