Jun 23, 2020
How to build your freelance business to just the right size.
As freelancers, most of us would like to see our business grow. While you may work a lot on your own, meaningful and sustainable growth is a group effort. There are also reasons to limit how big you grow your business. Today’s guest successfully grew her practice to just the right size with the help of strategic collaboration and teamwork.
Erica Gorochow is a Brooklyn-based director and designer at PepRally. She fluctuates between building teams as a studio, independent directing, and doing her own freelance work. Erica focuses on making high-quality work for brands, networks, agencies, and startups. In addition to client work, she produces projects internally to continue exploring new technologies, techniques, and ideas.
Should you have a studio or be a freelance motion designer
There’s a lot to consider as you expand your work as a freelancer. Even what to call your practice is something Erica dealt with. She really recommends establishing yourself with studio work before scaling up as a freelancer. That way you’ve already built up a name and reputation for your work.
Collaboration with others can add more value to your motion design work
Although she does a lot of solo work, Erica loves collaborating with others. Mostly, it’s just more fun to succeed as part of a collaborative effort. Working with others adds more value to the work and fosters personal growth as a creator.
In this episode
- Considerations for naming your studio or practice
- Deliberate steps to take when scaling up your freelance work
- Advantages that come when working in a coworking space
- Collaboration as a way to foster personal and professional growth
- Tips for creating a budget with prospective clients
- Why you shouldn’t scale up simply for the sake of scaling up
- Getting big clients without creating a studio
Quotes
“If I’m not going to toot my own horn, how can I expect others to do it for me?” [13:14]
“I don’t know that I always have the absolute best idea. I think you’re much more likely to get to the best idea vis-à-vis collaboration.” [15:09]
“Growth is whatever you define it to be. It can be personal. It can be scaling. It can be anything in between. Try to be honest with yourself about what kind of growth will lead to happiness knowing you’re allowed to change your answer.” [47:07]