There are two things that are needed to create a successful business these days.
The first is to become a subject matter expert in your field. People get hired for their expertise in a certain area, not because they can do a bunch of stuff.
The second is multiple streams of income. This is one of the best ways to ride out the feast or famine cycle that may come with running your own business. Just like you need to diversify your investment portfolio, you also need to diversify where your money is coming from. Often times, this looks like the ability to juggle different projects.
The interesting thing that happens is once people become subject matter experts, the different income streams start to happen kind of naturally. You can get paid to write, consult, teach, make videos, participate in campaigns, run ads, sell affiliate products, speak and so much more.
The question then becomes, how on earth are subject matter experts supposed to juggle different projects? It’s one thing to juggle different clients who all want the same skill, it’s another thing entirely to juggle different projects that require different things.
Here are some tips I’ve learned on how subject matter experts can handle multiple kinds of projects.
Be grateful you’re not bored.
I don’t know about you, but I get bored pretty easily. I’m pretty sure this is why I can no longer handle having a day job. Doing the same thing day in and day out would drive me up a wall.
This means that having the priviledge to juggle different projects – although sometimes stressful – keeps me on my toes.
My creative spirit also loves a good challenge or learning a new way of doing things. For example, it’s fascinating to me how to take content I normally would have written and learn how it would work on film.
Be grateful you’ve got money coming from different places.
If you’ve ever experienced a time in your life when you were out of work, then you probably know the importance of making sure you’ve always got money coming from somewhere.
The last thing you want is to solely rely on one source of income. This is a sure-fire way to make sure you’re screwed the next time the economy changes or a project doesn’t pan out.
With that being said, if you’re able to juggle different projects, that means your bills are paid. And we can all be grateful about that.
Find yourself a good project management system.
If subject matter experts are going to juggle different projects, then they need to learn how to get organized.
The best thing I can recommend is to get yourself a good project management system. For example, I use Asana which allows me to create different sections for the different kinds of projects going on. Under each of those sections, I can create tasks (and sub tasks!) with due dates for each project.
Sometimes some good old fashioned pen and paper goes a long way too. At this point in my business, I don’t know what I would do without my paper planner to help me keep track of important dates, tasks, and random notes.
Final Thoughts
With a change in perspective and some organizational skills, subject matter experts can learn to have fun when juggling multiple kinds of projects. At the end of the day, learn to enjoy the ride!
