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There are a lot of reasons to take a career break. When you need to restart your business after a break, you need these five tips.
Just after having my first daughter, I took a complete break from writing. And I mean a complete break. Before having her, I’d stopped writing for private clients, but I kept blogging. In the end, I decided that I couldn’t even blog.
It was one of the scariest decisions I made.
So many questions went through my head. What would happen afterwards? How would it affect my business?
In the end, I managed to pick myself up, almost from where I had started. Here are the steps I used to restart my business after a long break.
Keep in touch with clients
I stayed in touch with my clients. I would let them know my dates for returning, and share changes in pricing when I was getting ready to come back. Some of them would email me to find out if I’d do an emergency piece because another writer failed, or just wanted to know how my daughter was doing.
This really helped to get my business back on track afterward. I don’t have any of those clients anymore. There are a lot of reasons clients will leave, or I will drop them for other clients. It’s just the way things go.
Update the website in the run-up to returning
I actually didn’t have a website before I left for my baby break, so my task was to set one up. I returned in the January, so in the November I got the domain name and started working on the design. I also got the pricing structure set to make it much easier for my clients.
Since then, my domain name has changed and I have two parts to my business, with a writing mentor side too. In fact, my whole business structure has changed!
It was really worth updating the website prior to returning. I could get it straight online a month before my return, which gave it time for the search engines to start ranking it. When January came, I marketed like mad to say that I was back to writing.
Email clients you’ve lost touch with to restart your business
There were some clients I didn’t keep in touch with for various reasons. But that didn’t mean they were no good.
When I returned, I emailed past clients to let them know I was back. I also asked them to recommend me to people if they thought my work was good enough. I got two new clients from this method, which was a nice buffer when it came to getting back into the game.
Your previous clients aren’t always going to help you restart your business. It can depend on the reasons you left or took time off, or it can just depend on where past clients are. There’s nothing wrong with asking for a referral, though.
Market, market and market some more
You can never do too much marketing for your business. You need to let people know you’re back, right?
Well, the best thing you can do is get out there and tell them. Also, ask your clients to spread the word if they don’t mind. I find word of mouth referrals are great.
There are so many ways to market your business now. Try not to get too overwhelmed with them all. Befreela has plenty of informative blog posts about flexible freelancing jobs. You can always start with what you know worked before you took time off. If those don’t help, move onto other options available. Look out for the new social media platforms and see how they can help you.
Get back into it to restart your business
Having a business buddy is a great way to hold yourself accountable. It will really help you be honest with yourself when it comes to procrastination. A mentor can also help with that.
It’s really easy to drop back because you’ve already had such a long time period off. However, you need to jump straight back into it with both feet. Set your schedule and stick to that.
Are you ready to get back into your business after a long break? Make a real effort and you can get back to where you were before you left.
MORE: How to stick to deadlines in your business
What are you struggling with when it comes to getting back into your business? Share in the comments below and let me see how I can help!
