Video and Audio Creator Steve Folland
Meet Steve
Every member of IPSE has an interesting story to tell about their experience of being self-employed. And by sharing them, we can pass on some great insights and advice which could save you time, money or stress, whether you’re just starting out or have years of freelancing, consulting or contracting under your belt.
As a fairly well-known figure within UK freelancing, we wanted to speak to podcast and video producer Steve Folland about his work for clients, and also growing the Being Freelance podcast and community.
Can you introduce yourself and your business?
I’m a podcast and video creator, and I also run the Being Freelance podcast and community. The description of the role within my business is that I do everything that we all do, apart from maybe the final submitting of tax returns.
So, I write scripts, I do voice overs, I edit videos and I do podcasts. But I also hire animators, videographers and other voiceover artists to work with me as well. I started off as a sole trader, I’m now a limited company.
What’s the best thing about being freelance or self-employed?
The best thing about being freelance is probably the flexibility that it gives me to be there for my family. Obviously, everyone’s working patterns have changed now to give them more time to work from home thanks to the pandemic, but for years I was able to work from home and be there for our kids when they were really young.
When I started freelancing, one of them wasn’t even a year old, and the other hadn’t started primary school. And half the time, kids are off school. So, I’ve eventually figured out how to plan my workloads around that. Until the pandemic my wife used to go into London every day. I’d drop her off at the station at 6am and pick her up at 7pm, and now I have more flexibility because she’s at home as well. So, I feel like I’ve come out the other side of the pandemic with more flexibility in how I work.
Along with the lifestyle is the flexibility in the type of work. I love having the variety of clients, projects and skills that I get to work on. It’s a real plus for working for yourself.
How did you build the Being Freelance community?
The podcast came first. Back then, in January 2015, there weren’t really any freelance podcasts. Nobody was really talking about it. I wasn’t trying to be an expert; I was just trying to connect with other freelancers and find out how they were doing it. And it picked up gradually as I kept putting them out every single week.
Then I started to get messages from other freelancers, and you start to find this community through emails, or Twitter or Instagram. And it was only in 2019, many years after I started the podcast, that I eventually started the community. I realised so many people were getting in touch with me from around the world that it would be rubbish not to let them all talk to each other.
It really is a global group. I love it. They ask questions, support each other, cheer each other on and have a laugh. We have side projects, like we sold a load of mugs to raise money for charity that one of the members was raising money for. We did a print collaboration with an artist to raise money for UNICEF, loads of stuff. It’s a brilliant place to be. It’s funny, I get lots of messages, or I might listen to someone else’s podcast and I hear Being Freelance referenced as this thing which inspired somebody to take the leap. I hope none of them come back and sue me when their freelance career all goes wrong! I mean it’s not just me, like collectively inspiring each other to do better with our businesses, to do really cool things and to support each other.
