The Lean Startup - A fresh look at my Freelancing

[foozball3000]

Good morning.
I'm a Multi-Skill Freelancer, and I've been doing it for about 4 years.
Although I've had pockets of lucky breaks, I can't really say that I'm very successful. I wish it was as simple as that my skills are rubbish, that's relatively easy to fix. But from the feedback I can get, it seems that I'm pretty good at my job in that regard.

The Lean Startup Methodology
Eric's book to me was nearly a shift in religion (if Business had religious sub-categories).
So I've zealously applied the principals of this book to all of my projects and ventures, with drastically better success than the time before I knew what a MVP is.

But in all this time it really never occurred to me to ever think of my Freelancing itself as an MVP.
Quite an oversight, I have to admit, and it might be the main reason I've only managed to barely keep my head above water (and struggling at that)

So I've opened this thread because I do need help.
It's quite hard to look at what you've been doing every day for the last 4 years objectively.
I need help to find the needed assumptions and ask the right questions, so that I can Build, Measure, and Learn from it.

 

[^^vampire^^]

Same problem everyone has. Freelancing is the same as working for someone except your employer tells you some days not to come into work and those days you don't get paid. It is a far cry from "being your own boss" and "running your own business" that people are suckered into thinking. Don't get me wrong, freelancing has it's place and can make you lots of money but many people fall into the "I can do whatever I want" and 'I have my freedom" trap and they struggle to make money.

Ultimately the best way to go is take the plunge and leverage other peoples time to make you money. There is the risk of having to pay someone's salary etc and having to put the headwork in to secure repetitive clients, much of what you should be doing now as a freelancer, but you need to look at the order's of magnitude. Ultimately if you are freelancing you would be doing this anyway except you can only leverage your own skills and time. Unless you are charging thousands per hour, you will never be happy.

Approach one or two clients and try get them on a retainer or learn some strategies to convince them to keep coming to you for anything. Build up enough to cover your basic expenses (food and housing) and then enough to pay someone else's salary. As soon as you can leverage someone else then you can use more of your time to get more clients locked in. Rinse and repeat until you have an empire.

Look on the brightside of your negative position. If you are not getting much in now then you have far less to lose and therefore converting to being a real business owner is less risky. I can tell you now I would love to do this but I have already fallen into the trap of earning a good salary and making financial commitments based on that and hence it being far more risky for me to take the plunge. Couple that with a high min wage in Aus makes it borderline impossible for me to drop my job and start a business. SA on the otherhand has people willing to take peanuts each month for a job.

 

[foozball3000]

Same problem everyone has. Freelancing is the same as working for someone except your employer tells you some days not to come into work and those days you don't get paid. It is a far cry from "being your own boss" and "running your own business" that people are suckered into thinking. Don't get me wrong, freelancing has it's place and can make you lots of money but many people fall into the "I can do whatever I want" and 'I have my freedom" trap and they struggle to make money.

Ultimately the best way to go is take the plunge and leverage other peoples time to make you money. There is the risk of having to pay someone's salary etc and having to put the headwork in to secure repetitive clients, much of what you should be doing now as a freelancer, but you need to look at the order's of magnitude. Ultimately if you are freelancing you would be doing this anyway except you can only leverage your own skills and time. Unless you are charging thousands per hour, you will never be happy.

Approach one or two clients and try get them on a retainer or learn some strategies to convince them to keep coming to you for anything. Build up enough to cover your basic expenses (food and housing) and then enough to pay someone else's salary. As soon as you can leverage someone else then you can use more of your time to get more clients locked in. Rinse and repeat until you have an empire.

Look on the brightside of your negative position. If you are not getting much in now then you have far less to lose and therefore converting to being a real business owner is less risky. I can tell you now I would love to do this but I have already fallen into the trap of earning a good salary and making financial commitments based on that and hence it being far more risky for me to take the plunge. Couple that with a high min wage in Aus makes it borderline impossible for me to drop my job and start a business. SA on the otherhand has people willing to take peanuts each month for a job.

Haha, yes, Freelancing isn't nearly as rosey as Employees tend to think. No work, no pay, so we HATE public holidays. And the hours are insanely long.

I've always tried to plan that into my Ventures, but even then, delegating tasks to people (even if you pay them) doesn't mean they'll do it. Which is frustrating on a limited budget. Anyway, but you do raise a very good point, I've never thought of the Freelancing side in terms of employing/contracting/delegating to someone. It's something I'll definitely look into.

