How I Learned to Avoid the “Shiny New Object Syndrome”
Posted November 5, 2010 in Getting Started
My freelance journey began just five years ago. I was working full-time in an insurance office and had just finished massage school. I dreamed of working for myself, but thought I’d never be able to break free of the corporate world.
During one of my continuing education classes, I met a guy who had just begun submitting content to an online article network. He suggested I check it out because they “paid people to write.”
Never one to turn away a few extra dollars, I began to submit content and made a little bit of spending money. I suddenly started to wonder if I could really make a living with my writing. I stumbled upon Elance, created an account, and landed a couple of gigs. One turned into a long-term relationship that lasted for more than two and a half years. Before long, I was calling myself a freelance writer.
My workload began to grow and I suddenly started to wonder if I really could quit my job and freelance full-time. I toyed with the idea and spent countless hours toiling over my finances. Could I afford to quit? Would I find enough business to support my lifestyle? The serious questions were always about money. In this post, I’ll share what I learned about managing money as a freelancer and how what I learned helped my freelancing career.
Making the Leap to Full-Time Freelancer
It was July of 2008. I opened my email to see a note from the vice president of the company I was working for. We needed to schedule my annual review.
Instead of returning a confirmation, I requested an immediate meeting. I explained that I was not just leaving the company, but the industry as well. He was curious about my ventures and accepted my resignation graciously. I gave them more than a month’s notice and we even worked out a deal where I returned for two months–as a freelancer–for a limited number of hours each week to help cover vacations and to train my own replacement.
September of 2008 found me officially on my own. Life was good.
My Struggle with the Shiny New Object Syndrome
There was just one teeny tiny little problem. I developed what many in the Internet marketing industry refer to as “shiny new object syndrome.” In my efforts to grow my business and find methods for earning passive income, I found myself investing in a series of products I thought would help my business. Some did. Some didn’t. Some sat in folders on my desktop for inordinate periods of time. In the end, I was spending all of my profits instead of creating a savings account and my business was not growing the way I had imagined it might.
The reality of the situation is that I am not the only person who has ever suffered from “shiny new object syndrome”–the urge to try product after product (software packages, eBooks, marketing services, etc) before determining if the one before it was valuable. Some will go from their profits to their credit cards, digging themselves into an even deeper hole. Many new freelancers fall into this trap and, unfortunately, not all will realize what is happening before they’ve created a ton of debt.
Four Tips to Help You Avoid the Syndrome
My advice to new freelancers?
- Stick to what you know–Especially in the beginning. You are obviously doing something right or you wouldn’t be freelancing. Allow yourself to grow some roots before you look to expand or grow your business, especially if it means exploring uncharted territory or making a serious financial investment.
- Don’t over-invest–I had a wonderful vision of what my business office would look like and I wanted to run out to Office Max and Ikea and buy every organizational tool known to man. I wanted to upgrade my operating system, find better word processing programs, and invest in webcams, digital cameras, and anything I thought would add value to my work. I soon realized that if I really needed those things I would not be preparing to quit my job and that my working tools were acceptable for the time being. Don’t waste significant amounts of money on tools you don’t actually need. You can always upgrade your business later on, little by little, as you grow.
- Be realistic–I knew that my income during my first couple of months in the freelance world would not immediately match my income from the corporate world. I did my best to eradicate debt and create a small savings account before I quit my job. I also spent a ton of time scouring grocery store ads so that I could stock my cabinets with 10/$10 deals. No matter what happened, I was determined not to starve.
- Don’t trust everyone–I spent months reading articles on blogs like Freelance Folder and learned a ton about the freelance world. I also spent a ton of time on the blogs of well-known internet marketers and I began to trust them. I trusted them so much I would buy the products they recommended just because they promised I could make money with them. I didn’t realize–until hundreds of dollars later–that most of these guys had never even seen the products they were recommending. They had simply built a trusted brand and well, I fell for it.
I wish that every new freelancer could be blessed with a personal financial advisor. If that were possible, so many would be saved from the experiences I had–of wasting money and digging myself into holes while believing I was helping myself to grow. In the end, real growth didn’t happen until I was able to trust myself and my skills. Now my bank account and I are both much happier.
Your Turn
How do you decide which freelancing tools to buy and which to pass on? Share your answers in the comments.
Image by Matt Lilek
Related posts:
- The Bright and Shiny Object Syndrome
- 26 Common Freelancing Mistakes to Avoid
- My Freelance Journey: 12 Things I’ve Learned Along the Way
- 20 Things I Learned Using Twitter
- What I Learned About Freelancing from Lucille Ball
About the author: Deborah Dera is a full-time professional writer specializing in personal finance, credit repair, bad credit loans, bankruptcy, blogging, and search engine optimization. She’s the founder of Write on the Edge and offers unique content solutions to business owners looking to build an online presence.
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28 Comments
Dainis Graveris
November 5th, 2010 at 9:59 amThis is what freelancers really want to read, a life story where they can relate. Many beginners in freelancing are prone to the Shiny New Object Syndrome. With your tips I believe that fighting the syndrome would become easier for freelancers.
Good advices and well-written, I enjoyed the easy flowing words. A very good post! Thank you!
Greg
November 5th, 2010 at 10:14 amI learned a really easy way to avoid wasting money on shiny new objects: I wait until a project comes along that needs it. The revenues from that project pay for it — and if possible, I add the cost to the project quote. That is, I say “I don’t have Cindex and only need it for your project so I’m going to build the cost onto my quote.” And more often than not, the client happily enough agrees.
