5 Self-Employed Growth Hacks to Keep Your Independence

Out of all the benefits of being self-employed, a true sense of independence is undoubtedly one of the best for most people. There isn’t anything quite like being your boss. You can work when you want, how you want, and for who you want. Nobody is around to argue with your decisions, for better or worse.

Of course, all self-employed people start with that sense of independence. Not many of them manage to keep it for their whole career. It’s easy to get “typecast,” so to speak. If you find yourself consistently working for and heavily dependent on the same few clients, you become an employee in everything but the title.

That’s why maintaining your independence as a self-employed individual requires a strategic approach to what you’re doing. Thankfully, there are several growth hacks that you can use to accomplish precisely that, significantly bolstering your success along the way.

Personalized Branding Strategies

One of the best ways to maintain independence as a self-employed person is one with significant long-term implications. Personalized branding strategies are more than just a way to stand out in a competitive market. They’re also a perfect chance to set expectations early, giving someone an impression of precisely who you are before they ever have an opportunity to work with you.

For example, let’s say you’re entering the world of wholesale real estate and starting to make connections and build your network. As you work to find prospective buyers and sellers for transactions, you could leverage social media platforms like Facebook or even LinkedIn to help increase visibility and engagement.

Use personalized branding to establish yourself as a unique force in the industry. Let people know who you are, what you do, and why they should pay attention. Talk about your niche and tell people exactly what types of transactions you are and are not interested in. If you work to establish a reputation for yourself as someone independent and autonomous, people will start to see you that way permanently.

Lean Into Technology

As you work on goals like better time management, you will quickly realize that there are only so many hours in a day. As a self-employed individual, your time is money. Those hours need to be filled as productively as humanly possible.

These days, embracing technology can help enormously. Things like automation can streamline and often outright eliminate those routine, repetitive tasks that used to take up so much of your time. Even something as simple as integrating a data collection form to replace your typically manual processes can help organize and add efficiency to your day. That way, you can focus more on the value-added activities that keep your independence and allow you to remain productive.

Crush Time Management

Another growth hack you can use to cement your independence is understanding how to manage your time properly to support this particular goal.

Think about all the qualities that genuinely independent self-employed individuals share. They tend to be highly productive people. They know how to work efficiently. They have clear boundaries in place so that people know when they’re “on” and when they can relax a bit.

Therefore, that’s the exact approach you must take with time management for your career. Prioritize tasks in a way that helps you get quality work done while proving to those around you that being independent is paying off. Remember that as someone self-employed, nobody will dictate your schedule but you. Because of that, you need to manage your time in a way that proves you’re capable of leading, not just following someone else’s direction.

Build a Strong Network

One of the most common ways self-employed individuals maintain their Independence is by being proactive about networking.

Again, it doesn’t matter what industry you’re in—you need a steady stream of new clients to keep revenue coming through the door. It would help if you had a network of contacts you could lean on to get there. But you also need a constantly expanding network at a rate you can support.

That’s why it is always recommended that you attend as many industry events as possible. In-person events are a great way to spend time with people and get to know those you may not otherwise have an opportunity to. You truly never know how a colleague or contemporary may be able to help, so work on establishing and growing any relationships that you can.

Nurture those professional relationships as much as possible; you’ll know who to call even when times get slow.

Prioritize Self Improvement

Finally, you must acknowledge the importance of ” keep ” in the phrase “keep your independence.”

Independence isn’t given—it is earned. It’s not a right but a privilege. The minute you think you’ve done enough or are as good as you can be, you’ve lost a game you never truly understood in the first place.

Always invest in self-improvement whenever you can. Do this through ongoing learning, skill development, and more. It’s an investment in yourself that will pay dividends for a lifetime.

These are just a few of the many growth hacks you can use to empower yourself as a self-employed individual continuously. But more than anything, always remember why you wanted to be your boss in the first place. Likewise, train yourself to pay attention to situations where you may veer from that path.

Autonomy was something that you valued at some point in your career. You wouldn’t have set out on this journey if it weren’t. Even something as seemingly simple as automation isn’t about offloading work, necessarily. It’s about freeing up your valuable time so that you can focus on those self-employed tasks that truly matter.

Build your network and take advantage of those connections. Explore all opportunities that seem interesting to you as they become available. Commit to the idea that you’ll always need to work to improve yourself and never fall into the trap of believing that you’ve “done enough” or that “this is as good as it’ll ever get.