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In May of 2018, at 21 years young, I launched Touched By Ty.

In July of 2018, I got my first apartment & bought a new car.

In November of 2018, my business went viral on twitter. I gained thousands of followers overnight and became booked. All of my dreams were coming true, right? No lol, not by a long shot. I had poor money management skills, no real financial sense or understanding in projecting my sales. As a result, I was almost unable to pay my rent.

While I managed to make enough in sales the last week of December 2018, I learned SEVERAL very valuable lessons: 

1. I need to learn how to budget my money - having more going out than coming in makes me broke. So I started tracking every dime I had, lost or made. I ended up finding out I had an account with $2,000 in it I completely forgot about. I never made this mistake again.

2. I need to analyze my sales & needs - I need a clear understanding of how much money I made, my SMART goals, my budget, and the minimum number of sales I can survive on.

3. What am I really doing? Why? What is “THIS” thing I call a business? - I had to research a niche, how to create content for one niche and how to use social media to make money. Then FINALLY, I came across “copywriting” and I learned that I was a copywriter but I didn’t know there was an official term for it. I then proceeded to research leading industry professionals and attended their webinars, bought some books, a couple of courses and consultations for 2 experts. I also spent a significant amount of time in the library to research and self teach. Doing this I’ve taught myself graphic design, website design, business administration, market research, copywriting, copy editing, marketing, advertising, google ads and so much more. I’ve even taken this a step further by looking up the syllabuses for courses at universities I couldn’t afford to attend and reading the books they had on the list. When I was broke I would download the free samples from google and apple and read summaries and analysis of the work online. 

4. If I want this, I have to get serious about building my income. - I identified multiple streams of income with my tangible skills. Overtime I weeded out the things I no longer wanted to do sand began focusing on the things I truly desired.

5. It takes money to make money - reinvesting majority of my money was really the key to my success. I also had to be ready to take risk, so I’ve invested over $30,000+ into my business.

6. People really don’t care how much money I make - unless I plan to share my money, it’s not necessary to share this information. When you have money, it shows in your presentation, your reputation, and your commitment to your craft. Let it show in the work ethic.

7. One good month in business doesn’t mean you stop working - In November of 2018, I made more money in one month than I ever had before. But this only resulted in my mismanagement of the money, being overwhelmed with orders, rushing to hire a team, and a whirlwind of issues. Don’t do this lol. Seriously, I laugh as a write this because in hindsight it was quite amazing that I pulled it off and only gave 4 refunds.

8. NEVER overbook your service - Overbooking while under charging means you are robbing yourself blind. “Cheap” or “affordable” shouldn’t be apart of your marketing copy. 

9. Raise your prices - I struggled for a while with raising my prices to where I wanted them. But once I did, I was able to better manage and Divide up my time. I had to learn what my audience perceived as valuable and how to proposition this value to them. Gaining the confidence to do this, helped me gain the confidence to venture into everything else I loved - like art, graphic design & custom prints.

10. You need to use contracts - Not using contracts initially was very dangerous. It’s literally like playing with fire and I’ve been scammed once because I didn’t have a contact. I never made this mistake again either.

This is just the beginning, though. 

Three years in and I’ve learned a ton about technology, software, social media, proper business practices, and so much more.

I’m going over all of this + 7 key components to making the transition bimonthly in our “9-5 to freelancer webinar” held virtually on February 2nd, 2021 at 6 pm. 

We hope to see you there, but just in case you can’t make it take advantage of our free downloads. 🙂