Your career
One of the key aims of MMO Freelance is to help our freelance members connect with each other. Through freelance events, guest blogs and personal introductions, we’re hoping to create a freelance network that is better connected and hopefully able to lend a helping hand to each other through project leads, introductions, or just a Friday beer.
Here’s a guest blog from one of our northern freelance members – Becci Blues, a former OC&C Consultant.
When a (wo)man is tired of London they are tired of life
According to Samuel Johnson. Sorry Sam, but I beg to differ.
As a strategy consultant freelancing in Yorkshire and the north of England, life is pretty awesome. Don’t get me wrong, my love affair with London that started as a fresh-faced graduate continues to this day. It’s a dynamic, fabulous city full of interesting people doing inspirational things. London was where I started my career at OC&C, later moving to Amazon (at the time-based in glamorous Slough but let’s stretch our imaginations and include that in London). I’d always had a passion for retail and working first on projects for leading multinationals, and then operationally for the market leading online retailer was in equal parts challenging and rewarding. And it didn’t hurt that my role at Amazon involved buying a lot of shoes.
London had served me well.
Gouda life
However, a few years down the line the grass was starting to look greener elsewhere. To be specific, the soft grass of North Yorkshire was looking particularly appealing. So in 2014, looking for new challenges and a garden, I moved to the beautiful, ancient city of York and embarked on a crazy, fun-filled and somewhat smelly 18 months running my own award-winning cheese business. It had always been an ambition of mine to run my own retail business and whilst the cheese business was a gouda (sorry) and delicious introduction to the world of small and startup businesses, I eventually decided it wasn’t going to grow to be the right business for me. In late 2015 I sold the business and found myself based in beautiful Yorkshire and looking for the next challenge.
With my CV now encompassing strategy consulting and operational skills from businesses large and micro, I decided it was time to go back to consulting. Wanting to remain (to some extent!) master of my own destiny, freelance consulting seemed the way forward, operating across all sectors but specialising in retail and charity, having undertaken and thoroughly enjoyed several pro bono projects alongside my retail experience.
Freelance
I am now in the process of building my freelance network in the north, and whilst it’s not quite trail blazing, it is certainly a little unusual as a freelancer to be based outside London. The upside is that there are fewer people with my specific skill set, knowledge of local markets, and willingness to be based on projects north of Watford Gap. The downside is that there are fewer projects, and making the right contacts to find out about opportunities takes a little bit of creativity.
In reality, if I were London-based I’d probably keep my eye out on Movemeon, sign up to a few agencies and I’d hope to have a fair stream of work in the pipeline. But then I’ve never been one to take the easy option!
Movemeon have been invaluable in helping me explore the options for freelancing in and around Yorkshire and further afield. The importance of establishing a strong network of local contacts is coming through clearly, and one area I am hoping to strengthen is my connections to other freelance consultants working in the north of England. The goal would be to set up a boutique network of consultants allowing us to share contacts, experiences, and the odd coffee, raising profiles and increasing access to projects.
Perhaps you are looking for a way into new companies, perhaps you want to explore a new sector or want to be able to offer a trusted, alternative consultant to your clients when you are too busy to take on more work. Whatever you are interested in, let’s chat!
If you are a freelance consultant based in and around Yorkshire or the North of England or know someone who is (or perhaps you’re just thinking about it), I’d love to chat. Drop me an email at [email protected]
And if you don’t live in Yorkshire you should come to visit – it’s only 1hr 50 minutes from London on the train and the grass really is greener.
– by Becci
Your career
You’re coming to the end of a freelance consulting project, it’s been fun – great team, challenging work, key milestones reached. You found the project through a recruitment agency. The client pulls you aside one day and asks if you’d be willing to lower your day rate and extend for some follow-on work. You take a minute, consider the request and push back to say that you’re working at the lowest possible rate…
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You’re crunching the numbers in your head, trying to rationalize the request. Realizing the conversation has taken a slightly awkward turn – to date, it’s only been about project success and Friday beers; not about the money – you muster up the courage and ask the client why you can’t continue at your current day rate. After a brief pause, they say, ‘because every day I keep you on site it’s costing me X, you certainly don’t come cheap!’.
