Vikki Randles’ freelancer story

Freelance

As part of our freelance celebration we’re sharing the experiences of female freelancers. Here’s Vikki Randles’ story.

What do you do?

I’m a freelance marketing consultant and director of Fresh Perspective Marketing. I work with industrial companies who need help defining their marketing strategies and getting their action plans crystal clear.  

I am also an associate at Hoxby Collective – an award-winning virtual workforce of more than 800 exceptionally talented people working remotely across 30 countries. We curate experts from our community to provide consultancy and agency services for clients around the world, tailoring our teams to deliver great results, every time.

How long have you been a freelancer?

Since September 2018, so nearly a year after 20 years of corporate life!

Why did you go freelance?

I wanted the freedom and flexibility to carry on working in marketing but within a workstyle that fitted with my family. I was trying to fit a full-on full-time marketing manager role into part-time hours and was becoming increasingly stressed and unhappy as a result.

What do you love about being a freelancer?

I wanted to have a great work-life blend – juggling client work and marketing of my own business with the needs of my family. I also wanted to explore multiple revenue streams and work with interesting and varied clients.

And what do you hate about being a freelancer?

There’s absolutely nothing that I hate so far. I did struggle a bit at first with adjusting to working from home and missing my work team and the familiar routine of office life. 

However, I learnt to overcome this by using various ways to make sure I got enough human interaction – working on client site, going to networking events, video-conference, remote working etc

How long did it take to earn an income you were happy with?

Around three months.

And how long to get a good client rota?

Again around three months. I was very fortunate to be able to utilise my network to get me started

Have you ever turned a client down?

No.

If you could offer any advice to yourself starting out as a freelancer what would it be?

Get out and meet people from day one – in the early days, I spent far too long in front of a computer deliberating over things like business cards and my website when I should have just bitten the bullet and introduced myself to the outside world.  

When you get out there, you realise that there is a community of freelancers, both on and offline, that is in my experience, incredibly helpful, encouraging and open to collaboration. 

Find out more about Vikki