My first year of freelancing
This is my 12th month of freelancing. I’ve made it to the 1 year mark. Hooray for me!
This time last year I was counting down the days until my last day at work waiting to dive headfirst into freelancing full-time.
I’d been working on freelance projects for about 6 months alongside my full-time role before I decided to hand my notice in. I’d got a taste of what it would be like to work on freelance projects and build a life away from the 9-5 (or half 8 – half 5 in this case) and decided to go for it.
Looking back over the last year, I can honestly say I’ve loved it. I love being in charge of my own time (for the most part), working with new clients, and getting to be my own boss.
Getting clients
One of the things I was most worried about when I started out (and still am tbh) is getting new clients. I wouldn’t call myself a natural salesperson and I’m not into those cheesy LinkedIn posts that seem to be so popular.
I have had a couple of people find me on LinkedIn and Google (thanks to my SEO) but the majority of my clients have come from referrals and word of mouth.
I feel quite lucky so far as I haven’t had to do much ‘marketing’. Instead, I’ve just waited for people to find me.
However, as I head into my second year as a freelancer I do feel a bit of pressure to step my game up and start being more proactive in terms of selling myself. I’ve been going to a few networking events with mixed results – one guy’s parting shot to me at an event was telling me to “smile more”.
Project work
People keep asking me who my target market is and I’m still trying to figure this out. I’ve worked on projects for a range of different sectors and the type of projects I take on don’t all look the same either.
Some of the projects I’ve worked on to date are:
- Lot’s of local SEO campaigns
- Pulling together web copy for a higher education institute
- Writing case studies for a local college
- SEO & PPC campaigns for a luxury travel company
- Running LinkedIn and Twitter ads for a therapist
- Writing and distributing a press release for the KBB industry
- Social media strategy for a B2B business
Working from home
I used to dream about being able to work from home. I thought I’d be so much more productive, relaxed and happy.
Only two of those things have proven to be true.
It turns out I find it quite hard to work from home without being distracted by housework, tv, going to the local shop on a snack run or just pottering.
I have found some good ‘background’ tv though. Stuff to have on in the background while I’m working but I’ve seen it enough times that I don’t really have to pay attention. This includes but is not limited to:
- The US Office
- Any Bourne film
- Any Mission
- Impossible film
- Any Marvel film
- Bridesmaids
- The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
- The Fugitive
Always learning
I’ve learned so much in the past year about everything from SEO, copywriting and PPC to tax returns, contracts and invoicing. Some key takeaways are:
- Networking is not the worst thing in the world
- Referrals & recommendations are by far the best form of marketing (for me)
- I’m 100% not a morning person and I feel like it’s too late to turn that around now
- I’m a bit of a perfectionist – I need to learn to let go a little bit to release some stress!
- Netflix is trolling me with the “Are you still watching…” message
- There are some really interesting businesses & opportunities right here in the North East
Looking ahead
I’m genuinely looking forward to seeing what’s going to happen over the next 12 months as I continue to grow my business. But I definitely have some things I want to work on and some goals for the year ahead…
- Continue to build my network here in the North East
- Run or take part in some SEO workshops
- Learn to switch off & manage my time – I’ve got better at this recently but it still needs work
- Keep saying yes to opportunities and putting myself out there more
- But say no to clients and projects that aren’t a great fit!
So, here’s to the next year!
If you’re thinking about going freelance and want a chat, you can find me on Twitter.