You are sat in your studio/office facing the day and you are staring at a to-do list that’s longer than a Leonard Cohen song. If your list is anything like mine then the list includes things like ‘mix the track’, ‘sort out plug-ins’, ‘wire up patch-bay’, ‘write client proposal’ and ‘call x about their project enquiry’. Look familiar?
Now here’s the weird thing, two of the things on the list have the potential to generate a new project and possibly a long term client, but if you are anything like me then you do the other stuff first and if you have time you get around to the business stuff later.
It may be a creative mindset, but it’s almost like there is some weird force-field that stops you from doing the business stuff - trouble is if we neglect it then we’re not going to have any clients and then we’re really screwed.
My advice, after many times of procrastinating about this, do it first - in fact I even reward myself when I complete things. I put off coffee, cake, lunch, even the toilet and say to myself, you ain’t going anywhere until this task is completed. It seems to be the only way I get the stuff done.
Part of growing as a person and in turn growing as a business is learning to do things that are not naturally part of your skill or interest set, of course we will always revert back to our comfort zones, but if we are going to go from average to great and build something of lasting value, then there really is no other way.
Now I’ve written this article I’m going to attempt that proposal again!