12 Things I’ve Learnt in 12 Freelance Years

Consultant. Expert. Entrepreneur. Strategist. Author. Writer. I’ve been called many things in my self-employed career but at the end of the day, like everyone else who doesn’t take a pay cheque - essentially I’m a freelancer. That’s important to remember. I go from project to project, creating opportunities, getting paid for results. After twelve years working for myself, I’ve put this PDF together: ‘12 Things I’ve Learnt in 12 Freelance Years’

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Adding Another String To Your Bow

So my third book ‘Zoom!’ is now well and truly published; it’s on the bookshelves in UK stores and the first international orders are now being fulfilled. At the same time, I’m already working on book four, ‘Mash-Up’ (my second collaboration with David Sloly). So it’s that part of the journey where post-it notes are being stuck on the wall, interviews and research conducted, and evenings invested in editing and writing.

Of course, in this world you can’t *just* be an author anymore, you have to be a content creator (as well as a promoter of course). Content creation doesn’t stop with the manuscript, you have to think about the guest posts you’ll write for other sites, the video interviews you’ll grab so you have extra content, the stories you’ll reversion into manifestos and so on.

That multi-platform landscape is now where all marketing is played out and it’s something I evangelise to my business clients, ensuring that their message and content sweats, that they tell their story simultaneously across different platforms.

One of my own goals is to to become platform-agnostic in my business storytelling; to not stop at books, columns, blog posts or videos. So I’ve just started contributing to Monocle magazine’s new online radio channel Monocle 24, interviewing business pioneers for their show ‘The Entrepreneurs’. I’ve loved the quality of Monocle content since they launched the print title; now having contributed to the magazine it’s great to tell entrepreneurial stories for Monocle 24. Sure - this is not going to replace core business as the dominant activity, but it’s a natural by-product, another string to my bow. And on a personal note, conducting interviews takes me back twenty five years to when I started out, working on BBC local radio. One of my first interviews, back in November 1986 when I’d just left school, was with Billy Bragg (I’ve put it on YouTube here). The current series of interviews for Monocle includes Guy Kawasaki, Founder of Moo.com Richard Moross and French Radio London CEO Pascal Grierson. They’ll be featuring on ‘The Entrepreneurs’ show over the coming weeks, check the website here or follow me on Twitter for details on when they go live.

So have a think how the shifting content landscape can enable you to add another string to your bow. What additional talents or products can you offer the market? Have a think about those natural by-products. Can multiple platform opportunities act as a catalyst for your skills going ‘multi-media’ in 2012?

Stop thinking singular; start acting plural!

Ditch The Rule Book: How To Run A Business Your Way

Next Tuesday I was down to be talking on a SXSW Interactive panel ‘Ditch The Rule Book: How To Run A Business Your Way’. It was an idea I’d co-created with Espree Devora  targeted at freelancers, start-ups and entrepreneurs; to share our ideas, stories and experiences on trying to stay authentic in business, getting success not by following the rule book, but staying true to your values and your own business style. If you’re going to be in Austin for SXSWi, please check out the panel with Espree, Lewis Howes, Shane Mac and Giang Biscan along with my ‘stand-in’ Liam Martin (!);  it’s Tuesday March 15 at 9:30AM at The Hilton Hotel, Salon D.

So seeing as I can’t be there, I decided to make a little video to be played out at the panel. It’s my three tips to running a business your way:

The Business Hustle: Lessons In Business From Jay-Z

I’ve just been reading ‘Decoded’ by Jay-Z. Decoded is on the face of it, a book that deconstructs his lyrics, but like the rap itself, there’s more to it that first meets the eye. The book is also part autobiographical and I left with some lessons that are valuable for anyone looking to make their business idea happen. So here are four business lessons from Jay-Z:

1) Being A Good Hustler Is Better Than An MBA. Whether he was dealing drugs in his teenage years or running Roc-a-fella Records and his business interests, Jay-Z embraces the spirit of the hustler. Those skills that he learnt on the street corner dealing - okay they may not be politically correct - but they still remain the essence of any enterprise: you buy something for one price, sell it on for a higher price and make a profit. For him, the hustler trying to find his fortune is the ultimate human story, “it’s the ultimate metaphor for basic human struggles: to survive and resist, to win and make sense of it all”. That mindset, that spirit, and that emotional investment is essential if you’re going to be a success.  Speaking about the launch of Roc-a-fella, he says, "we didn't know business yet, but we knew how to hustle".

