TCC #7: Reflections on my 2nd year in business

Note - long-ish business reflections ahead. Scroll down further for the content recommendations.

This month marks my second year of freelancing! I’ve also intentionally approached this year very differently compared to my first.

Some thoughts and reflections on how these two years compare.

Year 1 - the zero to one approach

i.e have a rough plan, then throw stuff at the wall until something sticks, or the more dignified jargony speak = “getting your reps in”.

• I focused on execution and taking action, getting used to working with clients and the concept of running my business

• I kept my website and branding to a minimum, as I was still figuring out my strengths and weaknesses as an independent consultant.

• I took on different clients to see what style I enjoyed working in and what didn’t work so well

• I hired a business coach to help me with accountability and a second pair of eyes, which helped me scale and learn from mistakes faster

• I had help from my wife, who’s previously walked this road and could tell me what didn’t work and what worked for her. ⠀

This method worked for me. After struggling with crazy hours at the beginning, I got flexibility and replaced my previous full-time income by the end of the first year. All in all, a win!

But this pace wasn’t sustainable. I was grinding and heading towards burnout (again). My days became loaded with client work, and I didn’t have enough time to work on the other parts of the business. Stuff like branding, business processes and positioning fell by the wayside as I focused on scaling and getting into a rhythm that works.

Which was annoying because I started my business to have the flexibility to choose how I wanted to run my business, so why was I chaining myself to another set of expectations?

If infinite growth is the philosophy of the cancer cell, then we can’t stay in rapid growth mode forever. There will be seasons of slower growth.

And that’s what that’s what Year 2 was going to be about. I wanted a more sustainable growth model - in terms of energy, direction, and confidence.

Year 2 - a focus on more sustainable growth

What did sustainable growth mean to me?

• It was doing the stuff that I’m good at and finding joy in serving my clients and audience in the best way possible.

• Earning enough money to live a decent enough living + adjusting rates with experience

• Having confidence in my own voice and expressing my own thoughts in a way that’s authentic to me

• Playing the long game - knowing that if I invested in these non-tangible aspects, business would be more fun to do on a day-to-day = I keep at it longer + deliver better work for my clients = more sustainable

It was the mental bit with not possibly growing revenue-wise that was challenging. I could handle trimming my expenses and living on less.

But aren’t businesses supposed to keep growing? If you aren’t growing in terms of profit or revenue, does that mean you’ve failed? Maybe this is a very startup mindset, where you need to hit certain targets, otherwise your investors will come knocking.

Therefore, I had to expand my definition of growth as not all growth is numbers-related. Growth can also be defined in terms of energy, the maturity of your thinking and how you approach the business. After all, I was still paying my bills with the money from my business, so it wasn’t like I wasn’t earning money.

Secondly, zooming out and taking the long-term view. Intentional slower growth in one year doesn't mean slower growth in subsequent years. Although, it's easy to say this, but it takes time to internalise these thoughts.

I had a few primary goals in year 2.

First, there was the more tangible stuff i.e:

• Getting clear on my messaging, positioning and offer and expressing with a website revamp

• Fine-tuning internal business processes and business spend

• Catching up on some courses relevant to my current goals

Then there was the non-tangible stuff, which was honestly more difficult.

• Being okay with slower growth seasons (in terms of revenue numbers) and exercising financial prudence. Yes, I intentionally chose to slow down in year 2, but there’s was still a mind drama I had to deal with when reviewing my numbers 😂

• Thinking of how I can enhance my skillset in the era of generative AI

• Actually taking a break and focusing on more life stuff - spending more time with family, hobbies and friends.

• Remembering from past experience that it’s better to put in the work to find clients that’s a fantastic fit, rather than say yes to every single opportunity that comes your way

So what’s next for me now?

It’s clear to me that business, like anything else in life runs in seasons. It’s foolhardy to think you can sustain a sprint forever. There will be periods of slowing down and time to pick it back.

Like any season, this phase of slower, internal growth won’t last forever either. Next steps for me include:

• Continue fine-tuning the expression of my brand

• Meeting more fellow solopreneurs and people in the marketing community

• Dusting off my outreach muscles and being more proactive with relationship building. I’m on the lookout for a new client in November, so if you need support with scaling your content strategy or helping your sales team open new doors and opportunities with content, let’s connect!

Some of my favourite quotes I found helpful

On seasonality in business:

On living below my means and exercising financial prudence:

Thanks Priscilla Tan 🖋️ Freelance B2B SaaS Content Writer (Martech) for sharing this with me during our conversations!

2 years in is still pretty new, but I feel like I've grown a lot since then.

Now with that said, onto the recommendations.

3 thoughtful reads

What’s The Difference Between B2B vs B2C marketing?

Another great piece from David Fallarme questioning the dichotomy between B2C and B2B marketing. B2B purchase decisions aren’t always more logical than B2C, nor are B2C decisions more emotional than B2B. Instead, think in terms of involvement (social/financial/outcome risks). Made me think of my decision-making process around hiring an interior designer for my house last year as a high involvement decision.

Whatever you see on the Internet, exercise curiosity with a healthy dose of skepticism:

Not directly related to marketing, but I found this Twitter response oh-so-interesting. A clip of tennis player Aryna Sabalenka smashing her tennis racquet after a loss went around Twitter. It looks like a private moment gone viral, but further on in the comments, it’s apparent she gave her consent to being filmed + there was a camera crew for a future documentary present. Completely changes your perspective when you see the camera crew that's been left out of the original. This applies to assessing any form of content online - whether it’s branded case studies, business best practices and so on.

OnlyCFO - newsletter on the intersection of startups, business and finance

A newsletter with a unique topical intersection - very handy if you’re working to become more empathetic to the financial perspective as a marketer. Check out their posts on the dangers of copying success and their guide to understanding accounting for software companies.

1 helpful resource

How to get budget holders to approve your deal:

Helpful guide from Clari on what questions to tackle when you’re creating content for people in charge of budgets. Geared towards sales professionals but also helpful for people creating slides or content geared towards senior execs.

1 cool tool

Read-it-later app Matter now transcribes podcasts if you're a paid subscriber! If you’re like me, who love podcasts but can’t spare 30-60 minutes to listen to a full episode or prefer to read or annotate text over listening, this feature is amazing! I like that Matter formats the output like an article rather than copy-pasting a raw transcription without capitalisation or punctuation (a pain to edit and read!)

Now I can make podcasts into part of my research process or make podcasts a larger part of my content diet.