{"id":99,"date":"2013-01-15T21:03:48","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T21:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/?p=99"},"modified":"2013-12-02T22:43:17","modified_gmt":"2013-12-02T22:43:17","slug":"how-not-to-evolve-from-freelancer-to-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/2013\/how-not-to-evolve-from-freelancer-to-agency\/","title":{"rendered":"How NOT to Evolve from Freelancer to Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

I recently ran across an article explaining how a freelancer can become an agency<\/a>, and it sent chills up my spine. That may have been partially because I work in my poorly-heated office during the depths of the Saskatchewan winter. Nevertheless, in recent years I\u2019ve become a big believer in the power of freelancing and here\u2019s why.<\/p>\n

Quality of life<\/h2>\n

I live 2 blocks away from a major street. Every morning at about 7:50, cars are lined up all the way to my house waiting to get through the traffic light. I\u2019m usually in my bath robe at that point, thankful for that extra hour of sleep. Let\u2019s say going to an agency and working the day averages 8 hours per day including commuting. I average about 6 hours per day in my office. That gives me over 450 extra hours in a year. <\/em>I\u2019m sure my kids will be thankful later on that I was around that much more, even if I stop making cr\u00eapes for breakfast. Furthermore, Mother Nature might even reward me with some extra oxygen to breathe instead of exhaust fumes.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m doing what I love<\/h2>\n

I like the hands-on work of my business. The graphic design. The creativity. The coding. I know a few people who started out in the role, and when their company grew to a considerable size they were doing more meetings, paperwork, and administration. No thanks.<\/p>\n

We have the tools<\/h2>\n

Agencies still have their place, but technology nowadays enables freelancers to assemble, collaborate and disperse very easily.<\/p>\n

Right now I\u2019m part of a contracted development team with members from California, Prince Edward Island, and Saskatchewan. We use Google\u2019s tools for video meetings, document sharing, and calendar. We use GitHub<\/a> and Lighthouse<\/a> for bug tracking and code versioning. I\u2019ve worked in a large interactive agency<\/a> before and the only thing I\u2019m missing now is the opportunity for social engagement. The work still gets done just as efficiently.<\/p>\n

Tools like FreshBooks or Harvest, coupled with internet money transfer make it so easy to contract or be contracted. Why burden yourself with a payroll if you don’t have to do so? If you know the right people, it makes a lot of sense nowadays to use freelancers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not for everyone<\/h2>\n

One thing I appreciated about that other article was that it was realistic. Not every freelancer should become an agency, and in the same way not everyone is cut out for freelancing. It’s still more paperwork and admin than working for a salary. Interpersonal skills are essential to stay connected to other developers and your clients. There are slow times where you’re wondering when the next job will come in. I can find those factors to be tiresome at times, but in the end\u2014working less, getting paid more, doing the stuff I love, and being close to the people I love is my priority. Freelancing just happens to provide those things.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently ran across an article explaining how a freelancer can become an agency, and it sent chills up my spine. That may have been partially because I work in my poorly-heated office during the depths of the Saskatchewan winter. Nevertheless, in recent years I\u2019ve become a big believer in the power of freelancing and … Continue reading How NOT to Evolve from Freelancer to Agency<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[10],"tags":[33,32],"class_list":["post-99","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","tag-business-2","tag-freelance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p28GE6-1B","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109,"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99\/revisions\/109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.confidant.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}