Deborah Dera
November 5th, 2010 at 11:42 am@Dainis – Thanks! I hope others can learn from my experiences. Even the ones that seem slightly embarrassing turn out to be great lessons.
@Greg – That’s a great idea!
Ben Plopper
November 5th, 2010 at 2:38 pmYikes. I may have already fallen into this trap a little bit, but at least I can use this to better consider future purchases. I think part of the trap, at least for me, is “well, I can write this off as a business expense, so why not?” At least I haven’t gone off the deep end (yet).
Maybe I won’t, now.
(But I do like shiny new toys)
Laura Spencer
November 5th, 2010 at 5:29 pmDeborah Dera,
This is an interesting topic. Thanks for touching on something that a lot of freelancers struggle with.
Deborah Dera
November 5th, 2010 at 9:26 pm@Ben – Don’t we all? The trick is to figure out how to balance your tax write-off expenses so that you don’t end up with nothing leftover for your living expenses!
@Laura – Thanks!
Maddy — Wonderful Media
November 5th, 2010 at 9:26 pmInvesting in tools and resources is necessary to building a freelance business. But then, so is reducing unnecessary expenses. We have to find a good balance. Being too cautious about spending has its own dangers — it can inhibit growth.
There’s another important factor you didn’t mention — time. Shiny new objects don’t always cost money; there are many free books, blogs, applications, and other tools to help us. But they always cost time. Signing up for a new web service, shopping for another marketing book, reading blog posts — all of these take time that we could potentially spend making a stronger impact on our business.
Personally, I invest as much money as I need to. It’s time that’s my problem. I tend to spend too much time finding tools and consuming content. I love to read business books, for example, and I read one after another without pausing to implement what I’ve learned. It’s a shame because these types of books are really only worth it once you implement their ideas. Still, it’s hard to stop. Reading is fun, and what’s more, it’s easy. Einstein once said: “Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.” There’s truth in that. So I’m working on reading a little less and doing a lot more.
Thank you for this post, Deborah!
TLC
November 6th, 2010 at 1:39 amDo NOT buy something for a client project until you know you’re going to use it. I won a $5,000 grant soon after I started and spent part of it on an expensive video camera because a client wanted to record a DVD with testimonials. 15 months later, still no word on the testimonials. I could have spent that money on soooo many other things!
Dalibor Simacek
November 6th, 2010 at 2:17 amVery, very good post. I started freelancing (web design and development) about 4 months ago and struggle the same thing for the last two months. When I started to land more jobs, I began to think “what about upgrading my computer” or “i would use the new ipod to easily see how my websites look on Apple devices” and so on.
I bought some books, instruction videos and after some time, I’m still not sure how useful they are. They’re definitely going to be useful later on, but now I’m in the beginning and should start saving money aside I guess.
So, thanks for giving it a name and making it easier to me to realize the problem. Your point is very valuable!
Amanda Rooker
November 6th, 2010 at 9:33 am@Deborah – Thank you so much for sharing your personal experience – that speaks to me volumes more than a list of do’s and don’ts. (Although I’ve written my fair share of them and they certainly have their place.) I’m making the leap from part-time to full-time freelancing right now and found your post very relevant.
@Maddy – That Einstein quote about reading too much hit me right between the eyes! Thanks for posting that! Smart dude, Einstein. ;)
Kelsey
November 7th, 2010 at 9:48 pmgreat article. I definitely have some books from my “shiny new object syndrome” days.
benedetta.s
November 8th, 2010 at 9:30 amReally interesting post! Your story can be very useful for freelance beginners, thanks!
Issa @ Ajeva
November 9th, 2010 at 4:19 amYou know, the funny part of being a freelancer is thinking that these new tools can make you stand out from the crowd. Wrong. The tools are just there to help you but to be a great freelancer means using these tools to produce quality work – which sometimes, don’t even need a complex software to begin with ( unless you’re into design or developer work ). My shiny new object syndrome has got to do with brand new laptops and I need to have a new one each year, even if my old one looks like brand new. It’s this insane belief I have that buying one for the start of a new year is good luck..
Employee verification
November 9th, 2010 at 6:06 amThese are very nice! Very inspirational for This Information,thanks for putting this together.
MAC
November 9th, 2010 at 10:16 amI’ve been freelance writing for more than a decade now, and i have a perfect way to avoid buying every new gadget or program that comes along: marry an accountant. Trust me, you won’t be spending any more than the bare minimum on your office.
Then again, as writers, how much do we really need? A good word processing program, a dictionary and a thesaurus are enough to get started, and the Web abounds with resources that cost exactly nothing. Refdesk is a great example.
Personally, I think the shiny object syndrome is just a hangover from childhood, where we just had to have every new toy we saw on Saturday morning commercials. Didn’t need ‘em then, don’t need ‘em now. When I was a kid I used to paint houses with my grandfather, and he always urged me to think twice before spending money. He’d remind me that the cost of a particular toy might be two or three hours of hot work in the hot sun, and put that way, sometimes I’d reconsider.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t treat ourselves once in a while, but for me, it would be all too easy to convince myself I need lots of extraneous stuff in order to succeed, and end up overextending. But I guess that’s what my accountant is for. ;-)
Deborah Dera
November 9th, 2010 at 10:18 am@MAC – True, but as a writer we are (or at least I am) always looking for passive income sources as well. I think THAT is the part that makes wanting to try all the new stuff we see difficult…
asad
November 11th, 2010 at 12:27 pmealence is beautifull site for erning mony if every body give keen intrest no body loss the feature sssssssssss
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