So if I understand correctly, what you're getting at is basically a form of Automation?

 

[^^vampire^^]

Haha, yes, Freelancing isn't nearly as rosey as Employees tend to think. No work, no pay, so we HATE public holidays. And the hours are insanely long.

I've always tried to plan that into my Ventures, but even then, delegating tasks to people (even if you pay them) doesn't mean they'll do it. Which is frustrating on a limited budget. Anyway, but you do raise a very good point, I've never thought of the Freelancing side in terms of employing/contracting/delegating to someone. It's something I'll definitely look into.

So if I understand correctly, what you're getting at is basically a form of Automation?

Not necessarily automation but people are sold the idea of freelancing as owning your own business and having the benefits of freedom to do what you want when you want when that is not exactly the case. To try make that the case you have to look at going into proper business ownership, employees etc although it does have it's own headaches. You do need to make one thing clear if you are employing people - they are your employee, not your friend. If they don't do what you tell them they don't get paid. If they don't work they don't get a reference and they have to explain the gap on their CV. You might come across a few bad apples but for this to apply to everyone you have paid to do a job means you are failing in your recruiting procedure and need to examine what you are doing and correct that.

What I would potentially recommend, and maybe this isn't for everyone, is get a part time or full time job and free lance/run the business on the side. Any income from the freelancing should be funneled back into the business as well as section off a decent part of your salary to fund the business and potentially pay your first employee (pain now for gain later). The big trap people fall into (myself included before I woke up to many things) is that when your salary increases do not buy/finance a car or try upgrade your home - not necessarily the trap I fell into but I spent years funding my GFs studies etc. Live as modestly as possible and use surplus to fund the business. If you can balance that and get 1 or more people onboard and turn that into your full time job then I think there is a better chance of success. This is just my opinion and may not work for you though so you need to make those decisions for yourself. The other recommendation I can make which might not be so popular is that if you are dedicated to making a business work, especially through startup phase, is don't get a girlfriend, pet or any other obligation if you don't have one currently. These things take time and require responsibility, that can quite frankly be channeled into your building efforts. May sounds ridiculous but I have a fantastic idea for software I know would work in SA as I was working on something similar before I left, but would take me probably a full year of evenings and weekends to build. When I get home at 7pm I feed the dogs, make dinner for GF and I play with dogs and cats for a bit and GF jibber jabbers about her day, we plan things, discuss house we buying, make plans or sort out things we need to do on weekend etc etc etc... 1.5 years later still done nothing as I can't produce reasonable value developing 1.5 hours a night. Through into the mix things like going to gym and your time evaporates. I realise to a point this is me making excuses as well but the fact of the matter is if you don't have the opportunity to dedicate the time required to build the business it is destined to fail. You will find that most people who have built great businesses either state this type of thing explicitly or it can be determined by reading between the lines.

Like I stated previously now that I've moved to Aus I can see all the potential SA has and how easy it is to start a business there. I regret not doing it before I left. In SA I could have employed someone for 1/6 of what I was earning. In Aus the min wage is a 1/3 of what I earn and I earn very well. A grad in software dev would probably cost me 1/2 of what I earn and after tax if I had to pay them from my salary it would be 3/4 of what I clear. I'm not saying it is easy, it definitely has it's challenges, but you don't know how good you have it til it's gone.

Especially while you are young you can most likely afford to take the knock if things don't work out (most people fail the first few times, this is a good thing as it creates learning opportunities). You need to learn to sell though and get clients on board. What I've experienced myself and from what I've read from others with experience in starting businesses, it doesn't matter how good your work or your product is, if you can't sell it what's the point. My brother worked for a guy selling software to plumbers, he thought he could make a better product so he quit his job and for 8 months built the software. He meticulously sat and planned it, got up everyday and worked on it as if it was his job. At the end of the 8 months he has a fantastic product but the problem is that he is extremely introverted and is afraid to talk to people, so it was 8 months wasted. He went and got a job after that and the rest is history.

 

[foozball3000]

Not necessarily automation...

Okay, I understand what you mean. It's certainly something to consider that I really never would have thought of. Working for oneself does tend to enforce the idea that a person has to be a one-man band. But a lot of the weight can be outsourced.

What I would potentially recommend, and maybe this isn't for everyone, is get a part time or full time job and free lance/run the business on the side...

Well, then I'll count my blessings. I have no gf or responsibilities, which is why I chose to take the massive risks invovled in jumping in at the deep end.

