Me or We? Every Freelancer’s Decision

Earlier in my career I considered myself a freelancer. I was hired regularly for my coding and project management skills by other agencies who were further along than me in their business. I was thankful for the semi-steady stream of work and pay that these gigs brought my way, as well as the relationships that were being forged. However, the more I worked for others, the more my own vision and dreams became buried beneath the hustle I applied working for others. During this season, I had to decide whether I would stay focused on building my own individual freelance career or grow and expand into a company.

Freelance Mentality

When you are living paycheck to paycheck, just trying to pay the bills, there is a sense of security when the work is being brought to you by others instead of hunting it out for yourself. This is what happened to me, I had great companies who did the work to get the sale, and then they just asked me to do the coding or management of a project. This was all great until things got slow. During these slow times, and under the pressure of a growing family under my roof, I started to realize I needed to break out of the freelance mentality and begin seeing myself as a company.

Company Vision

What I lacked early on was a clear vision. I had always been so focused on helping others that I did’t put in the work to help myself and define what was in my own heart to do. Over the course of a few years a vague sense that there was more to my freelance career grew and formed steadily into a more concrete vision for my own company. There were many discussions with trusted business associates and family members along the way that ultimately helped to solidify this was the right course.

Me or We

The decision really came down to whether I was going to keep working alone or whether I was going to build a team. The work that was coming my way started to drift into new areas, come in a large waves, and force me to decide whether I’d stay in my own personal sweet spot or develop a team around me to support the needs of my clients. I decided it could no longer just be “me”, it had to be “we”. “We” would work as a team, service a variety of clients and needs, and grow into a marketing agency instead of a solo freelance coder career.