2) There’s No Magic Without Hard Work. Like many before him, Jay-Z reminds us that success needs hard-graft. "Without the work, the magic won't come”, he says, and commenting on Michael Jordan, "that's the kind of consistency that you only get by adding dead serious discipline to whatever talent you have". Of course there are no overnight success stories in business; sure, you might get lucky, but you still need to invest ‘sweat equity’.

3) Have A Goal, Write It Down And Hit It. When he set up his businesses, Jay-Z set goals, "We made short and long term projections, we kept it realistic, but the key thing is that we wrote it down, which is as important as visualisation in realizing success". Once you commit that goal to paper, it helps focus your mind on meeting it. If it stays loose you can’t hit it.

4) Be Resourceful. Jay-Z talks about getting resourceful to deal with droughts: "a drought in the game is when the supply or demand starts to drop - and that's when resourceful hustlers have to get creative". Back to the dealing on the street corner, he talks about the metaphor of turning a 'mound' of work into a mountain of money. We all face droughts, when customers dry up or a deal falls flat. That sense of being resourceful is at the heart of the one-person business (I wrote about it in my first book Leap! Ditch Your Job, Start Your Own Business And Set Yourself Free: "All I have is my bare hands, a load of contacts and a bunch of ideas. And with that, I've got to make a whole load of money. It's that simple and it's that scary".

What else did Decoded remind me? That like a lot of art, rap can be read on more than one level; it’s truly multi-layered. So don't dismiss it -  'the art of rap is deceptive' - if you look under the bonnet you may be surprised).

Managing Your Personal Bandwidth: Admitting You Can’t Do *Everything*

“How do you have time to write a book?” my friend asked the other day.

I told her, I had to make sacrifices. Mainly leisure time.

Ever since I started researching my second book ‘Juggle!’ I’ve advised and talked to many people who lead - or aspire to lead - multi-dimensional work lives. The biggest challenge? TIME: how to use it.

Whatever you do, whatever the demands on you, there’s something we’ve all got in common. We all have 24 hours a day. In which to do stuff, make a living, have fun, get inspired, kiss our kids goodnight. So you have to make choices. If you want to launch that hobby business or master that new skill, you might have to ditch TV.

Between now and the beginning of April, the pressure is on as I juggle writing a new book alongside a  full portfolio of projects. Some things have to give. That TV series, that evening relaxing, reading that novel. So there are tough choices to be made. To spend Sunday with the family or working on the book. And I’ve just made another one.

In March I was due to be participating in a panel at SXSW Interactive, this would have been my third trip to the festival, being part of the line-up in ‘Ditch The Rule Book: How To Run A Business Your Way’ along with Espree Devora, Lewis Howes, Shane Mac and Giang Biscan.

SXSW has always given me enormous value but it takes a big investment in time (and let’s not forget the cost of getting there). Being away in Texas at a critical point in my book writing with all those wonderful distractions was just going to create too much pressure and stress. So I’ve had to stand down.  I’ll miss my annual dose of inspiration, both for my business and for my soul.

But, it’s a reminder that you can’t do everything at the same time. So don’t try, manage that personal bandwidth carefully.

What do you do in a nutshell? Getting famous for ONE thing.

In a cluttered and noisy marketplace, it can be tough to get heard. We know that distinctive and single-focused brands tend to stand out from the crowd. But for companies and people who provide more than one talent or product, it can be difficult providing that focus.

