From a freelancer to a founder. You love the freedom of freelancing and you cannot imagine ever working for someone else. However, running a service-based business means that at some point you’ll inevitably hit the earnings ceiling. Yes, you can always raise your prices and negotiate better deals with clients . But still, you won’t be able to take on more work than you can muster alone. Here’s a big question you need to answer honestly: do you want to stay in the freelance economy or do you want to transition into entrepreneurship where you actually grow a business? If you answer is the latter, there are several things you’ll have to figure out before you can start introducing yourself as a founder. 1. Make sure you understand what you are signing up for Right now, being a freelancer, you’re a gun for hire. You’re regarded as an expert in your field and a technician available to the one who needs your service. As an entrepreneur, to be successful, you should get that being a talented technician is only part of the puzzle. This is because the entrepreneurial mindset focuses on the larger picture and creates a system based on business goals. So, what are your goals? And how can you transition to them? This requires some careful thought and analysis of your skills and how you can market them as a business owner, not a freelancer. YOU MAY ALSO LIKE Perhaps you can bundle your services into product packages and remove yourself from the delivery of those by hiring a team? Or you are eager to explore the more passive business ideas that would allow you to scale more rapidly and “remove” yourself from the business to some extent. Finally, you can always have a clean start and build a startup from the ground up, based on that idea you’ve been cherrishing for years. 2. Change your sales process Running a business means that you now need to interact with a somewhat different crowd including potential investors and customers. You are no longer a ‘gun for hire’, but an entity with the added challenge of communicating your value and navigating a more complex sales process as a result. “It takes a huge mindset shift,” said Kris Lal, CEO of Curator Social . “We’ve increased profits year on year seven fold, by simply switching from selling our services to problem solving for our clients. Stay true to your strengths, firm with your pricing and build value as opposed to discounting your services. It’s the difference between becoming a valuable partner as opposed to a replaceable supplier.” 3. Prepare to delegate Many “freelance founders” often have the problem of giving away the reigns. They are so used to putting out all fires by themselves that they often forget that it’s no longer their responsibility to do so. As a former app developer, you may be tempted to rework the code produced by your new hire. But it’s no longer your […]