如何將你五位數收入的自由職業生涯轉變爲六位數收益的小企業
Whatever you call yourself–“freelancer,” “consultant,” or “solopreneur”–you’re getting by just fine as your own boss. You’re regularly pulling in a comfortable five-figure income, and it feels good answering to nobody but yourself. But now you’re ready to think bigger. You want to build your solo operation into a proper company by making a few key hires and expanding your customer base beyond the handful of clients that just you yourself can personally manage. Here’s what it takes to make that happen.
無論你是將自己稱爲一名“自由職業者”，“顧問”還是“個體企業家”，你都可以算作是自己的老闆。你常常能輕輕鬆鬆地就擁有五位數的收入，不用對別人做出交代，只對自己負責也讓人感到身心暢快。但是現在，你已經準備大幹一場。你希望通過對幾個重要崗位的招聘，在個人能處理的客戶基礎上擴展客戶羣，進而將個人業務擴建成一個合適的公司。那麼以下幾點就是你所應該瞭解的。
1.OUTSOURCE BEFORE YOU CAN QUITE AFFORD IT1. 當還能承擔費用時將業務外包
After two years of running my own business as a solopreneur, I hired a business coach to look at things from an outside perspective and point out a few ways to take everything to the next level. It quickly became clear that if I wanted greater rewards, I’d need to take bigger risks. Most of those came in the form of hiring help–namely a virtual assistant, a video editor, and my own publicist. At the time, these looked to me like expenses I couldn’t easily afford, but I took a chance anyway and it soon paid off.
作爲一個個體企業家經營自己的生意兩年後，我聘請了一位商業指導，請他以一個旁觀者的視角來指出一些方法將現有業務提升到一個新的水平。我很快就明白，如果想要更大的收益，我需要承擔更大的風險。而其中大多數需要僱人幫忙，即聘請一名虛擬助理，一名視頻編輯以及我自己的公關人員。那時看起來這些費用我很難承擔得了，但是我還是冒險一試，並且很快就有了回報。
Other entrepreneurs agree that this type of early investment can be crucial. “There is so much that goes into running an online business, and there’s no possible way that you can do it all,” shares Lori Kennedy, founder of the Wellness Business Hub, which offers personal development and professional training for health and wellness experts.
其他企業家也認爲這種早期投資至關重要。The Wellness Business Hub,一個促進個人發展和給衛生健康專家提供專業培訓的平臺，其創始人Lori Kennedy分享說，“運行在線業務涉及太多的事情，你根本沒有辦法可以做到面面俱到”。
“I learned that lesson quickly. I didn’t want to waste any time trying to code or figure out how to set up webpages. Even though I wasn’t making enough money,” she explains, “I decided to hire a virtual assistant who specialized in tech development to help me get all of my online properties set up properly. It was like I was buying back my time.”
“我快速吸取了這個經驗。我不想浪費任何時間去嘗試編寫或弄明白如何創建網頁。儘管我沒有賺到足夠的錢”，她解釋說，“我決定聘請一名專門從事技術開發的虛擬助理來幫助我將所有的網頁內容進行正確設置。這就好像是我花錢買回了自己的時間。”
2. SCALE UP YOUR AUDIENCE2.擴大客戶羣
Once you’ve outsourced a few key functions, you need to spend the time you’ve freed up strategically. One of the first things you should do is focus on growing your audience.
一旦將一些主要功能外包之後，你需要有策略地花費富餘的時間。而其中應該做的首要事情之一就是擴大客戶羣。
Every digital entrepreneur has heard it time and time again: the money is in your email list. “It takes 90 days to attract at least 2,400 new people into your audience on an email list,” says Shanda Sumpter, a business coach and CEO of HeartCore Business. “If you haven’t built a list yet and are busy trying to build a website, work on your branding, or create products, then stop!” Sumpter says.
每個數字企業家總是能一次又一次地聽到下面這句話：收益就在你的電子郵件列表中。HeartCore的商業指導兼首席執行官Shanda Sumpter表示：“僅吸引2,400名新的客戶進入你的郵件列表就需要90天時間。” Sumpter說：“如果你還沒有建立一個列表，而且還正在忙於創建網頁，品牌或者產品，那麼你真的該停下了！”
Those are all important projects, but they can come later. When you’re trying to transform your freelance work into a full-fledged startup, your critical next step is to “give your potential clients what they want,” she explains, and “the only way you can do that is to ask them”–ideally by email. “Focus your energy on creating a list of subscribers” before you turn toward any other business-branding projects.
雖然這些也是重要的項目，但可以暫且擱置，稍後處理。然而當你嘗試將自己的自由職業工作轉化爲一個完整的創業公司時，關鍵的下一步應是“爲潛在客戶提供他們想要的”，她解釋說，“而且唯一的辦法就是直接詢問他們”——最理想的方式則是通過電子郵件。在轉向任何其他商業品牌項目之前，“集中精力創建一份客戶列表”。
Not sure where to start? Here are a few tips from Fast Company’s own newsletter editor Cayleigh Parrish, on the nuts and bolts of launching a high-impact email newsletter.
不知道從哪下手？以下是Fast Company的通訊編輯Cayleigh Parrish的幾個小提示，介紹了發佈一則高影響力的電子郵件通訊需要的具體細節。
3. FOCUS FIRST ON SOLVING A PROBLEM FOR FREE3.先把注意力放在免費解決一個問題上
As you work on scaling up your email list, don’t forget about the “know, like, and trust” factor; that’s not only the key to actually getting subscribers, but it’s also what the most meaningful relationship with your startup’s customers will be based on. So instead of just pointing people to your website, offer them content upgrades, lead magnets, and opt-ins. Translation: hand out a free download, checklist, training exercise, or something similar in exchange for email addresses.
