Welcome to a new series I’ll be doing sharing about my experience going independent.
It’s been nearly three years to the day since I was at my last corporate job and decided to go out on my own. I have intentionally aimed to carve a career that winds between stability and independence, both entrepreneurial and traditional throughout my 15+ years as a marketer.
For the first year-and-a-half after my last full-time role, I was able to replace my previous salary working half the hours. The next year-and-a-half, I have had to get more creative with my resources as budgets have shrunk and work for copywriting and content strategy has dwindled.
In 2024, when available work came to a slow trickle, I decided to add another discipline to my career: coaching in the relational health field. This includes intimacy, relationship, and leadership coaching. As well as emotional-social skills development for young people.
During this time it has felt easier to commit myself to entrepreneurship than to invest time in a job search when the job market is so unstable. One minute a position is there, the next minute it’s gone.
Despite the intensity of getting my own business off the ground, it feels like a more stable investment for the long term. With estimates that the job market will be anywhere from 50%-70% freelance over the next decade, I figure it’s better to learn how to support myself as an independent now.
As a creative, I want to be able to blend work and time for the creative process. As a business person, I believe in the power of a free and open market, where anyone can find a need and meet it with a product (within certain guidelines). I see an economy where more people, either by choice or necessity, turn their unique combination of skills, experience, and background into something valuable to exchange with others.
That’s my goal for my business, and that’s what I’m documenting in this series.
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