Show Your Business Some Love
16February 14, 2014 by Joel_Hughes
Many of us fell into freelancing through circumstance. I was never one of life’s great planners and I certainly stumbled through the first few years of my business; only looking one yard ahead at the next job. That is a fatal flaw because, unless you concentrate working ‘on‘ the business (instead of just ‘in‘ it), you kinda just drift along.
So, this morning, (in light of the romantic time of year), I thought it was time to show your business some love. Here’s a couple of points:
1) It IS a business!
Ok, this may sound dense but I clearly remember sat at my new desk (at home*) not having a clue what to do next. It seemed bizarre to me that I could escape the shackles of working for someone else, equally bizarre that I do work that I liked, that I was in control of my own destiny. These plus points can easily hoodwink you into thinking that you’ve got some sort of hobby rather than a proper job; because a job should be painful yes?
But no, it IS a business. And it deserves to be treated with the attention & respect that a business deserves.
(*Another post coming on working at home; the plusses & the minuses)
2) You are a salesperson
Whilst we’re on the topic of admitting we’re running a business, let’s re-cap another old chestnut. You need to send yourself some love for all the other qualities you bring to your business. It’s easy to pigeon hole ourselves (“Oh, I write the front end code…“, “I get the backend to work…“) but, for a freelancers & small business owners, this belies the myriad of other skills you are bringing to the table.
A key one is sales. Many of us have that mental image of that saleperson; that pushy oik who you’d rather hit with a cricket bat than talk to. And, perhaps due to our long ingrained perception that such people are shysters existing simply to rip decent folks off, we do not want to be associated with them. Fair enough, but…
For many freelancers they are the only person involved with acquiring new business; following up on leads, sending proposals, pitching. Guess what this is? Yep, it’s a sales process. And guess what that makes you? Yep, a salesperson. Are you trying to rip people off? No. You’re simply trying to offer folks your excellent service; and being an open, honest, friendly, helpful, straightforward salesperson is part & parcel of that. Repeat after me “I AM a salesperson…“.
3) Ignore the Competition
Don’t worry about how X business is doing, what client’s they’ve won, what awards they are up for etc. Just concentrate on what you can control and what you can do. You are in charge of shaping the direction your business grows. Want to stay on your own as a freelancer? Fine. Want to collaborate more with other freelancers? Fine. Want to employ folks? Fine. There’s not set answer.
Concentrate on the positive things you can control rather all those things you can’t. Oh, and bear in mind that the market for our services is growing all the time; and the average freelancer only needs an infinitesimally small slice of that pie to carve out a very healthy living.
4) Where do you want to be in five years time?
When you first start out this question can seem like a luxury. But, at some stage you should get to the point where the bills are getting paid, you are bringing good work in and things are going ok. That would be a good time to start planning. I’m sure it is better to plan from day one but, based on my experience, all your energy is used up fire fighting & bringing work in and, until that is under control, you can’t lift your head up to take a long look at where you want your business to go.
I won’t pretend answering this question is easy; and it may involve some serious soul searching. It doesn’t have to be a contract, written in stone, your goals & objectives can change. This is something I’ve been mulling a lot recently and I think I’ll share you what I’m thinking for my business in a separate post.
5) Watch this Video
I get lots of emails telling me about other resources which are of use to freelancers online and this one I’d like to share with you now:
I know for a fact that I was clueless about 90% of what this video talks about for, possibly, the first 5 years of my business. I just bumbled along, making it up as I go. The concepts presented in the video can, at first, seem like something which relates to other, more grown up, real businesses. But, even if your procedures aren’t formulated, then they must still exist in some shape or form (otherwise you wouldn’t be in business). Realising that such a process exists and that any process (or part of) can therefore be improved is an important step to realising that your business is more than just designing & coding.
Happy Valentines Day.
Joel
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Hi Joel
It’s good to see conversations regarding design happening more regularly in Wales, but I think it’s important that we use terminology correctly, providing clarity rather than contributing to lasting confusion.
A freelancer is a flexible resource that agencies or in-house design teams can call upon to satisfy a temporary resource gap. Freelancers should be contracted for an agreed term and paid through a company’s payroll, charging a premium in the form of higher pro-rata salary compared to permanent employees, to compensate for their flexibility and often a very specific skillset.
The problem here in Wales, is that there are not enough larger agencies to sustain a healthy population of dedicated professional freelancers and therefore ‘freelancers’ (by your definition) compete with agencies for the same work as they seek to acquire their own clients. Ultimately this devalues design and will continue to hold back the design sector in Wales.
Someone that is running their own business and dealing with their own clients is NOT a freelancer. They are either an independent designer or they’re running a micro business, with aspirations of growing it into something more co-ordinated as their job book fills. So I’d argue that freelancing is certainly NOT a business.
Hi James,
thanks for stopping by and commenting.
Hmm…ok, I’m basing freelancing on my experience (like you, many many years!) & how I see the term used. A quick look at Wikipedia didn’t seem to solve the debate. What definition are you citing please?
