When I founded Careful Feet Digital in 2018, I had just finished another successful year of freelancing. I am proud to share that for several years prior to starting CFD, my freelance income surpassed six figures as companies around the world hired me to assist them with a variety of digital marketing needs. Besides needing extra support to finish client projects, a reason I started CFD was to give freelancers a community and a resource that I didn’t have when I was coming up through the ranks. I loved the idea of working with dozens of freelance talent from across the globe to deliver great work to clients. And I loved the idea of giving back to the freelance community, which has given me so much.
Over the past 2.5 years, as CFD has scaled, we’ve had the pleasure of working with over 25 freelancers on various projects. All of them have been immensely talented and brought a variety of amazing skills and insights to the table. However, we are now at a place where we need team members who take more ownership of CFD, our growth, and our development. As we grow, so too does our culture and our client load, and we need people who are fully committed to what we do as a result. CFD has therefore made a big change in our operating model and has offered most of our team ongoing contract roles. While we have a few freelancers left for internal work such as bookkeeping and operations assistance, all our client-facing team are now contractors.
As a business owner, this is a moment that is equally scary and proud. As an agency owner, this is a huge milestone and will enable us to continue to provide the highest levels of service at an expanded capacity and with more continuity. I’m thrilled! I’ll always have a big place in my heart for freelancers. They helped me grow this business (and my career!), and for that, I am endlessly grateful. I’m also very pragmatic: there will likely be many opportunities for CFD to work with freelancers in the future. But for now, we are focusing on expanding our team of contractors and we couldn’t be more excited about it.