30. Qs to ask as your business grows (with André Spiteri)

Intro

Welcome to 15 Minute Freelancer, your snack-sized guide to being your own boss and building a business and life you love. I'm your host Louise Shanahan. My LinkedIn bio says I'm a freelance health copywriter. But for the next 15 minutes I'll be tickling your ears with practical strategies behind the scenes stories and nuggets of wisdom so you can create freelance business that works for you. Whether you're just starting out or you've been self-employed for a while, I'll be right here with you to help me navigate the ups and downs of freelancing life. So grab a coffee relax and join me for 15 minutes of freelancing fun. Don't forget to hit subscribe. 

Louse: Hello, and welcome to another episode of 15 Minute Freelancer. Today, I'm joined by one of my business besties and fellow freelance copywriter, André Spiteri. Hi, André. 

André: Hello. 

L: So we've had a few conversations about what happens when your business grows out of that early toddler stage and into the teenage years, where you move past the “is this freelancing thing viable? And am I going to get any clients? Am I going to be able to get paid?” to “Okay, things are a bit more steady. What happens next? What should I do as my business starts to grow?” And I thought this would be a really fun topic for the podcast, about what happens when you start to reach your goals and when you start to exceed them, and the practical mindset shifts that need to happen. So now that you're a few years in and you have steady client work and a nice juicy pipeline of regular new leads, what are some of the new challenges that you've had to deal with as you've become a bit busier?

A: Yeah, I think the biggest thing is a mindset change. There's a lot of information out there about starting out and building your business, but not much about what happens after you reach that point. You've been kind of in this building mindset for so long. It’s hard to shift gears. And I think yeah, that's the toughest thing, because instead of you know, this is all about survival. It's suddenly about what do I want this to look like?

L: Yeah, it's almost like when you're just starting out, you want to say yes to everything, and you feel like you have to say yes to everything. But once you get past that point, you realise you have a bit of choice and a bit of control. And you can make decisions about where you want to go next. 

A: Yeah. 

L: And then you, you have to kind of figure out a plan for how you do that.

A: Yeah, exactly, you've suddenly got more choice. So you're in the position where you know, you've got maybe a solid portfolio, maybe you've built a bit of a reputation for doing good work. And suddenly, maybe you don't need to look for work as much because people are coming to you. And these choices mean that you have to ask yourself hard questions that maybe you haven't considered before, with the biggest one being, you know, what do I want this to look like? And or importantly, I guess, how do I decide who I want to work with? I'm not going to stay here, you know, and pretend that I have the answers, because honestly, I don't have. But yeah, that's something you need to consider more as you go along.

L: I think that's one of the lessons though, isn't it that you never really feel like you've got the answers, you know, you might look back to where you were five years ago or something think, Okay, I know exactly what I should have been doing then. But as you move on, and as your business grows, it's just a new set of challenges. So that feeling of not knowing what you're doing kind of just stays, it's just a different set of issues, isn't it?

A: Yeah, well, for somebody who is starting, I think, to hear that people who have been doing this for quite a while to kind of making it up a bit. I think that may be reassuring.

L: So how do you think about where to go next? Do you think about scaling up at all? How are you kind of assessing those options?

A: It's a weird one. This is something that I've thought about a lot. And at one time, I was kind of thinking that maybe I would either outsource and oversee. But you have to ask yourself, do I want to? Because if you're going to outsource, you're going to have to spend a lot more time project managing, putting out fires when things go wrong. So that's going to take time away from you doing actual client work. 

L: Yeah. And it's a different skill set, too, isn't it? Because to me, it seems like there are maybe three ways that you can grow or scale a freelance business. Maybe there's a difference between growth and scale. So you could grow by just simply raising your rates. That's one way to do it, or changing the kind of clients that you work with. Then you could scale by outsourcing or hiring a team like you see maybe going down that agency model route, or scale into having one to many products or services. So that might be group programmes or courses. But the last two options there I think are different skill sets. You have to suddenly become a manager or you have to become a teacher and it feels like a different business.

A: Yeah, I mean, firstly, I think it's two ways to scale rather than three. You can raise your rates, you can get better work, but ultimately, there are only so many hours in the day. And there's a there's a ceiling, when it comes to raising your rates, I think. At a certain point, you have to be realistic to see what, what the market will take. I actually have Company of One on my shelf here and one of the things it says right on the contents page is that growth in perpetuity is a myth, it's impossible for you to keep growing forever. There are only so many hours in a day, and your workload can only be so big. And your rates can only go up by so much before you're priced out of the market. I would say the solutions would be either going the agency model, or the one to many model, but as you have mentioned, as you say they are different businesses, right, with an agency model. If you're a copywriter and you love writing, well, you're not going to be doing much of that. If you're managing other people, if you're doing a one to many model, I guess, passive income is passive up to a point, you still have to promote it, you still have to be visible.

L: And that might be something that people would really enjoy doing, which is obviously fine. It's just, I guess, these are the things that you need to consider. You have to find what works for you and maybe not assume that you want or you should have someone else's business model has to fit with your life. And that changes too, doesn't it? Because I think I've probably gone through phases of thinking I have to get to the next stage. What's next? And you know, you have a record month income-wise or something like that. And you're like, yes, this is working. You kind of think that that's your new baseline, which is not really realistic. But then other times I can kind of sit back a bit and think well, why am I actually doing this? I don't need to rush to the next level. I can just take my time with this. I can coast for a bit. So yeah, there are lots of different ways to kind of measure growth and success and things like that aren't there? 

