After redundancy, Daniela Marchesi built 3 client income streams — plus one that practically runs itself
FREELANCER PROFILE
One day you’re nearly 20 years into a successful PR career, and the next, redundancy leaves you staring down a brutal job market. Faced with rebuilding on her own terms, Daniela Marchesi turned an unexpected exit into a thriving, multi-stream PR consultancy. Here she shares the exact framework you can use to do the same regardless of the industry you work in
Eighteen months ago, Daniela Marchesi’s agency role was made redundant, and she found herself staring down a job market she describes as “crazy,” flooded with laid-off talent, including “really good people,” all competing for the same shrinking pool of work.
“I’ve been working in PR and communications for close to 20 years,” she says. “I’ve never seen a job market like this.”
Rather than wait it out, Marchesi decided to put two decades of experience to work on her own terms. Today, she runs a sustainable, multi-stream freelance practice, combining fixed-term maternity cover, fractional C-suite advisory, direct project work, and a suite of digital products.
Here’s how she built it, how she’s pricing her senior experience, and the model other self-employed professionals can replicate.
How to master a three-tiered client model
If you see self-employment on the horizon either by choice or redundancy, it can’t hurt to warm up existing contacts and start networking. If you aren’t getting any permanent job offers, there is no shame in testing the waters by taking on short-term contracts. Daniela, for example, structured her workload across three distinct operational formats:
Fixed-term contracts: “Maternity covers are definitely worth exploring… It gives you an opportunity to get an insight into a given company.” Taking a 15-month PAYE contract with B Corp agency Jack and Grace provided baseline cash flow while she built her client base.
Fractional & interim advisory: Charging a fixed day rate for light-touch, high-impact guidance maintains long-term client connections. “The client just needs that sounding board, and I work directly with the chief exec,” she explains regarding her monthly work for a private healthcare assessment centre.
Direct & agency project consulting: “There is a lot of hesitancy to make senior hires, but they do still need someone to come in and help when they need a senior pair of hands.” Balancing direct work for tech startups and charities with agency support creates a continuous workload pipeline.
Never underestimate the knowledge that you’ve acquired and the skills that you’ve acquired over time. Don’t ever take them for granted… they could be taking away someone’s headache.
–Daniela Marchesi, UK-based PR and comms consultant working with consumer brands, not-for-profits and UK government on purpose-led comms
Price for value, not hours
Trading time for money caps earning potential for senior specialists. When quoting for high-stakes projects, Daniela focuses on total project scope rather than hourly tracking.
“You’re not paying me a by-the-minute fee, ” Daniela stresses. “You’re paying for my 20 years of experience and the knowledge and the counsel.”
To maintain cash flow and protect boundaries:
- Enforce upfront deposits: What’s Daniela’s strategy? “For project-based work, 50% is invoiced upon signing the contract, and 50% at the end of the project.” She says this keeps both parties invested before deliverables begin.
- Draw clear scope lines: “In a scope of work, set out very clearly… this is in scope in bullet points, this is out of scope. If we are to change it, this is what needs to happen and the [price that must] be refactored in.”
How Daniela turned her knowledge into digital assets
One of Daniela’s biggest breakthroughs was turning her daily processes into sellable digital tools. Seeing experienced freelancers in industry WhatsApp and Facebook groups asking for basic onboarding frameworks, she identified an unmet need.
“It was people who were very experienced that perhaps had come from a big agency… or had been in-house for some years now turning to consulting and they’re having to service their own clients for the first time… and they didn’t have that infrastructure around them.”
She collaborated with a design studio to build a suite of six thorough, customisable client templates. These covered everything from discovery questions and proposals to creative briefs and evaluation reports.
Why she thought the templates revenue stream was worth pursuing
“Literally, I was just observing once my role was made redundant. I joined these various groups to see the same asks coming up, and I thought… I think people need this. I just thought, you know what? There is nothing to lose. I just want to give it a shot.”
What did it take to create the templates?
“I was doing it alongside my day job, whilst I had my own freelance clients. It was into the evenings — writing up the templates and proofreading them, because each one has a lot of built-in guidance. Each document is about eight to ten pages long, and they’re very thorough.”
Don’t assume everyone has your knowledge
“Never underestimate the knowledge that you’ve acquired and the skills that you’ve acquired over time,” she tells The Freelance Informer. “Don’t ever take them for granted… they could be taking away someone’s headache.”
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Daniela’s operational “guardrail” tips for going solo
Daniela shares her non-negotiables and networking tips:
- Separate business and personal finances immediately, she suggests. “I set up a business bank account separate to my day-to-day account, and I got an accountant. Hiding away from it and not being clear on your numbers just is not going to be helpful to anyone.”
- Evolve the business structure as you become more established: “I initially, 18 months ago, set up as a sole trader… but from this April I went limited to be tax efficient.”
- Nurture niche networks, she says. “Make a list of 10 to 20 people that you know from your sector that you could send a message to. Put the word out there, because your networks are worth their weight in gold.”
Find out more about Daniela’s business, her life in Norwich and how to purchase her templates.
