The Roles You Play as a Freelancer

When you're a freelancer and self-employed and working for yourself, you're not just a developer or a designer or a writer. 

You're the CEO. 

You're the janitor. 

You're HR. 

You’re payroll. 

You’re sales. 

You're marketing. 

You’re customer support. 

You play every role customarily played by several in any other business. 

Some people realize this too late, so they fail to keep up with sales to land work for the next month. Or, they don't do anything for marketing which means they don't have any incoming leads. Or, they neglect their previous customers when an easy and quick request comes in, so they don’t get repeat business or referrals.

What's important is having a balance of all of these things instead of just doing something people hire you to do. This is why the hourly rate for freelancers needs to be higher than just a salary job, because there's so many other things you need to do. 

It's also the reason why hiring freelancers can be more beneficial to a business, as they don't have to pay that overhead of training or health care or paid time off or sick time.

You need to find the balance between doing what you do and doing the admin and the sales and the marketing. Here's how I do it:

• I set aside certain times for admin and project management (usually Mondays)

• I continue to create content and reaching out to people to generate new leads

• I take sales calls or even just discovery calls even when I'm completely booked (usually Fridays)

• I respond to emails from clients who I haven’t worked with in awhile

You never know from where the next project is coming.

Would I be happier if I never had to do the overhead part of running a business? No. 

I worked with agencies and was their in-house developer, even though I was just a contractor. I didn’t need to make sales calls or worry about customer support, but I also had a lower hourly rate, and I couldn’t vet the customers to make sure they were a good fit.

Put in the work of doing all those other things, writing blog posts, having conversations on social media, connecting with folks on Linkedin, responding to emails, and you’ll be on your way to crafting a sustainable business.