Freelancers: Be Your Own Agency

Freelancers, you could be limiting yourself (and your income) if you try to only score work in one skill area and only through your own marketing. Yes, you can get known for excellence in a niche skill, but if you want to score big projects (e.g. tenders on TenderLink or consulting projects on Expert360), then Mark Fromson from LocalSolo has some advice for freelancers.

We have a saying at LocalSolo that we try and impart to our freelancers: “You’re already your own agency.”  

What this means is that we encourage our freelancers to go after full client projects where multiple team members with different skill sets are needed to execute. Don’t just focus on finding work for only your particular skillset.   Try to be the sales person and project manager for your client, and assemble your own team of freelancers to do the work.  If you’re a designer, then you also would do the design work on that project.  If you are a writer, then you would take the hours allotted for the writing portion as well. 

By thinking this way about your freelance business, you’ll eventually build up a roster of trusted freelance partners you rely on, and they will start bringing you into their projects as well.  And don’t forget to mark up everyone’s hours a bit to the client to make extra profit for yourself as the main person bringing it all together 🙂
– Mark Fromson

Read more about contracts and earning your worth at LocalSolo.com.
This reminds me of a conversation I had with a busy designer in Brisbane about starting a talent collective. If each web designer, copywriter or marketing consultant is self-focused, they will stay the same. If three or four of us are in alignment and can get together to serve one need (e.g. property marketing) and promote that, then we will grow. Some examples of this are:

Talk About Creative – an awesome copywriting team

Creative Collective – using freelancers and marketing, the agency (under the direction of Yvette Adams) grew and went into social media training

The Copy Collective – over a dozen specialist copywriters or editors, who can service every need.

The main reason that it wouldn’t work out is if the freelancer doesn’t give and take, and use the briefing tools as suggested. Obviously, if you work under one brand, you’ll need to co-operate and also look out for larger projects for which the collective can put in a proposal.

Working for agencies or a designer/developer has also been of benefit to me over the years. This does free you up to be more time-effective and get better clientele, however for this approach, you need to be set up to work just as your name and main skill (not a company). Mark also offers his take on this in the Freelance Transformation podcast:  ‘win more freelance work for Agencies’

In your first year of Freelancing?  Check out my book “How to Start a Freelance Business – in Australia“. 

Please leave a comment below or contact Jennifer if you are interested in joining a remote content agency.