Have you ever dreamt of being your own boss? Work on projects that you choose, on your own schedule, at your own rates? If you already have experience working with data and analytics, becoming a freelance consultant is a great way to break out of the corporate grind.

In this episode I talk with Jekaterina Kokatjuhha about how to become a freelance data & analytics consultant. She shares her personal experience and practical tips for how to get started, build a brand and audience, and overcoming uncertainty.

Key takeaways:

• Before going solo, Jekaterina worked in various data roles in several different industries. The insights into different business models she gained there are helpful for understanding her clients problems now.

• Her first freelancing client resulted from a match on the Bumble dating app.

• She started consulting with one day per week, while still being employed full-time. When this was going well she decided to leave her job completely.

• When she started looking for new clients, she focused on D2C brands. This allowed her to capitalize on her deep experience in this area and target her communication to this audience.

• On LinkedIn, Jekaterina writes about common problems these companies face (e.g. which metrics to care about). When potential clients reach out to her, she asks them what content resonated most with them, so she knows where to put her focus.

• To increase her reach on LinkedIn, she posts around 8am and aims for 100 reactions within 1 hour, to get boosted by the feed algorithm.

• She also posts selfies occasionally. While this used to make her feel uncomfortable, it's important for people to connect her face to her content.

• Going beyond solopreneur freelancing, her next step is building a data agency. Her goal is always to help businesses extract more value from their data.

Find Jekaterina and and Valentin on LinkedIn.