Don’t Think Like an Employee. Think Like an Entrepreneur.
👋 Hey friends, Jimi here. Happy Friday and welcome to ✨this week’s edition✨ of Jimi’s newsletter. Each week I’m diving into some Creative Business™. That’s, creatives who want to work for themselves and get some freedom and control back into their lives.
You don't need a full time job. Every minute you spend working at a startup is time devoted to making other peoples dreams come true instead of yours. It doesn’t take much. You can start with just 2-3 clients. Here are a few ways I’ve found helpful.
Go find:
A company actively hiring for your role and reach out to them. Explain the benefits of using a service like yours instead of hiring someone full-time. (cost, benefits, etc.)
The way things are in the world and economy right now companies are being stingy with their hiring. More and more people flood the market each day.
Reach out to your current gig (or past gig) and see if they would still be interested in your services on a retainer basis. Both myself and my partner did this successfully this year and we’re still working with them today.
Even for 10-20 hours a week. They’ll save money and you’ll get some free time back.
Join a few online communities and find your tribe. Private slack communities, local design meetups (if you’re a designer), reddit forums. There are loads of places to look. My last 2 clients came from this method.
Are you currently part of any private communities? Would you be interested in one with fellow creative entrepreneurs? Send me an email and let me know your thoughts.
It doesn’t take much.
2-3 clients should be enough to transition to working for yourself. I currently have 6 clients with a project starting on a 7th that will keep me busy for a while. What’s crazy is I haven’t advertised or sent any cold outreach emails. Your network is your networth now. Every client I have has come through people I know. It’s a powerful thing.
“Entrepreneur is a mind set first, a skill set and rules.” -Robert Kiyosaki
The fact is you don’t want a paycheck. You don’t want the mindset of an employee. It’s wild to think they don’t teach us how to run a business in school. The good news is right now it’s a lot easier to find clients than finding a full-time job. Despite companies doing layoffs the demands they must meet doesn’t go away. Position yourself to help them solves some of those pain points and …you’re in business (I know, bad pun).
Are you interested in leaving your full-time role and working for yourself? What are some of the things holding you back? Send me an email and let me know, I’d love to share more about what I’ve learned making the switch.
A quick note on tools
I didn’t discuss my tech stack or tools in this email because I will be diving deeper in that topic in another post. But for now I run my entire business with just 2 tools:
Webflow to design, build, and host my website. I also design and build websites for clients in Webflow. It’s an incredible feeling to not have to find a developer anymore. I personally believe they will be the next Wordpress.
Notion to keep track of to-do’s, invoices, clients, templates and everything else. It’s such a powerful tool and their new AI integration just made it even better.