“Should I present myself as a solo freelancer or a digital agency specialising in WordPress?”
This is a question I get asked often at meetups and conferences by freelancers.
Should you use “I” or “we” when writing your website copy, proposals and contracts?
Deciding between becoming a solo freelancer or spinning up a digital agency can be a dilemma many new WordPress designers and developers face.
Freelancer vs. Agency?
Let’s start with some definitions to make things clear.
What is a Freelancer?
A freelancer is an independent person who offers their services for hire. They have usually worked for a larger industry organisation, gaining experience and skills and are now confident to provide services on their own.
A freelancer is responsible for every aspect of the service they have been hired to deliver, from proposal and contract to delivery, warranty and possibly future support.
What is an Agency Model?
A digital agency model usually comprises experts in different fields, either hired as full-time employees or independent contractors.
Digital agencies usually offer branding, digital and conventional marketing, SEO, copywriting, and project management.
Likely there will be a client manager responsible for managing all the internal agency employees to deliver a project for the client.
A WordPress agency may deliver the same services as a digital agency but specialise in WordPress; plugin development, theme optimisation, security, third-party integrations etc.
Is Bigger Better?
It may seem that clients would prefer to work with the agency model because they are bigger and “must” better but is that the case?
Before changing all your business documentation from “I” to “we”, think about what you are going to offer, how you will deliver and what your price point will be.
The Services You Offer
A digital agency will likely cover a broad range of services covering the needs of a startup to an SME.
This will require a considerable pool of talent to draw from.
It’s unlikely that individually you have expert skills in all those services.
Do you have the money to hire others at this stage in your business?
Think carefully about how you will be perceived in your target market and how you can deliver the services you offer.
Representing yourself as an agency if you don’t have the resources to deliver can damage your reputation and lead to bad reviews.
Are you well placed to offer such a wide range of services, or are you selling a specialised service based on your experience with WordPress?
Many companies are happily hiring a specialist over a digital agency.
Your Deliveries
A digital agency will multitask across various deliveries within the project brief.
People may be working on a content marketing strategy, others on the content for the process and the social media team will plan how to promote the content online with a publishing schedule.
An agency consists of many well-oiled cogs working together with multiple delivery deadlines to bring together a holistic project outcome.
If you are working on your own, there are only 24 hours in the day, and you’ll need to spend at least 6 of those asleep to be productive [link to productivity].
Using “we” in your business copy may result in a client expectation that you have this team of talent you can assign to project milestones.
Your Price Point
Many freelancers present themselves as an agency because they perceive they can charge more for their services with this sense of perceiving to be “bigger” than they are.
This is wrong for two reasons.
First, you can change your pricing model from cost-based to value-based pricing.
I wrote about it on my Elementor guest post “How I Increased My Project Pricing From $3K to $20K+ Using Value-Based Pricing” and on my “Pricing Strategies for Projects” webinar for NSW Small Business Month.
Second, if your client perceives you as a major agency and you are not, you risk damaging your reputation within the industry.
Using the words “we” and “agency” are not valid reasons to boost your project prices if you are running a solo gig.
I’ve Been There Too
I’ve been in the same position as you and had all my website and business copy using terms like “we” and “our” until I realised the power that a solo freelancer WordPress specialist and consultant could demand.
Now I happily and proudly present myself as me a WordPress expert.
Conclusion
There’s nothing wrong with calling yourself an agency of one, as long as you clearly define expectations to your target audience.
If you are planning to present yourself as an agency because you want to change the perception that you are more extensive than yourself or to boost your pricing, IMHO, those are wrong reasons and a red flag 🚩 that you could be doing yourself more damage than good.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
