Guess what? You can now get a book version of our Begin Your Biz Challenge!
Cue confetti and streamers.
I'm so delighted to be able to share this little volume with you. I've hosted the Begin Your Biz Challenge for two years and it just felt like the right time to turn some of our most popular monthly themes into a book.
This book, Begin Your Biz in 15 Minutes/Day: Your Freelancing Tips Starter Kit, includes a year's worth of daily 15-minute action steps you can take for your business. The daily action steps are organized into 12 monthly themes:
- Goal-Setting & Big-Picture Business Planning
- Create Your Business Plan
- Create an Ideal Client Profile & Prospect Directory
- Create a Marketing Plan
- Improve Your Website
- Pitch Prospects
- Client Retention Strategies
- Automate & Streamline Your Business
- Confidence-Boosting Strategies
- Launch a New Product/Service/Offer
- Manage Your Time Effectively
- Reduce Overwhelm in Business
Why I started the Begin Your Biz Challenge in the first place...
I’ve been a blogger and freelancer since 2008 (yep: it's been 10 years!). It wasn’t always an easy path, and at various points I was freelancing full-time and part-time, until I quit my 9 to 5 job for good in 2014.
Then, in 2016, I began teaching other freelancers how they, too, could start and grow their own successful, profitable freelance businesses. I did this primarily through this blog and my freelancer e-courses. Over the last few years, I’ve had the great privilege to connect with hundreds of other new and struggling freelancers, and hear their stories and experiences.
Without fail, two of the biggest issues that frustrate freelancers the most are:
a) finding the time to begin and build their business, and
b) feeling overwhelmed by all the things they “should” do or “need” to do, to the point that many have no idea at all what to work on and what not to work on.
It’s with that in mind that I created the (free) Begin Your Biz Challenge: a Facebook group with new prompts every day, sharing action steps you can take to further your business in just 15 minutes at a time.
Totally doable, right? Right!
It gets better: with the Begin Your Biz Challenge, I arrange each of the daily 15-minute action steps to correspond to a specific monthly theme. That way, you can focus your efforts to make progress in specific areas of their business… whether that means creating a business plan one month, identifying your ideal client the next month, pitching new clients the following month, improving your websites the next month, and so on and so forth.
UPDATE (OCT 2019): Please note that the original version of the Begin Your Biz Challenge inside the Facebook group has since been closed down—so the best way to do the Begin Your Biz Challenge is by reading this book!
But, here’s the thing: it’s easy to lose track of the daily prompts and fall behind. For those people joining the Begin Your Biz Challenge a little late to the party, it seems like a shame for them to miss out on valuable past monthly themes. Plus, sometimes it's easier to see everything all at once in the convenience of a book!
And that brings us to the Begin Your Biz in 15 Minutes/Day book. Consider this your opportunity to access some of the most popular monthly themes from the past, and make real progress on your business, in just 15 minutes each day…
Because you’re busy. Your life is hectic. Maybe your business is a side hustle, maybe you’re taking care of kids or aging parents, maybe you’re dealing with mental health issues, or something else entirely.
That’s okay. You really can make progress on your business in just 15 minutes/day! Every step, no matter how small, counts. It’s not a race to the finish. It’s a journey, and one that you can enjoy—especially when you reduce overwhelm by knowing exactly what to work on, when.
And that’s what you’re going to get from the book.
How to use the book
Chapter 1 outlines the basic steps you need to take in order to start a freelance business. Chapter 2 provides some reminders about why prioritizing your business is so important. From there, Chapters 3–14 each outline 30 action steps to take regarding that chapter topic. Consider it to be your monthly “theme” for the Begin Your Biz Challenge.
I recommend you do the chapters in order, which would then provide you with an entire year’s worth of daily 15-minute action steps for your business! (And it doesn’t have to start on January 1st: you do you. Why not get started today?) 
Note that every single chapter, or monthly theme, includes “catch up on tasks” days, as well as opportunities to plan ahead for the month, assess your business progress to date, and reflect back on the previous month. Some action steps are also more about doing research and learning something new, rather than producing a specific result. That’s because all of those pieces are necessary in order to move forward successfully with your freelance business.
This book wraps up with Chapter 15, which suggests where to go from here, and Chapter 16, which includes a list of all the resources mentioned in this book so you can easily access them in one place.
At some point with your business, you’ll want to devote more than 15 minutes/day to it in order to make faster progress. That doesn’t have to be a week from now or six months from now—but if you’re serious about being a freelancer, then somewhere down the line you’ll need to accommodate more time for it in your day.
I’m gently reminding you of this now so that you can start tentatively thinking about when you might be able to spend more time on your business (it’s okay if that’s a year from now or even longer): you don’t want it to come as a nasty shock abruptly down the line, after all.
Want to be a rebel when using the book?
You can of course do more than one action step per day if you prefer. Just keep in mind that this is all about bite-sized actions to reduce overwhelm and keep you on track with your business! If you try to do too many tasks in one day, you might start to feel burned out. Take care of yourself, take it one step at a time, and you will get there, my friend.
Begin Your Biz in 15 Minutes/Day can help you do just that.
How to get your copy of the book
- Grab the paperback version on Amazon
- Download it to your favourite e-reader:
- Get 3 e-versions (mobi, epub, and pdf) plus fillable checklists when you purchase directly through the SaganMorrow.com site
Enjoy!