Poll: Where Are You Taking Your Business?

I’m definitely the freelancer-as-job-seeker. In my observation, this is rare, as most freelancers/contractors enjoy their lifestyle and cringe at the thought of going back to a staff role at an agency (or in-house.)

However much I may grumble about the disappointments of freelancing, it beats waiting tables. And my hope is that by [slowly] adding portfolio pieces and making connections, eventually I’ll land a better job that I can be satisfied with.

In the meantime, onwards and upwards.

Mine was the third one …Well I think every freelancer wants to have a name established and a repo known with “bucks” as one of the primary factor of cource. Then there are other with the entrepreneurial drive to begin something of their own.

Amy Dyslex

My preference is the first choice. I think is the best way to be really free. By the way, I am subscribed to your blog. Very interesting. You always have very useful articles. Congrats¡¡¡
From Chile,

Pablo Lara Henríquez

I want to both develop more passive income and scale my services and start a firm.

I’m aiming for a combination of 1, 2 and 3.

I enjoy working freelance, and will definitely continue to do work for select clients.

I am also working on developing passive revenue streams in order to fund my trip around the world and allow myself to take on more of the clients that I want (as opposed to spending so much time on the clients that I NEED, financially).

I am also currently scaling my business, taking on more projects that require me taking the head as creative director and hiring on other contractors to do the non-managerial work. It’s still creative work, and it allows me to work with other creative people while getting my hands less dirty, so we’ll see how this goes. Ideally this will eventually allow me to do more work from anywhere I like, requiring only a netbook and a phone to keep in touch and organize.

I’ve been doing the solo option for quite some time now. My goal has always been the option of having my own employees/team and a studio/office away from home. However, my current situation is extremely flexible, creatively (and financially) rewarding, and most importantly I’m comfortable and happy. With where I currently live, I also don’t think it’s the right place to try and start my own thing. I’m just too far from an urban environment — where it would be easiest to hire people who do what I do and to commute to.

I think the fact that I aspire to have my own thing, keeps me working hard at the solo thing. One day I’ll know when it’s time to take it one step further. Maybe I’ll move closer to the city. The solo option is just what works best RIGHT NOW, especially with having a family.

Earlier this year I dabbled in expanding the business, and realized that I just wasn’t ready yet. Having an office space and considering employees is a lot to handle; I quickly missed the simplicity of being solo. I’m sure I will try to expand again in the future, but for now this freedom is really attractive

I chose 1, but I’m really going for 1 with a bit of 2 to provide underlying stability. Passive income is a good cushion against feast-or-famine, after all.

Aiming to expand but in a “virtual” way.

I plan to continue my solo act (web design) working from my home office… but the plan is to contract more work out to other freelancers to expand the services I offer and take on more clients.

I would be a combination of 2 & 3 more then anything else. Looking into getting a passive income right now and using that to build a small firm of no more then 8 people. It’s a long road but a journey I want to try out.

I voted for #1 but I’d say I’m wanting a bit of the top 3. Passive income plus a growing business of artists would be awesome.

“Passive Income” is definitely the route for me. In this economy, I’ve not yet become established enough to develop the kind of select, ideal clientele that would make freelancing profitable AND enjoyable. Plus, my life will be changing soon, in a way that really doesn’t really accommodate a young freelancer’s ideal kind of existence….

The past year of “nobly roaming the countryside as a hired gun” has really been fun. But it’s time to approach my business with a little less cavalier, and a bit more ‘business sense.’ Creating a couple of dedicated ‘passive’ streams of income—plus, inducting myself back into the dreaded ‘workforce’ for awhile—will be the first step to creating a business model that continues to thrive while I focus on starting a family.

I see staying as a freelancer for at least next 30-40 months.

I always wanted to start my own firm and freelancing is first step towards it. I will surely establish my own firm soon and also passive income is like a sweet dish.

I’m taking first next step towards it by starting a wordpress and joomla themes gallery by the end of this month.

I’d simply like to obtain a passive income or create a very small firm, and focus on higher-end artistic work for web. In the long run, I’d like to focus as much on illustration as my income lets me in the future. David Airey was able to do it with logos, I think I can do it work illustration.

RB
Web / Graphic / Illustration
http://www.twitter.com/rbastien

I am definitely in the keep is small, simple, and solo category, but my husband wants me to expand and take on employees. He repeatedly mentions it, and I have to constantly tell him that I don’t want the added pressure and responsibility.

Man, I just want to design a bumper sticker that sells 1,000,000 copies and retire young. Seriously, I want to develop my own little “pet rock” or something. We’ll see how it goes. I have a pretty sweet job already, so my aspirations are less about making a name for myself and more about just having fun with work I love to do.

I started the expansion thing three years ago when I acquired my office space. Since then I’ve hired 4 different people, kept two of them and am presently humming along as a 3-person shop, looking for new office space so I can grow further. Our revenue continues to grow by between 20-30% per year so this is enabling the growth.

I’m also building several passive businesses on the side both with partners and in a solo capacity, but I’m not sure if any of them will really take off since they aren’t my primary focus.

