Going freelance or fractional: what to know about clients, rates and contracts

Going freelance or fractional sounds like freedom. But there's a lot between handing in your notice and building something that actually works. In this webinar, Luan Wise, Steve Folland and Ayo Abbas joined us to share what they wish they'd known before making the jump, covering everything from choosing your title to finding your first clients and setting a rate you can stand behind.Between them, they bring decades of real experience running their own businesses as marketing consultants and freelancers. The conversation covers the parts that rarely come up in how-to guides. The identity shift when you go solo. The discomfort of quoting your rate. The contracts and the admin. And why having more than one client matters far more than most people realise when they're just starting out.Key topics include:Why the words freelance, consultant and fractional signal very different things to clients, and how to choose the one that fits the work you want to doHow Luan, Steve and Ayo found their first clients, and the role that old contacts, referrals and consistent visibility each playedSetting a rate for the first time and why knowing your own value stays uncomfortable even with years of experience behind youThe business admin that catches people off guard, including contracts, IR35, scope creep and keeping proper financial recordsWhy spreading your work across multiple clients from the start is a protective strategy, not just a nice-to-haveHow AI is shifting what clients expect from consultants, and how to position your expertise alongside itTimestamps:00:00 - Introduction04:00 - Choosing your title13:00 - Perception and identity22:00 - Making the transition30:00 - Finding clients40:00 - Setting your rate50:00 - AI and your business56:00 - Audience Q&AWatch / listen:Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/marketing-meetup-podcast/id1365546447Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5QvmFdxg5pMwsfPkKjhXl9Please take the time to check out our partners, all of whom we work with because we think they're useful companies for lovely marketers.Frontify — all your brand assets in one place: Frontify combines DAM, brand guidelines, and templates into a collaborative source of brand truth.Canva - an online design and publishing tool with a mission to empower everyone in the world to design anything and publish anywhere - it's our go-to design software.Mailchimp — the all-in-one marketing platform that helps teams turn emails, automation, and now SMS into smarter, more connected customer journeys (and they've been longtime friends of TMM!).Cambridge Marketing College — the best place to get your marketing qualifications and apprenticeships.Planable — the content collaboration platform that helps marketing teams create, plan, review, and approve all their awesome marketing content. It's how we keep our social scheduling calm and organised. Wistia — a complete video marketing platform that helps teams create, host, market, and measure their videos and webinars, all in one place.Prismic — the CMS and landing page builder that powers scalable content infrastructure for modern Marketing teams.