Example Personal Development Plan for a Freelancer in the Creative Media Industry
Step 1:
Important goals that I want to achieve:
- Define a strong unified personal branding
- Maintain valuable personal relationships with potential clients
- Bring in new clients
- Continue to produce the highest quality work I can
- Ensure that I am using the most suitable software and hardware
Step 2:
Out of all goals, this one is the most important to me:
Bringing in new clients.
Step 3:
How long will it take me to achieve this goal:
The goal achievement will be ongoing throughout my freelance career.
Do I commit 100% to achieve this goal:
Yes, if I am constantly proactively searching for new opportunities.
Reward I will give to myself once I achieved this goal:
If new clients are gained that will subsequently produce more work which, when completed, will mean the potential for more personal holiday.
Step 4:
Strengths I have that can help me to achieve this goal:
- A strong work ethic
- A diverse skill set
- An initial group of contacts
Step 5:
Things I choose to start doing and stop doing which will help me to achieve my goal:
START DOING
- Going out of the way to ensure that potential clients are aware of me
- More personal advertising
- Extending my knowledge and range of skills
STOP DOING
- Unnecessary prevarication
- Personal work whilst client work is available
- Accepting as much work as possible if it cannot be completed to the best standard
Step 6:
Which new skills/knowledge will help me to achieve my goal?
- Enhancing specific software knowledge
- Improving interpersonal skills
- Greater knowledge of advertising and marketing could definitely improve the chances of people finding my company
Step 7:
Which actions do I need to take to achieve this goal?
Action 1: Potentially undertake in additional educational activities in specific software to improve overall knowledge.
Action 2: Complete exercises to increase confidence in situations that would be common in meetings with clients.
Action 3: Ensure that I have all the correct marketing resources and take part in any activities necessary to improve advertising knowledge.
Step 8:
Who can help me to achieve this goal faster?
A tutor or teacher could assist with furthering software knowledge, whereas even friends and family could help improve interpersonal skills. Additional advertising and marketing knowledge could be achieved on my own or with a trained professional.
Example Plan for Maintaining Skills –
Once the personal development plan is completed the skills and knowledge that were gained will need to be kept at the same level so as to not have to waste time in the future having to re-learn these skills.
To ensure that the skills are not lost, regular sessions should take place in which skills are knowledge are re-capped and reflected upon so that memory of the actions can be refreshed and any new developments in the area can be taken in and added to your array of skills.
Particularly within the creative media sector, a freelancer should keep up with industry news so that they can be aware of any important new information whether it is legal changes that may affect you or new software developments or updates.
Keeping up with the industry trends and new products available will give you an advantage in the freelance trade.