Recently a friend of mine asked me to help him become a freelancer, too. So I walked him through the process, I helped him find his first clients, and I was basically “on call” to answer questions that he had.

I was disappointed when he called me up one day and said “this is really hard,” as if he had thought that I lazed around all day by my pool sipping martinis.

“Of course it’s hard,” I told him, “it’s a business.”

“No it’s not,” he responded. “It’s freelancing.”

Unfortunately, my friend was wrong. Freelancing is a business. And I have bad news for anyone who thinks that freelancing is going to be an easy stroll into a martini-sipping lifestyle: I don’t know any BUSINESS that is easy. And freelancing is a business.

Since freelancing is a business, that means you need to watch your finances: Earn revenue, subtract expenses. Try to increase revenue and decrease expenses to enjoy more profit.

Since freelancing is a business, that means you need to study your market and figure out who the ideal clients are and what they are going to buy. Yes, you need to do a market study!

Since freelancing is a business, that means you need to market (usually this is easy because everyone loves Twitter and Facebook, which are good freelance marketing tools), but it also means that you need to sell. In fact, this is what my friend was complaining was so hard. He had no idea that he’d have to SELL his services. And since he didn’t have much experience in sales beforehand, I tried to walk him through selling but apparently didn’t impart upon him the reality that he’ll face objections and even rejection.

Since freelancing is a business, that means you need to do administrative work which might include bookkeeping, filing, and more. (I pay someone else to do this now but in the early days I did it all myself).

Since freelancing is a business, that means you need to show up for work, put in the hours, be responsive, and communicate.

My friend eventually left freelancing, telling me: “I have no idea how you make six figures doing that.”

But he DID know. I told him in our conversation earlier: Freelancing is a business.

So, with that in mind, what can you do in your freelancing business?

While I think it’s important to continually improve your skills, I think it’s also important to improve your business acumen. I know lots of freelance writers who only read books about being a better freelance writer. And I know lots of freelance graphic designers who only read books about graphic design. But the most successful freelance writers and freelance graphic designers make sure that they are also reading books about sales, business growth, business planning, and business strategy.

If you’re a freelancer, take a moment right now and list your top goals for the coming year. How many of them were business goals? Take some time in this last quarter of the year to think about how 2010 can be your year for transforming your freelancing into a business.