Embracing the “We”

This has been an ongoing theme as I work to develop and grow my business.  As I’m partnering with sub-contractors more and more, I’m beginning to feel more comfortable embracing the “we” when talking about my company, CasJam Media.

Over the past year, I’ve been slowly phasing in communication like “we do design and development” and “we’ll have these design updates ready for you by the end of this week”, rather than “I do design and development” or “I will tweak these designs”.  In the past, I felt a bit uneasy sneaking in these “we” statements.  I felt it was somewhat deceptive or something, since I’m still physically working alone in my home-office.  But it’s not deceptive

I do hire sub-contractors—other designers and developers—to collaborate with me on client projects.  By hiring the best, I’ve been able to deliver a superior product to the client.  Better than what I would have delivered doing everything myself.  Faster too.  I’m able to take on more work simultaneously and meet tighter deadlines through teaming up with fellow freelancers.

I went from outsourcing a little help here and there to hiring out for nearly 50% (give or take) of my client workload today.  It’s clear now that my goal moving forward is to increase that percentage and allow myself to step back from doing the work of the technician to focus all of my energy on big-picture work and internal projects.  The only way to do that is to fully embrace “we”.

I feel I’m now losing that uneasiness I had during the past year or so.  A few things I learned during this transformation-in-progress:

• In the words of George Costanza, “It’s not a lie, if you believe it”.  No, I don’t lie to anyone (Maybe I just wanted an excuse to quote my favorite TV character of all time).  But I now embrace the mindset that outsourcing is a normal part of my routine.  It’s a legitimate part of my business model, and one I shouldn’t be ashamed of.  The freelance/agency hybrid model is what I believe this industry is evolving into, and CasJam Media is a part of that.  We are a part of that.

• I’m more open about the fact that I outsource part of my workload.  I’m learning how to communicate that to clients.  I work it into my first-meeting conversations with new clients.  I find ways to bring my long-time clients up to speed on how my business is growing (and thankfully, they’ve all been supportive of that).  The key is convey (honestly) how your business growth benefits the client.

• I’m using my embracing of the “we” as self-motivation to keep pushing forward with my goal of expanding my business and develop true scalability.  I’m conveying a certain concept of my company.  Now it’s time to live it.  Or maybe it’s the other way around- I’ve been living it, so now I must fully embrace it.  Either way, it feels good knowing the ball is rolling forward.

Enough rambling for today… I hope this wasn’t too deep/introspective for those of you reading.