Becoming a freelancer: tips and insights from two brilliant freelance marketers

Thinking about becoming a freelancer? I spoke to two brilliant, experienced marketing freelancers, Bryony Bishop and Fran Taylor, to get their takes on how to go freelance and how they navigate the freelance lifestyle.

Why go freelance?

Despite what you may read online from the LinkedIn gurus and business growth experts, going freelance often happens due to circumstance rather than a planned career move. I started David Salmon Consulting as part of a wider change, moving out of London after fifteen years and being unsure what I wanted to do long-term as a career after working in-house all my life. For Bryony and Fran, their freelance journey also started due to things falling into place…

“I fell into freelancing really. I was leaving an in-house role and got approached to work on a cultural tourism project I’d worked on previously following renewed funding, in a freelance capacity. It came at the right time and I went for it. It meant I didn’t overthink ‘starting my own business’ and was able to build up this mindset gradually, which really suited my personality.” Bryony Bishop

For Fran, work-life balance (note: why is it always work/life balance and not life/work balance?) and becoming a mum meant that a better life/work balance employment was no longer working for her and suddenly there was an opportunity to create a career that fitted her needs.

“Being a new mum, I wanted to work reduced hours and needed more flexibility. It was really hard to find a job that was three days per week within the sector.  I've worked a bit with entrepreneurs, and I always thought entrepreneurship sounded really fun. I wanted the opportunity to work for myself, so it was a mixture of circumstance, but also wanting to give it a try.” Fran Taylor

Freelance life: it's all pastries, coffee shops and blog posts

The joys and challenges of freelancing

I’ve been running David Salmon Consulting for three years. And I’m still learning how to manage it all while appreciating the freedoms, creativity and fun that come with it. So I was interested to hear Fran and Bryony’s takes on freelance life.

“I like the spontaneity of not knowing who I'm going to be working with in the future.” Fran Taylor

One of the great pleasures of being a freelancer is the diversity of work: meeting and working with people from all walks of life, in different roles and job functions and across a range of sectors. The mix of projects and clients brings creativity and variety and keeps things interesting. I’ve learnt that leaning into the uncertainty creates spontaneity and a good - and sometimes challenging - learning curve to build and promote the business.

This diversity means that you absorb insights into lots of different companies and organisations. This oversight of trends, what’s working and what doesn’t, is some of the added value you can bring to your clients.

Another theme both Fran and Bryony discussed with me is the professional pride and satisfaction doing a good job for clients. Both talked about the joy in helping clients resolve challenges and deliver impactful marketing campaigns.

“I command the energy of the day rather than the environment I’m in, it’s just me working solo, with little distraction and a lot less meetings. So it’s easier to focus on the things I need to as I’m not being drawn into other conversations going on around me, although I do miss being able to hear what’s going on.” Bryony Bishop

“I command the energy of the day rather than the environment I’m in." is a wonderfully powerful statement from Bryony. There is a great freedom from organisational ‘noise’ and no office politics! As a freelancer, you can just get on with the work without worries about wider organisational drama and politics. You can manage the working week in a way that suits your own energy levels, focus on priorities outside of work if needed and working without too many distractions. And fewer and more efficient meetings all work together to create a better sense of wellbeing and productivity.

And the not so good

Not being part of a team and the lack of social contact working in-house brings was an issue we all talked about, as Bryony says: “I miss the happenstance conversations and connection with people – the opportunity to laugh/joke/find amusement during the working day and having people to bounce ideas off. It’s why I’ve created a network of close comms freelancers to do this with.”

And while the range of clients and projects creates variety, a wealth of experience and insights, it can be frustrating and disappointing having to walk away and not being able to stay on with projects for a long time once the contract comes to and end. Fran reflected "If you are in a good team, then you get that camaraderie and seeing something grow over a long period of time.”

Running your own business and not being part of a team can also lead to overthinking and becoming a slave to advice and ‘best practice’. This is something I’ve grappled with, doom scrolling LinkedIn and suddenly feeling a self-inflicted pressure to develop a detailed, fully costed business plan, a sales and pipeline management strategy, passive income stream, an updated website, suite of project management tools, new social media channels - the list can be endless, overwhelming, and reinforce stress during periods of self-doubt and high anxiety related to work.

So when Fran shared her experience, and recollection of the sense of fun, play and adventure in the first few months of becoming a freelancer with some simple goals it really resonated.

“When I first started, I had my website at the time, I was writing blogs…my profile wasn't that high so I just wrote about whatever I was curious about. At that time I was playing around a lot more on social media…All I wanted when I went freelance was quite simple. I was like, I want to see if I can get some cool clients…I remember the feeling when I first got that email from a big client, when I was in a shop saying, ‘We like you, are you free? Can you start on Monday?’ And I was like, YEAH!!” Fran Taylor

Final Thoughts

I hope these little insights help others out there - whether you’re thinking about going freelance, or are already established. Embracing the uncertainty, maintaining a sense of creativity and fun and appreciating the flexibility and autonomy are all reminders of how to roll with the freelance lifestyle and build a fulfilling career on your own terms.

Next week I’ll be posting some quick wins and tips for people thinking about going freelance, and for anyone looking to hire a freelancer to get the best out of them.

A huge thanks to Bryony and Fran for contributing to this post. If you’re interested in hiring an awesome marketing freelancer or want to find out more here are links to their websites:

Contact Bryony Bishop

Website: https://beebeecomms.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bryony-bishop

Contact Fran Taylor

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/frantaylor/