During your time working for ‘the man’, you’ve probably thought to yourself (or maybe out loud?), “Why am I doing all this work for my boss, when I could be doing this for myself?”

This very feeling is what leads many freelancers to quit their day jobs and make the leap to go into business for themselves. It’s liberating, challenging, but above all – it’s fun right? Or so you think …

Many freelancers jump into creating a business based on the skills they’ve been employing in their regular day jobs. It’s familiar, you’ve got the experience behind you, and you’re probably damn good at what you’ve been doing if you feel ready to turn it into your own business. But is that really the right move for you?

Starting a business is serious stuff. It’s not just about doing regular “work” anymore. For a time, you’ll be wearing the hats of the business owner, the freelancer, the bookkeeper, the marketing department, and yes – the janitor. All of these tasks require their own time and energy, and often leave you with less of the ability to get your actual freelancing “work” done.

To be completely candid, I’m quite sick of hearing all the rhetoric revolving around the theme of having “passion” for your work. I believe it, I’m just growing tired of everyone pushing it at us. But as much as everyone is saying it – it’s true that you need to make sure you’re going to be enjoying what you do as an entrepreneur. So, temporarily, I’m jumping on the “passion” bandwagon… bear with me. Let me digress and give you a brief example to put things into perspective.

I come from an extensive background in retail management; I knew that freakin business inside and out! I knew it so well, that when I decided to stick it to ‘the man’, I created my own online retail business and quickly gained success, following my business plan. The only problem was – I grew to dislike it just as much as when it was my day job. Don’t get me wrong, it’s thrilling to make your own money. I also happen to be a great boss (especially to myself!). But as time went on I began to realize that I left my day job not only because I disliked working for ‘the man’, but partly because I actually disliked the job itself. When I came to this realization, I knew that I had to get out and start doing what I really loved to do, which became a combination of photography, graphic design, and publishing.

The more and more freelancers I meet, I see the same pattern – freelancers doing what they did in their day jobs, and eventually growing to resent their new entrepreneurial role. It’s cool to be great at something and have plenty of experience doing it, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what you should be doing as an entrepreneur.

So many freelancers spend years trying to find themselves after leaving the workforce, which can lead to the extremely difficult challenge of trying to re-invent yourself years later. If you’ve got that entrepreneurial fire in you, take some time to think hard about what it is you truly want to do for the rest of your working life. If it does turn out to be the thing you’ve been doing all along – then great! Otherwise, pursue your true calling that allows you to make the kind of difference in people’s lives that makes proud of what you’re doing.

Clearly, you know your strengths, and you know what motivates you. Put them together and plan on building your business from that regard. Do that, and trust me – you’ll actually crave “working” the entrepreneurial 80-hour weeks.

Dave Seeram is the Editor in Chief and Publisher of the PhotographyBB Magazine and the new clamorate! Magazine. He started PhotographyBB back in 2006 as an online environment for digital photography and image processing enthusiasts. Dave is also the owner/founder of PhotographyBB’s parent organization, PowerButton Media. Prior to that, Dave came from an extensive working background in retail management, and educational studies in applied mathematics at Simon Fraser University followed by graphic design at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Dave’s passion for entrepreneurship coupled with design, drives him to assist other creative individuals who seek out the life of the self-employed.

Tomorrow is the first clamorate! webinar. Ah yeah! We’re jumping right into the deep-end with a topic that’s a hot one: Getting Paid.

On Tuesday (June 28, 2011) from 10:00am – 10:45am (PST) Corwin Hiebert will present insights and action-steps specific to freelancers and sole proprietors. Being creative is one thing, getting paid is another. Starting a creative small business is tough and the hardest part for most entrepreneurs is generating a cash flow. We’ll discuss the challenges and solutions to getting paid. Living the dream does not have to mean life as a starving artist or scrambling from project to project.

Webinars on clamorate! are live Web-meetings and communication is a two-way street through the cunning use of text-chat, VoIP, and screen sharing – so you can have your specific questions answered.

This web event is exclusive to members and space is available on a first-come, first-served basis. Learn more on the webinar page. Get the scoop on becoming a clamorate! member on the Join Us page.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about Malcolm Gladwell’s book Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. It is a great book – my favourite of his for sure. In Blink he discusses “thin-slicing” – the idea that spontaneous decisions are often as good as, or even better than carefully planned ones. After reading that book in 2006 I have very much taken to heart that my gut reactions are sound and that I should feel free to act on them. This nugget of truth has turned out to be one of my most precious assets as a creative entrepreneur.

Though far from research, an observation I’ve made of emerging and professional creative people is that decision making is a big issue. By issue I mean that the choices to pursue one opportunity over another, or to focus ones efforts on this or that, or to put oneself out there or here or not just yet, can cripple their creative endeavour. The stress of making the right call can zap a creative person of their energy and passion. In its worst form, regardless of the severity of the decision, the pending realities end up becoming a vision-killer. The ensuing debates and delays basically cancel out the value of making the decision at all. Funny enough, we don’t often have problems making emotional decisions (which I’m okay with by the way). When running our own small business everything is personal – we are what we do (don’t read into one that to much) and a reaction to something that offends or inspires us can often be the right call, or at least send us down the right path because inspiration and passion is what gives us our drive and that’s an invaluable asset.

When it comes to my small business I’m a proponent of making quick decisions. I love to “steer the moving ship” on nearly every front. My goal isn’t always to make the perfect decision, it’s to make the best decision I can at that given time and to move on; the goal is to get past the decision and get back to work.

I’m not talking about being flippant. I realize that speed isn’t always the best tactic to use when it comes to making the right call for my business or a client project because acting quickly and making a smart move are not the same thing. But at it’s core, when faced with a decision, I’m looking to my gut. As my friend Ben Kadel (Emotus Operandi) likes to say, go with what my spidey-sense tells me.

Think of it this way. Maybe you’ve had a situation where, when choosing between two options, you’ve let a coin toss decided things. How many times have you stuck with what the head or tail told you? Or was that silvery face staring back at you the catalyst you needed to go the other way. Regardless, the coin helped you clarify things and move on. Cool. Sure, a pro/con list is one way to go. Getting advice from others is a good option too. There are a lot of practical ways to process decisions of all sizes but in the end my encouragement to you is to keep your ‘boat’ from getting stuck in the ice because being stuck is as good as being dead in the water.

Thin-slicing has me quickly moving past a decision and, over time I’ve found that it’s helping me build up my confidence as well as a repertoire of predetermined judgments (like a grab bag of calls that I know are in my best interest based on their history). I’m empowered to take risks because I’m not worried about sinking the ship if I make the wrong call – I can adjust, I can set a new course, I can keep on keepin’ on. In the end, I’m less concerned about the impact of my decisions and more concerned about getting stuff done.

So my thought for the day is: Keep things moving forward, no matter what.

Post also found on CREATIVEMIX.ca.

Corwin Hiebert is a management and marketing consultant to creative entrepreneurs (like world-renowned photographer and author David duChemin). He’s the co-publisher of Clamorate, and is the co-producer of CREATIVEMIX (Vancouver’s Ideation Conference). As an educator, speaker, and author, Corwin is an avid supporter of creative risk-takers. Corwin is passionate about helping creative people take action towards their goals and their dreams. You can learn more about working with Corwin on his blog or you can follow him on Twitter. He lives in Vancouver, Canada and drinks very unhealthy amounts of expensive coffee.