Exit Strategies for Freelancers

I’ve always been the kind of reader who rushes straight through a book to get to the very end. I want to know what happens, when it happens, and why it happens – so I read and read until I get there.

Some may say that I miss most of the textual value of a book this way, and I can’t disagree. It’s probably true. But if I liked the ending enough, I go back and re-read the book. The second time around, I’m typically much better equipped to enjoy things like character development and onomatopoeia simply because I’m not worried about the outcome of the plot.

Strange though the connection may seem, being a freelancer or running small business is really quite similar. Knowing exactly what is going to happen at the end of the story means that you’ll have a much better time attending to all the details of the plot. In this case, the plot is basically who you are and what you do; if you have your endgame planned out, you can focus more on the here and now, and still get your happy outcome at the end.

Unfortunately, coming up with an exit strategy isn’t as simple as deciding to have a million dollars saved up by the time you hit 55 (or 35 or 85, as the case may be). It takes time, planning, a good financial advisor, and determination to come up with a plan that works for you, your lifestyle, and your income level.

In the next week, I’m going to look at some of the options available to you as far as exit strategies go. Whether you want to create a savings plan that will allow you to retire from the working world, you want to create a self-sustaining empire that will let you cash paychecks until the day you die, or you want to continue working forever, you should actually be thinking of this kind of stuff now.