For our latest WF Connect we caught up with Amy Choi, one of Workfree’s co-founders. Amy gave us the insight into how juggling motherhood and a thriving career planted the seeds to create the best work/ life balance and with it, the initial ideas behind Workfree. We got to grips with what Workfree is all about, a business that champions the individual but prides itself on the power of community. Enjoy!
Accessible talent pools aren’t just for the big agency dogs out there, but for small independent businesses like his own who still work with some of the biggest brands out there. Having worked with the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Spotify and Chelsea Football Club, Nobody’s Cafe wants to keep expanding and creating top of class brand experiences . Dive in to find out more!
To kick off Amy we’d love to hear about your working life before Workfree, what led you here?
My background was always in digital marketing, account management / project management. I transitioned into freelancing after I had my second child because I needed to be more flexible with my time. I’ve been freelancing up until I started Workfree in its most basic form in 2020.
When I had my first child I went back to work quite early and took a big pay cut so I could do my first job of being a mum. I was paid less for arguably doing the same work in less time. By the time my second child came along, I asked my boss for flexibility and suggested they hire me on a freelance basis - they said no. In order to maintain a career and embrace being a mum I went freelance.
What challenges did you face in the transition from full time employment to mother and freelancer?
I didn’t feel like I had many skills. I was a technical account /project manager that guided digital marketing teams on what to deliver but suddenly I was freelancing without the specialist team. I knew that I could win a project and deliver good work but I needed that specialist skill like SEO or paid media. I had to figure out what it was that I was going to offer. So, I did a coding course and started building no code e-commerce websites and ecommerce websites.
I started to appreciate a very fluid work day. I would work early in the morning while the kids were at school or nursery and then later in the evening. I still did the pick ups, the park play dates and dinner times and met my deadlines. I know how to manage and master my own time, I know how to set those boundaries with clients. Having a hard stop at 3pm for pick up everyday meant I knew there’s no drawing it out. I get it done.
How did you tackle client acquisition?
The park. Just kidding. No, but really I found so many great opportunities through facebook groups, mum contacts and school pick-up time.
I worked for other parents that also felt like they didn’t fit in with the traditional 9-5 working day, and wanted to set up their own consultancies, their own e-commerce brands. I gradually got referred to a lot of clients and started by building Shopify and Wordpress sites.
The hardest thing in the beginning was having the confidence to own it, and say with conviction what I did. That felt like ripping a plaster off? I would mumble, deflect attention and not sell myself as I was so used to working under the umbrella of a company promoting what they did. Suddenly I was saying, this is what I do and I don’t even know if I’m any good at it yet. It was a personal challenge. Once I built up more confidence I leaned into facebook groups, female business groups and grasped any opportunity I could. Even if I didn’t know how I was going to do it, I would get it done.
So, how did you transition to freelancer to co-founding a business?
I kept coming up against challenges. I wanted to have my Excel spreadsheet in nice software form. I wanted to send video proposals. Writing was never my strength, and I’m much better at verbally explaining in 60 seconds what it is I can do for you with a cost estimate. I wanted to have my clients housed somewhere other than excel. I wanted to send invoices with a payment link so that I could get paid faster. I wanted to see my profits and losses. And really didn’t want to pay a huge amount of money to use a tool when it was all in my excel. I started developing my own software which was basically a freelancer tool, where I could keep track of my ins and outs, send video proposals and invoices, monitor my expenses on my clients.
I got to the stage in my freelance business that I couldn't complete all the work that was coming my way, I was having to turn work down. I needed to find other freelancers who could help me. So I started thinking, where could I find them, how could I trust them?
I developed this little software platform and let some freelancer friends test it out and here we are. It started from there, really simply. At the end of last year I combined forces with my husband Jonnie and our Co-founder Yury and together we grew Workfree and will continue to do so in 2024.
Take us through the mission and vision for Workfree?
For me the vision for Workfree is to fuel growth for freelancers. As a freelancer myself, it's about placing them in the center of the process, building something with the input of great freelancers.
Flexibility in work is becoming a much greater part of the workforce. As a mother, I needed more space to do both- you shouldn’t have to give up your career if you want to be a great parent. People can need flexibility for so many reasons. A lot of companies lose talent and that talent never comes back. It doesn’t have to be that awkward conversation of do I stay or do I go?! Imagine being able to say come freelance for us, stay on our roster, stay connected to a team. Workfree offers you the opportunity to do that.
We want to give power back to freelancers. Part of what we’re doing to really engage with freelancers is building our co-founding community where we give 25% of our company to our co-founding community members - made up of freelancers, early stage investors and advisors.
We’re building a platform that freelancers actually get to contribute to. The focus isn’t solely on what companies want, freelancers have a stake in this too. They add their own unique value to the platform, they have virtual shares, if there’s a feature they want to see developed we hear them on that - we are trying to build this as a collective. Workfree is a platform freelancers actually want to be on, they’re not having to pay high commission rates. They’re integral to the product & it really matters to us that they’ve got skin in the game.