Should You Walk Away Or Give It More Time?

When you're a freelancer, you're responsible for everything. Every decision. Every success. Every failure. And I think that can be one of the toughest parts of working for yourself.

What if you're going down a path that's taking you in the wrong direction?

What if you walk away from something that you should have stuck with?

How do you know whether it's time to change course or double down on something?

What if you make the wrong decision?

These questions can apply to your marketing, your products and services, or your business in general.

And it can lead to stress and indecision.

So how can you figure out what to do?

Take the emotion out of it

Years ago, one of my friends discovered her partner was cheating on her. They split up, but they both wanted to keep the house.

My friend spoke to a solicitor, and the solicitor said, “take the emotion out of it.”

She advised my friend to let go of anger, pride and attachment to the house. View the situation rationally – would the cost of fighting for it be worth it, or would it be better to take a pay-off and walk away?

As it turned out, my friend’s ex couldn’t get a mortgage for the house by himself, so my friend got to keep it. But the solicitor’s advice – “take the emotion out of it” – has always stuck with me.

All too often, ego or pride get in the way of being objective.

We can get so attached to an idea, that we don't want to admit it's not working.

So take away the emotion. Let go of anger, pride, resentment, feelings of failure, frustration, love of an idea, and all your emotional attachments to something and view the situation objectively. Focus on facts, not feelings.

I used to love running my in-person workshops, but sometimes I was only just breaking even once I'd paid the venue costs. As much as I wanted to keep doing them, I just couldn't justify the amount of time and effort required to promote them, sell places on them, and deliver them. So I stopped.

Sometimes you just have to do what's best for your business even if it makes you a little bit sad.

Apply critical thinking and take a logical approach

Start with what the data is telling you. If you're looking at your marketing activities, look at how much time you're investing, how much money you're investing, and how many leads, enquiries, and customers you're generating.

Ignore vanity metrics. Ignore likes, views and follower count, and focus on the metrics that matter.

Marketing can take time to pay off, but if you've been spending five hours a day on social media for the past six months and you haven't generated a single decent enquiry, you might need to rethink your approach.

Same goes for your products or services. Are sales going up, down, or stagnating? What feedback are you getting? Is the problem with your marketing, your onboarding, or your delivery? Which products and services generate the most profit? Which are the hardest or easiest to sell?

And when it comes to your business as a whole, look at all your key figures. How many hours are you working? How consistent are your leads and sales? What is your turnover? What are your biggest costs?

Once you've viewed any relevant data, apply a logical approach. It might be as simple as writing a pros and cons list. Or listing the positives and negatives of something.

Does it make you money? Does it make you happy? Does it move you closer towards your goal? If the answers are no, no, no, why are you still doing it?

Know when to cut your losses

Walking away with nothing to show for your time, effort or money can be hard.

It’s like when a gambler loses a little money and keeps doubling down to try and win it back. With each new bet, they are trying to recoup their losses, but the more they lose, the harder it becomes to walk away. All they need is that one big win.

But what if that big win never comes, and they lose everything?

Business owners do this all the time.

They don’t want to admit they’ve lost money, wasted time, or put effort into the wrong things. So rather than cutting their losses and walking away, they keep investing more time, money, or effort, hoping their investment will eventually pay off.

But if you're not heading in the right direction, don’t just keep going, or you won’t end up where you want to be.

Forget what you’ve already put in and be realistic – are you ever going to get the desired result if you don’t change your approach? If the answer is no, cut your losses.

Look for a compromise

If what you are doing isn’t working, you need to try something else. If you aren’t prepared to change your approach, your results won’t change. And just because you’ve always done something a certain way doesn’t mean you have to keep doing it that way.

But maybe you don’t have to walk away from something completely. It doesn’t always have to be an all-or-nothing decision. Maybe you just need to change the approach.

Try a different marketing tactic.

Put your pricing up.

Repackage something.

Diversify your products or services.

Tap into a different market.

Change your business terms.

Get some training or support.

And you don't have to make irreversible decisions. You can take a break from something or pause it indefinitely. You can switch between freelancing and employment and back again. You don't have to walk away from something forever. It can just be temporary.

Ask for advice

When I was in a rut with my business, wondering whether it was worth the effort, getting myself a mentor really helped.

I'll admit, I was sceptical - I didn't think a mentor would be able to help me (what could they tell me that I hadn't already thought of).

I was wrong. I walked away from that first meeting feeling more positive than I had for months.

Sometimes a fresh perspective can be all you need to get back on track, so if you've spent a bit of time thinking critically about something and are still unsure, don't be afraid to ask for help.

If possible get advice from someone impartial. Friends or family members won't necessarily be objective.

I offer 90-minute consultations, where you can talk through a business challenge and we'll come up with an action plan together. Alternatively, find someone who has relevant experience, has overcome the challenge you're facing, or has the kind of business you'd like.

Don't wait until you're past the point of no return to get help. Talking through a problem with someone can really help you come to a decision you're happy with.

Ask yourself the tough questions

You might not want to hear this – I know I didn’t – but all too often the challenges in your business are your fault.

If you are getting low-paying clients, it’s because you agree to work with low-paying clients.

If you work too many hours, it’s because you are taking on too much work.

If you aren’t getting enough clients, it’s because your sales and marketing process isn’t up to scratch.

So it might be time to ask yourself some tough questions.

How am I contributing to the lack of success in this particular area?

What can I do to improve things?

What needs to change?

What will happen if I don't change things?

What will happen if I do change things?

Be honest with yourself. Take responsibility for your success and be prepared to work for it.

Set conditions and deadlines

If you've decided you need to give something more time, set yourself conditions and deadlines.

For example:

If this hasn't generated at least one lead in the next 30 days, I'm going to try something else.

If this doesn't account for 30% of my turnover by the end of the year, I'm going to pause sales and focus on other products.

If I haven't broken even on this in the next six months, I'm going to cut my losses and move on.

And be prepared to stick to your conditions and deadlines. Tell someone else so they can hold you accountable for sticking to your decision.

Accept you won't always get it right

I've made loads of mistakes in my business and I'm sure I'll make more. As long as I learn from them and don't keep repeating them, I don't mind.

Part of being a human is making mistakes so just accept that not everything will work out the way you want it to, and not everything you do will be successful.

And even if a decision doesn't work out the way we want, we don't know for sure whether making a different decision would have given us a better outcome. That's just life. We can't live in a constant state of "what if?" We just have to do the best we can with the decisions we make.

So if you've been paralysed into inaction because you're worried about choosing the wrong path, it's time to get off the fence and make a decision either way.

Remember, it doesn't have to be all or nothing. And it doesn't have to be forever. But I'm pretty confident you'll be much happier once you've committed to taking action one way or another.