Customer Orders vs Own Projects

Photo by Octavian Dan on Unsplash

Hanifmr.com - A long time ago I started to publish “versus articles” in which I compared 2 options and weighed their respective advantages and disadvantages.

I would like to revive this series and start with the topic “Customer orders vs. own projects”.

Does it make more sense to work for customers or should you rather implement your projects?

Customer Orders vs Own Projects - Which is Better?

The self-employed can develop their business in two different directions.

On the one hand, there is the service sector. This includes all orders that are carried out for customers, regardless of whether they are done on-site or virtually.

On the other hand, as a self-employed person, you can set up your own business and, for example, sell products or create a website that makes money.

In some cases, there is certainly also overlap, but basically, every business start-up has to decide which of the two options to choose.

Both have advantages and disadvantages, which I would like to discuss below.

Advantages of Customer Orders

I also started taking customer orders myself after I started my own business. In 2006 I created websites for clients and made my first money with them.

And if you look around the web, you will find a lot of service providers from a wide variety of industries.

Some of the benefits of customer orders include:

With customer orders, you can usually generate income faster than with your projects. Of course, it's not that easy to get your first customers either. However, if you have the first orders, you can then settle them.
Permanent customers also ensure permanent income. If you do not only work on completed individual projects, you can retain at least some of your customers permanently and thus generate income relatively regularly.
Many service providers appreciate the variety that comes with new customers. So there is no boredom.
Ideally, satisfied customers take over part of the marketing (recommendations), which of course has a positive overall effect on the order situation.
The social interaction that one has through customer contact is not to be underestimated.
You can say no to job offers. This is something that you learn to appreciate over time because not every customer is nice and not every project makes sense.
Less investment (time, work, and money) in advance. To process customer orders, you usually do not need to prepare anything in great detail. The work only comes directly with the order.

Usually, with customer orders, you can do better with them in the short term. The cash flow can often be achieved faster than with your projects.

In some cases, customer orders are very profitable in the long term if you have made a good name for yourself, established contacts, and specialized in a profitable area.

Advantages of Your Projects

On the other hand, your projects are not orders from customers; you create your website, shop, or retail store, for example.

This variant also has some advantages:

With your projects, the long-term financial potential is usually higher than with customer orders. While you are only paid for the actual work with customer orders (and the day only has 24 hours) and then you start again from scratch, so to speak, you can still benefit financially from work done on your projects after many years.
When it comes to your projects, you can of course make all the decisions yourself. You don't have to do anything that you don't want, and the decision-making paths are very short.
At some point, you can only make yourself dispensable with your projects. Because if you do get sick at some point, you are not so dependent on the hours worked for your projects. It looks very different when working on custom orders.

In a survey, I asked my readers what happens if they couldn't work for a long time.

What if you can't work for a long time?

My business is collapsing without me. (48%, 48 votes)
I no longer work myself anyway, just count the money. (19%, 19 votes)
I haven't thought about that yet. (18%, 18 votes)
I have largely outsourced my business. It also runs for a while without me. (8%, 8 votes)
I have co-workers who can get by without me for a while. (7%, 7 votes)

Number of participants: 100 (1 vote)

The source of income changes with your projects. I am very happy that I no longer have to chase after unpaid customer invoices or that I cannot issue an invoice because the customer does not get into the pots.

In addition, your projects can contribute to a significantly more stable income than is possible with fluctuating customer orders.
You shouldn't underestimate annoying customers. Unfortunately, there are a lot of them and they can not only take away a lot of fun but also create a lot of unproductive and unpaid time. You no longer have the problem with your projects either.

These advantages are very important to me, but of course your responsibility and risk increase with your projects.

As you can see, both variants have advantages and disadvantages.

Why Do I Bet on a Business and Not on Orders?

When I started my own business in 2006, I focused 100% on customer orders. Small business web design was my job and it didn't go badly either. Nevertheless, I noticed that it is not that easy to generate a reasonably stable income.

I am also someone who enjoys working on things that interest him and that he enjoys. Conversely, I hate it when I have to do work that I wouldn't do. And unfortunately, that happened now and then when the customers had any particular opinion and I couldn't convince them.

After actually starting this blog here as a test page for myself, I quickly realized that my projects have a few advantages. It took a long time to get a really good income, but it was quite stable and I was able to do 100% what I wanted,

In recent years, my independence has therefore shifted more and more from customer orders to my projects. Most of the working time is now spent on my websites and blogs. I still do customer orders, but hardly for new customers, but almost only for existing customers. And how long I'll do that is also open.

My self-employment has developed very well and I am convinced that financially I would not be where I am today if I had only relied on customer orders.

For me, it was the right decision to start my projects.

Conclusion

But does that mean that I would recommend everyone to go for their projects? Certainly not.

Your preferences play an important role. Do you have more fun working for customers or do you prefer to work on your projects?

I am convinced that the financial potential of your projects is higher, but it is also more difficult to establish your projects and you often get your first income faster with customer orders.

That's why I think it makes sense to use a combination of both variants. For the first income and experience, one can accept customer orders. Over time, you can then implement your projects on the side and build them up parallel to customer work.

This combination provides more financial security but also opens up opportunities for later growth and a business that is not so dependent on your labor.

In the end, however, it is up to the self-employed person to choose which option. There is no guarantee of financial success in either variant.

Opinion Poll

In keeping with the topic of this article, I would be happy if you took part in the following survey.

Customer orders or your projects?

I combine both. (46%, 83 votes)
I prefer to rely on my projects. (39%, 71 votes)
I am employed. :-) (10%, 19 votes)
I prefer customer orders. (4%, 8 votes)

Number of participants: 181 (1 vote)

You are of course welcome to leave your opinion in the comments.

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