A98 - How did you scale your freelance business?

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If you are looking to grow your freelancing into building an agency, then you want to take steps that put you on the path to that.

If you are looking to grow your freelancing so that you can spend more time at home with family, then you want to take steps to do that.

If you are looking to grow your freelancing in a way that puts you in a position to get bought out, then you want to take steps to do that.

These are just 3 goals business owners have, but the question about scaling your freelance business in each case is very different.

There’s a keyword to the definition of “scale” that is often over looked. “Profitable”

I can’t speak to building an agency or looking to get bought out, but I can speak to wanting to spend more time with my family.

Profitability is the key to the success of any business, not just a point scaling your business.

But when it does come to scaling, there will be an initial investment and cost analysis that has to take place in order grow.

Let me explain what I mean by this.

For me when I look to scale a part of my business, I tend to turn to automation first.

Why?

Because rather than hiring a human that I need to manage, land more projects to support that salary, and essentially put more time into the business.

I can leverage my skills as a developer or leverage tools that exist in the market today to help me automate. This is usually a low-cost or no-cost long-term investment with all the time being spent upfront.

Which on the back-end frees up the time I want to spend with my family.

So initially I’ll have to put some time into:
- documenting the processes
- finding a tool or coding up a solution
- then integrating the automation into the business
- testing
- and finally iterating on that automation as needed

But once that automation is in place, it hums along and frees up time for me to do other things.

Putting that initial time may cost me a bit of profits at first, but after it’s in place for some time and I can see and know it’s working and accomplishing what I need it to accomplish, that’s when the initial investment turns around into more profits.

This is where the danger lies in the word “scale”.

People want to scale first and fast before really knowing if the business can scale.

People hire too fast and then find the business crippled by having to pay salaries. Two examples of this is Brennan Dunn’s and Matt Inglot’s stories.

When thinking about scaling your freelance business, remember why you are doing freelance in the first place. Having that focus in front of you and making sure that profits are taken into account, will help you in deciding how to scale your business.