A recruiter recently asked me whether I would make a good fit for a 9-to-5 role.
 
She was concerned that as a self-employed individual, I might not be prepared for the rigours of a full-time role.
 
“There’s a reason why there’s a ‘free’ in ‘freelance’; you always have some free time for yourself,” the recruiter said, pointing out a misnomer.
 
It got me thinking: can you go from being self-employed to a full-time job?
 
A reason to wake up and grind
 
I read Grit by Angela Duckworth right before starting my MBA. Duckworth defines grit as "perseverance and passion for long-term goals."
 
“Grit is working really hard, to make that future a reality. Grit is a marathon, not a sprint,” Duckworth says in her TED Talk, which revolves around the subject matter for her book.
 
Essentially, grit determines your capacity to work hard and maintain focus on specific goals and tasks not just for weeks, but for years.
 
Duckworth notes that it is grit, and not talent, that determines long-term personal success.
 
As I prepared to enter the hallowed halls of business school, I took the lessons espoused by Duckworth into account.
 
But it struck me: I already had grit, as does every other self-employed person. I had been self-employed for two years prior to starting my MBA in 2018.
 
It’s because of that grit that I learned to hustle and find various clients to grow as a freelancer.

I also completed my MBA while being self-employed.
 
But it was way before business school that I learned to hustle as a freelancer.
 
During a freelance writing course I took in journalism school, my instructor taught me everything ­— from writing the perfect story pitch aimed at editors, to keeping a line of credit for those dry spells when client work dies down.
 
These are all essential tools one needs as a self-employed writer.
 
I also learned how to create a schedule to work with a disparate number of clients with unique needs and demands.
 
I’m privileged to have worked full-time in the pressure cookers that are newsrooms.
 
Yet, the hustle, self-promotion, and constant networking needed as a self-employed individual makes working full-time in newsrooms—dare I say—easy.
 
Self-employed workers--who are increasing in numbers—offer a mindset that complements companies looking to scale.
 
Our innate need to continuously grow our own business bodes well for companies on the up and up.
 
To answer the recruiter’s question: yes. The 9 to 5 doesn’t faze me.
 
Self-employed workers bring an entrepreneurial spirit with them, a lens that doesn’t view a full-time role at a company solely as a 9-to-5 job.
 
Rather, we see it as time spent helping a company grow, something we are pros at doing for ourselves.

Michael Porter is the darling of most business schools, and rightfully so. Porter is an academic and leader in the subject of business strategy.

In his article, What Is Strategy, Porter offers managers nuggets of gold.

Here are a few insights that marketing managers will find valuable.

1. Porter says strategy is the creation of a unique and valuable position, involving a different set of activities.

• This positioning comes from three distinct sources:
• Serving few needs of many customers. Think of Jiffy Lube and how it provides only auto lubricants.
• Serving broad needs of a few customers. Porter gives the example of Bessemer Trust, which targets only very high-wealth clients.
• Serving broad needs of many customers in a narrow market. Porter uses the example of Carmike Cinemas, which operates only in cities with a population of under 200,000. Carmike Cinemas was bought out by AMC.

2. Strategy is about choosing what not to do—it requires trade-offs.

• Not all competitive activities are compatible. Gains in one area can be achieved at the expense of another area.
• For example, Maytag’s decision to extend its product line and buy out other brands was a failure in making difficult trade-offs.
• Maytag’s boost in revenues came at the expense of return on sales.

3. Strategy involves creating “fit” among a company’s activities.

• By fit, Porter means how a company’s activities interact and reinforce one another.
• When activities mutually reinforce each other, competitors can’t easily imitate them.
• A great example of this was when Continental Lite tried to match a few of Southwest Airlines’ activities, but not the whole interlocking system. It goes without saying that Continental Lite failed.

Porter argues that organizational realities also work against strategy.

“Trade-offs are frightening, and making no choice is sometimes preferred to risking blame for a bad choice. Companies imitate one another in a type of herd behavior, each assuming rivals know something they do not,” he says.

As a marketing manager, don’t be afraid of making trade-offs. And be wary of following the herd out of fear of making a bad choice.

You can read the entire article here (subscription only).