Knowing yourself is especially important if you’re starting a new business. Take inventory of your skills, goals, limits, and risk tolerance.

Think about how you work best—solo, part of a team, or leader of a group.

Then, put your ideas into action!

In the fourth year of his agency’s life, Ben Hagon made a critical change.

He focused the agency on a niche, changed the name, and how they operate.

Learn about the steps he took, and how he grew his company to be a leader in the non-profit agency sector.

Learn how one designer went from agency employee to agency founder.

It started with one freelance client offering him enough work to launch his own company.

Then, his network kicked in and more big clients came calling.

With no practical experience as a designer and an immigrant to Canada, Ben worked his way from employee to successful agency founder.

But it took some free work (!), creating spec portfolio pieces, and freelancing to augment his 9–5 jobs, to get where he wanted to go.

This is the first of three posts.

This template is for detailed estimates that will help you win bigger projects.

We used it for years. It gives clients confidence that you understand the project and know how to deliver it.

Be a professional. Use this template to create winning estimates.

To move forward, you have to make decisions and then act on them.

Any progress you make is the result of your decisions, followed by appropriate actions.

Saying you’ll do something without taking action is just wishful thinking.

Here’s how to get started, with examples.

Imagine if all of your clients were similar to your best clients.

Wouldn’t that be ideal?

Here’s how to define your ideal clients, find them, and contact them.

Once you get started it’s easy. Follow these steps to get going.

There are a lot of clichés in the freelancer world. Most are harmless, but some you should definitely ignore.

Done is better than perfect? For clients, no.

Move fast and break things? Again, no.

The customer is always right? Certainly not.

Don’t get misled by harmful clichés. Have a look.

Should freelancers have contracts with clients? Yes.

Will a contract ensure you get paid? No.

Learn what to include in your contract, how to talk to clients about money, and what clients to avoid to minimize payment issues later.

How much is your work worth? It’s determined by:

1. Who are your clients

2. What you deliver and how you deliver it

3. Your track record—what you’ve done before

4. How you define and present yourself

5. What you asked for

Want to charge more? Change one or more of those factors.

Once you’re in business for a few years, you should be choosing your clients.

Find clients that are right for you, that agree to your terms and conditions, and that pay you according to your agreement.

Life is so much easier with the right clients.

Maybe “too much work” sounds like a freelancer’s dream come true.

But when it happens, you have to make a decision.

How will you handle it? I think there are 5 basic choices, not including total burnout.

I see freelancers using all of them. Which one works best for you?

As a freelancer, you can experience burnout from anxiety if you don’t have enough business.

There are many ways to find new clients. I asked freelancers on Twitter how they do it.

Here are at least 9 ways to grow your business. You can mix and match them to suit your style. Have a look.

Freelancing can be overwhelming to the point of burnout.

But having clearly established and accepted processes for how you work with clients can save you from burnout.

Here are some guidelines for processes to get paid, manage revisions, gather feedback, and communicate with your clients.