Ex-scientist turned creative entrepreneur. Founder of Weston Pixel, an indie film & creative agency helping creators & entrepreneurs navigate the digital world. I write about business, creativity, and content strategy.
How I Turned My Employer Into a Client
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What's up, Reader? itâs ya boy, Eli. Today, I want to share some updates, tips, and a story from my entrepreneurial journey. Pricing as a Tool for Selecting ClientsIn April 2023, I made my side hustle my full-time hustle. While working my 9-5, I was primarily taking on one-off clients, mostly on an hourly basis. It was inconsistent, frustrating, and unsustainable. I didnât want to be a traditional photographer - I wanted to work with businesses and entrepreneurs. Once I went full-time, I knew I needed to set up my offers and pricing to attract specific clients. Through pricing, I positioned my services to draw in a certain type of customer. My primary offer was photography and videography production, with additional skills like marketing and writing added on. Pricing-wise, I set a high hourly rate but offered discounts for retainer clients. Hereâs how it looked:
This setup encouraged long-term, consistent clients and discouraged short-term, inconsistent ones. Instead of trying to manage 100 low-ticket clients, I focused on working with 1-2 higher-ticket clients on monthly retainers. This approach meant two things:
It was one of the few early business moves I made that worked - exactly as planned. My phone stopped ringing for weddings and baby showers and started ringing for business inquiries. Luck = Preparation Meeting OpportunityBy July 2023, three months after leaving my 9-5, I was searching for 1-2 ideal clients. Thanks to friends back home spreading the word, I found a couple of retainer clients and replaced my old 9-5 income. However, the retainer income had become inconsistent. Sometimes a business would get so much content in one month from our work, theyâd take the next month off (I didnât plan for this to happen, but it did). Then in October, I stumbled upon an unexpected opportunity with the Oxford Performing Arts Center (OPAC). This was one of lifeâs happy accidents. I wasnât even looking for a job at the time. My old roommate was on OPACâs stagehand call list, but when he couldnât make a shift, he asked if I wanted to sub in for him. I said yes and I was a stagehand for a day at OPAC. I didnât really care for stagehand work, but it got my foot in the door. I spent the day working alongside the crew, which led to a conversation about an open part-time marketing role. It involved photography, video, social media, and digital adsâessentially what I was already doing. I applied, and the production staff put in a good word for me. I was hired a few days later and started working as an assistant to the marketing director. Transitioning OPAC from Employer to ClientIn February 2024, they offered me a full-time Marketing Manager position. After some consideration, I accepted. But that move took longer than expected to finalize, giving me time to think about other options. I loved the opportunity at OPAC, but I didnât want to abandon my business for a new 9-5 office jobâespecially since the duties were identical to what Weston Pixel was doing. If I could continue working with OPAC and build my business simultaneously, that would be ideal. So, three months ago, I proposed that OPAC hire my business instead of me going full-time. This was not an easy pitch. I spent weeks brainstorming, writing, and iterating the proposal. Several meetings were conducted. I didnât want to come across as a rebel or give the impression that I was âtoo goodâ for a full-time role. I also didnât want to jeopardize my opportunity to work there at all. I simply presented an alternative to the traditional hire. Deals only work when both parties benefit, so I had to frame a solution that made sense for everyone. I presented my ideas to the director, and to my surprise, he loved them. We struck a dealâmy employer hired my business. How I Persuaded OPAC to Hire My BusinessThe pitch worked because I framed my proposal around the problems I experienced as an employee and positioned the offer of hiring my business to combat big organizational problems. 1. Too Many Tasks, Not Enough FocusAt OPAC, I found myself juggling tasks that didnât match my core strengths. For example, when the theatre switched from Slack to Microsoft Teams, I was the one presenting its basics since I had the most experience with it. While I didnât mind helping, it took me away from my core workâvideo editing, content creation, and digital strategy. Unfortunately, itâs typical for good workers to get punished for being good workers in most organizations. This phenomenon is known as the 80/20 rule of productivity (the Pareto Principle). The Pareto Principle is an observed pattern based on mathematics that often holds true in basically any situation. In the case of business, It asserts that eventually 80% of the work gets done by 20% of the employees. This is just how the incentives tend to play out. All tasks are not made equal under an hourly or salary model. If you prove yourself as a good worker, you will get tagged with all sorts of extra work from various departments, simply because there isnât anyone else that can do what you do. On the flipside, youâll have people who realize this, and purposely donât go outside their scope of work because⌠well, why would you if you are getting paid the same across the board? Thereâs no incentive to do more work or a better job if you are consistently getting paid an hourly wage for everything you do. The result is a small portion of employees contributing disproportionately to overall output. I needed to exempt myself from these extra tasks so I could deliver the most value possible on the photo/video/marketing front. 2. Hiring Challenges at OPACThese days, as a business, itâs hard to find and keep good workers. This challenge is exacerbated by the ânew ways of workingâ that accompany a digital economy. People are finding alternative ways to make a living outside the legacy 9-5 work model. I presented two solutions to help with this challenge: The first solution: automation, automation, automation. Automation does three things for an organization:
