The day my freelance life changed forever

No plan, to a big plan

I started out in 2019 as a freelance with no real plan.

I left the creative agency I had been working at and was offered a contract for 6 months for 2 days a week to basically do the job I had been doing.

So I left employment on a hot Friday in July, 2019. On the following Monday morning I sat at the desk of my new office as a business owner.

(My new office was our spare room: a box room that was too small for a single bed and barely able to fit a desk and chair). I had an old desk my father-in-law had given us years ago, a pen, some notepaper and a few old business cards. I had no website, no branding, no anything.

But the beauty of this contract of my old employer was that I was earning almost my whole salary in those 2 days a week. I was a contractor now and became welcomed to the world of day rates, invoicing and not working on site. (This was pre-covid and still a novelty!)

While I did this contract I contacted an old boss of mine at a different company. I met up with him a few days later and we signed a 1 year contract for me to do some work for them.

By this point I was earning far more than employment and I thought I had nailed it.

For the next couple of years I carried along taking work here, there and everywhere. I am very good at selling myself (if you don’t mind me saying) and I didn’t struggle to find work. Every week I’d work on new business and I won work. I found that bit easy.

But I didn’t feel very good. I felt scrappy, unsure of who I was as a business. I felt like I was chasing... something. But I didn’t know what.

Then my business owner career suddenly changed forever. And it came from the most unlikely source. My husband. (A lovely man but not a business “guru”.)

He suggested I write myself a mission statement.

Wanky and corporate. Those were the words I said back.

But he was quite insistent that it would help. So I took a sheet of paper. I forced myself to write down who I help, what I do and why I do it.

This actually took a long time to work out. I walked the dog, endlessly pondering this question, getting nowhere! I wanted to do so much. But I needed a framework. I needed my mission statement.

I walked and walked and thought about my business and what I actually liked doing.

Following this I wrote it down and realised the team training aspect of my work was what I loved the most.

I then focused on industry specific sales training for the publishing & membership sectors (this was my background, I had contacts and I liked the sectors).

Suddenly I knew what I wanted to do. I knew I was good at it. I knew the type of client I wanted. I knew what I would offer, why I was offering it and what I would charge. Everything else was unimportant.

Within a year my freelance business turned over 6 figures.

Then, back in 2023 I became restless. I wanted to continue at my business. But I wanted to help others. I realised I wanted to help others build businesses and learn to build a steady stream of clients into their businesses.

So I trained as a coach and nowadays I spend around half the time in my business as training director, and the other half helping freelancers and business owners achieve their potential. I created my flagship progamme “The Steady Client Stream” and I feel so deeply happy and fulfilled that I help others.

And, of course, I hang out here doing the weekly jobs round up :)

What’s your freelancing journey so far? Would love to know!

Helen x