#155: Why You Need to Set Standards in Your Business — and How to Do It Right

Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast, helping you propel your writing business to a whole new level. And now, here's your host, Ed Gandia.

Hey there. Welcome to the High Income Business Writing Podcast. I am your host, Ed Gandia and this is the podcast for business writers and copywriters who want to earn more and less time doing work they love for better clients. Just a quick reminder that you can find detailed show notes for this episode@b2b launcher.com Episode Episode 155 and the show notes always include a summary of our discussion as well as any links to resources that I may have mentioned or my guests have mentioned during the show. Talking about guests, There are no guests today. Today you just get me, myself and I and this is going to be a short episode. But just because it's short doesn't mean that it's not an important topic. It actually is a very important topic and it's the topic of having more freedom and flexibility in your business. I'm thinking about this today because here in the US we're celebrating Independence Day this week. So it's just kind of a theme that I've been thinking through. I also just happened to have finished reading David McCullough's book 1776 about essentially the fight and the war of independence. And I find it to be fascinating. This whole idea of that's just kind of baked in to our culture. Not just in the U.S. but I think also in a lot of western countries and especially in this community of freelance professionals, freelance creatives. I find that the biggest reasons writers become and stay self employed have a lot less to do with money and way more to do with freedom and flexibility. In fact, it's not just a feeling. This is something I have found over and over again in surveys that I've conducted where I've had 15002000 respondents. Also people who survey this audience who have studied independent creative professionals, self employed professionals. Freedom and flexibility is always near or at the very top of the list. Money is usually not until second, third, fourth factor. Now you can earn a great living as a freelancer. There's no doubt about that. If you play your cards right, you'll often earn earn way more than your traditionally employed colleagues. But money is not the main driver for any of us. It's really about having more freedom to make better decisions for yourself. And by freedom, I don't want it to be kind of a woo woo thing. To me there's a very tangible aspect to this. I'm talking about more freedom around when you work more freedom around whom you work with, freedom around what you work on, what types of projects, freedom about where you work. You know, for many people it's really about the ability to kind of get up and go and make their business portable, be able to work while traveling and visiting family or while traveling with their kids, in some extreme cases, to go to some exotic locations around the world and live there for three months at a time, either by themselves, with their spouse or with a family. It would affect. Had several shows here, several episodes in the podcast where we've talked about that and given you some very specific examples of people who are doing this and they've shared what that means to them and how they do that. And of course, where you take your skills and your career just being the, the ability to chart your own course. I know that for me that, that was always, that was a big thing. And of course it's, it's easy for me to see that now, but I always had this uneasiness, you know, when I was out there working for somebody else. It's not that, that being an employee, I don't, I don't want to give that impression, but there are many times when I just felt so helpless because I couldn't make the decision somebody else was making them. And in some cases I thought they were poor decisions. Now, whether or not I was right, it doesn't really matter. It just. I've realized that I'm wired to just, just kind of sail my own ship and just take it wherever I want. And you know what? For me, and I think many of you can identify with this, I'd rather be wrong and make a mistake, but still have the ability to go in that direction, then I would not have that ability and let somebody else make all the decisions and take me to a better place, if that makes any sense. So I'd rather have the ability to chart my own course, even if I make mistakes and I have ups and downs. That to me is really the thrill of that is just extremely important. It's one of my top values professionally. And so for me, definitely having this flexibility and the freedom not just in terms of day to day stuff, but also to make those decisions, that's been central to what I do and why I'm where I am today. Freedom is just again, freedom, flexibility, top value for many of us. And the sad truth is that too many freelance writers are worse off today than they were when they were traditionally employed, when they were employees. I find that too many are struggling to earn a good living or they're working with bad clients on projects they either don't like or even hate. They're working longer hours than they ever have. This is kind of the dark side of this work and this line of work and self employment. Sometimes it's all the above. It's just not being able to tick off any of these boxes in terms of what you like. It's just you have zero flexibility. You feel like you've created a job for yourself. That's just not freedom. That's not what many of us have signed up for. I find many of us start with great intentions, but as we grow our businesses, we end up saying yes to too many things. And before we know it, we're worse off than we were when we were employees. We're working 12 hour days, we're working six days a week. We're no longer taking care of ourselves physically, emotionally, spiritually. We might be even neglecting our family. And to make matters worse, we're not earning nearly enough to make up for all that sacrifice. I