Being Freelance

When Korean Hyunjin, or ‘Jenna’ as she’s also known, met her American husband, she moved to be with him and needed to find work in small town USA. Whilst blogging tips about international relationships, Jenna found readers started to approach her for help with their own written English requirements like cover letters and applications. Her freelance journey had begun. Years later she joined Elance,...

Luke needn’t have been scared of going freelance. He’d spent 10 years of agency life making great work and making a name for himself. Through writing, speaking and community, people knew he’d be a great freelancer even if he didn’t. And whilst all of his income is derived from client work, that’s definitely not where all his time is spent Luke devotes huge amounts of energy to Birmingham Design. J...

When Australian Robyn quit her job working in comms for a French yacht company, she wasn’t expecting her boss to be so keen to keep her that he’d offer her a 2-day-a-week retainer if she went freelance. So she did. Finding work through her network and referrals along the way. 6 years later Robyn still has no website. But working solo also gradually sent Robyn into her shell. So now, she’s proactiv...

While working in his first job at a small agency, Ryan started a website. He didn’t think much of it. Until its local SEO started bringing him leads and the chance to do extra work on the side. A year on, working evenings and weekends, he’d reached capacity. This was it. Time to go full time freelance. With no network of his own, he needed his site to continue to bring him clients. And it really d...

Already established in her marketing career, Nadine went freelance in order to ‘stretch’ herself professionally. And stretch she has! Her natural networking style served her well. Nadine has been freelancing for 10 years with big name clients and still doesn’t have a website of her own. LinkedIn and her trusty Rolodex of business cards keep her ‘booked and busy’. And in the past couple of years, s...

Momina realised traditional office life didn’t fit with taking care of her mental health. Sh'e’d go freelance and be a better boss to herself. Having quickly built up a personal brand and relationships on Twitter, work soon came her way. This was in January 2022. So when she spoke for the podcast in July of that year, she’d really not been freelancing long. But that doesn’t mean she didn’t ha...

Stephen wasn’t looking to go freelance, but when redundancy came 10 years ago, he took on a contract for a few months. And here is all those years later saying he’d never go back. In between he’s evolved specialisms, written a book that became a course and started working remotely. Stephen takes time out on side projects and courses to always stay on top of trends, tech and skills - thinking about...

In 2011, taking a family holiday from his job as a Ford engineer, changed David’s life forever.  An accident on the beach left him paralysed from the chest down. Quadriplegic. When David was ready to work again, an old friend remembered their shared love of music. He suggested David create audio tracks for the animated videos his company were creating. His freelance business ‘Quadriphonic Sound’ w...

The small agency Nick had joined had become a big agency. He’d become part of the leadership team. HR. Management. Meetings. He missed doing the ‘work’. He did know how much big clients were willing to pay for that work though. So Nick set out as a high-billing tone-of-voice specialist. A company of one.  With various side projects, Nick embraces the freedom of freelance life - allowing moments of...

Fungi left university as a scientist. But it was her experiments with Photoshop that had unexpected results. She now wanted to be a designer. Whilst working full-time in science, she designed on the side. By changing her entire persona online, she began to turn what started as a passion project, into a full-time freelance career. Fungi’s focus is in lifting African culture and narratives to the fo...

Levi left art school with no job, but worse, no love of art. Eventually he started creating and experimenting. Finding his style, he also found an art director and his lucky break. Going from flipping burgers to turning over big meaty clients. Still Levi has worked hard to keep the ‘play’ of art in his life. Joining a studio and forming a collective. He’s not going to let getting paid to create de...

Over 10 years ago Frankie crowd funded her training as a graphic designer. It’s fair to say she doesn’t look at problems the same way everyone does. And when pregnancy took her flourishing freelance career a few steps back, when she felt isolated amongst parents with full-time jobs, she didn’t settle. She searched. She got creative. As her first child was born, so was ‘Doing It For The Kids’. Thro...

Bal loved his job in advertising, but posting on Instagram as ‘Mr Whisper’ changed the course of his career, leading him to work not only for himself, but with some insanely high profile brands from the off. As an early ‘creator’, Bal has had to adapt as social media has evolved, to make sure the brands and the full-time rates kept coming. But despite the competition, he has his blinkers on. He’s...