Well, that’s not a definition I would use. I don’t think that freelancers exist for the sole purpose of servicing agencies (but, again, we’ve already established that we have different ideas of what that term means). Indeed, I know many (self described ‘freelancers’) who rule out working for agencies. Freelancing, in the way you describe it operating, is not something I’ve come before. Yes, I’ve worked onsite at client’s agencies for fixed periods, but I’d call that ‘contracting’ and would not paid on salary (invoicing instead).
Or, to play Devil’s advocate, perhaps there are too many bigger/mid agencies who cannot compete with freelancers (my definition)? If client X cannot differentiate between the services a (say) multi-skilled agency can offer and that of a sole freelancer then there will be a few factors at play there; they could be the wrong client for the agency, the agency may be positioning themselves incorrectly or the freelancer may be over reaching. Either way, the truth does out. I’ve seen freelancers over reach and mess things up so baldy that they quit and go permie. On the other hand, I’ve seen agencies make a right mess of things and equally devalue the design process.
I don’t see it as a problem that we don’t have many large agencies in Wales. In fact, if I were to predict the future, I would say the days of the behemoth digital agencies are over as small agencies and lightweight, more flexible (and, in many case, more talented) looser coupling of freelance talent can easily out play them.
I don’t follow your logic but I respect your point of view.
And that kinda gets to my point from another direction really (different definitions notwithstanding). People start freelancing or contracting because they are good at design, building, backend, copy, whatever. But they are typically poorly equipped with all the other skills needed; dealing with clients, pricing, time management, estimating etc etc. Hence this blog and my conference :)
Again, many thanks for stopping by. Great to hear passionate debate
Joel
I’m a freelancer and running my own business. Only one of my clients is an agency and most of my clients are small-medium sized business. I think my definition of freelancers is different and perhaps I need to rethink it! I quite like the term independent designer though.
‘Gun For Hire’?
;)
At the end of the day, we’re talking about people. How you choose to label yourself is up to you, but it does help if we can use terms that people have a shared understanding of. It’s like the old classic “what is a designer” or “what is a developer” – everyone has a different definition and will fight to the end to prove that their definition is /the/ right one!
I consider myself a freelancer. I’m the sole director of my limited company, but I’d also consider myself to be a freelancer if I were self-employed. I provide consultancy and development services to integrated/digital agencies as well as direct. It doesn’t matter who I provide services to – I’d still be freelance. I’m freelance because it’s just me. I get to work on my terms. I can choose what I do and what I don’t do.
I’d agree that you are not a freelancer if you regularly sub-contract or employ other people to do the work.
Thanks for your thoughts, Nic
Semantics.
You say freelancer, I say contractor, namely a hired in resource to work on a specific thing for a fixed contract.
To me freelancers are project based and generally the structure is less rigid, they’ll probably have more than one thing on the go at the same time.
I’d agree that a freelancer is not always the same as a micro-agency, it depends on the outlook of the individual or team I guess. When I started out I was a micro agency of 1, I knew I’d grow at some point and I ran it as such from the get-go.
Call it what you will they are *all* a business though I’d agree that IR35-fail contractors – e.g. someone on a 6 month contract doing [insert tech here] for, say, a bank – are businesses only in name; they are just de-facto employees.
Amen to that.
I think you’re defining freelancer to fit a narrow view, to me a freelancer is someone who works for many clients but is not employed by any of them long term (if at all) and I’m pretty sure this is a common view
Looking around the web the PCG describe themselves as ‘The Freelancers Association, business support, and a campaigning voice for freelancers, contractors and consultants’,
For those who can remember far enough back Freelance informer (started in 1984) was the magazine for contractors so freelance has been used to describe independent people for a long time.
When I was consulting I used to describe myself as freelance and none of my clients presumed I was going to be on their payroll (everything had a contract through my own limited company)
By your definition someone with their own clients must be wanting to grow their business (by size, clients, revenue, employees???) rather than reach a steady state where they do interesting things and have a good balance between work and life.
Apparently freelance comes from mercenaries in medieval times i.e. as someone else said below, guns for hire.
Hey Andy,
thanks for stopping by.
That is my definition of freelancing and always has been. Not quite sure where the confusion is (apart from it’s now apparent that everyone has their own view on what these terms mean!).
Yep :)
When I first went “contracting” or “consulting” or “freelancing” (as it was/is known) the companies I worked for expected you to have a VAT number and be a limited company. That was very much the norm &, as far as I can tell, still is (except many people are sole traders now as well).
You hit the nail on the head. “Reach a steady state”. But to reach such a state you need to grow in some manner. And yes, achieving a work/life balance is a great goal (it’s been part of how I run my business for the last 4 years) but such goals tend to take a back seat until the basics are put in place.
Thanks again for your comments, always welcome. I think this post (& comments) have given me ideas for the next couple of posts ;)
Joel
@andy:
“By your definition someone with their own clients must be wanting to grow their business (by size, clients, revenue, employees???) rather than reach a steady state where they do interesting things and have a good balance between work and life.”
