Stop thinking you're a freelancer.
It's holding you back
In the first year after I quit my corporate job, I freelanced for my old company. It gave me a steady income while I found my feet, and was really wonderful in so many ways. It also made me realise that traditional freelancing and running a business aren’t the same thing.
Being a freelancer means trading time for money. Fixed days, a day rate, and a relationship where you’re essentially at the mercy of whoever’s hired you. On a good day, that can look like stability. On a bad day, it can mean sitting at your desk waiting for a brief that never arrives, or drowning in work that’s spilled beyond the hours you agreed to, without the safety net of sick leave, holiday pay or gossips by the coffee machine with your colleagues.
It was while I was working those fixed days that I realised I didn’t want to a “freelancer” in the traditional sense. I wanted to be a business owner.
What this means
It doesn't mean hiring staff or renting office space. I've been a one-woman business since 2020 and that hasn’t changed. What changed was how I think and operate.
A freelancer charges for hours. A business owner charges for outcomes: projects or retainers built around delivering a specific result.
A business owner builds systems and processes so that parts of the business can become more predictable, streamlined and the work faster.
They use tools to automate routine work and outsource or hire support for tasks that aren’t their core strength.
They prioritise working “on” the business rather than just “in” the business (client work).
They position themselves as experts and select clients who fit their niche.
They consistently network and market themselves, even when business is good.
A client will come to a freelancer with a brief and expect them to fill in the hours. When you step into a business owner mindset, you have the confidence to guide a client toward what will work — toward what they need rather than what they think they want. That’s a different kind of conversation, and positions you differently from the outset.
You are not everything to everyone
Part of what makes that confidence possible is knowing your niche.* When you’re clear on what you do and who you do it best for, you stop trying to be everything to everyone. You start being able to say no to work that isn’t the right fit.
That sounds like a luxury when you’re starting out and it’s not something most of us can do right away (there are always a few dud jobs in the beginning!), but it compounds over time. The clients who are a good fit refer more good-fit clients, and every piece of (aligned) completed work makes it that bit easier to get the next.
*Niching down doesn’t have to mean only working with one type of client. It can mean getting really clear on what you offer and who it benefits.
The little moves that made me feel like a business owner
Stepping into “business owner” energy brings with it imposter syndrome. Especially for women. And for me, operating this way didn’t come about as a result of landing a well-known client or hitting a revenue milestone. It was the result of a series of small actions.
First, I got an accountant. A friend referred me and I honestly wasn’t sure I needed one since I had barely any money coming in. But having someone managing the numbers made me feel less like I was cobbling things together and more like I was running an actual business.
Then I booked a photoshoot, created a simple website, built out some basic templates (proposals and contracts with my logo in the corner) and got automated invoicing set up through Xero. These systems and tools aren’t just about saving on admin (which is great), they’re about giving you confidence.
When you have processes in place — when a new client gets a proper proposal, a clear contract, an automatic invoice — it removes friction on both sides and makes the whole thing feel more predictable. You stop wasting time doing the same thing over and over again, and you come across as a smoooooooth operator (sorry, couldn’t help it).
This matters — so much! — if you want to attract and retain other
smooooooothoperatorsslick, professional, well-paying clients.
On marketing when you don’t need to
Most traditional organisations have a department for (or at least an employee or two dedicated to) new business. Nurturing prospects and regular outreach is a major priority. They don’t wait for leads to come to them, they’re out there making it happen.
This is the approach you should take, too.
The freelancers I know who have a steady pipeline of clients rather than a feast-and-famine cycle, are the ones who keep showing up consistently. They write a weekly newsletter, post on LinkedIn or Instagram regularly, and make a habit of networking.
This attitude — of working “on” the business, not just “in” the business — is one of the key distinctions between being a freelancer and being a business owner.
Client work will always be the thing that pays the bills, but if that’s all you ever do, there’s no space to build — to refine your systems, develop your positioning, or think about where you want to be in two years. Protecting time for this doesn’t feel natural at first (it feels indulgent, honestly), but it’s what separates people who are busy growing someone else’s company, from those who are building something of their own.
Not being afraid to invest
I think one of the trickiest things about moving from a “freelancer” to a “business owner” mindset is changing how you view money and, more specifically, getting comfortable with spending it. That can mean outsourcing parts of your business or investing in yourself through training.
I have an accountant and a VA. I occasionally outsource content writing for my side project when I need to. These decisions never felt completely comfortable. They always felt too soon, too risky, like I hadn’t earned enough money yet to warrant it.
But there’s a ceiling on what one person can do in a day. When I started working on my passion project, Corgi Companion, I had a choice: pour my own hours into it, or protect those hours for the work I charge good money for and hire someone to help. I hired a VA who costs less than my day rate. The project moves forward. I don’t have to choose between growing it and earning a living.
That’s the difference between scarcity thinking and business owner thinking. Scarcity thinking hoards your time because it’s the only resource you have. Business owner thinking starts to see time as something you can buy back.
It’s a gradual shift. But once you start making those small moves — the accountant, the systems, the first outsourced task — something changes. You stop feeling like a freelancer who’s getting by, and start feeling like someone running something of your own.
Do you consider yourself a business owner or a freelancer?
I’d love your thoughts on this subject.
Bella xo
In case you missed it…
I’m with you on this. I help freelancers rethink how they manage their finances. Things include considering how their everyday business decisions impact their wallet.
I could not agree more with your article. Having spent 25 years as a business owner before transitioning to writing, the ‘freelance’ side of things has left me feeling really out of a loop that, from the outside, has never made sense. I started my writing career with the same templates from my clinical practice, and I have been contracted each month for the past two years by strong women in the arts and crafts. Business owner - yes. Freelance hustler - no.