Are you a freelancer or a business owner?
Turns out, you can be both.
Mindset Mastery is a weekly newsletter about the psychology of self-employment from Jenni Gritters. If you’d like to support my work, I invite you to become a paid subscriber for $5/ month! Paid subscribers receive monthly business planning exercises, along with other perks like access to newsletters on sensitive topics.
If you’re tired of just surviving and want to move your business into a more intentional, less chaotic mode this fall, my new business coaching membership program is for you! It’s called SUSTAIN and we kick off this month.
Today I want to talk about why I care so much about business education for freelancers. This is a longer one, but I hope you’ll bear with me.
I’m in the midst of a financial mindset training program (so much goodness coming your way about this soon) and we were talking a few months ago about how to make more money. Kate Northrup, the coach who’s leading the program (check out her books Do Less and Money: A Love Story) offered up FOUR ways that people typically earn money:
Having a job
You work for someone else! You trade dollars for hours. You show up, do work, then (hopefully) step away. You do not have to deal with all the tricky bits of working for yourself, like taxes and business strategy. But you also may not have agency over your workflow, tasks and schedule.
Becoming self-employed
You don’t have a job, you own a job. You’re a freelancer, or a contractor. You work for other people but on your terms. You have a lot more agency than you would if you worked for someone else, but you’re also beholden to those pesky employment taxes (which are the highest on this list at 22-25%). You know you’re in this category if revenue stops coming in when you stop working.
Running a business
You own a system. You typically have some people working for you. You are not indispensable. In fact, if you are running a business, you are trying to make yourself dispensable! You can step away and things keep moving. Money keeps coming in. You don’t have to pay those high taxes, but you also have to deal with more business management versus doing the work yourself. The other big difference here is that all the money you earn is not yours. You’ll need to implement profit margins so you can make sure to pay your people on time.
Investing
Your money works for you!
(This model comes from Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad.)
I’ve been thinking about these distinctions a lot lately as I figure out how to market my new coaching membership program, which starts this month. Based on this paradigm, freelancers are not business owners and thus don’t need business education.
Is that true?
I don’t buy it. Here’s why: For a long time, freelancing — or working on a gig-to-gig basis — was seen as a stop-gap measure for a career. Stay-at-home moms might continue to work on a consulting basis while caring for their kids. People who’ve been laid off might freelance for a bit to make ends meet before their next big job.
I faced this when I started freelancing as well. I wondered if people would take me seriously. Hell, I wasn’t sure if I took myself seriously! I’d freelanced before, for just three months, and it was hard. It didn’t seem like a long-game approach.
It’s no wonder that we think this. Business books don’t talk about how to run a freelance workflow. Business-focused legislation, like AB5 in California (which makes it arguably harder for independent contractors to get work), doesn’t categorize freelancing as “legitimate work.”
But more and more, this is becoming old news. Many of us have opted into gig-based work as a way to have freedom, and we’re in it for the long-haul. This isn’t so much a reflection of personal desire (although that’s part of it) as it is a reflection of skyrocketing costs of living, stagnate wages, and once-stable industries (like media, education, academia and healthcare) in massive states of deterioration. It used to be that a full-time job was considered a more safe and stable option. Increasingly, many of us are disavowing this belief entirely.
In 2023, 73.3 million Americans reported that they were freelancing. Each year, more than 3 million people are predicted to join our ranks.
And what do we all need?
Business education.
Without knowing how to run a business, freelancing does become a stop-gap measure. It’s something you can only maintain for a bit. But when you add financial savvy, client relationship knowledge and intentional business planning to the mix, the whole equation changes.
I’ve been freelancing since 2018, and I’ve made more than $500,000 during those years — while taking two extended maternity leaves, moving to a new state, raising two small children, healing from PTSD, buying a house, and bringing my husband home from his job as a nurse. This isn’t a silly little side hustle; it’s an intentional career that provides me with the money I need to live a beautiful life.
The old ways of thinking about work are breaking down. Freelancing is just one example of that change. But I want to say this to you loud and clear: If you’ve chosen to work for yourself, or you’re thinking about making the leap, this is a legitimate, smart decision. Don’t let anyone else say otherwise.
(I’d also love to teach you more about running a “legit” freelance business in my new group coaching program, SUSTAIN.)
To hell with those “classic” categories. Take what you want from each and leave the rest behind. Design a business that works for you, and know that you’re just as worthy of being educated about business as the guy launching a venture-backed start-up in Silicon Valley. The world needs your voice and your services, too.
Xo,
Jenni
Curious about my background? I’m a writer and business coach based in Central Oregon. I have two small children and I work part-time so I can spend a lot of time with them. Lately, I’ve been obsessed with non-linear business building and teaching people how to build successful businesses that support their human needs first. Check out my coaching offerings here, follow me on Twitter & Instagram, or download my free business plan for creatives!