You’re now slightly embarrassed and taken aback by the figure and you suddenly realize what your total cost to the client really is. After a moment to collect your thoughts, you work out that a large portion of that total cost is going to the recruitment agency that placed you. Frankly, you feel a bit robbed.
What is the mark-up a recruitment agency is charging on me?
Unfortunately, the conversation above happens far too often too many of the freelancers I speak to. They often overlook one of the key questions that should be in every freelancer’s arsenal when negotiating day rate – ‘what is the mark-up a recruitment agency is charging on me’? The answer is often a surprise and a shock too many – to hear that a recruitment agency is taking anywhere up to 100% of the value of your day rate for each day you work is not only unfair, but it’s also plain wrong.
Naturally, there is an ongoing facilitation fee for the service a recruitment agent has provided – but, like with so many other areas of recruitment today, the lack of transparency around the total mark-up simply enhances the unease many candidates feel when working through an agency.
Transparency first
That’s why, here at Movemeon, we are insistent on providing full transparency around what our fees are, helping you avoid awkward conversations like the one above! Firstly, through Movemeon, you will negotiate and agree your day rate directly with the client.
There is no middle man involved and Movemeon has no influence. Movemeon then charges a commission which is paid by the employer, rather than being taken off the rate you agreed. So, you get a day rate you’ve negotiated and are happy with.
Everyone knows what’s going on. And the client saves up to 75% compared to the commission paid to recruitment agencies.
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Your career
One of the key aims of MMO Freelance is to help our freelance members connect with each other. Through freelance events, guest blogs and personal introductions, we’re hoping to create a freelance network that is better connected and hopefully able to lend a helping hand to each other through project leads, introductions, or just a Friday beer.
Here’s a guest blog from one of our freelance members – Matt, a former LEK Consultant.
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Why did you decide to become a freelance consultant?
After working at LEK for more than 3 years, and spreading my time out across multiple offices and continents, I decided that it was time to get some new experiences outside the institutional consulting bubble. Although I hadn’t found a full-time role I was interested in committing to, I felt like the time was right to make a move. Freelancing seemed to be the sensible middle ground. It offered maximal flexibility, good money, and it gave me the luxury of time to decide the direction I wanted to go in.
What most surprised you?
About the change from perm to freelance
How easy it was to make the move from full time to freelance. There are so many people who have done it before that are willing to give you guidance and there are many organisations out there to make your move easy and smooth. Movemeon was an incredible resource while I was making the transition, it gave me the confidence of knowing that there was ample work out there that would actually interest me.
What one thing would you really want to know?
If you were to just be considering the move to freelance consulting now
How easy it is to make the move, and to escape the treadmill of a large consulting firm.
I remember feeling the typical angst you associate with stepping into the unknown and leaving without another ‘real’ job. It seemed like a common story, being ready to move on but being afraid to take a leap of faith unless conditions were perfect. So just do it, if you are ready to leave, just leave. Take a break, pick up a few months of freelance work while you get some perspective on what you really want. You can always go back to full time consulting if things don’t work out in a way that sits right with you. It’s important to remember that you spend a majority of your time in the workplace and if you need a change, for whatever reason, it’s down to you to make it happen. Freelancing may seem daunting at first but with all the resources out there at your disposal, like movemeon, it’s really not as scary as you think.
Why did you go back to perm?
The right full-time role came around in a small healthcare company that I couldn’t turn down. It was offering me the opportunity to utilise the expertise I gained from my first career as a doctor with the skills I had learnt from consulting. If this specific role hadn’t come around, I think I would still be happily freelancing.
