As your skills increase as a freelancer, and you continue to do a good job for the clients who hire you, your client network will continue to expand. If you've successfully followed everything that we've showed you in this book so far, then this means that you should be receiving a steady stream of work on a regular basis. In fact, if you've done a really good job of following what we've showed you so far, there is a good chance that you're receiving so much work that you're finding it difficult to handle it all. You may find that you're suffering from burn out more, and if your skills are very high in demand, you may even find yourself having to turn down clients.
Of course, turning down clients means that you're losing money, and we all hate losing money. It is for this reason that we decided to write a chapter which involves the expansion of your freelance operation. There are two ways in which you can expand your freelance operation, and while both options are distinct, they will both allow you to reach the same end goal, which is to grow your operation from a lone one into a small or medium sized business.
When it comes to expansion, your first option is to simply raise your prices. If your skills are so high in demand that you have a constant stream of clients who need work done, then this means that there aren't many people out there that can operate at your level of skill, which means that you should be compensated more. The second option is to higher an assistant, or your first employee, in order to work under you and assist you in handling the larger load of clients you're receiving. Both of these options have advantages and disadvantages.
While charging your clients more for your services will allow your income to increase, you will still be the only person offering the services. This means that burn out will still be a problem, and if your client network is large enough, you may still find that you're constantly busy. Having an assistant is advantageous for a number of reasons, and the primary one is that they will reduce your work load, while allowing you to earn money from their work at the same time. Once you hire an assistant, even one, you are now making the transition from being self employed into having a small business.