Although Michelle had a brief fling living the nine to five life in Silicon Valley, there was no chance of her resisting being her own boss. Starting out as a freelancer 20 years ago, Michelle could never have predicted that social media would become such a big part of her freelancing life - with a huge Twitter chat, community and Space that she hosts. In two decades she’s grown a successful busin...

After graduating with a degree in illustration, Andi moved back to his hometown. Renting an odd-shaped office with no windows might not have given him great views. But it did give him amazing business connections. Resources and referrals that would set the first of many freelance plates spinning. With a varied career, Andi is also enjoying the challenge of mastering freelancing with his latest cli...

After being made redundant from her New York agency job, Nikki thought she’d go to Israel for a year and freelance as a copywriter. If it didn’t work out, she’d come back and get another agency job. 7.5 years later her family has grown up in Israel. Their mum is very much still freelance. But she’s not a general copywriter anymore, she’s since found her niche in email strategy. Building authority...

Ryan started freelancing still in his teens, mentored by his first (and only) boss. Intriguingly, for SEO purposes he has both a freelancer website and a local agency site, but doesn’t want to grow bigger than being a solo business. He’s putting work-life balance ahead of profits. Our chat includes putting your worries in perspective, the importance of side projects, worklife balance, adding perso...

Krishna was always freelance on the side of other jobs, eventually going full self-employed in 2019. Now with the support of a mentor, a community and mastermind group she’s growing her business into an agency. A lot going on, a lot happening fast. But then she loves life ‘100 miles per hour’. You'll find full show notes and transcript for this episode at beingfreelance.com   This episode is...

Micah is a pandemic freelancer. A year after losing his job and starting out, he redesigned his ‘OK Micah’ website to be full of his personality and aligned with his values: to help and celebrate queer businesses. Two years in, his ‘work life harmony’ is in place. Ideal clients coming to him. Freelance life is more than just OK for Micah.   This episode is sponsored by Freelancer Magazine . Dedica...

Estelle has created a freelance business that is good for her and the planet. Focussing on her green values (some might say ‘ecopreneur’ 😬🌎 but she won’t) and building a business that plays to the strength of her introverted personality. Living on a remote island off the coast of Scotland, she’s making time for work and life and it’s all going swimmingly. Wild swimmingly.   This episode is spons...

Iancu moved from a successful branding career as an employee in Romania to being a freelancer in London. 1200 miles. Smoothed over by 600 emails.  Not asking for work, but seeking connection.   This episode is sponsored by Freelancer Magazine . Dedicated to helping you grow a freelance business you love. Freelancer Magazine can land on your doorstep wherever you are in the world. SUBSCRIBE TO FREE...

Diane has learned and change a lot in a short space of time of being freelance. Or being the 'business owner’ of ‘Lion Words’.   By my taking time to step back. Adjust. And just do it. She’s doing more of work she enjoys. Building a network of genuine connections via LinkedIn. Saying ‘yes’ to the right opportunities that come her way to build authority on podcasts and webinars.   This episode...

Creating posters for queer club nights, meant the work of Fredde Lanka (AKA Fredrik Andersson) was plastered all over London and that brought him more projects. But it was when those nights shut in lockdown that things really picked up - he started connecting directly with his audience, creating portraits. Now he splits his time between illustration, ceramics, teaching and running an art project f...

Tianna was working as a midwife.  Photography was a self-taught hobby. But having a family of her own meant she wanted flexibility that midwifery simply couldn’t give her. So she helped bring her own business into the world instead. The communities she found online have given her confidence, knowledge and referrals. As a maternity & newborn photographer she’s fully focussing on the ‘client exp...

Straight out of university Louise wanted to travel and start her career. Instead she had to start treatment for a major health scare. On the mend, she found a job in government, but decided to focus on making a difference in Health issues. 10 years on she realised she didn’t have to follow this government path for the rest of her life. She could become self employed. She could use her expertise in...