From freelancer to agency

The journey so far – in very short form!

I’m taking a shot of my own advice today and sharing my story but it’s a long ‘un so you might want to settle in with a cuppa!

Before I start though…..

As I write I find myself wondering….. How the heck is it the last Friday in November already?

It feels like 5 minutes since we were all looking forward to the start of 2021 like a beacon of hope after the trials of 2020.

Like many of you, I started this year with HUGE goals – and actually have done pretty well at achieving them.

My business has grown, I’ve moved it out of home into an office and I have employed Char to work alongside me (more about that coming soon – we need pics and a bio!) on the next phase of growth for Freedom-CS.

But I’ve consistently NOT done one thing I help all of my clients do – day in, day out. And that’s my own marketing.

There – I said it. I am a marketer who is actually really slack about doing her own marketing!

I could (and often do) blame it on being busy looking after my clients’ marketing so that I don’t have time for my own.

There’s some truth in this (cobbler’s shoes and all that) but if push comes to shove, the truth is – I’m actually a bit of an introvert and don’t really like talking about me.

Which, on reflection, in a roundabout way is what brought me to where I am today – helping other business owners tell their stories, shout about how great they are and show the world the amazing things they have to offer.

I started my business almost 4 years ago. I was working for a fabulous SME, really enjoying what I was doing. But deep down I was ready for a new challenge.

It had been my first ‘non-corporate’ role and working in a small business had opened my eyes to a common challenge faced by many small businesses.

To grow they needed to be consistent about marketing but having a specialist marketer on the staff full time wasn’t viable (yet!). Small businesses have to be lean. Non fee earning staff have to be a bit of a jack of all trades and chip in wherever needed.

(Actually – I loved the variety of that job and learnt a huge amount about business and the construction industry – which has served me well ever since. I discovered just how much I loved working in construction and to this day it’s still my favourite – with the trade journals that I enjoy reading the most! I should also say that my former employer is also my longest standing client.)

I realised that I had highly transferable skills which could benefit other small businesses and that sparked an idea ?. Why not freelance and share my skills around?

In particular I could focus on my first love – writing.

Which is what I did.

I set off to build a pipeline of work helping the owners of small businesses share their story, build their profile and grow their audience with consistent, quality content marketing.

And here I am. Four years on I’ve learnt where I can add the most value for clients and am blessed to have amazing clients.

What’s your story? I’d genuinely love to hear about what brought you to where you are now and what’s next for your business. Hop across here and join the conversation.