My advice to those jugglers – whether businesses or individuals – is that they need to identify a common thread that unites their plurality: an attitude, an industry specialism, a philosophy, a unique approach, whatever. Make that thread the single minded proposition to shout about. When clients and prospects get to know you they can learn about the rest of your talents; but first you need to get famous for one thing.

I help my clients distil everything down to that focused, simple and get-able proposition. As I juggle a multi-dimensional work life, it’s something I struggle with myself. How to communicate that breadth – from marketing expertise to book writing – simply? My answer is that I am all about ideas (I'm the 'Ideas Guy'), and I produced this little video below that – hopefully – communicates this clearly. It’s not always an easy one to pull off, let me know what you think. Leave a comment or get me on Twitter @iansanders.

Soaking Up A Do Lecture To Get Things Done

Our in-boxes and twitter stream get bombarded with links to the latest must-watch video with promises to inspire or change your life. Inevitably - as The New York Times reported this week - we abandon said video after 60 seconds because we don't have the time or it's just not interesting enough. So it's hard to know what merits watching. Like everything else, I guess you just have to trust your instinct.

Last week, a meeting cancellation liberated my day. So when I saw that the Do Lectures had launched videos from their 2010 series of talks, I decided to pick one and invest the time - with no distractions - to watch. So I put the player on full screen, sat back, and with my Moleskine at my side soaked up my own experience of a Do Lecture.

And boy, was it a good investment; ironically all about managing time to get things done. I'd heard a lot about David Allen's book 'Getting Things Done' but hadn't got around to reading it; so it was great to hear David's story. This isn’t a philosophy about outsourcing your life or techniques in speed-reading. There's no gimmicks in sight. It's more powerful than that. It's about having the self awareness to have a strong sense of purpose, and be incredibly focused on what you do and why you do it. Since David and the DoLectures guys were good enough to share this with the world, let me share my personal takeaways:

1. GTD is not just about creating any space or time in your schedule; you need to create 'psychic space' where you're in the right mindset.
2. the importance of CONTROL: capture stuff that is not on cruise control , clarify what you need to do with it and write it down. David says 'your mind is for having ideas not holding them'.
3. the importance of PERSPECTIVE: know why you're here, know what your vision and goals look like and what you need to do to get there. 'If you know where you're going and what you're doing, efficiency and style are your only improvement opportunities'.
4. 'nail now' - get under control where you are now. Decide desired outcomes and actions required to get there.

'GTD is not about getting things done. It's about creating the space to follow the voice that's always been there'.

So watch the video below (or follow this link) and start getting things done. It's worth it.

How Do You Benefit?

So I was sitting in a bar last week, browsing my site analytics on my iPhone. When my friend came over, I mentioned my blog had 950 visits that day, the highest I’d ever had.

“Cool”, he said, “but how do you benefit?”

And it’s a good question. After all, it wasn’t as if I’d sold 950 copies of my book or won some new clients; I just had a new bunch of visitors to my blog. I wouldn’t see any revenues for that.

But there doesn’t need to be a ‘hard’ return on investment for everything; often it’s about a ‘softer’ ROI. Not £ or $ but satisfaction, recognition or just doing something you are passionate about. For small businesses like mine it’s important to recognise that they’ll be pockets of activities we get paid for, and pockets we don’t. And making choices accordingly.

Writing books, blogging, guest posts, doing video interviews are not motivated by money. I didn’t invest time - and money - in producing a video of Dave Stewart for a financial return (because I didn't get paid for it). I did it because I like telling stories, I enjoyed it. To answer my friend’s question: *that* is how I benefit.

So as you make your own choices, think about the return on investment. Whether soft, hard, measurable, immeasurable, whatever – that’s all that counts.

Work out how you benefit.

Is it time for your very own business revolution?

