How I stopped selling my time for money

Lucy Werner
The Startup
Published in
4 min readJul 5, 2023

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Author Image: Lucy Werner giving a guest lecture at Cass Business School

I went from being a full-time employee to a full-time self-employed and it took me a bit of time to realise that I didn’t have to emulate my former way of working.

When you are a consultant or a micro-agency, you are selling time for money. Here is how I diversified my income streams by identifying ten different ways to generate revenue.

1. Agency work

This used to be 100% of my income. I started with retainers and then moved to a project-by-project model. In some instances, the project rolled over to be annual work. Working on projects rather than retainers means I can upscale with freelance support accordingly without having the stress of managing payroll.

Top tip: Maintaining some existing work whilst you build out your product or services is a great way to keep yourself financed.

2. Products

I made a regular income from a product I made called the 52 PR Tips — a box of creative PR prompts. It was also a great way to promote the branding and design services that the cofounder of my children was offering.

Author Image: My first physical product ’52 PR Tips’ prompt cards

3. External workshops

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Lucy Werner
The Startup

Lessons on self promotion and creative living, to help you make an income from your expertise and passion.