For 2 years I ran a marketing agency, but now I quit. I quit to start coding, from absolute scratch. Something I never thought I’d do.

Why?

Running a marketing agency is tough. But not the “challenging” type of tough. More the “push through it with pure discipline” type of tough.

And after 2 years of pushing through, I found out this is not something worth pushing myself for.

Not gonna lie, it feels like quitting. But it also feels like a relief, relieved from dragging a dead horse.

Why was it not worth it for me?

  • More than 80% of my time was spent on getting myself clients, which gets boring and annoying.
  • I’m a thinker. I love to strategize. But the things that grow a marketing agency are simple boring tasks that just need to be done. Executers excel here.
  • The income is unstable. Per hour I make much more with marketing than with coding, but the projects are short. And impossible to predict how much I’ll make.
  • It didn’t intellectually challenge me. I didn’t feel like I was learning. Yes I was learning skills and how to use tools. But I was not solving complex issues, and I missed that.

All these reasons, led me to stop my agency. And honestly, I wouldn’t have quit if I wouldn’t have found out how much I enjoy coding.

My start was simple: I coded for the first time because I wanted to create a specific small app. This took me 3 weeks as a little side project, and it worked!

I then realized I enjoyed it so much, that I wanted to continue and started to work for clients.

And it has been a much more enjoyable start than when I started my agency.

  • There’s lots of demand. Instantly got myself a freelance gig allowing me to work however many hours I want, at a decent hourly rate.
  • All my time is spent actually doing the thing: coding. There is no overhead such as meetings, looking for my own clients, or any of that stuff.
  • It’s way more intellectually challenging, and there’s loads to learn. Exactly the challenge I needed.
  • I have instantly created a great income that’s super reliable. I know exactly how much I’ll make each month, whilst having unlimited flexibility where and when I work.
  • The reliable income and the fact that I don’t need to worry about not having clients, allows me to spend more time on my own projects. And I have a BIG one coming up.

To be honest, I never thought I’d go full nerd and start coding. But here I am, and I’m loving it.

And not gonna lie, I didn’t burn my marketing agency down completely. I am still serving clients and taking clients.

I just quit putting in all my time to grow it, get clients, and everything like that. I stopped building a business, and started seeing it as a nice side hustle that’s fun and brings in great money.

All that, whilst I prepare for a big move to New York City next week. And a big exciting project starting soon.

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Thanks for reading!

Kees Closed