‘I Was Making $300K a Year as a Freelancer — Here’s Why I’m Scaling Back’

Hey there 👋🏻

I’ve toyed with the idea of going freelance in the past. In fact, I’m pretty sure I would have taken the plunge had I not been lucky enough to land at Buffer. 

But I’ve always found the prospect of freelancing a little scary. To be responsible for *everything* — including finding new clients and chasing payments — is just a lot. I’ll stick to writing the words for now, thanks. 

This is why I find Kat’s story so mindblowing — to have seen success so phenomenal you’ve been able to *scale back* as a freelancer. Even after reading an in-depth article about how she landed there in our Open Books series (and actually seeing all the numbers!) I still can’t quite wrap my head around it.

You’ll find a summary of that in our Deep Dive this week (plus a link to the full article if you’re interested in seeing those numbers).

Let’s get into it:

💌 Also in today’s email:

• 🤖 Use this AI Assistant prompt to share industry trends.
• 📱Mitra shares a quick guide to creating your own 'stock' footage.
• 📣 The latest social news, features, and bonus reads.
• And as always, all the latest and greatest content from the Buffer blog.

Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you next Friday!

Warmly, 

Kirsti & the Buffer team

P.S. Enter your color-coded era with our new Tags feature in Buffer!

☑️ The poll of the week

🖊️ Deep dive: ‘I Was Making $300K a Year as a Freelancer — Here’s Why I’m Scaling Back’

Kat Boogaard quit her full-time job in 2019 and quickly worked her way up to six-figure earnings per year. By 2021, she was netting over $300,000.

Kat was always career-focused, but starting a family made her rethink her priorities. “I now think about what my business can do for me, not what I can do for it,” she explains of the shift.

Here are some of the changes she’s made:

Flying solo

At the peak of her (financial) business success, Kat worked with sub-contractors to expand her capacity. “Subcontracting was incredible, but it came with challenges and administrative tasks,” she says. “I realized I felt most ‘at peace’ and in control when it was just me, so I decided to scale back to a solo business — at least for the time being.”

Prioritizing projects she finds fulfilling

For Kat, “growth” now means working on projects she enjoys. “I work a three-ish-day workweek and stay narrowly focused on the clients that are the best fit for me. I enjoy my business way more now than I did when it brought in $300K.”

Redefining success

Kat’s new goal is a decent income income without spreading herself too thin. For me, that means earning somewhere in the range of $8,000 to $10,000 per month while maintaining my three-ish-day workweek, being selective about the projects I take on, and saving plenty of my time, patience, and energy for my family and other interests.”

“Is that going to make for a super grabby LinkedIn post or headline? Probably not. But it’s where I’m at. I’m looking at growth through the lens of my overall quality of life.”

🏎️ Four creators speeding up their growth with Buffer

We pride ourselves on being an excellent tool for entrepreneurs and business owners to grow on social media — and our users were more than happy to back us up.

• Erik Berglund on LinkedIn: “I've been able to consistently post for the last 5 months. I've never posted this frequently, and I've saved a ton of time while doing it. I likely save 4+ hours a month by using Buffer”
• Onlinemarketinges: “On TikTok we went from 110k to 310k with Buffer!”
• Reid on Twitter: “Doubled follower count and engagement has gone up 4x”
• Marian on Instagram: “I've saved weeks of time and have increased my engagement at 50%”

Want to skyrocket your growth? Click the link below to get started with Buffer today!

👇🏻 The latest from the blog

• 10 Content Marketing Metrics to Track (+5 Experts on the Ones that Matter to Them): A guide to the content marketing metrics that will help you measure success, plus guidance from top content marketing leaders.

   

• How to Create a Facebook Group That Your Audience Loves: The Ultimate Guide: Facebook Groups from A to Z — how to create, manage, and use them to drum up engagement.

   

• 11 Places to Find Scroll-stopping Instagram Templates for Your Posts, Stories, and Reels: This list will have you creating beautiful content in minutes.

   

• Decoding the Facebook Algorithm in 2023: Everything You Need to Know: How the Facebook algorithm works, plus some guidance on getting your content the reach it deserves.

🤖 A prompt for Buffer's AI Assistant

Use this prompt to share the latest and greatest trends in your industry

The Prompt

Create a post that highlights the latest trends in [industry/field].

• Industry/field: What industry does your target audience work in?

📱Social tip of the week from Mitra, Buffer’s Social Media Manager 

Have you seen people talking about “stock content” or “stock footage” a lot on Instagram and TikTok lately? They’re referring to video content you can use over time and for multiple purposes.

This is such a clever trend, and so handy. Take videos of you while you’re working — like when you’re at the computer, wrapping up packages to send to customers, or a timelapse of you working on your product. Save these clips to use for simple TikToks and Reels, where you can add some trending music and text over the video.

Here’s an example of how I used this exact strategy for an Instagram Reel! This video was really easy to put together since I already had generic footage to use and quickly added the text over it.

📣 What's happening in social?

TikTok’s $1 billion creator fund is shutting down on Dec 16; Instagram has spotlighted a number of creators in their Creators of Tomorrow campaign in the hope of fostering communities; LinkedIn pokes fun at B2B buzzwords (and parents) in their tongue-in-cheek new ad campaign; and Meta has created rules for using generative AI in political ads. 

Thanks for reading! 💟

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