I left my job as a Software Director the first week of March 2020 (if that tells you anything about my sense of timing.)
To make it through the craziness of COVID, and at the prompting of some serendipitous business connections, I started a freelance small marketing agency.
I was immediately swamped with clients, and did basically anything marketing-adjacent to keep the money coming in during the pandemic:
- branding
- websites
- Google Analytics work
- eCommerce rebuilds
- etc.
I was afraid to say no to any work because I didn't know what the future would hold.
I hired contractors, built my ad hoc team, and filled in the gaps wherever I needed to.
We were growing every month, had taken on more clients, and were making them really happy with the results.
...
Then my wife and I brought four elementary-aged siblings from foster care into our home.
I realized REALLY quickly that I wasn't going to be able to continue with the excessively long work weeks that were necessary to get the agency off the ground.
...
I'm a firm believer in having always having a plan, but knowing that those plans will almost certainly change is key.
So what's next?
By moving to building products, I will (in some ways) be able to manage my extremely limited time a little better. I will be able to push the products forward at my own speed instead of the speed of a client or deadline.
I've already begun referring new leads to other agencies, am winding down my current projects/retainers, and testing out various product ideas.
One thing that I want to lean into more-and-more is building (or at least learning) in public.
I'm a programmer, and hoping to build something in the digital marketing space, but not don't have a clear direction yet.
Either way, I'm having fun and being open-handed with whatever comes.
Do you have any experience with this? Let me know!
You can also follow over on Twitter, where I'm sharing more of the day-to-day lessons :)
All the best!