Our guest blog comes from Anna Wilk, who offers one to one business training for Birth & Baby Professionals. Anna is a Doula and Maternity Nurse who now coaches others in the profession, on how to market themselves properly, and reach their potential.
Anna has kindly provided members with a discounted rate. (see the Members Discount Codes page)
The joys of self-employment
Attending a course and getting the assignments done is very exciting. You know there is career development ahead of you, which keeps you motivated and happy for a while. Everything feels possible.
It might mean that you will get more/extra money so you can pay off your debt, go on dream holiday or treat your family to nice things.
But, after a short while, it gets a bit tricky, like after great night out with your girlfriends when you need to wake up to reality: you need to write your profile, find agencies or places where you can advertise, figure out what to put into the contract and how much you should charge for your services.
But the real struggle hits you when you get a less than ideal client, or someone is late with payment, or when work doesn't come as easy as you would wish for. Suddenly your dream work of supporting new mums and their babies at this precious time of their lives, turn into something you never wished for, and you can only hope it will get better.
And I wish I could say like in a lovely fairy tale that it does. But it doesn't. Because as December comes, so to does tax self assessment season. It's hard to know what you can and can't claim, it takes time (that you don't have) and you're doing it half asleep wishing to wake up from this Freddie Kruger movie. How can I have worked this hard, to earn so little?
After going grey nearly overnight, I was on the edge of saying: I am done with this, I need to go back to being employed. I decided to invest in my business, refresh my MBA knowledge, learn some new things and tricks, attend some workshops and spend time with people who achieved more than me and who done it before. It paid off big time. I was back in the saddle, work coming from right and left, clients paying whatever I asked and appreciating my work and what I have to offer. My self assessment and tax bill and income were never a problem again, and most of all I enjoyed my work more than ever.
At this point, I had many other birth and baby professionals asking me for lunch to pick my brain, write their cv, look at their contracts and share with them my tips on how to market themselves.
Last year I decided to offer coaching sessions through which I help other birth and baby professionals. By sharing my knowledge I help Birth and Baby Professionals grow and nurture heart centred, rewarding and successful businesses.
There is so much to learn and understand but my main suggestions would be:
1. Get clear what you want to do.
2. Organise your work.
3. Present yourself as professionally as you can.
4. Set clear boundaries from the start.
I am very excited to be doing this work. I love seeing my coaching clients turn their business around. Taking them to the next level makes me very happy and I feel very privileged to be part of the journey of bring their dreams into reality.
If you have any questions and need help with your business, message me on link below, I am happy to help you.
Anna x