This is the third in a series of three posts on quitting paid employment and reinventing your life and work. It’s based on my own experience of having exited a so-called top job twelve years ago, and having subsequently made a good living from doing what I love.
What could I possibly sell?
Long before I ever resigned, I started to hone in on the things I could actually package and sell to the market as services. Surprise, surprise, many of them were the things that I most enjoyed about my day job when I stripped away the politics and lousy working conditions. HR and organisational consulting, team building, group facilitation, team and individual coaching, management training courses.
In the beginning, there were a couple of things that I felt less confident about. For example, although I’d done content coaching in the context of specific projects or leadership development programmes, I’d never done bespoke coaching, contracted around the client’s unique agenda. So I decided that, in the beginning, I’d offer content coaching, whilst finding some training for myself that’d help me build my wider coaching skills.
You will find as you get into freelancing that you can build, develop and even reorient your offering. But in the beginning, especially if you’re in any way risk-averse, focus on what you know you’re good at and package it.
Who’s going to buy me?
Good question. And you can ask it from a small, childish place in yourself, or from a confident, problem-solving grown-up place. While the former will keep you locked into your risk-aversion, the latter will give you the energy to push beyond it.
Since I wanted to target business leaders who had both a need for my services, and the wherewithal to pay for them, I made two lists. One was of the business decision-makers in my network; the other was of people I knew who could influence decision-makers. There was a mix of business managers, business consultants and HR guys. I called up those I felt most close to and chatted with them before I quit my job. My reason for doing so was threefold: first to stay networked with them; second to share with them what I was planning to do; and third to get them to sound-check my ideas. I started with my closest connections because I trusted they’d be honest with me, and that they’d allow me to warm up before I put myself in front of people I knew less well. To my amazement, putting the word out that I intended to freelance began a flood of interest. This gave my embryonic entrepreneuring spirit a huge boost, and allowed me to believe that my planned escape was much less risky than perhaps I’d been imagining.
What resources do I need to get set up?
Think about this well in advance of leaving the comfort of your corporate job. I completely underestimated how dependent on my employer I’d been for things like my laptop and computing support, work venue and admin support. It meant that I was sorting out all these things for myself at the same time as taking on my first freelance projects. My difficulties in setting up customised email accounts and that sort of thing were mainly invisible to my clients. But, looking back, I could have done without feeling stressed about these more basic things whilst also learning real time how to deliver what I do in a totally different way.
So, think about where you’re going to conduct your business from. What are you going to call yourself? Are you going to have a website or a blog? Do you need to get business cards printed. Quite basic stuff, but if you’re not used to having to do these things for yourself, finding out how to takes an enormous amount of time. Time that, once you’re out, you probably want to be investing at the front end of things.
How much money will I make?
How much money do you need to make? Before you step out there on your own, you want to be very clear about your finances. I did a budget of my monthly expenses and included in it everything that I really did want to be able to afford. Rent, council tax, insurances, gas, electricity, water, food, petrol, the daily Starbucks fix – it all had to be in there. That’s was then my bottom line. The amount I absolutely had to make once I’d set aside what I needed to pay the tax man.
Then, how much do you need to be charging for your various services in order to make your top line? In considering this mix, I did a bit of competitor analysis to see what other people were asking and getting. The guys that had been at it a long time and were well regarded set the top end of the pay scale. Other newbies and people less well regarded set the bottom end. I set my fees along that range at a point that I felt both reflected my value and was reasonable as a new comer in the market who wanted to win good work. If what you’re doing is completely new to the market, what’s the nearest equivalent?
Although you can and probably will play around with this, I can’t over-emphasise the importance of setting your fees at the right level for you. Set it too high for you, and at a level you’re afraid to ask for, and you risk undermining your confidence to sell. Set it too low just to get work, any work, and you’ll soon resent what you’re doing. If you’re struggling with this, it’s a great thing to take to coaching.
How should I set myself up legally?
In the UK, you can either set yourself up as a sole trader, a limited company, or, if you’re going into business with one or more other people, a limited liability partnership. I started off as a sole trader and morphed into a limited company as I began to work with more businesses who wanted to trade only with other companies. Here’s where you need to reach out to a good accountant to advise you on what’s best. Over the last five years, I’ve used Neal Patel of BSG Valentine, who’s brilliant.
For the risk-averse, having as much certainty, and as clear a picture of how you’re going to manage the basics is really important. But, you know what guys, if you’re figuring out how to account for your business, the great news is you’ve already decided to do it. So, get the more practical things sorted well ahead of jumping off. Then you can really fly, and use your creative energies in building the freelance business you’ve been dreaming of!
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