This past Sunday, I celebrated 7 years of freelancing. It’s a milestone and the freelance-versary is one I’ve always paused to recognize. Thank you to all of you who’ve supported my journey in some way – referrals, clients, newsletter readers – this couldn’t have been accomplished without you.

Next week, I’m headed to Berlin for World of Coffee and then Amsterdam for a short vacation. I have not been to either city before so I’m very excited!

– Jenn

7 marketing lessons in 7 years of freelancing

Seven years is a long time to do any one thing. Yet here I am, seven years later, still self-employed and still focused on specialty coffee. My services have naturally evolved through the years and it’s been an interesting journey through it all.

Year 7 felt more like a maintenance, plateau year instead of a growth one. It’s why I committed to more professional skill development this year. Year 8 feels like a year where I can take more risks and try out some new revenue streams that I’ve been eyeing.

In this celebratory vein, I’d like to talk about seven things I’ve learned about marketing while working in marketing. A lot of these things can’t be implemented until you have some basic level of a developed business. For example, you probably can’t say no or invest in software until you have a consistent income stream.

1. Cut out time-consuming, manual processes

2. It’s okay to say no

3. You don’t have to be everything

4. Be willing to take calculated risks

5. Outsource what you don’t want to do

6. Value your time

7. Invest in hobbies

I go into depth about each of the above in my blog post. These are just a few lessons I’ve learned along the way in my freelancing career. I hope year eight brings in even more things that I can learn from!

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