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Recruiting, Your career
One of the key aims of MMO Freelance is to help our freelance members connect with each other. Through freelance events, guest blogs and personal introductions, we’re hoping to create a freelance network that is better connected and hopefully able to lend a helping hand to each other through project leads, introductions, or just a Friday beer.
Here’s a guest blog from one of our freelance members – Florin, a former PwC consultant.
How long have you been a freelance consultant?
and what is your industry focus?
My first big contract was in 2014 with Holidog, a French marketplace start-up for pet owners, but that turned into a permanent stint rather after just a couple of weeks. I’d say I have started seeing myself as a full-time independent consultant about a year ago. Since then, I’ve worked with a couple of start-ups (FinTech, PropTech) as well as corporate clients in Banking, Insurance and Telco. I focus on a rather broad space –helping my clients make use of the ever-evolving technology landscape to stay on top of their game, innovate, enter new markets or find a product-market fit for new services. Having been a consultant and a tech entrepreneur, knowing the challenges on both sides, that really helps tailor my proposition and add credibility.
Why did you decide to become a freelance consultant?
A lot of people start freelancing to fill a period of transition. Certainly, that’s what happened with me. I had been a consultant for 5 years, then started working with start-ups during a sabbatical. One of those contracts became a permanent gig which lasted 2.5 years. At the end of it, I found myself wondering: do I go back to consulting? – which I almost did – or do I do my own thing? And eventually, the entrepreneurial spirit prevailed. Doing my own thing is important and my key strength is, in fact, being a consultant – the two came together, a bit like a Venn diagram.
What most surprised you?
About the change from perm to freelance
What surprised me most is how many ‘established’, large companies use independent consultants even on strategic questions. Having worked with 20-30 major clients before, I can’t recall coming across independents unless it was a project management support role, with very confined attributions. I think the consulting industry is going through a transition period though, and the gig-economy has definitely matured so I can post-rationalise it. It’s still surprising when you find yourself in the middle of it.
What one thing would you really want to know?
If you were to just be considering the move to freelance consulting now
Well – I did it progressively, following a sabbatical and a long stint with a start-up so I warmed up to it, didn’t jump into the cold water so to speak. Certainly, there are a lot of projects out there and of course, there is movemeon that can really really help take the first steps, but the space is competitive, no question. The most important element long term is the relationships that one builds along the way and of course, the credibility you gain through this network. Other than that, what I didn’t expect or plan for was the cyclicality that even larger consulting firms experience. That becomes even more tangible as an independent consultant. I remember having pushed about 17 full-blown proposals one month which finally resulted in one project. I was drained at the end of that period. Another one of those proposals resulted in the client asking me to do a different project a couple of weeks later so I guess the ratio wasn’t that bad in the end; but even so, that specific time was rather daunting.
What followed after was a period when I actually had to turn down work. It may seem like a great problem to have but still needs a well thought-through approach – think of a repeated game in game-theory. That’s definitely a major aspect that I’d underline – to be comfortable with the cyclicality of things. On a different note – I am really happy to have a talk about ups and downs with anyone who has questions. Absolutely, do reach out if you read this.
One main pro & one main con of freelance consulting?
Ohh, there are a lot of pros. The obvious ones are the flexibility and having the actual choice of really working on projects that one wants to work on. Financially it’s not too bad either. The cons are the uncertainty around what happens at the end of a project – but at least it’s in your own hands. And of course, not having an actual team of analysts help with proposals or critical deadlines. Overall, I think I work much longer hours than I was in any other previous role, but it feels very different. It’s all an investment into myself, so it’s much easier to do the late hours and the weekends. And of course, being occasionally able to ‘pull’ these hours from a beach or a pool is a big plus as well.
Would you consider going back to perm?
I wouldn’t exclude it completely but certainly not in the short-term. I am enjoying freelancing too much to commit to something full-time even though a role like that may exist somewhere. Maybe I would have given a different answer a couple of months back, but after one year, I’m looking at the whole game differently anyway. I’m not ‘just’ freelancing but building a consulting practice. Through the start-up work, I have access to a very strong network of designers, product managers, data scientists that could help me downstream, after an initial strategy piece. Certainly, that’s where I see this going. It’s very early days though so who knows how it evolves, but ideally, this is my permanent role.