If you can delegate tasks to a robot or a machine, you reduce the number of tasks the organization as a whole has to carry out, which reduces the need for extra hands. Additionally, if employees arenât having to waste their time with menial tasks that could be automated, they can be more productive. The second solution to hiring difficulties: Standardization and Adaptability. As Iâve been working at the theatre, Iâve documented âstandardâ ways of getting my tasks done. I create SOPâs for video editing, Facebook Ads, graphic templates, email correspondence, etc. These SOPâs can be used to train others who come into the organization. âHow did Eli used to create the lower thirds for videos? Oh, well itâs right here in these documents.â Lastly, I offered my help in making the theatre more adaptable to the new work culture. Being a âcreatorâ myself, I have unique insight into the creator economy. One thing that is consistent across all online creators: they held a âregularâ job for 1-10 years at some point in time. They used this regular job to build their skills, reputation, and value before going full-time on their own. We can call these jobs âbridgesâ. You commonly see these types of jobs at universities for fresh graduates. Entry-level positions that donât expect someone to stay for 10 years. Legacy organizations canât expect to find employees that will retire with the company anymore - itâs just not worth it to most people these days, especially if they have a skillset they can take to the Internet and make more money on their own. The way to combat this work trend is to not fight it at all. Embrace the fact that most young people donât want to work a traditional job anymore. Donât expect people to lock into a career; expect them to leave at some point, and position the job descriptions and incentives to facilitate this, not run from it. OPAC can position itself to be that âbridgeâ career for others. Instead of looking for professionals with lengthy resumes the organization probably canât afford to hire, look for young people fresh out of high school or college who need that âbridgeâ to wherever they want to go. When you position your jobs as âbridgesâ, you get more out of your employees because their everyday work is tied more to their values, not just the organizations. As a result, they will (likely) stay for a while. They will contribute the most they can because when they contribute to the organization, they are contributing to themselves. After all, who doesnât want a job that encourages them to be the best version of themselves? When the employee does finally leave, the standardization and automation weâve set in place will assist in onboarding a new candidate to the position quickly. Side note: The job I worked at UAB for 6 years was a âbridgeâ. It taught me so much about information systems, team collaboration, and business. I had the downtime and permission to go after my genuine interests when work was handled. I can say with 100% confidence that if it wasnât for that job, I would have never gone off and done my own thing. 3. Retainer Savings for OPACThe hourly model didnât fit the work I was doing, particularly with social media management and video editing, which vary day-to-day. I explained that a retainer model would be more efficient, as it focused on delivering high-value tasks rather than filling hours. With a retainer, OPAC would get consistent content quality, faster turnarounds, and predictable costs. The retainer also offered discounted rates, making it a cost-effective alternative to hiring a full-time employee or relying on hourly work. In essence, I was saying âyou donât have to spend as much money to hire me. If you hire my business, we will switch from hourly to a fixed monthly price and I will pay for my own healthcare and benefits, saving the organization money and time.â Final ThoughtsThis is how I persuaded my employer to hire my business. I proposed the offer as a win-win solution to pain points the organization experiences. The method I used to craft the proposal is universal for crafting any pitch:
This, in a nutshell, is how you âsellâ something to someone. It was a huge win for me and proof that a well-timed pitch can change everything. If you want to see the proposal I made to OPAC, check it out here. Thanks for reading. Hope you have a good week! TOOLS I LIKEWebsite Builder (WordPress Plugin):â Hosting Service:â Productivity App:â Creator Email Marketing:â WHERE TO FIND ME
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Ex-scientist turned creative entrepreneur. Founder of Weston Pixel, an indie film & creative agency helping creators & entrepreneurs navigate the digital world. I write about business, creativity, and content strategy.