mean, talk about adding insult to injury, right? It's like, you know, you've given up all these things and you can't even say that financially, you know, you're, you're better off. What's crazy about this is it, it just, it happens so slowly, you know, if you've ever. And listen, I'm so guilty of this. Okay, so I'm speaking from experience here. I find that so many of us, when we start doing these things, we don't even notice that we're heading down the wrong path until it's too late and until we are about to burn out or have completely burned out. Now, fortunately, and this is what I want to talk about today, there's a way out of this mess. This is a big topic, but I want to give you something really practical today. Something that I think can definitely get you on the right path. And it all starts, I feel, by making and adhering to a list of standards. I want you to think of standards as rules for your business. And I hesitate to even use that word. But when I talk about rules, I'm not talking about the bad kind of rules that limit our freedom. I've never liked rules, you know, rules. I always thought of rules as things that are meant to be broken. And believe me, I mean, I'm a rule follower. But I also like to question rules. Why is that rule there? That's stupid. So I'd never had this really positive view of a lot of rules, but, but I think they definitely have their place. And I want you to think of standards as guiding principles that ensure that your business remains healthy and sustainable. So they're there for your own good. The good thing is you can make them work for you so you don't have to adopt rules that, you know, maybe don't fit with what you're trying to do. Your personality, your values and so forth. So you, that's the great thing about being self employed. Like you said, the right rules for you. Now, the reason this is important is unless we have an objective measure to guide the day to day decision making in our businesses, it's too easy to let our feelings and emotions take over. And I found that feelings and emotions are just horrible managers. They're way too subjective. Standards and rules, on the other hand, are very objective. They're the ultimate litmus tests. And if you adhere to them consistently, they're going to help you stay on track. So let's talk about this. How do you set standards in your business? You know, what do I mean by standards? How do we go about this? I want to give you some actual examples, but I'm going to give you a process and this is really a lot easier than you might think. Okay? I don't believe in, you know, taking a day out to go, you know, on a retreat. I mean, those things are great, but this is not something that's going to require you to carve out a weekend, a week to collaborate with all these different people. This is something that's very simple and you can do today, okay? At least you can start the process today. The first step is probably my favorite because I love brainstorming. And that's exactly what we're gonna do here. I want you to start by brainstorming some ideas. And specifically, I want you to take 30 to 60 minutes to write a big list of things that you will and will not do in your business. Now, as with any brainstorming exercise, this is important, okay? Don't judge any of your ideas as they come out. As they kind of flow out of your, of your, of your mind and you try to put them on paper, I just want you to write them down as they, as they come to you, okay? Because again, it's just, that's the whole definition of brainstorming. And I want you to come up with at least one or two pages of ideas. So if you're using a notebook, a notepad, seriously, no constraints, this is all about just, just a brain dump, as many things as you can think of. It doesn't matter. They sound ridiculous. Don't try not to judge them. Try not to say, well, wait a minute, how is that even going to be possible? Just pretend that there are no constraints that anything is possible and pretend that nobody's going to look at this. Hopefully not really going to share your initial idea with anybody. Keep it private. So if you think that, you know, this is something that somebody else might look at or see read, then just make sure that this is something that stays completely private. Because I want you to really think creatively here. I don't want you to judge any idea. I want you to just write down whatever comes to mind. Now, to make it easier, I find that it helps to write down every idea in a specific format. I like one of two different formats and there's others that will come to you, but if you start with I only blank so I only do this, or I don't blank, so I don't do this, if you kind of stick to those two formats, you're going to find ideas kind of pouring out of you. And I'll give you some examples. I don't do or I don't provide free or spec work for any reason, by the way. These are all examples, okay? So you're free to copy some of these. They might kind of get, you know, jog your memory a bit. But these are just examples. I'm not saying these need to be your, your standards. Okay? I charge a 25% premium for any rush job. I don't take any rush jobs. I do not begin work without 50% of the project fees paid up front. I don't write white papers or annual reports. I don't work for ad agencies. I don't answer the phone every time it rings to speak to me. Clients or prospects must first book an appointment. I take every Friday afternoon off. I take every July off from work to travel and to be with my family. I don't do any work after 4pm I don't do work that requires me to sacrifice my weekends. I only do work that's in my target market. I only accept projects where I can earn an internal hourly rate of $150 or more. Okay, so again, random ideas. These are just meant examples. I'm not saying these need to be your own, but notice the I do this, I only do this or I don't do this. Okay, I want you to put again everything you think about on paper and don't worry yet about how realistic they might be or how you're going to possibly carry