We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ally Archer. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ally below.
Hi Ally, thanks for joining us today. So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?
If I had to completely start over with my service-based freelance business, I would focus on two things: mindset, and recurring monthly services vs. short-term projects or working off of hourly rates. It took me almost three years before I shifted my business model as a freelancer offering social media marketing services on a monthly, recurring basis with flat monthly retainers/rates compared the early stages where I offered random low hourly rates or short-term projects. I worked hard and was making decent money with a number of clients, but making the shift to recurring services brought in predictable, recurring revenue which made it far easier to scale and hire a team during the process. Mindset is something I have always been interested in working on and developing, and I think having a strong entrepreneurial mindset and making decisions from where you want to be (vs. where you are now) are keys to success as a business owner.
Ally, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I have two businesses: an online marketing agency, and a travel blog. I run my marketing agency completely online and always have. Through my marketing agency, my team and I serve a number of clients with done-for-you social media content and management, email marketing, and Pinterest. I started 2020 as a solopreneur and ended the year with four part-time freelancers on my team as I shifted my business model and grew rapidly.
I’ve been travel blogging since 2014, initially sharing my tips on finding and landing travel jobs abroad, based on my experience working for companies in the US, Europe, and Asia. Now, I focus my content on work-from-anywhere business models for full control over your time, income, and location – regardless of what’s going on in the world and without having to rely on a traditional employer. Through my blog, I have an online course, The Limitless Nomads System, on starting or growing a service-based online business to consistent $5-10k+ months. I also have an e-course on Pinterest for freelancers and a bunch of other free content. Starting a blog is a time-consuming process, but it is something I am so completely passionate about: sharing my message with the world and giving advice based on my experience. I truly want to help as many people as possible live out the life of their dreams, to ENJOY their lives, to experience the world, to get out of their comfort zones, and to look back with no regrets.
We’d appreciate any insights you can share with us about selling a business.
What many people might not know, is that I used to have an e-commerce site through Shopify where I sold travel-inspired clothing and hats! I sold the business in 2019 because I intuitively knew that I was spreading myself too thin and felt more passionate about my travel blog + marketing company, so I wanted to focus on those two businesses instead. One thing I teach my clients through my blog and business programs is to shy away from “Shiny Object Syndrome.” As entrepreneurs, many of us are multi-passionate and have a bunch of great ideas: cool businesses, ways to make an impact, and new products or services that can help people. It is both a blessing and a curse! I think it’s entirely okay to have multiple businesses, but the *timing* is very important. My recommendation is to have your core business streamlined and producing recurring revenue before you start a completely new and separate venture. You need time in your schedule and if one business isn’t chugging along, then its foundation might crumble while you build the other one, or you might find yourself spreading yourself too thin to juggle everything at once. Making massive progress on one project gets you much farther than making a tiny bit of progress on five projects. That’s why I recommend focusing on your most passionate and most revenue-driving business first, and then branching out to other business models when you have actual space in your schedule. Selling that Shopify store helped relieve me of a time-consuming business and transfer it to someone who was capable and willing to take it over. It was also nice to take home some money from the sale after all of that hard work!
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
One of the beautiful things about being a freelancer offering online services is that in almost every case, all you need is your laptop and a wifi connection! Since I offer online social media services, I can run my business from anywhere in the world. I don’t need a physical office space or a brick-and-mortar shop, nor do I need materials to create products to sell. I didn’t hire a team until a few years in, and worked as a solo entrepreneur initially. I had my knowledge and experience from growing my own social media platforms that supported my blog, which are free to use. And then I was able to find clients online (my first client was found through someone connecting us on Facebook!), through networking, and referrals. I truly believe that offering online freelance services is one of THE best ways to start and grow a business, especially for those who want full location-freedom to be able to work from home or while traveling without it affecting their business. Most people are sitting on skills they take for granted, that a business or person would happily pay them for. It doesn’t cost anything except for having the proper equipment (usually a laptop, and/or a mobile phone with internet) to find clients and do online freelance work.
Contact Info:
- Website: goseekexplore.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/allyarcher
- Facebook: facebook.com/goseekexplore
- Twitter: twitter.com/allyarcher
- Youtube: youtube.com/allyarcher
- Other: tiktok.com/@theallyarcher free guide on starting a freelance business: bit.ly/freelancenomad my online course on starting & growing an online freelance/service-based business: bit.ly/nomadssystem