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Recruiting, Your career
Freelancers are happier, work fewer hours & are paid better
Since starting movemeon, we’ve noticed a trend of increasing interest in freelance consulting. In our first year of operating, just 20% of our members were interested in hearing about freelance roles. In the start of 2019, this has more than doubled to just under 50%.
This increased interest has driven increased quality. There have been some, often well talked about, structural changes that have supported this:
- Acceptance of new ways of working, and a change in expectations that people show long-term loyalty to a company
- Increase in the number of people setting up their own businesses
However, in this article, we wanted to dig a bit deeper into why people were being increasingly drawn to freelancing.
Our survey
We run an annual compensation survey for consultants and alumni. After a number of requests for more transparency in the market, this was our first year in sending a separate survey to freelancers.
The conclusions were stark:
- Freelancers are happier at work
- Freelancers are happier with their pay
- Freelancers work fewer hours
1. Freelancers are happier at work
We asked ex-consultants in full-time and freelance roles, how satisfied they were with their jobs. Freelance consultants averaged at 7.5 out of 10; those in full-time roles just 6.9.
Given the size of the sample, this is a huge difference, and allows the simple conclusion – freelancers enjoy work more.
In terms of why this is, there have been a few trends in the responses we’ve received:
- Control over what work you do: you get to decide not only who your clients are, but also what projects you do
- Control over when you work: just as importantly, many have cited the ability to control when they work as a key driver of satisfaction; work can fit around you and your schedule
- Less admin/ bureaucracy: many have mentioned they can concentrate on their project work without the internal admin/ bureaucracy to navigate
2. Freelancers are happier with their compensation
Whilst the average happiness of compensation was below that of job satisfaction (it was ever thus!), there are still stark differences. People in full-time roles averaged 6.6 out of 10 for satisfaction with their compensation; freelancers were 7.2.
Across our respondents, the average compensation received from freelancing in the year was £118k, however, this encompasses a broad range of annual compensations from £15k to £227k.
Unsurprisingly, utilisation (number of days worked as a percentage of total working days in a year) was the main driver of the differences, with the following distribution:
- Lower quartile utilisation: 44% (110 days)
- Median utilisation: 64% (160 days)
- Upper quartile utilisation: 80% (200 days)
3. Freelancers work fewer hours
An additional factor in the satisfaction of both compensation and work is the average hours worked per week. Freelancers worked 20% fewer hours per working week than full-time employees: 41.2 vs 51.3 hours.
Interestingly, respondents suggested this wasn’t the result of fewer hours on client sites; instead, it was a direct result of:
- Being closer to the end client and being more aware of the required deliverables (i.e., increase in effectiveness as you lose the layers of communication)
- Less admin than in larger businesses
It was likened, by a few, to “agile delivery”.
Why should employers be happy about this
In one word – quality.
When you’re procuring consulting support, it’s because there is a large potential opportunity. The biggest determinant of how much of that opportunity is realised is the quality of the work.
The structural changes mentioned in the introduction laid a great foundation for freelancing to be accepted as a career choice. However, the numbers in this article show why it’s being seen as such an attractive career choice: freedom, fairer compensation and a more balanced lifestyle.
It’s these changes that are the driving force between the quality of freelance consultants that we’re seeing in the marketplace. Gone are the days where freelance offered an alternative for someone who had been “managed out” of consulting – the new breed of freelance consultants have made the active decision to be freelancers. Whether it’s a temporary choice (between roles; whilst starting a business up) is irrelevant; the more important fact is it’s seen as more prestigious and attractive as a career choice.
Businesses are therefore increasingly able to hire consultants who have not only been trained up by top consultancies but are their top performers. All at a fraction (20-30%) of the cost they would have hired them through a consultancy.