Here's a 'manifesto' I created for Courvoisier's 'Stories From The Frontline', a newspaper produced by Courvoisier The Future 500. It's my ten tips tips on how to revolutionise your business processes and cause a beneficial storm (click on the image to view):

Note: I'd like to credit 'have a dream, not a mission statement' to Kevin Roberts, Saatchi & Saatchi.

Business Stories : #1 Gibli.com, the knowledge trading website

This week I'm profiling three companies who have developed ideas and products to solve age-old business problems. The first is start-up Gibli.com, who've come up with an idea to help small businesses fill their knowledge gaps.



When pharmaceutical data company CEO Charles Joynson was struggling to find out information about doing business in the Netherlands, his dilemma gave him an idea. What if businesses who had questions could connect with others who had the answers? The result is Gibli.com, a ‘knowledge trading' website where experts can trade their know-how online in the same way people buy and sell on EBay.


The idea was born from Charles’ own struggle to find detailed information to launch a new product, “critically we failed to uncover the key facts that in the end were crucial”, he explained. That was the catalyst for the website which connects businesses with experts. Gibli only launched in April 2010 and the site now has around 150 signed up members with 100 site visits a day.


Talking to potential users prior to launch revealed that many felt there was a gap between sourcing free advice on the internet and paying for a consultant, giving Charles the confidence that there was a niche that Gibli could fill. “They suggested that the free advice on the internet was questionable, and you couldn’t always tell who the writer was. But if you paid a consultant to help you it could cost thousands. So we decided to let experts charge what they liked for slices of their knowledge”.


Charles quickly learnt the importance of assembling a talented team to fill his own knowledge vacuums. “Gibli was one of those projects which needed the input of other talented individuals to create something useful, rather than a single flash of inspiration on my part. In that way I was able to pull resources into the team to compensate for my own weaknesses.” Charles acknowledges the irony in the discovery that if he couldn't solve it on his own, he needed to get help “If only Gibli.com had existed then, I could have solved my own problem!"


The initial idea evolved as he sought contributions from others, experiencing what he describes as a ‘series of little eureka moments’ along the way. His business mentor played a really valuable role; one of her early recommendations was the importance of design to deliver the optimum user-experience. Charles had always been cynical about the value of design in a project but his mentor introduced him to designers who helped visualize the concept, adding a lot of value to the offering.


The expertise he’s brought in has strengthened Gibli's offering, making it stronger than his initial idea. He's now a firm advocate of the need to seek advice from experts. "I now know that if your trust the talented people around you, you will end up with something considerably better than you could have done on your own. And that’s what Gibli is all about".

Simplify Your Message

Often I act as a ‘Clarity Funnel’ for my clients: I soak IN a business’s DNA and then articulate OUT a clear and distinct market position or strategy/idea.

What does that actually mean? For a client I’ve been working with this week, that means visiting their warehouse, getting under their skin, talking to their staff, listening to the business owner and then funnelling all that ‘stuff’ into clear and simple marketing communications that the marketplace will understand.

I love that process and the challenge of funnelling a complex reality into a simple sell.

Too often our businesses, our brands, our personal offerings, are so multi-dimensional we’re guilty of complicating how we describe them. We get lost.

So with all that in mind, I LOVE the simplicity of Shane Mac’s website. A one pager of a few lines communicating his multi-dimensional work life with links to find out more. So simple, but equally so effective. I’m sure Shane’s going to inspire a whole breed of stripped-down websites for consultants and freelancers.

Nice one, Shane. (hat tip to my friend Espree Devora for sharing)

Tony Hsieh: Everything I've Learnt

I’m a huge fan of Tony Hsieh and everything he’s achieved with Zappos. From when I saw his keynote at SXSW in 2009 I’ve followed his business with interest (and it was great to meet him at SXSW this year on board the Delivering Happiness bus). Tony was in London this week for Google Zeitgeist. Unfortunately he was too busy to meet up on this trip but he shot a video with Loïc Le Meur, founder of Le Web where  Loïc asked about the lessons he’s learnt in business. From the inevitable lessons in the importance of Culture to Work/Life integration, there’s some great takeaways here.


