Building a dream team
Working alone is hard. It turns out we really do need each other.
When I transitioned into self-employment, I knew that I’d miss being a part of a team. With a team, you have people who will pitch in and help when you get stuck. You have people to run ideas by. You are part of a group working towards a shared mission. You get to work with talented people doing what they do best and you doing what you do best.
I spent many years being a part of a team and the next day, it was just… me. Suddenly I became the sole decision-maker, developer, designer, the only one working towards this mission.
And yet somehow, as the months have went by, I’ve started to establish what feels like a team within these confines of working alone. It started with inviting you into this journey and has evolved from there.
Friends, friends of friends, and complete strangers have become a part of this journey. How did this happen? Here are the main places I’ve found community, support, and even new work:
Coffee chats.
I probably have 1 call every week or so with a business owner, freelancer or entrepreneur (a.k.a. people who have done what I’m trying to do before me). These have been people in my network like Thomas Gorczynski as well as complete strangers like Kevin Green. I’m always surprised by how generous people are with their time, knowledge, experience and even network.
Online communities.
Twitter is a fun place to interact with other people in the dev and freelance space, but I’ve found even better community through Slack groups. I’m a part of a couple for dev tools I use like Sanity and Jamstack. I also recently joined a group of freelancers in the tech space. In addition to being a fun community, the people in the freelancing group often collaborate on projects. So if I ever need the help of an art director or copywriter, I can lean on these people to fill in the gaps on projects with skills I don’t have.
In-person co-working.
I’ve been a member of a local co-working space for 2 months now. The place is small enough that I see the same faces on a regular basis and have gotten to know the other members. People say hi to me when I show up to work, they ask how I’m doing, how business is doing, and they connect me to other awesome people.
"A rising tide lifts all boats.”
Not having a team doesn’t mean you need to work alone. It’s actually fun when you connect with people doing the same thing as you, even if they might be competitors in the market. By lifting the tide for each other, you’re lifting the tide for yourself.
Now on to the business updates.
State of the Business
— January 2023 Review
Downtime. The first two weeks of January were slowwwww. I had no client work to do, so I redesigned Cosite’s website. It’s a 1-pager now. I also standardized my pricing and services so that new client proposals are easier.
Marketing. Thankfully, I’ve gotten a steady stream of leads from just connecting with people I know and sharing about what I’m doing on social media that I didn’t have to implement the marketing plan I mentioned last month. This month I’ll also be 1 of 4 featured listings at my co-working space. They’re sending my listing to all of their members (it’s in the thousands!) as well as posting it in all of their physical locations.
Social Media. I soft launched social media accounts for Cosite. LinkedIn is the main one I’ll be posting on for now (go follow it!). I need to do some more research to decide if it’s worth my time to post elsewhere, like Instagram or Facebook. 🤷♀️
Client Work. I have 2 clients I’m actively working with and 3 upcoming projects. I can eat this month.
Team Growth. I hired a part-time intern who started this week. His name is Jake and he’s a student at my alma mater. Jake will be doing a 14-week internship for Cosite, working just 12 hours a week. I learned a ton from my former internships and mentors and so I am super excited to pass it on and have someone to collaborate with and mentor.
Next Steps
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure what this month holds. I might get a lot of inquiries from the co-working listing but I also might not.
I’ll be pretty booked with client work, but if I have additional time, I’d like to continue building up Cosite’s social media presence to get organic leads. I’ll be wrapping up some projects here soon, so I’d like to share that work on said social media.
I should also maybe start figuring out this filing business taxes thing.
☀️🙂☀️
Thanks for reading and being a part of my unofficial team! Please like this if you liked this and I hope you have a splendid February.