I spent two and a half years as a solo designer, occasionally partnering with other freelancers (which I still do), but realized that the kind of growth and income I want along with the freedom everyone talks about with freelance life wasn’t possible for me. When I worked alone, I worked 80-100 hours a week, every week all year long.

Now that I have employees that I can trust, I can take on even more business, take some time off and still have the opportunity to provide the creative direction I want to see for the projects we do take on. It really is the best way for me.

Just my two cents about passive income…

I sell prints and have Adwords on some sites, and I do make some money off these but nowhere near enough to be anything useful. A year’s worth of Adwords would hardly pay my household bills for an average month.

I think creatives should consider passive income but it’s very easy to think ‘oh I’ll sell some prints’. If you really want to make passive income work, like everything else it involves putting in your time, energy and possibly money too (someone’s gotta pay for the paper and ink to make those prints).

Lots of sites that claim to help you derive passive income like Cafepress are kinda crap, honestly. While you pay no money to them, after they deduct their fees from your sales, you’re left with hardly anything. Meanwhile they’re making money off because their stated base price is inflated to accommodate their profits.

Passive income is so attractive because of the prospect of making more and more money while you work less and less. I started a couple years ago but now I’m really picking up steam. It’s important to diversify your passive income streams and not rely on one source.

I am just starting out as a freelance translator, so at the moment it’s small, small, simple and solo for me. But of course I won’t avoid expansion if the situation allows it in the future.

Litterate T&L
Translation and Localization EN-ES-GL

My strategy involves building my brand around my own name and reputation. I’m starting to choose the clients I wish to work with and this is making life as a freelancer very enjoyable.

I’ve chosen this path for a few reasons, as follows:
– Firstly – I have a strong drive to produce quality outputs for clients and going solo allows me to continually learn and refine my craft.
– Secondly, being able to choose the work I do gives me space for the other important elements in my life, family and rugby.
– Thirdly, having a high-quality portfolio of work behind me leaves the door open for shifting my target market or even re-entering the regular workforce at a later date.

I’m in a similar boat to April, though: my husband is a very ambitious fellow, and he sometimes casts his lofty goals my way. I’m not ambitious in the conventional sense, but I am driven to perform well and to present high-quality work, and to provide for my family.

I guess the beauty of being a freelancer is that I can reconfigure the way I do business as my needs change or as the market demands. I can easily see how the approaches others have described would work, too.

I agree with Colin above. While my preference is to keep my main freelance job small, I also want to pursue ways of creating passive income. Additionally, I have a few “dream” projects that I plan on involving others in. So, it’s a bit of a combination for me as well.

It’s an interesting question and nice to see what others are doing and thinking in this area.

I think my ambitions combine both a passive income and the building of a successful firm. For most freelancers I would imagine their minds are a lot like mine – constantly churning ideas and a desire to start something new. My focus now is building a scalable business but there will always be the ‘pet project’ that I’ll delve into in order to keep my mind fresh, prevent burn-out and of course with the hope it will turn into a secondary or third revenue stream.

I think mine is a combination of solo freelancing and hopefully some passive income later on. The odds of me doing so with my current blog are a bit remote, but you never know. As to where this is all taking me, since I recently started freelancing I’m still getting my feet wet and having to occasionally temp when things get really rough. It’s been interesting reading others’ comments as well. Every freelance situation seems to have a few similarities and then it becomes your own beast, so to speak. Wishing everyone well in their pursuits.

Passive income is anything but. You have to work just as hard at it, if not more so, than you do with your “regular” freelance business.

Sorry to bust your bubble, but the only place that success comes before work is in the dictionary.

Good question! I’m something of a combination of the first three. I love the flexibility of working solo and don’t intend to give that up anytime soon — however, I’d also like to work towards having more sources of passive income to smooth out my revenue stream, and I’m working with some colleagues on marketing ourselves as a small firm to take on bigger projects than any of us can do solo.

Your list spoke to me — I was just discussing how I’m at a decision point and will have to scale back in order to stay with your option #1, or decide between #2 and #3. If I had read this first, I wouldn’t have had to figure out what the options were myself. Reading through the comments, though, I see that lots of us want to do a little bit of each. Either a lot of us are at that decision point, or we want to have our cake and eat it too.

I would have to say two and three. I think passive income is relative. If I can find ways to earn more money in an easier fashion, I consider that passive income. I agree with those who mentioned that passive income is hard work… it takes time to establish the streams, and no one source will do.

As far has having my own firm, I already outsource a lot of work because it is simply not humanly possible to do all the work myself. (I’m a freelance writer.) My goal over the next couple of months is to brand my services and solidify some alliances with other firms.

The solo thing is not for me. I like being in charge of people. LOL! No, honestly, I prefer to have a team and build relationships with the freedom and flexibility of writing whenever I want, and whatever I want. I like helping others out and passing them my overflow of work. It mutually beneficial, because they get paid to help me out, and I get to keep my clients happy while I work on other things.

1 with a bit of 2 but maybe 3 as I get older.

What about us freelancers who fit in the “I want to scale my services and start a second firm”

Good poll thought, what are the results going to be used for?

Mine is the 2nd one, I always wanted to create passive income to get more savings, since im also into multi level networking as well. Creating a dream business where there is less hassle and more pay =) , and some design jobs in a month