It’s easy to book in a full month or two of work, and it feels good to be able to say to yourself “I’m on target”. Remember though, if you book a full 5 days to your clients, when do you do your admin? If you book out a full month, when do you sort out your invoicing. You need to be careful with it otherwise you’ll soon be doing 10 hr days to keep up with it all.

I’ve found that so far, running my own company (of one person) is quite easy once I got things off the ground, but there is a constant admin cost associated with it – small, but it’s there. Make sure you keep room in your schedule for it.

Beyond that, when you do get your down time, make sure you enjoy it and step completely away from the work. Working for yourself so you can work in a flexible manner is great, but not if that’s all you do.