Yes, you need to have a level of business acumen, package yourself, niche yourself, promote yourself, get the contracts, have the project management tools in place and so on.
However, the number one thing I wish I had a better grasp on when I was starting out:
Clarity
Demand, clarity.
Be clear in your communications as well, it's a two way street.
The more time you spend trying to read collaborators tea leaves of vagary and ambiguity, the more time and money it costs you.
The more vagary you tolerate, the more room you have for your projects to hit a break down point.
When a customer says, "make this button more powerful" - you need to have a process, a case and set of questions to guide them in the right direction, if there is anything useful to even extract at all.
Yes, you need to have a level of business acumen, package yourself, niche yourself, promote yourself, get the contracts, have the project management tools in place and so on.
However, the number one thing I wish I had a better grasp on when I was starting out:
Clarity
Demand, clarity.
Be clear in your communications as well, it's a two way street.
The more time you spend trying to read collaborators tea leaves of vagary and ambiguity, the more time and money it costs you.
The more vagary you tolerate, the more room you have for your projects to hit a break down point.
When a customer says, "make this button more powerful" - you need to have a process, a case and set of questions to guide them in the right direction, if there is anything useful to even extract at all.
Describe what you mean?
What purpose does this serve?
Why?