this out. Or uphold that standard again, just brainstorming for now. Once you've run out of ideas, I want you to put the list away for a day or two. Now what will happen? Just like with any brainstorming exercise, you're likely going to think of a few more ideas later that day or the next day when you're walking the dog doing dishes. That's really, you know, when things, usually the best ones come to you, and that's fine. When that happens, just jot them down and add them to your list. I like to just record a voice memo many times to myself or send myself a quick email with the idea. I want to capture it while I'm there, so I'll keep my phone on me and then that way I can always capture it while I'm thinking about it. Otherwise I'll forget. So that's step number one, brainstorming. Next step is to pare down your list so the whole thing fits on one page. You know, I love the idea of having a ton of standards, but I find that it can get a little bit overwhelming. Okay? So if it's overwhelming, it's hard to remember them. And not that you're going to have to memorize these, but I strongly recommend that you consolidate ideas as needed. Delete repetitive items. You can have a lot of things that are basically the same thing just said differently. And I want you to just boil it down to the core essentials, the few do's and don'ts you simply cannot compromise on. And that's it. Now you have a list of standards. Now, this should be a living, breathing document because there are some things that you felt, you know, I won't do this. But then you realize you were looking at it the wrong way and there are exceptions, or there are, maybe that doesn't apply anymore, or there are things that you said you were going to do, but then you started doing them and you just kind of lost interest there. So you know, it's okay. These, these can be adapted. This is not a constitution that cannot change. This is something that can evolve over time. Two final thoughts. First, it's important that you review this list weekly. I suggest doing it on Monday mornings as you set your weekly goals and you plan your week. If you don't review it, what will happen is you'll forget what's on your list and you risk slipping back. I should say maybe three things, because the second thing is you might find it helpful to group these by category, you know, maybe in segmented in a way that makes sense. So if you have quite a few items, let's say you have 20 things, it might help to organize them or group them logically, if that helps you kind of keep them in mind and think through them. Okay? But you don't necessarily have to do that. The most important thing is you consolidate them into something. It's manageable. And then the final thing is it's okay to make an exception here or there. You know, life happens, okay? Life is never perfect. The purpose of this is not to have standards that are. That you comply with 100%. 100% compliance is not always possible. In fact, it. I would venture to say that, you know, there's always going to be an exception, but the purpose is to have an objective measure for making good decisions. As long as you understand that you're making an exception when you're making an exception, and why you're making that exception. So you need to be able to have a system in place where if you're going to make an exception, for instance, you got to be able to write it down and justify it very clearly and easily. Like, if you were to hand that justification to someone, they would say, you know what? That makes perfect sense. But if you can imagine that conversation and they said, you know what? I think you're just making excuses. You're trying to. To weasel your way out of this, then maybe it's not a good exception. Okay, so have some kind of standard for what an exception might look like and what kind of justification process you might need to have. Now, it doesn't need to involve somebody else, but, you know, the exceptions need to be just that, exceptions. The moment they start becoming kind of the norm, then it starts. The standard starts losing its effectiveness. You know, it's kind of like if you have ever been on a diet and let's just say you've cut out sugar or refined carbohydrates. One thing that I found when I did this is, you know, I had a cheat day and cheat days were Saturdays. The problem is, you know, Saturday came and sure, you know, I ate sweets and stuff that I had been not consuming during the week. The problem was that, I mean, it was an Olympic sports for me, right? It just, I was like, from Friday, Saturday morning to Saturday night, like midnight. You know, it's like anything goes. And then I started. I saw that it was seeping into Friday night as well, because, you know, that's close enough to Saturday. And then Sunday, well, you know, we had a birthday party and there was cake or ice cream. So it just kind of permeated into the whole weekend. So it didn't work. I find that I had to be very rigid. Look, when it's a cheat day, it's a cheat day and that's it. And in fact, it can't be Every Saturday for me just wasn't working. So now my criteria is very different. Like something special has to happen, like my birthday or Christmas or every couple of months I'll cut myself a little break for one day or maybe one meal. And you know what? For me, that works for other people. May not be the right approach, but again, going back to standards, you need to have systems for the justification piece and you need to be honest with yourself. So the important thing here is to not make exception making the norm. Otherwise you risk slipping back and making the old ways the new normal. So that's my call to action for you today. Go ahead. I want you to start your list today if you possibly can. It would just, you know, while you're thinking about it, let's get going, start writing some ideas. Let's get you on a path to greater freedom and greater fulfillment. This has been Ed Gandia from High Income Business Writing. Have a great rest of the day.

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