Setting 2022 Goals as a Freelancer
Being a freelancer means you’re subjected to TONS of distraction, reaction, and leading in-action on the goals you’d like to pursue in your chosen field.
If we haven’t met yet, I’m Colleen and in this blog, I will help you get a job doing what you love. Whether that’s video editing, graphic design, or blog writing.
For more tips on video editing, creativity and freelance lifestyle, be sure to check out my youtube channel where I dive into the nitty gritty about my self-employed life as a freelance video editor!
Anyways, let’s get started!
Why set goals?
As a freelancer, you are more than likely your own boss. You control what you do every day, and you control the money that comes in. It can be incredibly stressful without top notch organization, and of course, goal setting!
For me, I really started setting yearly goals for myself as a freelancer in 2019. It was before my freelance career was stable, so I set goals like reducing phone time, achieving a stable career, and getting health insurance. In 2020, my goals still weren’t far off from that.
But, in 2021, I was determined to set my freelance business up so it could replace my full time job. My goals became a lot more specific when that happened. Suddenly they were…
gaining 6-10 new clients
become monetized on YouTube
quit my 9-5
create more “me time”
It’s so important to create goals for yourself as a freelancer. If anything, it helps focus your thoughts on what you want this next year to look like for yourself.
How to set goals
Part of the reason I’m making this post was to channel my OWN thoughts about how to go about setting goals for 2022. Sometimes it can be hard to set goals if you’ve come off a momentous year like you quit your job and decided to become a freelancer.
But… it can be difficult to think of what’s coming next.
Here are my thoughts on setting goals, since you were probably wondering.
First, get specific. What do you really want your life to look like in a year? What does a perfect day look like to you? What are some specific goals you can do to make that happen?
Next, get realistic. Can your goal truly be achieved in a year’s time? What are smaller steps needed to make this goal happen? What do you need to stop and start to make this goal happen?
Lastly, get a deadline. One thing I love to do is plan 90 day increments. I write myself a letter every 90 days praising “future me” for all the things I planned to do. This helps me stay on track with my goals, and it also keeps me from planning a goal that’s too big.
If you’d rather plan for the entire year, I still think you should set a deadline for every month or every 3 months to keep yourself on track for hitting that goal.
Some ideas for goals
These are some examples for goals I’ve set in the past or will be setting this upcoming year:
Prioritize the money
Of course this means picking up new clients and maybe raising your rate. But as a freelancer, I think a really unproductive habit that can easily form is prioritizing things that don't make you money. These things can make you feel like you're being busy but then no money is coming in the door.
So this could be a great goal for somebody who likes the idea of being a freelancer, but maybe is being clouded by all the busy work that they're trying to do. Really, they need to be thinking about what actually is making them money and focus on that.
Start creating
I've said this before, but actually creating content is the best strategy that you can do to keep your creativity on your toes and also to keep your content flowing. Nobody wants to hire somebody whose last thing they created was three years ago, especially if they're still pitching it as though it's just the greatest thing ever.
We are in a world of content, content, CONTENT! We’re scrolling by at 100 miles per hour and you’ve got to be constantly creating content. This can be Tik-Tok content, this can be more Instagram posts, this can be more passion projects.
Start finding ways to get excited about making more content that you can then pitch to future clients.
Pick up “x” amount of clients
This is a very simple one and this is a great goal to put on your list. If you are looking to be a freelancer, you need to pick up a certain amount of clients. You can guess for yourself how many clients that you could handle all at once and how many clients you're going to need to pick up depending on your rate.
This past year, I had about six to seven clients and that was almost too much for me but was a really good number for me to set as my goal that i could strive towards. I’m hoping to get to ten clients by the end of this year.
Develop your portfolio
Now this could go along with creating more content or it could just simply mean put a little more time into working on your portfolio.
This is coming from someone who hates editing their own demo reel and portfolio, so maybe that should be my own goal for next year is to revamp and refresh my old portfolio.
Prioritize your body’s health
This is a huge goal for me in 2022 because in 2021, I set all of my focus on creating my business and keeping it afloat on making enough money every month for it to be sustainable. That was all so great, but my body became last on the priority list.
Now that I'm feeling a lot more confident in my business, 2022 is going to be all about making my business work for me and prioritizing my health over anything else.
Optimize your organization
As a freelancer, organization is so vitally important. So if you're not very organized this would be a great goal to add to your list.
It can include investing in a really good planner and using it every single day. Personally, I use a planner every day. I have my notebook, I have a life organizer and then I also use Trello to organize my clients on a daily basis. If organization is not your strong suit, this would be a great goal to add to 2022.
Reduce distractions
Reduce distractions is DEFINITELY on my list for 2022. It's more of a soft goal because, like most of you, I am truly addicted to my phone. I fall into scroll hole ditches all the time. If i could record the amount of time every day that I'm on my phone, I probably would vomit…
As a freelancer, your time is your money. The more that you can put your time into creating money, the better off you'll be.
Build a career that works for you
Just like prioritizing my health, building a career that complements my life and that doesn't control my life is HUGE on my list.
It may not be on everybody's list because there is a lot of hustle that comes with building a freelance business and there is a lot of hard work that goes into it and a lot of sacrifice that comes with it. It doesn't have to control your life, but when you're first starting out, you may need to take at least one year and really hustle to build up your client base.
But being so busy doesn't need to be a constant in your life, which is why this year I am completely taking my business and making it work for me.
There’s one more thing I’d like to leave you with, and that is to simplify your goals! This means not setting yourself for total overwhelm by planning 10 goals for yourself in one year. It also means simplifying your life and your world around you so that you actually CAN make these goals happen.
Looking for more help getting your first job as a video editor? You’re in luck! My SkillShare class is now LIVE and here to help you with all the steps you need to take to set yourself up for your video editing career!