WATCH THE VIDEO HERE (I removed the embedded video as it was not displaying properly in some browsers)

This video is taken from Loïc Le Meur’s blog. Merci bien Loïc! 

My New Marketing Manifesto

I'm regularly asked for my top tips to make a business more successful - what can give businesses the edge in the marketplace, what makes them stand out in the crowd? Whilst this is what I get paid by clients for, I decided to put together a free one-page download, with my top ten tips.


I've called it 'The New Marketing Manifesto: Ian Sanders' Ten Damn Effective Tips To Raise Your Game'. You can READ & DOWNLOAD it as a PDF at Scribd here.


I don't promise any dramatic new ideas here, just common-sense tips that I know will work for your business.

It’s All About Choices

There was a ‘handyman’ at my house yesterday doing some maintenance, minor repairs, decorating – all those things that have accumulated at the bottom of my to-do list. Most of that I could have attempted myself but you have to make choices about what you do, and what you don’t do.

Because, of course, it’s all about Time.

In managing time it’s all about decisions. Whether to read that blog post, whether to click on that link. You get bombarded with hundreds of choices every day, so you have to be ruthless. No more so than online, where you can spend (or is it ‘waste’?) hours on places like Tweetdeck. And the thing is there’s no sure-fire way of knowing what’s going to yield value. That blink-and-you’ll-miss-it tweet could change your fortunes in an instant, open your mind to something new, give you a business opportunity. Or not.

Similarly if you – like me – are one of the growing number of one-person business units, then you need to make judgement calls all our lives. Do we configure that wifi network ourselves, or outsource to an IT expert? Do we design that presentation template or hire a designer? Write that copy or hand to a copywriter?

Each of those choices has a cost implication, but like my outsourcing to the handyman, I may be a few hundred pounds poorer, but I’m richer in time. And whether that’s time to work, to play with my kids, or just to chill, it really doesn’t matter.

I made the choice.

Rip Up The Rule Book

Virgin Media Pioneers is a new initiative here in the UK to help young entrepreneurs ‘make their ideas happen’. It’s an online space where people can get help to develop their idea, pick up new skills and create their own network. The Virgin Media Pioneers Programme is a joint initiative between Virgin Media and Enterprise UK. I’m getting involved in the project as a mentor, giving advice: here’s my first video for them, reminding people that to be a success in business you don’t need to follow the rules, it’s more important to do it your way, and be the smartest not the biggest. 

if the video above does not display properly, watch it on YouTube here

Don't Over-Engineer It!

What is about an organisation that complicates what should be simple? Why when a small group of people grows to an organisation, do they become blind to simplicity? Why over-engineer problems and introduce unwieldy systems and operating procedures?

So I was in a restaurant in a hotel recently when I discovered the chicken I’d been served was undercooked. I called the waitress over and the meal was taken away. Then nothing much happened. So I called over the Maitre D’ and expressed my disappointment that what I thought was a decent establishment had a poor attitude to food safety. A few feet away from my table was the open-plan counter of a kitchen where the food was prepared. Somewhere around the corner was a chef. I felt like going off to find him or her to get answers to my question, it seemed so simple. The Maitre D’s response? “I’m very sorry sir. You can be sure I’ll be sending lots of emails tomorrow morning to sort this out”.

What the …?

All three people in the equation were there, just feet away. The chef. The customer. The manager.

Emails? A conversation would be a good start.

I figured that if I’d been in a small family or owner-run business it would have been sorted out quickly - and there’d have been no emails in sight.

So at all costs: if the problem is in the kitchen (or the sales office, or wherever), don’t send emails. Just walk in there and sort it out.

Don’t complicate something when it's really quite simple.

Rethinking Results & Productivity

Here’s a guest video post I did for my friends over at Red Cube Marketing; recorded last week at South By South West Interactive with my take on Results & Productivity.

