It’s actually quite fascinating…
Today I noticed a contractor fixing the edge of a carpark driveway.
So while he worked hard I pulled out the popcorn… knowing this would be a great show. And might just have something good to share in my email today. 😁
The edge of the driveway had worn down over many years. And looked like the death blow came from one overladen truck too many.
But to fix it you can’t you can’t just slap a bit of concrete on top. None of Chris’s shenannigans will do here… like when I’m painting-up-a-storm for home projects and just stuff as much paint in cracks as I can!
If you do this… it might look good when finished… but it’ll just take one or two cars to go over it… to make it look no better than it was to start with.
And it will probably look worse… what with all the crumbled concrete carnage laying about. (Love me some alliteration 😎).
What the new edge needs is strength from being well anchored. To allow this… my new mate pulls out what looks like King Kong’s Oral-B electric toothbrush: a massive concrete saw.
And gets to work cutting the damaged area away. There’s a huge chunk missing after this.
Some boxing is added so the wet concrete doesn’t slip-n-slide everwhere. Then he pours it in.
This wannabe Michelangelo goes to work shaping and sculpting to create an edge that perfectly matches what’s left of the original one.
As I drove away… I gave him a nod. “Job well done, mate.”
Bet you think I’m going to use this as a metaphor for your freelancing business, right?
Am I that predictable?
Well… just to show I’m not completely one-dimensional…
I’m not going to use any super-smooth transitions from this story to the things I want to say about freelancing. So you can’t pin a metaphor on me today!
Any connections you make to what came before and what I say next are on you… and completely conincidental.
I just want to say…
Sometimes things in our freelancing business have to be cut away and replaced with something better.
Or the way I like to think about it for my business: don’t be precious.
Heck… I’ve lost count of what version of website copy I’m up to now.
And that’s just fine. That’s how the little experiment called my freelancing business works.
But changes like this are often needed to speak more clearly to your ideal clients.
But there’s a hundred other things that may need to have that cut-and-replace surgery.
It might be: Changing niches. No longer offering certain services. Changing your pricing structure from hourly-rate to project-based.
My suggestion:
If you’re doing things like this… be kind to yourself. And only make one significant change at a time.
Apart from it being less stressful… it also gives you an opportunity to test. Like the A/B testing marketing types love. You can test how the change compares to what things were like before.
Now, we’re likely making changes after doing a bit of research and thinking things through… so the change we’ve made is likely the best outcome.
But if it’s not. That’s OK. Nothing’s set in concrete.
(Dang it!… just couldn’t help reaching back for that one!).
Changes are undoable. Or tweaks can be made.
It’s your freelancing business so you can do what you like.
I like that.
Helps with my peace of mind ☺
P.S. Systeme.io is what I used to make my website copy updates a breeze. [affiliate link]
Ready to build your email list? Go here…
EmailForTheWin.com
Chris Milham