On today’s show, I’m going to report on what I did during my most recent solo business retreat and my lessons learned. Some of you already know I love taking a solo business retreat about once a quarter—or at minimum, twice a year. A solo business retreat is just you, away from your regular workspace—even in that means just heading to another room in your home—and taking a half day, entire day or even two days to step back. It’s a time to think big and to work ON your business, not just IN your business. In episode 3, I talk about how to host your own solo business retreat—what you need, where you can go to do it, what to think about. Two episodes ago, episode 40, I gave tips and hopefully some inspiration for things that would work well during a solo business retreat—how you could evaluate the past year of your business and then analyze what you needed to do differently this year. I also mentioned in that episode that I was going to host my first solo business retreat outside my city. It was in Chicago last week, and it was amazing.   I started by making a list of all my clients and how much I made from each one of them last year. Then, I marked which ones were likely one-offs because they were one-time projects from the client’s perspective and which ones were one-offs because I didn’t want to work with that client anymore. The good news is that only two were ones I didn’t want to work with anymore—in one case, it was a one-off project, and in the other I think the client felt the same way I did. So, I didn’t have to fire any clients! My calculations also confirmed what I already knew from past years: My primary anchor client is about 48% of my net income each year. That’s a lot. That security also comes with cautions: What if that client suddenly lets me go or kills our project? The challenge is that because the workload for this client is like a part-time job, I can’t take on a lot of other big anchor clients. So, I’ve tried to prepare myself for losing this client, though I hope that never happens. First, it helps just that I’m aware of it. Knowing that relying on one client for 48% of your income is a gamble is the first step. You don’t want to be blindsided if the client goes away. I’ve also been working to build up my savings to provide a cushion, and I continue to market and stay in touch with past clients. It’s important to always be marketing. It can take months or even years in some cases to get a project from a potential client. Waiting until you need the work will not likely pay off—plus, it can make you desperate. You might take on low-paying clients or clients who don’t treat you well. After calculating where my money came from last year, I made a short list of the clients I really loved who I wanted to work with more. Some of these were newer clients that have started off great, and I want to keep that momentum going. Others are longer-time clients that I need to reach out to more. I also had one client where my editor left last year. So, I quickly looked up the new person’s contact information so I could email them a letter of introduction. The next part of my business retreat was to make a list of my successes, failures and challenges from last year. My successes included two regular clients that I worked with substantially more last year. Other successes were two new regular clients and my podcast launch. Failures included a client who was really difficult to work with. Another was not keeping up with my business receipts in a timely manner. On the list of challenges I added batching, the idea of doing like work all at once and saving time from switching tasks. I’m still working on doing a better job of batching. Another challenge was taking on projects that are not in my sweet spot. I should have said no. In fact, I’ve dubbed 2020 as the year of saying no, particularly saying “no” to volunteering so much in my industry. I love helping other freelancers build their businesses—that’s why I do this podcast—an