12 notes to self on year 2 of independent strategy
Sometime in January 2024, i started contemplating the idea of consulting for a living. Not then, but at some point soon. I sent a few emails around. Not much happened thereafter. Until it eventually did.
In March 2024, i was made aware that i was being made redundant. That’s the bad news. The good news? That same week, i was also made aware i might have a consulting lead. And that lead closed. The worst professional week i’d had became the best. And there came the first lesson of operating solo: it’s intense on both ends of the spectrum.
Some 9 months later, i wouldn’t switch this life for full time employment. The UK is in an economic crunch. Q4 2024 labour statistics suggest that companies let go of more people than they hired. That’s the average, and there will be some outliers, but still it’s not a great picture for an economy.
More anecdotally, i see tons of people in marketing, and of course agencies, either being made let go or working under dire conditions for projects that eventually get canned, or massively reduced in scope. It’s not great out there, even for the full time employed. So what then?
Well, we have a few options and there’s no single answer. One option is to hold on to what you’ve got, because we’re now in a “least worst” scenario and having a crappy job is better than having no job. Supposedly. Almost one year of working solo, in what i hear is the worst year in the last decade to work solo in the UK, i take a different view.
We’ve never had anything other than “least worst” scenarios. The question is what you’re sacrificing. If you work full time, you get the benefits of stability (on paper), expressed through notice periods, national insurance contributions, health insurance in many cases, and generally people to support you. You have all those… until you don’t, that is.
If you’re self employed, you supposedly operate on more wicked sands. But i now believe the illusion of stability is just that, an illusion, and in fact in chaotic times what you want is to be able to move fast and change directions as much as you want.
In other words, the economic chaos of the marketing and agency landscape can become the economic opportunity for independents who can help businesses in a profitable way (for the hired), but at a fraction of the cost (for the hirer). Yes, you are trading risk for revenue, but that’s the sacrifice in this scenario. There are no free lunches, sorry.
Zoe Scaman has already written what is probably the most comprehensive guide i’ve seen in a long while to how to operate as a solo strategist. Below are some further reflections based on the past 9 months of my solo experience, and i hope you can find some useful advice, or at least reassurance too.
Work with people you respect when you can. This doesn’t mean liking everyone, or them liking you. You can respect someone while having very little in common with them. But if you don’t like nor respect someone, be careful.
Practise soft business development. I have never closed a project by emailing people cold. The work i have secured was always the product of a series of interesting conversations that, at the right time, led to a mutual opportunity. This also means if you can’t have an interesting conversation with a potential client, there’s a potential red flag there around overall bad fit.
Don’t ask for work, ask for advice. This continues to be a tremendous tip, especially if you are reaching out to new contacts. You’d be amazed how often people are willing to share a piece of their reality with you. It’s all R&D.
Careful to over-please someone just because they seem to be onto something interesting. I’ve made the mistake of over-stretching my own capacity because of potentially interesting projects with unreasonable deadlines, and the stress, self-doubt and strange vibes that came with it was not worth the price i charged.
Have a number. Of money you want to make, sure, but also of projects you can take onboard. Q4 2024 was a nightmare for my own sleep because i under-estimated how much time was needed for new projects, and how often existing projects change circumstances. See also above about people pleasing. It’s ok to say “not now”.
Protect time to work on the business. I was only really able to re-articulate my own stuff when i had down time from client work, and while this is a great problem to have (uptime means revenue!), it also means you can stay so lost on client work you forget to keep refining your pitch. This bites you when new biz season hits.
Don’t over-network. Some people under-network, i probably over-network. There’s a seasons-like wise approach to this, where you can have high networking seasons and lower networking seasons. If you have tons of client work, reduce networking. But as you see that coming to an end, increase it. Don’t stop doing it totally though, even if it’s one person a week.
Diversify your revenue streams. Zoe talks about this better than i ever could, but what i would say is something like my Salmon Crew community is one of the lifelines i have so that even if consulting work dries out, i have some kickbacks from recurring revenue products like this one. This means i can be selective with future consulting work before choosing out of despair. Cash indeed is creative confidence.
Be ok with being a cog. Sure, when you’re a consultant you want to lead something end to end, but chances are you will be part of a much larger puzzle and can’t claim credit for every single decision that got made. The quicker you can be ok with this, the saner this life gets.
Always ask what someone’s willing to spend. I have made the mistake of scoping projects without understanding what was seen as too expensive, and in the process blew my chances of still helping a client in some other capacity. Sense check price ranges and then decide how you can help for what they’re willing to pay. Btw, some prices may be too low for you, in which case offer to refer them to someone else.
Co-design processes with clients. I find it icky when agencies insist their process is how something must be done, when in fact the most interesting projects tend to be co-designed from an operational standpoint. This feels like a loss of authority, but rigid ways of working are not authority, they’re authoritarianism.
Schedule your own breaks. A few months into this journey, i decided i wanted to do 3 months of work and 1-2 weeks of pause, before resuming 3 more months of work. This was going to be my rhythm, because without this i knew i was going to burn myself into the ground for the sake of “feeling useful”. The true benefit is that this re-energises me to come back not stronger, but much more clear-minded. Your body needs time to sort your mind out.
There you have it, some reflections on how the last 9 months have helped me grow as a strategist and business owner. And this is the thing: i have grown. There’s a saying around decision making that, whatever you do, choose the option that enlarges you. Self-employment is that for me. It may not be for you, and that’s absolutely ok. But if it is… do it in such a way that makes your soul soar.
And if you’d like to meet other indies who are on the same journey, remember this can be a quite lonesome path. It’s for that reason that i started the Salmon Crew, a private community for strategists from all over to share advice, reassurance and the occasional silly meme. We all need those as well. Get the first 30 days free. Cancel anytime.
