Fractional Vol. 6: Full Throttle
Welcome to another edition of your friendly fractional newsletter, which is essentially my own time and space to reflect on the previous month of living that sweet freelancer life. This is the first month where I feel like I really hit my stride, shed some of the false starts and stops of previous months, and started to feel content with the work. I met some new people I’m excited to work with, said a respectful goodbye to a client, and started to think about what this might look like in the long term.
Next month, I’m debating restructuring this to “A Week in the Fractional Life” and going through my day-to-day, how much I work, what activities I did each day, and sort of demystifying what this looks like on a very practical level. Would that be interesting to you? Think about it like a Refinery29 Money Diary, but less on the money, more on what’s done. Let me know if that idea makes you roll your eyes or if it’d be good to spectate that side of my fractional life. I’m open-minded!
The Update (Good+Bad)
The client work is, god I don’t want to jinx it, good. I’ve got a healthy mix that I’m really happy about:
My longest-standing client, where I do mostly copywriting, creative direction, and a little bit of strategy here and there. I’m grateful for this team. It’s steady work, I get to learn and grow alongside some very fun and collaborative folks, and the product has real value. It’s a great mix.
An entertainment client with a mission I truly believe in, and a team I also adore. Here, my work falls largely into the “brand voice” camp, but also toggles into some strategic elements. It’s a startup, so the nature of it is that we are all capable people who sometimes wear different hats… and it’s fun.
A local client who is also very mission-driven. It’s a fun team and the work here is more squarely in the marketing camp–conversion optimizations on their website, helping with organic growth, email marketing, and messaging. It’s a mish-mash, but sometimes it’s fun to wear a generalist hat.
A startup in the grocery space, where I’m working with a former boss to hone in on their value proposition, how they communicate who they are, and some foundational copy and decks. I’ve learned about myself that I really like getting deep into the weeds quickly and then taking a big ol’ step back to try to parse out the why and the how–and then empower internal teams with the right tools to carry on that level of communication. There’s something that’s fresh about it every time for me.
I also have two prospects that I’ve got feelers out for, one of which I’m hopeful to land and the other that I think is truly on the fence.
A hospitality client with a really promising offering. I love hospitality and I miss working in that space from my days with Getaway. Luckily, so many of my former colleagues and now friends from that job still work in that space, and there’s sometimes work that I and others are tapped in for that’s challenging, fun, and impactful.
A CPG client who is a lead from a friend of a friend. It’s super early days for this company, and there’s something about the all-hands-on-deck element of working alongside a founder and one other team member that’s appealing to me at the moment.
At the same time, I said farewell to two clients, one of whom was project-based and the other (a retainer client) was my own choice given the strains on my bandwidth. With all of the above and me being just one person (who is also working on three scripts, planning some important life things, and training for a 10K), I can only do so much. To break down these clients:
A client in the wellness space has put me on pause until more funding comes through. I’ve worked with this client on and off for years now, so it’s really all simpatico; when more funding comes, I look forward to jumping back in.
The client I parted ways with in the fintech space. I knew that I wasn’t able to give them my all, and they were really looking for someone in more of the blog writing only capacity. I have no problem writing blogs, but it’s maybe 10th in a list of the 20 things I like to do most, and given that I am merely proficient in the finance space, I figured it made more sense to part ways and allow them to find a content writer who is (1) super jazzed about blog writing and specializes in just that, and (2) a fintech expert.
So that’s the client download. This is the first month that I ran payroll, which was a learning experience! I got set up with ADP based on a referral, and ran quarterly payroll at the end of March, paying myself $15,000 (which netted out to $11K and change after taxes). It is definitely the first-time-business-owner in me, but I didn’t factor in that the cost would be higher than $15K, both because of employer taxes (first time paying them) and platform fees (I was aware of this one). Luckily, that money was in my business account, but my business account is looking really sad at the moment.
Finances were feeling a little overwhelming to me this month, to be honest. My business account is really low as of today, April 3, and I’m not amazing at tracking my invoices. I had a moment of crisis where I called my accountant (i.e., Dad) to talk through what I’m doing wrong. I’m aware that the money coming in is limited by the amount I can work. In an ideal situation, I’d be able to have some kind of a passive income, but that’s so hard in my field. Not only that, but I like being involved in the day-to-day and the collaboration of work, even when the actual work is, well, work. But with the macroeconomic climate being what it is, it’s been hard to inch my rate up to where I want it to be to start feeling like I’m building wealth, saving for retirement, the whole shebang. This is further compounded by the fact that it’s just been an expensive few months (home renovations, taxes, other life things).
After my crisis of faith, or as fellow writers sometimes call “the dark night of the soul,” I decided to just literally write everything out. What went out, what came in, what still needs to land in my account… and with that I saw that I’ve invoiced for about $25,000 that hadn’t come in yet. That $25,000 is what I’ve worked but haven’t been compensated for yet. That is the stark difference between full-time and fractional work. The reliable and immediate compensation based on hours worked versus the lag time. But now that it’s a known quantity, I’m feeling more comfortable with it.
So let’s talk about those numbers, right? As we do each month, I billed $16,150 this month, well ahead of my recalibrated goal of $12,500 per month, but shy of the original goal of $17,000. I’m happy with this amount. If I annualize it, it’s just south of $194,000 which is about what I would expect from a full-time role in this job climate (well, $6,000 less than what I’d expect, but who’s counting?), but with a slow January, I’m really quite happy with those results. For the quarter (now that Q1 is done, can you believe it?), I took in just over $43K. Not too shabby for my first year in business! And I do expect that number to grow in Q2 based on how business is going and Q3, and dip down a little in Q4.
On the Planning Side…
I’m sticking to what I’ve said in previous months and the new business efforts are on pause. I am so blessed to have so much work come in via referral, and I just don’t need to go banging down anyone’s doors. That said, I’m always game for an intro if you know someone I should know.
The only real planning activity is that I’m trying to get a bit more buttoned up about my business. I’ve enlisted frequent collaborator, supreme talent, and good friend over at ARC STUDIO to envision a new logo and color palette (with hopefully a new website soon) for Supporting Cast. It’s time we elevate off of the no-logo and shitty Squarespace site so I can properly update my LinkedIn and make this look like a real business. Because we are doing real business, and I’m proud of that. So more on that next month.
Oh shoot, I just read my old newsletter and I still need to get business insurance. Eep! Okay that will be done for next month and I’ll write about that then. Also in the meantime, don’t sue me, please.
What’s Keeping Me Up At Night
Honestly, nothing. Isn’t that beautiful?
The only things keeping me up at night are my own extracurriculars. And I’m feeling like that’s how it should be.
And Lastly…
A few recommendations of things I’ve enjoyed this last month:
No list in April 2024 is complete without referencing Cowboy Carter. All hail.
A few local recommendations for LA friends, based on things I’ve done this past month:
Favorite cut/color at Cactus Moon LA.
Favorite workout is a pop-up with Good Move! LA friends, enjoy while you can. NY friends, their studio is in Williamsburg.
I’ve been so into Skaf’s lately that I forgot about my eastside Mediterranean first love, Bowery Bungalow. Order the tahini toast.
Got my first dye bath item back from SUAY, and wow what a delight. It’s so fun throwing new life into old clothes that probably would have wound up in the donation pile. You can find out more about what they do here.
If you found this newsletter to be valuable, forward it to a friend. I’m doing this as a labor of love and touch of lunacy, but if this is something you’d pay for via a Substack or otherwise, consider making a donation to La Más.