While you are starting out, consider what your long-term goals are FOR NOW (trust me, it will change). You can be as detailed as you like, but leave some wiggle room for changes. Go for a 6 month, 1 year, 2 year and 5 year plan. Write them down. Keep them nearby for immediate reference. Anyone who walks into your business should be able to see what you are all about in a few sentences.
Next, get legal ASAP. Protect your personal and business assets: form an LLC or other legal entity to hold business assets. Keep an inventory. Keep it separate from your personal assets and get into the habit of never mixing personal and business assets. Take the time to talk to an attorney. Just an initial chat is all - you are finding a potential asset for later. Same with the accountant or bookkeeper.
Figure out your hourly rate:
http://freelanceswitch.com/rates/
Remember, your business and personal assets (and monies) need to be separate. This is for legal, tax, and practical reasons.
Start looking into multiple revenue streams. For example, I began doing stock photo and video and now I make at least $200 a month and average about $450 a month. It's not much, but it covers my minimal overhead and it's solid money I can rely on. I tend to use it for marketing and advertising as well as licensing and office supplies. Having worked on several web design projects, I began offering web design and used my graphic design degree to add loads of other services. I now offer a wide range of services I can easily market and sell. Yeah, I want to do video all the time, but I can offer a broader range of services and I have multiple revenue streams. Don't do it all at once. Start small and get comfortable selling one service. Then, when you have the first one down, offer another one. As you go along, you will be confident creating new products and services for yourself.
One last thing: you are doing good as a sub-contractor, but you have only 1 client which is somewhat precarious. Having 5 or 50 clients is far better - spread it around. If you have a non-compete clause in your agreement, make sure they are fully compensating you.
Remember to network. Knowing a wide range of people is really helpful when you land a big project and have to hire out. Yeah, we all want to do it ourselves, but being able to run a big project successfully and under budget is a far more valuable skill than being a jack of all trades. While you are at it, learn to recognize talent in others. Really learn this skill and you can run almost any project. Learn the difference between the talkers and the doers and you will go really far.
Finally: don't be an equipment whore. It's expensive to constantly be keeping up with all the latest tech. You can easily bankrupt yourself. Furthermore, the tech will always change. You will never "arrive" at the best equipment and never need something new. Build reasonable equipment costs into your budget early on. I just read an article on the new standard they are working on for "UHDTV" - yep, that's Ultra High Definition TV. Literally 4K TV. It's not here now, but will be eventually. That's all new monitors, computers, cameras, equipment, etc. On the horizon past that is 8K TV they're working on already. The tech will continue to change so don't fall in love with it. ;)
Jonathan Ziegler
http://www.electrictiger.com/
520-360-8293
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