In a perfect world, we’d have more than enough money to build an epic website, invest in video marketing, run Facebook ads, rent out a massive conference room to host workshops and lectures…

But for those of you who didn’t get the memo, this isn’t a perfect world.

We’re freelancers.

We build our own websites using Squarespace or Wordpress.

We can only dream about having the means to host a production like The #AskGaryVee Show.

We yearn for the days when it cost five bucks to boost a post on Facebook and reach at least a thousand people.

We’re freelancers.

But do you know what’s the most important part of the word freelancer?

Free, as in more free time. And more freedom to choose how we spend it.

For those of us who don’t have money to invest, we have time. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year — each and every one of us.

In fact, I would go as far as to say that time is just as valuable as money — because there are unlimited opportunities in which you can invest time to grow your business.

You can blog and guest blog. Create an editorial calendar and stay consistent. It’s easy to start blogging for a few weeks, or even a few months, but that’s when most people stop. Stay with it, even when it appears that almost no one is reading it.

You can develop an email marketing program. Mailchimp offers a free account for the first 2,000 subscribers. If you don’t have any subscribers, use this post as your quickstart guide.

You can actually use LinkedIn. Do you know how many freelancers create a good-looking profile and then walk away? Maybe they log in here and there, and maybe they download the mobile app, but they don’t actually use the damn thing. They don’t take advantage of LinkedIn Pulse. The don’t connect with prospective clients and professional acquaintances. They probably don’t even though that LinkedIn has a bonafide News Feed to which you can publish content and interact with other people’s content (like Facebook!).

You can self-educate yourself with books and online resources. I just finished The Go-Giver — HIGHLY recommended.

You can host a Twitter chat or a webinar.

You can go to your local chamber of commerce or a co-working space in your city, and offer to give complementary workshops about your expertise to its members.

You can attend Meetups and other local events.

You can get serious about the Networking of Life.

I can go on and on, but here’s the point: While everyone has varying degrees of revenue and expenses, we all have the same amount of time.

How you use the asset of time will make or break your freelance business.