When things start to feel boring or stale, I tend to want to completely redo, rebrand, recreate. As you can imagine, this leads to me starting way too many projects I can’t or don’t want to finish. Lately I’m focusing more on small growth and reimagining what I already have to work with. It’s challenging! But it’s given me a new perspective and that’s why I wanted to write out 10 quick and simple ways you could refresh your business or any project you work on–and have big results in a more efficient way.
10 Small Ways to Refresh Your Business or Side Hustle
1. Give your brand colors a slight update. Did you notice we did this here on TBM? We love our color palette, but it was starting to feel a little bland. Rather than go through an entire rebrand, we updated them a teensy bit to give them more of a pop. It’s hardly noticeable but it definitely made us more inspired!
2. Plan six months of your business in an afternoon. If you’re familiar with Amy Porterfield, you might’ve tried her Planning Roadmap. We mention it briefly in this post, but it basically suggests planning the next 6 months of your business in a direct way. It’s a great way to kick off the next season.
3. Set more realistic goals. I’m guilty of setting the bar really, impossibly high. Like trying to squeeze 16 hours of work into an 8 hour workday. Being more conscious of this is helping me set more realistic goals so at the end of the day I’m less stressed out and more content.
4. Learn from different sources. If you’re not a podcast person, commit to giving a few a try. Choose a career book from an author you haven’t hard of. You won’t learn anything new if you don’t take the time to discover!
5. Have a day-long inspiration session. Speaking of, if you’re not already scheduling in regular “inspiration sessions” make sure to set aside time JUST for the getting inspired portion of your business or project. It’ll totally up your motivation for doing the tougher stuff.
6. Collaborate. Lately we’ve been inspired by collaborations. When you have to go through the process of chatting with someone new about your project and potentially pitching an idea to them about how you can team up, it helps remind you why you love what you’re doing while putting you on a path to growth.
7. Re-establish your dream client. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been in business for five or fifteen years, interests and goals change over time. If you never quite wrote out who exactly your ideal client IS, or did it so long ago that things have changed, take sometime to get reacquainted with them. Once you’ve done that, make updates to your website or digital presence to ensure you’re attracting those people!
8. Come up with a new income stream. Dreaming up business ideas and creative projects is my sweet spot. Thinking of how to make money from them, however, is a different story. I’d rather think of how to help people through my services rather than what to charge them. But yeah, can’t do that without supporting myself. One way to refresh how you think of making money in your business is to do a big brainstorm of tangible ways to bring in the income. From there you can pick a strategy and give it a try.
9. Talk to someone new about your work. I know, you are reading this advice on a blog written by two introverts. So it’s probably obvious to most people but I resisted this for a long time in my freelance work. (Can you tell?) Since moving back to the PNW I’ve reached out to my new community to get feedback on my ideas (and offer feedback on theirs). It’s been SO refreshing and helps me think of my work in a new way each time.
10. Cut what doesn’t fit. Marie Kondo your business by going through it piece by piece, category by category, system by system. Really think about what brings you joy–what’s working for you–and what isn’t. For a long time I felt as if I had way too much going on, but I was attached to each piece of my work. Once I started thinking more about what I truly wanted, it was easier to see what to cut and what to keep. Plus, I love when things come together seamlessly–when you only keep what follows a certain theme (for me it’s what brings me joy, meaningful work, and what I think benefits society), you have an instant guide for what to omit.
Anyone else on a mission to refresh their business, project, or freelance work this year?
Chloe says
These are such amazing ways to get more motivated! I’m definitely going to try having more inspiration sessions for my business!
Chloe X http://chloelxuise.com