From freelancing to building your agency
So many professionals start their careers in a big company (Google, Apple) or an agency only to run away from the pressures of working there as soon as humanly possible (and sufficient for resume-building).
Sooner or later, many discover the wonderful world of freelance, with its freedom to work from the sandy beaches of wherever and often on your own time.
Get up at 5AM to commute for an hour, get coffee for 3 different bosses and spend the next 8 hours in a cubicle? No thanks! I have meditation with the elephants to attend to.
And yet, a number of freelancers end up returning to an agency… but with a twist — this time, they are running the place! Is the allure to be the boss that big? Of course not (at least, for most of us).
But as we develop professionally and get really good at what we do, our time becomes too valuable to waste on more menial (and lower-paying tasks). We get involved in more complex projects, where collaboration with professionals of other skillsets is needed. We need to delegate to juniors in order to focus on the work that needs our magic touch. Eventually, it just becomes easier and more profitable to hire a team to support you.
You are now the boss. You are running an agency.
The road to agency: Step 1
Ok, you get why you may want to have an agency. But how do you actually get there? It’s not like there is a turnkey building with people, supplies, and contracts lined up just waiting for your name on the door of the big corner office (or is there? Is the office sunny?).
Start with something simple, a first step.
For most, it would be outsourcing just one project/client/task to a more junior specialist in your key skill. If you’re a designer, outsource a simple design task. If you’re an engineer, let someone code the easy stuff. Since this is your core area of expertise, you will be easily able to evaluate the person’s skills, task completion, and effectiveness. Worst case scenario: you’ll fix the mistakes yourself.
The biggest benefit is that you’ll free yourself from this lower-vale task and can focus on getting (and billing) more clients and expanding your team.
Step 2 (or alternative first): Task away
Another thing you can do early on is getting a virtual or personal assistant to take care of the really menial stuff that has nothing to do with your job skills. From scheduling appointments to doing laundry to filling out Excel spreadsheets — almost everything can be outsourced. By outsourcing something that wastes your time and isn’t especially fun, you get to provide an income for someone and greatly decrease your stress level. Win-win.
As a freelancer, you are already familiar with a number of marketplaces like Fiverr, and there are many others specifically for virtual assistants, like TaskBullet, or local help, like TaskRabbit. (Hmm, I wonder if either of these can help with some sort of a task….)
Step 3: Brand yourself
If you missed it, read our article on branding yourself.
Basically, if you want to be an agency, make sure to present as one. Make sure you have an agency name, logo, website, and maybe even a corporate physical location. If you have strong name/personality recognition, it’s totally fine to brand your agency after yourself.
Just make sure that all the communications are clear that the client is not just dealing with you as a person — their relationship is with the agency.
Step 4: Have “the talk” with the clients
One of the hardest things about transitioning from an individual contractor to an agency is making sure your current (especially long-term) clients feel taken care of. Clients may fear loss of attention. They may cling onto that personal relationship they have with you and not be too excited to deal with your assistants… I mean, colleagues. You’ll have to wean them off that personal attention and get them comfortable with trusting your entire team.
The goal is to have the same — or even higher — level of trust for your agency as there is for you personally.
Step 5: Be the boss!
This part is both fun and nerve-wrecking.
Now that you run the agency, you should empower (and push a bit) your staff to bring business to the agency and handle things with minimal supervision.
Just because you are the owner and are very skilled at your profession doesn’t mean that you have to do and run everything at the agency. That’s not why you got into outsourcing your tasks. Let the marketers do marketing, office manager manage the office, etc. You have the all-important job of using your expertise and authority to solve the really big problems and bring all the work up to the highest possible level.
Empower your team to get their best work done. Make yourself as unnecessary to your agency as possible (don’t worry, they will always need you, and there will always be something that only you can handle).
The takeaway
Going from a junior to a freelancer to the boss sounds crazy but is much more natural than it would seem. And it’s not that scary if done step-by-step. There is no rush, no pressure other than from within. If and when you feel you’re ready, go ahead — you already know the main steps.
And… action!
Let’s put this into action. Answer these questions in writing, in full, and honestly:
- What part of your work do you love the most? The least?
- What would be the first job task you’d outsource?
- What about life tasks, which one?
- Think of 3 agency names and 3 branding ideas. No one is judging, go wild with the wording and the artwork.
- List the top 5 hires you’ll need in your agency in order of urgency.
- List 5 tasks you should leave to others but are tempted to keep doing.
