12 months in

It’s been exactly a year since I announced that I’d been made redundant.  It quickly became clear that going freelance was the best idea for me so 12 months in I thought it was time for a bit of an audit.

I’ve discovered that it’s all about reputation.  Who knows you, who rates you and who passes your name along.  Of my three biggest clients, two include strategic people I’ve worked with before and the third came via recommendation.  Overall, I recon the scorecard looks like this:

The good stuff

Working on better, bigger brands (the kind my Grandad has actually heard of)
Owning my diary and what gets put into it
Being able to say No sometimes (see above)
Skiving off at 3pm on a sunny afternoon to go ride my horse
Less commuting (and more longish drives to interesting new places)
No agency politics or small scale bullying
More money

The not-so-good stuff

Trying to get paid (you can’t all have lost my invoices)
Client conflicts (e.g. two of my agencies work on the same big account)
Not having an IT Department to make things work again
Not having backup if you’re swamped / sick / snowed in

But overall, it’s been a very good year.  So roll on the next one.