A few months ago a good friend of mine was made redundant from a company he had been with for 19 years. After getting over the initial shock he realised that in fact it was the best thing that could have happened as he had been toying with the idea of going freelance for years but had never taken any serious steps to make it happen. This was just the kick up the backside that he needed!

A few weeks later he phoned me to tell me some really good news – by following up some existing contacts he had already been offered a couple of pieces of work. The bad news was that it wasn’t really at the rate that he was expecting. He wanted to know what my thoughts were. I told him that in my view he should turn it down. He was absolutely horrified and couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Like me, he has two children and a mortgage to pay and he was of the opinion that he should take the money and run!

When you first start out as a freelance trainer it’s natural to feel like this – all of a sudden the comfort blanket of a regular salary is removed and the financial picture is a lot more uncertain. But there are many good reasons why you shouldn’t just take the first or indeed any old piece of work that comes along including:

- Low day rates will not pay the bills
- You will have to work more days to achieve your financial targets
- When a great piece of high value, rewarding work comes along you won’t be available to do it
- Your confidence and motivation will become eroded as you get stuck in the trap of low value work

And it’s self confidence and motivation that you are going to need by the bucketload if you are to run a successful business.
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