Why I Decided Against Growing An Agency and Being A Freelancer Instead

How it all started‍

When I was a second-year bachelor student, a friend of mine and I, both studying Creative Technology, decided to start a creative agency. We wanted to help small businesses to make use of all the emerging digital marketing opportunities.

We set up business websites, email campaigns, online stores, launched facebook ads and produced marketing videos.

Basically, we’ve been a typical agency consisting of two founders that were young, curious and motived, wanting to apply our knowledge and our skills to do creative work for companies that we believed in.

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Reasons for growing an agency

Working on awesome projects
My main motivation to run an agency was to work with a team of great people, acquiring big projects and having a strong workforce of talented people to work with.

Building something from nothing togehter
The idea of owning an office and establishing an environment, were people and I myself included like to go to work to and create amazing things collaboratively appealed to me.

Wealth creation
Running an agency does not only pay the bills but can help to generate a passive income and escape the classical 9-5, which to a certain degree can lead to more freedom. Or how I read it on Twitter recently: "True wealth is the ability to wake up and do whatever it is you want to do" (Credits to Dan Go)

My personal reasons against the agency model

‍The classical advertising world
When learning about the advertising industry, I often heard that people get stressed out, that there are tight deadlines and long workdays. These are just some of the factors that made the creative agency model unattractive for me.

Doing what I love for a living
Another concern that I had was that running an agency might hold me back on doing work that I enjoy most. Hiring, onboarding and managing employees is not part of it and would come with a lot of responsibility and bureaucracy. 

The challenges of co-founding
Having a co-founder can be very beneficial, since both founders bring different skills into the company. Think of the great founder combinations at companies such as Apple or AirBnB.

However, what I personally didn’t thought enough about, is the importance of a shared vision and shared goals. For example: What if you want to scale but your co-founder does not? What if your co-founder wants to work exclusively with business consultants but you would like to serve other businesses? What if you want to invest in an office, but your co-founder prefers remote work? Your goals need to align and that’s not always easy. 

Trust is an important factor as well. If you mess something up, for example by disappointing a client, not only your reputation is destroyed but often also the one of your co-founder (and the other way around).

Freedom as the main motivator for being a freelancer

‍More flexibility
As a freelancer, you can decide completely on your own, which projects to take on, from where you work and at what time. Sometimes this might be true for agencies as well, but oftentimes you are more constrained and won’t be that flexible. 

Less responsibility
When running a business it has to run all the time - usually also when you are on holiday. Taking a vacation when running a business can be tough. You might be needed or at  think that you are being needed. It’s difficult to completely disconnect for a while.

Control
I always am the person who works directly with my client. This puts me in charge but also lets me have more control over a project.

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Concluding thoughts‍

I did not regret starting an agency. It was  a great experience and I learned a lot. Especially, about the business- and marketing side of things. My business partner and I ran the agency for two years. We helped each other, learned from each, had difficult times and good times.

The agency model was just not the right choice for me in the long-run. I did not see myself as a co-founder of an agency.  It did not fit my lifestyle and I wanted to focus more on truly creative work.

In the end, it depends on the kind of person that you are. The challenge is to find the work that you truly enjoy.

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If you want to stay updated about my journey as a freelancer or founder of a ‘company of one’, feel free to follow me on Twitter.