[Nikon D2X, Sigma 18-50mm ƒ/2.8, ISO 400, ƒ/2.8, 1/320]

If you are a freelancer or a business owner, you might be like me and wake up in the middle of the night sweating from the anxiety of how I will pay my bills this month. There is nothing on the books for a while, and you wonder if the phone will ring again or if you will get an email.

Matthew 6:25-34

Worry
25 I tell you not to worry about your life. Don’t worry about having something to eat, drink, or wear. Isn’t life more than food or clothing? 26 Look at the birds in the sky! They don’t plant or harvest. They don’t even store grain in barns. Yet your Father in heaven takes care of them. Aren’t you worth more than birds?

27 Can worry make you live longer?[a] 28 Why worry about clothes? Look how the wild flowers grow. They don’t work hard to make their clothes. 29 But I tell you that Solomon with all his wealth[b] wasn’t as well clothed as one of them. 30 God gives such beauty to everything that grows in the fields, even though it is here today and thrown into a fire tomorrow. He will surely do even more for you! Why do you have such little faith?

31 Don’t worry and ask yourselves, “Will we have anything to eat? Will we have anything to drink? Will we have any clothes to wear?” 32 Only people who don’t know God are always worrying about such things. Your Father in heaven knows that you need all of these. 33 But more than anything else, put God’s work first and do what he wants. Then the other things will be yours as well.

34 Don’t worry about tomorrow. It will take care of itself. You have enough to worry about today.

So I know that scripture, and I still wake up in a cold sweat. My main concern is getting a paying job from a client or potential client. This is the core issue.

One of the best things about being young was not having these worries. My parents carried those worries for me. I went out and played with my friends.

I think the key to solving the “cold sweats” at night is the same key to building solid friendships.

One of the most incredible things I can remember growing up was when someone knocked on the door and wanted to play with me. Today I still enjoy it when a friend calls me up and asks me to play golf with them.

This feeling of euphoria is one of the most powerful emotions.

What was even better than just having a friend knock on my door was the invitation to do something they had already planned. Do you want to go bowling? Some of the best memories were when I had a friend create an experience for me and asked me to join them.

One way to have your “cold sweat” disappear is for the client to call with a project. That solves my problem right away. This does happen, but what I have found that solves this problem more than receiving a request is to be just like that friend of mine knocking on the door asking me if I wanted to go out on the lake in their boat for skiing.

You see, most of your clients also have those “cold sweats” of some sort. They need ideas as well.

Solve your clients problem and you will solve your own

What is your client’s problem? This takes a lot of time to figure out. Steve Jobs solved problems for the world. One of the first problems he solved was a way to carry around a lot of music and help musicians sell their music through the iPod and iTunes.

Another problem Steve Jobs solved was needing a computer with you all the time to be able to solve problems at a moment’s notice. The iPhone allowed you to search the web right in the palm of your hand.

You need to put your clients first, and success will find you. Once you have clients, getting to know them and learning their needs is much easier than if they are prospects.

If you do a great job of providing a solution to their problems, then you are on the way to a profitable career.

Not every solution should involve you. If you are genuinely concerned for a client, there are times that you will give your client an answer that doesn’t affect you directly.  When you do this regularly rather than just once, you will be communicating that you are looking out for their best interests over your own.

By not always coming to a client with solutions that only you can fulfill, but others are better at meeting those needs, you become the fixer for them. They will be more likely to listen to you than if the only time you are coming to them is the solution.

When you are the person calling your clients with ideas for their problems, you are just like the friend knocking on their door asking them to come and join you on an adventure.