From freelancer to founder - and a five year plan?

Five years ago this week I set my company up from my apartment in Shanghai.

I picked a name off the top of my head - Avery Content (based on my maiden name) - I’ll change it later, I thought.

Freelancing was supposed to be a short term solution to what I now recognise was a long term problem: never quite feeling like I was in control of my career path. I resigned from a really great company (while pregnant!) so the pressure was on to set something up that I’d want to return to, whether that be in China or elsewhere.

There was no five year plan or vision. It was simply to rid myself of some corporate stress , pick up a few interesting projects and earn enough money to enjoy my life, which at the time was the expat dream of travel and freedom.

My motivation has evolved each year, from flexibility to travel, to paying nursery fees, to building a business that has potential to grow.

Working with a coach since day one (shout out to Amy @ Megawatt!) has delivered invaluable structure and guidance. I value my autonomy, creativity, and flexibility so any project or client must align with one or all of those. I have clear strengths and areas of interest, and the confidence to set boundaries around those (most of the time, more on that another day). I also know what I don’t want - a large team and an office, aka an agency model. I’m scaling up solo with a few solid contributors for now.

A lot can happen in five years - two babies, an international move, Covid, so who knows what the next five years looks like.

I’d love to hear how your business got going? Grand plan or happy accident?

Lois X