Whether it’s in our jobs, in the social media space, or our roles as suppliers and consultants, success is not just about showing up. In the old days (whenever they were) career success was about turning up and sitting at your desk all day. With new trends such as ROWE (Results Only Work Environment) employees are giving the freedom to work when and how they wish; they are accountable on results. I’m trying to introduce that spirit into how I work as a business coach and marketing expert: not quantifying my value in man hours but instead in results. But to balance that, another takeaway I got from the festival is that we must not get obsessed by data and analytics; some things are easier to measure than others and too much analysis can kill creativity. Anyway here’s the video version:

If the video is not displaying above watch it on YouTube here 

Do you have a ‘WYT?’ person in your business or work life?

Many of us are working more autonomous than ever as one-person businesses, consultants, freelancers, work-at-homers. There is a whole new generation of workers used to being self sufficient in everything; juggling a sales role with doing the accounts. But however talented you are, and however well-tuned your instinct is, it’s essential to have someone else to bounce ideas off, to provide a reality check, or just to look over a proposal or important document.

I call them my ‘WYT?’-  ‘What d’You Think?’ - people. And I have a few of them: people who have good ideas, others who will provide a fresh perspective on a problem, my wife to be really honest with me about whether something is good enough or not. I have a WYT relationship with my friend/ associate Richard – he calls it a buddy system (and blogged about it here). But whatever you call it, make sure you identify people in your life who you can call upon as mentors, sounding boards or just a fresh pair of eyes and ears.

You may be adept at being multi-dimensional, but you can still benefit from a completely fresh perspective.

If you’ve had enough of the day job it might be time to take The Leap

When I quit my job in 2000 to set up my own business consultancy, I felt like a real pioneer. Now ten years later, the world seems to be full of the self-employed. Every town coffee shop is full of micro-entrepreneurs, freelancers and consultants with the tools of their trade: a skinny cappuccino, laptop, wifi connection and a bunch of ideas.


My book ‘Leap! Ditch Your Job, Start Your Own Business And Set Yourself Free’ is full of everything I’ve learned doing it for myself, by myself. ‘Leap!’ is your personal navigation guide for freelancers, start-ups and work at homers.

It’s awesome to hear from readers how the book is resonating with their own experiences. I recently heard from Pamela, a reader in Sydney Australia:

“I wanted to write to you and thank you for writing such a simple yet powerful book. I am a 40 year old IT professional and have spent the last 16 years of my life working for two multinational PC Companies and your book has changed my life! I instantly connected with your informal writing style and read your book and instinctively knew that this was my time to leap”. (thanks Pamela)

A key message in the book is about having the right attitude and mindset when you work for yourself; you can access the whole first section ‘Attitude’ here (totally free, no strings..). You can hear a review of the book by Mohammed Seedat on SmallBizPod here (review starts at 02:17).

And if you’d like to read a hard copy of the complete book, get it on Amazon.co.uk here and Amazon.com here.

If you're taking the Leap, let me know how you get on.

Take That Risk

Last Thursday I finished a project for a new client. It was the first time we worked together and it went really well. But neither party knew that before we started; I wasn’t even a ‘known quantity’ – the client had a hunch, thought I might be the right guy for his project. He took a risk.


That evening I saw a woman who’d hired me for a work experience role 22 years ago. I hadn’t seen her in nearly 20 years. She told me she just had a feeling when I walked into that meeting room all those years ago, that I was going to fit in to her TV company. She took a risk. And a risk that paid off, as they hired me after I left college, which then paved the start of my random career path and led me to where I am two decades later.

Sometimes we try and avoid risk. We don’t like to stick our necks out or go for something, in case it doesn’t work out. But that attitude won’t get you far in life or in business.

You need to take a risk. So hire that person, launch that business, pitch for that gig, email that CEO you want as a client, ask that person out you really fancy.

Do it.