Ironically I’ve found it sometimes harder *not* to grow (or certainly flex). As I’m sure you and everyone commenting on this thread have experienced at one time or another, one of the big pains is having too much work on (the whole projects acting like buses thing) so you might hire someone in. You might hire them full-time, then you have to feed them. So you need to take on more work and you *have* to take on that extra job even if you don’t have the resource at that moment, so you take on a freelancer …… and so on.
Clearly there’s a balance, the point at which the stress of managing cashflow/people outweighs the revenues (that may also be lower if the projects take longer or don’t make enough margin!) so I’d definitely agree that it’s not all about growth. These are lifestyle businesses and lifestyle should be a major factor. Easier said than done some times, though.
Great post Joel. I was employed for a couple of years before being forced, through circumstances, to become ‘self employed’. Despite there only being 1 of me, I’ve never really advertised myself as a freelancer – although I do get some work sub-contracted from larger firms.
Most of my work is with other independent small businesses, and my business is a Ltd company, so with these things in mind, I guess I’m more of a ‘micro-agency’.
When I became self-employed I already had a wife, and a child, to support. I made a plan at that point (over 4 years ago now) that I would, within a very short space of time, be charging enough billable hours to make the business viable.
It’s been *really* hard work, but 4 (and a bit) years on, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
There’s definitely some areas I need to work on, based on your 5 points above and the video – but I’m confident enough now to start looking ahead, to ignore the competition and focus on providing the best service I can to my clients.
Looking forward to the future!
Jack.
Hi Jack,
thanks for commenting. It’s great that your business is doing well, would love to swap war stories at some point.
I’d certainly describe myself as a micro-agency; I currently don’t do any work for agencies (although, I’ve had many discussions about helping other outfits with overflow work) and I’m very B2B direct facing. I tend to use a steady team of freelancers to help deliver the business end of projects (which is why I wouldn’t describe myself as a freelancer).
That’s great to hear!
Joel
As someone who has hired dozens of freelancers / contractors (whatever you choose to call them) over the past couple of years, I can safely say that i’ll avoid it where possible.
It’s already been mentioned in the comments here that hired hands are “*all* a business” and it’s not only the employers who seem to have this opinion. The worst part is that they seem to have that themselves. I think it’s unfair to tar every freelancer with the same brush so I will say that there have been some exceptions where someone has come into a project cold, enjoyed it, absolutely made the most of their time and really been a valuable asset. Unfortunately though, the majority of freelancers will come in, take your briefing, chop something together that hits brand guidelines (roughly) and then walk away with a paycheque often larger than my own. My guess is knowing that tomorrow you’ll be at some other agency, working on some other brand, earning a ridiculous amount per hour can alleviate the pressure of having to continually perform to a high standard.
It’s always my preference to push work out to a micro-agency where often their attitude is adjusted by the fact that their work isn’t just an income, but their business, and their livelihood, family and more often than not, employees rely on keeping a solid reputation.
Everyone has their own experiences so I wouldn’t expect everyone to agree with me, but reading the original post made me want to throw in my 2 cents.
Thanks for your comments Ryan.
I’ve worked in manyy roles; permie, contract, freelance and now micro-agency owner. I’ve seen good permies, bad permies, good contractors, bad contractors, good freelancers, bad freelancers – you get the picture.
One thing I’ve noticed about bad freelancers/contractors is that they don’t get invited back; they are evaluated on performance very closely. Don’t like their work, their style, their manner? They are not renewed or given any more work.
Perhaps that’s try of some folks. But perhaps there is another dimension here that the freelancer/contractor was not adequately managed? Too many agencies treat freelancers/contractors as magic wands who can fix any (typically emergency) resource issue. However, like any member of the team, they need time to find their feet about how a company operates, workflow, responsibilities, latitude of how they can work etc etc. This takes time.
When I first went contracting it was because of the lure of more money. My (lovely) boss at the time said to me “on paper you should be well off, but it never works out like that” and damn he was right. There’s a lot of other stuff which goes with being (in some fashion) self employed; stuff which you are divorced from or which is handled for you when you are permanent. Therefore, comparing (say) hourly rate is a little like apples & oranges. I’m not saying you can’t make more money freelancing/contracting – I’m just saying it’s not the promised land which many people think.
Well, that’s not my experience. Indeed, my experience is that word gets around. If you are poor at what you do then you’ll soon find it hard to find work. On the other side, if you are good, word gets around and recommendations & work floods in.
It’s great that you use micro-agencies – anything you can pass my way? ;) To be fair, most of the freelancers I work with are very quality of work focussed people so I don’t quite see it as black & white as you.
“Everyone has their own experiences so I wouldn’t expect everyone to agree with me, but reading the original post made me want to throw in my 2 cents.”
It’s great to get your angle & I really appreciate you taking the time to throw your 2p in :)
Joel
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