Working as a freelancer has many benefits.
You can work where you want, for who you want, and when you want.
All that’s great… but none of it matters if you’re BROKE!
Which happens a lot to freelancers because of one thing: inconsistent income.
This is one of the biggest risks freelancers face.
One month you could make $20,000 and the next month $2,000.
I’ve been at this for 6 years and have had a lot of highs and the lows in the Freelance Life.
The highs make you feel like you’re on top of the world… while the lows make you want to curl up in the fetal position and cry yourself to sleep.
And since I’m not a fan of crying myself to sleep (I prefer reading novels before bed), I decided I want to make sure I have consistent income.
For a long time I would pay myself last.
I would first pay my contractors, my bills and taxes and then whatever was left over would be my pay for the month.
Not a smart way to do this, I realized.
The better way?
Pay yourself first!
Or at least treat yourself like you would any of your vendors or contractors. For example, there’s no way I would never pay a vendor who did work for me. I can’t even fathom that idea.
And then one day it hit me, “Why are you OK not paying yourself but not OK paying others?”
See, it’s not just me who doesn’t get paid when I neglect to pay myself a fixed salary. It’s my wife and my kids who suffer. So the loaded question I ask myself is this:
Are your vendors more important than your family?
If the answer is no (and it most certainly is) then I’m left with no other choice but to pay myself on payday!
That’s it. Nothing really complicated about this. But there’s something powerful when you have a “gun to head” type of pressure to do something.
You’ll suddenly be motivated to make it happen… well, because you have no other choice!