I've had many knocks over the last year. All of which forced me to adapt and adjust. But doing that too often means you end up running full speed to nowhere. Which is what I think is happening at the moment.

You are right about being in a position to pay someone, and that SA is the place to be for that. 3 of the serious knocks I've had, could have been completely avoided if I could pay someone part-time for certain skills. Instead I was let down by false commitments and a fair share of backstabbery.

My personal success is something that I gambled on with one of my various ideas/ventures. A gamble that didn't play out well at all. So I'm forced to take a step back and looking at my Freelancing skills in a new light. And which is why I really do appriciate and value your input in the matter. Already it has helped me a lot in refining the next goals to work towards.

 

[^^vampire^^]

Okay, I understand what you mean. It's certainly something to consider that I really never would have thought of. Working for oneself does tend to enforce the idea that a person has to be a one-man band. But a lot of the weight can be outsourced.

This usually falls into the realm of the business owner wanting the best impression, and rightfully so, as this is how you get and keep customers. You need to be able to draw certain lines in the sand such as what is good enough, what is acceptable, what is not. Often times you will find the line in the sand for your acceptable, an employees acceptable and the clients acceptable all differ. Employees might not do something to your level of acceptable (because of skill or because they don't care as much as you do) but it may be well above your clients level of acceptable. You need to just make sure your general level of product/service at least slightly measures higher than what the client expects in order to keep things running well. Also, you never know when you get an employee that outdoes you, which will be easier for them after a while as you will inherently be focusing more on business operations rather than development or what ever field you are in.

Well, then I'll count my blessings. I have no gf or responsibilities, which is why I chose to take the massive risks invovled in jumping in at the deep end.

I've had many knocks over the last year. All of which forced me to adapt and adjust. But doing that too often means you end up running full speed to nowhere. Which is what I think is happening at the moment.

You are right about being in a position to pay someone, and that SA is the place to be for that. 3 of the serious knocks I've had, could have been completely avoided if I could pay someone part-time for certain skills. Instead I was let down by false commitments and a fair share of backstabbery.

My personal success is something that I gambled on with one of my various ideas/ventures. A gamble that didn't play out well at all. So I'm forced to take a step back and looking at my Freelancing skills in a new light. And which is why I really do appriciate and value your input in the matter. Already it has helped me a lot in refining the next goals to work towards.

I like how you have worded this. You may just be running full speed to nowhere. The important thing as you have no doubt realised is that you are taking a step back and analysing the situation. This is something they try teach in many subjects but the value is lost as you can not fathom the benefit of it until you are actually in the situation.

You may have been let down and taken some knocks but this in itself can be chalked up to valuable learning experiences. It's not that people are inherently good or bad, but i'm sure it has made you realise that you need to treat outsourcing, getting people involved etc more as the business arrangement it is than a friendly affair. If you need to put contract in place, do it, with clear guidelines of expectation, deliverables etc. Give them a timeline when things are expected and when timelines loom, push for the completion of the work. Before deadlines are missed make sure you have some way to manage the issue and if the deadline is missed have some recourse or a backup plan.

Remember that every time you fail that you take something away from it. We all fail at stuff everyday. The difference is the winners learn and grow from it while the losers sit and bitch about how hard life is. We're all entitle to scream, shout, cry or get angry. If it helps then hell go stand in the street and shout at the top of your lungs, but after that carry on working. The people who get nowhere in life are the ones that stop after the first attempt or are still bitching at the braai about there failure from 5 years ago and how hard life is for them. Without risk there is no reward, just make sure your risk is calculated so that a) you can be able to come back from failure and b) you can keep moving forward. Every big player in any game has failed horribly somewhere. No one makes noise about the failures, whether it's 1, 2 or 3 big ones or 800 small ones.

Always try to keep your skills relevant and up to date. It can be arduous but it keeps you in business, whether you are an employee, freelancer or business owner, because you are only as good as what you can offer. It may take a while (or not at all) but over the last 2 years I have started becoming interested in business and how successful businesses operate. The funny thing is most people look at Facebook and other massive enterprises and become overwhelmed at what they think a successful business is. There are many things to be learned from the cafe down the road, the hairdresser in that small shopping complex, smaller chains like Spar (which is also massive when looking at the full system). Slowly learn what you need to to be successful whether that be some basic accounting, business principles etc. Learn how to talk to people, to sell to people, to make potential clients feel valued. Don't try pack it in all now, it's a learning process and you might just find you naturally evolve to learning these topics half because you want to, half because you need to.