Individual reputation vs. company reputation

When I started as a 1099, I relied on my own reputation to get my first gig as well as new gigs.

"Dale" was the brand.

Now that I have a company with a few employees, I need to be able to transition from "Dale" does good work to "Custom Analysis" does good work.

In some ways this is natural.

If you start off doing good work, primes will give you opportunities to hire people.

If you hire good people, clients and primes will want to throw more work your way.

The more people you hire, the more money you make (hopefully), and the less billable work you do yourself.

Eventually you as a single person become irrelevant, and the company is the one that has the reputation, not you.

It's a simple process but a difficult one.

Want the full playbook? Check out Going 1099.