當你在擴大電子郵件列表時，不要忘記“知道，喜歡和信任”因素的重要性；這不僅是實際獲得客戶的關鍵，而且也是與公司客戶最有意義的關係基礎。所以，不應該僅僅讓別人訪問你的網站，而是應該向他們提供內容升級，賣點，並讓他們有權選擇進入網頁查看與否。翻譯上可以提供免費下載服務，羅列清單，提供培訓練習或類似的項目以換取電子郵件地址。
“You should be able to create your lead magnet within 24 hours,” notes Kennedy. “Pull together some of your existing content, and package it into a guide, report, or checklist.” Chances are there’s something you’ve developed in your previous work that you can repurpose–and don’t overthink it. “Remember,” she adds, “your lead magnet has to tie into your program or service offer. It should provide the reader with a quick win.”
肯尼迪說：“你必須得在24小時之內形成自己的賣點。”“將現有的一些內容放在一起，打包成一個指南、報告或清單。”很可能你會重新調整之前工作中你形成的內容，不要過多考慮這一塊。她補充說，“要牢記：你的賣點必須符合你的項目或提供的服務。它應該爲讀者提供一種速勝的感覺。“
4. GET REALLY GOOD AT MAKING DEALS OVER THE PHONE4.善於利用手機進行交易
I will admit, until this year, I myself had let this one slide a bit. With 2015’s and 2016’s surge in webinars, online classes, and virtual summits, I’d come to rely exclusively on making sales through digital means. But as Sumpter points out, “Everyone wants to sell through a website, and websites don’t make money.”
我承認，直到今年，我自己已經在這個地方丟掉了一些業績。隨着2015年和2016年間網絡研討會、在線課程和虛擬峯會的興起，我將完全依靠通過數字方式進行銷售。但是正如Sumpter所指出的那樣，“每個人都想通過網站進行銷售，但是網站並不賺錢”。
“If you want to go from five to six figures,” she says, “you must learn how to sell your product or service over the phone. You build a connection and a rapport that helps you to truly understand their vision, so you can strategize and then share your options that can really make a difference for them.” There’s no substitute for being able to react real-time as somebody weighs a decision, Sumpter adds.
“如果你想讓收益從五位數跨越到六位數”，她說，“你必須學會如何通過電話銷售產品和服務。你與客戶建立聯繫，鞏固關係，這可以幫助你真正瞭解他們的想法，然後你可以爲其制定策略，並向他們分享這些真的能夠爲他們帶來改變的選擇。”當別人在權衡決定時，沒有什麼可以替代實時的反應了，Sumpter補充說。
“More often than not, even though they know it’s a good idea to take the next step with you, they’ll usually talk themselves out of making a commitment: ‘I don’t have the time, I don’t have the money.’ You have to hold the vision for the person on the other end of the phone to help them overcome their objections,” she says. “The phone = financial freedom.”
“通常情況下，即使他們知道與你進行下一步的交易是一個好主意，他們通常會說服自己不給予承諾：‘我沒有時間，我沒有資金。’而你必須得在手機的另一端保持住這個勢頭，幫助他們克服這些拒絕的理由，”她說。“電話=財務自由”。
5. START SUCCESSION-PLANNING EARLY5. 早點着手繼任計劃
In the first days of our businesses, most of us solopreneurs are pretty scrappy, wearing the hats of CEO, intern, graphic designer, writer, and sales rep all at once. But there’s a reason you don’t see Tim Cook at the Genius Bar in the Apple Store or Elon Musk servicing Teslas. To truly become the head of your own company, you need to develop the leadership skills to delegate tasks and inspire your vision in others.
在我們從事業務的頭一段時間裏，大多數的個體企業家工作起來毫無章法，我們身兼數職，既要扮演着CEO，又要當公司裏的實習生，平面設計師，寫作者和銷售代表。可是你總沒看到蒂姆·庫克（Tim Cook）在蘋果商店的天才吧裏招待客人，或是埃倫·馬斯克（Elon Musk）在特斯拉門店裏服務消費者，這總得有個原因。要想真正成爲自己公司的領頭人，你需要培養自己的領導能力來委派任務並用自己的願景來激發其他人。
“In order to stay laser-focused on your key revenue-driving activities, you must have a plan in place to groom a successor,” says Bianca Sprague, cofounder of doula-training company Bebo Mia. That may sound premature, but from the very first hires you make, look for people you could eventually trust to make management-level decisions. After all, if your own duties change when you go from solopreneur to CEO of a startup, they’ll change yet again when your six-figure company adds even more staff–and, eventually, a seventh digit in its revenue count.
助產培訓公司Bebo Mia的聯合創始人Bianca Sprague說：“爲了專注於關鍵的盈利項目，你必須適當地制定計劃來培養一個繼任者。”這可能聽起來爲時尚早，但是你可以從最初聘用的員工中，尋找你可以最終信任的人擁有管理層的決策權。畢竟，當你從一個個體企業家變成一個創業公司的CEO時，職責有所變化，那麼當你六位數收益的企業增加更多的員工時，且最後還有七位數進賬，你的職責將再一次發生轉變。
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