I’ve completed my first quarter as a freelancer!🥳 In keeping with my love for reflection I thought I would look back over the last 3 months and share some things I’ve learned!
What happened in my first 3 months as a freelancer?
October: I’d just got back from a month-long trip that I took after leaving my perm role. Before I went on holiday I’d emailed about 35 companies and I naively expected my inbox to be full on my return, but in reality, I think I got one response. I was a bit disheartened but was also FULL of energy and determination. The next few weeks were a whirlwind of self-promotion and visibility. I posted on LinkedIn frequently, sent out many newsletters, attended lots of networking events and set up countless coffee dates. In the last week of the month, I scored my first client!
November: This month I completed the project with my first client and also found 2 more clients to work with. I was starting to see the rewards of all of the exhausting self-promotion I’d done the month before. I even got to the point where I was having to turn down work! This was when I felt like this scary dream of going self-employed was going to work out.
December: This month I finally got my first pay cheque! Which felt very gooood, considering the last pay cheque I got from my job was in September (a whole three months earlier!). I started work with my third client which would involve me working 3 days a week for 4 months. By now I felt like I’d settled into a rhythm and had much more stability. I also made sure to take 2 proper weeks off over Christmas to rest after what had been a pretty intense three months.
My first quarter as a freelancer in numbers:
25 LinkedIn posts
19 newsletters
Attended 6 networking events
Did 1 talk
Had 7 coffee dates with peers (other freelancers or people looking to get into freelancing/ research)
Had 11 meetings with potential clients
Worked with 3 clients
Billed clients for 18 days of work
Earned 60% of what I would have in my perm role in the same time frame
It was really interesting to pull together those numbers. I was surprised by how low the number of days of work I billed clients for was. In 12 weeks, there are about 60 working days, I only billed 18 days, so less than a third of potential working days. Of course, this isn’t fully representative of how much I worked over that time period. There was a lot of work in finding clients and admin around work that isn’t included. I’m not sure how many days I spent working in total, but I definitely feel that I’ve worked less than I did in my perm role, which is what I was hoping for in making this change.
On the money side of things, when I calculated that I earned 60% of what I would have done in my perm role, I felt a bit disheartened. I had to remind myself that I knew taking this leap would result in a hit on my finances, especially while getting established. But if you take the month I spent looking for work out of the picture, I actually earned 85% of the income I would have earned in my full time job over the 2 months that I was working.
My day rates were a bit all over the place, they varied from £350 to £500 a day. Looking back I think I undercharged some clients quite considerably, but I was just really keen to get some work under my belt. I was also happy charging a charity client less as I was very passionate about the project and felt there would be a lot more that I got out of it than money.
I didn’t go freelance to make more money, I did it to have more freedom, more variety in my work and be able to take more time off. But I also need to make sure it’s financially sustainable for me. I’m going to spend more time thinking about money going forward.
How is freelancing different from what I expected?
Firstly I didn’t expect it to be quite so hard to find work. I thought people would be crying out for freelance researchers, but it did take quite a few weeks of continuous effort to find my first client.
Secondly, I was worried about taking on research projects all by myself. I imagined as a freelancer I would be solely responsible for the end to end research process with little support from clients on anything. I imagined having to recruit all participants myself, handle all the operations like scheduling and payment alongside the role of actually running the study. In reality, none of my projects so far have been like that. I have worked much more collaboratively and in companies that have their own processes or plans already made, which has been a nice ease in.
What went well over the last 3 months?
Working with 3 very different clients across 3 very different projects. I worked with a start-up, a charity and a consultancy on projects exploring parenting, fertility and disability. Each of these projects also felt like its own flavour of freelancing. I loved getting exposure to different industries, people and projects. Having this much variety and exposure early on is really helping me better understand what I like and what I want going forward.
Having more time to explore my other interests. Alongside my freelancing work I’ve been training to become a coach, and doing an oil painting course. Going self-employed has really changed my mindset about my career, I find myself day-dreaming about working as an illustrator, a writer, an artist and a coach. It feels like anything is possible, and I’m excited about exploring more of a portfolio career with a few different facets.
What didn’t go so well?
Jumping into projects without much time setting things up. Since I was just so eager to get work I threw myself really quickly into projects without spending enough time negotiating day rates, discussing ways of working, figuring out if the project was a good fit, or getting good enough clarity on the objectives of the work and what the different roles and responsibilities of myself and other team members would be. I think this lack of communication has led to frustration for both myself and the client on different occasions.
Not feeling like I’ve delivered that much impact. I don’t know if it’s the nature of the projects I’ve worked on, but I’m leaving my first quarter as a freelancer feeling like I haven’t delivered that much impact from my work. Perhaps it’s because you are not there to see how your work impacts the company, or maybe it’s more difficult to have an impact when you spend such a short time working on a project. It’s really important for me to feel like my work makes an impact, otherwise, what’s the point! This is something I’m going to explore more going forward.
What do I want from the next quarter?
To spend more time considering if projects are a good fit for me.
To get more comfortable saying no to projects and trust that something else will come.
To spend more time setting up ways of working and getting clarity on roles and responsibilities at the start of projects.
To up my day rates and earn more money!
To find projects where I feel I can really deliver impact.
To keep exploring my other interests alongside research, I’ll be finishing my coach training and keeping up my painting!
Although there have been ups and downs it’s been nice to reflect on the last 3 months and all that I’ve achieved. It’s also left me feeling excited about the next quarter and my future as a freelancer. I’ll check in again around March/April time and let you know if I’ve managed to make the changes I was hoping to.
Really looking forward to hearing your next update! 🥳 congrats on a successful first quarter!