Freelancer, consultant, founder, director, sole trader, entrepreneur, self-employed, business owner – apparently, I’ve gained a whole load of new titles recently. But all of it boils down to the fact that I’m creating a business out of myself. So, what’s the verdict so far on being a team of one?
Cooking on gas
I like the fact that the executive decision-making mechanism in this business is me. And before I sound like a huge egotist, what I mean is that it’s just me. I’m not waiting for meeting dates for sign off, escalating up any chains of command, creating detailed mandates to review whether it’s a direction that should be taken. It’s me, and just me. A definite benefit of a self-employment is agility – you’re flexible and responsive to change and new opportunities. If I like the look of something, I can go for it, and learn to adapt my approach quickly and effectively for the next piece of work.
It’s also fairly easy to achieve alignment with a team of one. Strategic goals – check. Values – check. Risk appetite – check. Culture/approach – check. I’m unlikely to have disagreements with myself. I’m not in need of team building. If I decide on my operational and strategic approach, that’s what my approach is, and it doesn’t get much more complicated than that.
I can build this business almost entirely on my strengths, and provided there’s a market for that, I really am cooking on gas. There’s no need to try and “fit” me into a business – the business is me. Don’t want to work Fridays? Block them out. Work better in the afternoon/evenings – calibrate your diary that way and be upfront with clients. The caveats being whether any work is time-dependent, such as facilitation work being day-based, and, for me, negotiating the right balance of childcare related responsibilities like bedtimes, school runs etc.
Fundamentally, there’s a really unique pride here in building something completely from scratch, and something that you’ve potentially had to slog at for a while to work out (I’m looking at you WordPress/Bluehost) and you’ve come out the other side with your ducks (nearly) in a row.
Cats make useless colleagues
However, for all the benefits of having one person involved, the escalation procedure in this business is also me. And just me. I’ve found this particularly hard when I’ve been forced to work through areas of business that aren’t familiar to me or even anywhere near my comfort zone. Things like creating a contract, writing a privacy notice or understanding how income tax works when you’re self-employed aren’t joy-creating activities, they’re the necessary evils in order to be able to chase your joy as a freelancer. When you know the buck always stops with you, something you’ve been deliberating over is in danger of reaching stress-filled stalemate because there’s no specialist involved here to wave a magic wand. At least until
a) you become a specialist in all these areas, or
b) you can afford to pay a specialist in all these areas.
For all I gain in speed, efficiency and alignment, I recognise I risk losing the richness of having a team/manager/colleagues around me, and it’s a risk to always be aware of. The range of different backgrounds, life experiences, approaches, learning styles, personalities, skills etc that a group naturally bring vanishes in self-employment. If utilised effectively, all these differences are what a team amazing. And I’ve just got me. And surely executive decision-making with no challenge is at risk of brewing dangerously dictatorship-esque qualities….
Finally, there’s a very real danger of decision-fatigue, maybe even learning fatigue as you try and navigate so many of the different business areas that are suddenly your world. I didn’t have a colleague to bounce pros and cons of different contract clauses off, I couldn’t deliberate with a manager if a new area of work would suit my strengths, there was no one to share my frustration over web design. Turns out the cat is useless at debate. My actual business resources contain just me and I’m pretty dependent on my capacity for learning/tenacity to complete things and my integrity to keep steering in the right direction.
Build a Community
I am, however, pretty good at Googling. And almost daily lately I’ve been grateful for the vastness of the world wide web and people’s graciousness at sharing – provided you are adept at spotting wannabes, navigating ads and doing your research to understand just how much salt something should be read with. Because in 2022, everyone’s an expert. Especially when there’s income to be had if the delivery is engaging enough. Always worth verifying that second opinion…
And while I haven’t got a team within my business (I’ve fired the cat), I have absolutely recruited a range of friends and family into this project of mine in unofficial advisor/consultant/second opinion capacities and shamelessly rinsed them for all they know. It was necessary for my sanity and to mitigate against those risks of decision-fatigue, and also just to sense-check the choices I’ve been making. Interestingly, that I’ve found is I’ve often just finished typing the message, or explaining the conundrum out loud, then then followed it up with my decision. Maybe there’s a big lesson here in trusting my instinct and not overthinking (arguably a bigger life lesson too!).
I’d also never fully appreciated the wealth of professional skills and experience my friends and family had because it doesn’t always come up when you’re enjoying a gin or knee-deep in a softplay centre. But when I really thought about my contacts lists, I was seriously lucky with the expertise on offer. I’ve also offered to pay day-rates (now understanding more about the importance of this in the freelance world) if I’ve been seriously picking someone’s brains. Because their value isn’t just their knowledge, but the fact that that knowledge is coming from a trusted source, and one you can stop and go “can you just explain that again, in a different way?” is worth its weight in gold.
Professional Networks
I’ve also started to make in-roads in building my own freelance community. And it’s a bit like starting out parenting – you’ve got to find people who are your kind of people. There’s a number of existing freelance networks out there – Leapers support mental health in freelancers , Doing It For The Kids a freelance network specifically for parents and Freelance Corner that have a wealth of practical resources from templates to job adverts. Crucially, they also suddenly make you realise you’re not alone, you’re part of a huge community of like-minded people all trying to achieve a similar goal – chasing a passion and paying the bills. Some will be doing something similar, possibly even near-identical to you, and some will be doing things you have absolutely no frame of reference for, but all will have valuable experience to pass on.
One of the networks I’m part of has a wonderful approach of seeing others as collaborators rather than competitors, sharing opportunities for work and regularly having conversations about working together. It’s an approach championed in the brilliant book “Be a free range human” and one I’m aiming to keep practicing through this journey. It resonates for work because I think it’s so pertinent to life – there’s a great quote that I can’t quite remember but the essence is shining your light brightly doesn’t dim the light of others (let me know if you can think of this quote so I can attribute it). I love it – don’t detract from someone else’s success – celebrate it, be successful together, there’s room enough for everyone.
The future’s bright
I think my conclusion is that freelancing is a lot about freedom – of direction, time and decision-making but it does need a hell of a lot of personal resilience. It needs you to be tenacious in pushing through when it may feel overwhelming, humble enough to accept when you miss things, get things wrong, or just plain don’t know, creative in finding how to resolve the things you don’t know and inspired enough to keep reaching for that goal. A good personal support network, coffee and a lot of sugar has helped too. And if I can make the progress I have in the last three months while working my notice and when my daughter decided to start getting up at 5am every day (with the odd overnight party thrown in just for fun), then I’m pretty excited about what the future holds when I can concentrate on this fully, and not constantly be fuelled by just adrenaline and caffeine – onwards and upwards!