A: So that's partly a mindset thing, I think. As you say, just because of this certain income, it doesn't mean that's the new benchmark. You need to think about this rationally. You know? And part of it is, you know, if I go six years back, when I fantasised about making a grand a month saying, you know, wouldn't that be incredible? You're not in that place anymore. You don't have to think that way.

L: So how's your approach to setting goals changed since you first started out? Because I know that you're saying in the early days, you've really got your eye on a particular financial goal to pay your bills. But have you changed your approach in terms of thinking about the type of clients that you work with, or maybe even a broader purpose? Like a couple of weeks ago, I spoke to Sally Fox about having, you know, a social and environmental purpose in your business in some way. So is that something that you think about as well? 

A: Well, look, one of the biggest things I've done is to stop working out my monthly income, it helps to me we think, in quarters instead of month to month. So that's one thing. Another thing is, yeah, I do think about values, in the sense of who is my ideal client? Who are the people who I consistently enjoy working with? Why? And obviously, that's the dream, right? Because many times when, you know, when projects go off the rails, you think it's superficial stuff, like maybe the brief, or the scope, or the fee, or something like that. But it's really about values and expectations. And maybe you expect different things from the people you work with. So that's also something worth looking at. 

L: Yeah, that's interesting. If you could go back, you've given a lot of really good advice for people who may be just starting out, what would you say are your top two or three tips that you'd give to yourself, if you were going back and just starting out now?

A: Well, definitely spread your risk as much as possible. Right now, my biggest client is 23% of my income. I mean, I'm a kind of a spur of the moment kind of guy. But this is one of the few things I do very intentionally, which is that, even if I have the availability, I always limit how much I take on with a specific client. I don't want them to be too big of a chunk. There's several reasons for that. One is, as I said, you know, spreading your risk. But the other is also it doesn't make for a healthy relationship. If you're financially dependent on a client. If there are things that you don't agree with you feel you should push back against. You want to be able to do that. And you don't want to feel constrained, because you know, they're a very important client. So that's one piece of advice. The other is processes. So when you're starting, processes are going to feel unnecessary, because you've got one client, why do you need project management software? You know, why do you need an onboarding process? But eventually when you have five, six on the go, you're going to have trouble tracking all your deadlines and onboarding everyone and keeping everybody on track. And you want to have this stuff in place when it's easy. 

L: Yeah. Start as you mean to go on. Maybe there's a lesson there in outsourcing as well, because some of these things might be better done by a VA or a bookkeeper or an accountant. And that's maybe something that people feel a bit reluctant to invest in right at the start. But that can be really useful too.

A: Yeah, definitely. I had an accountant from day one. Taxes aren't something you want to mess with. You know, an accountant does more than do your tax return. Admin, that is something that took me a bit longer. And I'll be honest with you, it's something that requires more courage. I think it's easy to fall into this trap of, you know, it's not that bad. I can do it myself. But when eventually you build a relationship with somebody you trust, and they're on it, you know, then suddenly, you realise that I don't really fancy doing this anymore. I don't know why I used to do it. It's death by 1000 cuts. It's five minutes here, five minutes there. But they add up.

L: Yeah, but you're right. It does take courage to trust somebody else to do things like proposals and answering your emails and all that kind of thing.

A: Yeah, it does. But I think virtual assistants are very under-appreciated, people don't understand just you know how much value they bring to the table. 

L: 100%. And maybe you don't realise until you try it.

A: A VA can add huge value to your business. I work with one. And honestly, it's been amazing. But you have to hire them for the right things, taking care of your admin work, that can really suck up your time, organising you helping you put processes in place, this is all very valuable. It's a huge help.

L: So any other tips that you'd like to share before we wrap up?

A: You know, it's a journey, not a destination. I know, it's cliché, but it is. Your business is going to evolve over time. And that's fine. You know, the challenge is to realise when your business is changing, and how it is changing, and having the self-awareness to take time off and reflect and say, okay, what's happening? Am I happy with this? Do I wish to change some of this? Because, you know, ultimately, you're in control, you get to decide how this is going to shape up? And that's fun that, isn't it? 

L: Yeah, yeah, I think so. 

A: When you run your own business, you get to decide. And that's scary. But it's always changing, there's no end point. It evolves and changes, you know, maybe you want to change what you do change what you're offering. And that's fine. It's only natural. Having that mindset where you know, you observe the sun, you kind of go with the flow, reflect on that, and say, okay, where do I want to channel this? Where do I want to direct? Do I nurture this part? Do I channel it in a different direction? That sort of thing.

L: Well, that seems like a good place to wrap up. We've got a lot of food for thought there. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and insights. I'm sure this will be really helpful for people who may be going through this same sort of transition or you know, maybe people who are just starting out and imagining what it could be like for them in a few years time. If people want to follow up with you, or come and say hi, where would be the best place to find you? 

A: Well, I am on Twitter, tweeting about vacuum cleaners most days. There's also my website, which is maverickwords.com. You can see my work and what I do and get in touch. And yeah, but I mean, if anybody has questions, hit me up on Twitter. I usually don't bite.

L: Nice, lovely, thank you. So that's us for this week. Thank you everybody for listening, and I shall see you next week. Bye. 

A: Bye. 

Outro

You've been listening to 15 Minute Freelancer with me, Louise Shanahan, freelance health copywriter and content marketer at thecopyprescription.com. If you enjoyed this, please hit subscribe, leave a review or share it with a freelance friend. And if you've got a freelancing question you want answered on the podcast find me and say hi on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram. Thanks, and until next time, happy freelancing!