Last week, I took the leap into self-employment by purchasing a really good domain name (hello, “SIMPL”), spending a couple of hours setting up the basic site, and sharing the start of my journey into sole proprietorship as the founder of an emerging content consultancy through a LinkedIn post.
The decision to go independent is something I’ve personally struggled with over the past couple of years. Every time I came close to going for it, the lure of a comfortable corporate gig—with full benefits and free snacks—pulled me back into my familiar lane. With family commitments, their comfort and security have always been my top priority.
But corporate and tech work aren’t exactly stable these days, especially with companies regularly laying off entire departments. So when the choice became continuing the same work I’ve done for at least seven years or taking a risk now that I have some runway… I took the risk. A calculated one, supported by the privilege of being able to combine both paths or return to the old one if needed.
Why Now?
With generative AI being pitched as a decimator of advertising and marketing agencies by Sam Altman, there’s even more need for organizations to lean on specialist content experts—people who can see beyond the hysteria, think clearly, and solve problems for the organization without declaring that “AI should replace all the writers” (eye roll).
Organizations are often messy in how they plan, prepare, and publish content, as well as how they organize it internally and externally. With so many stakeholders in enterprise environments, content strategy can easily turn into a territorial fight:
- PR wants to drive as much awareness and recognition as possible.
- Sales is laser-focused on closing deals.
- Marketing is caught in the middle, pressured to generate leads while lacking the bandwidth to establish effective content operations.
The Vision for SIMPL
My vision is to simplify content strategy, content operations, and content writing as three interdependent spokes.
- You can have a strong writer but a weak strategy—and their work’s impact disappears into the wind.
- You can have an excellent strategy but poor operations—and nothing gets executed properly, if at all.
I’m incredibly grateful for the positive feedback from former peers, future clients, and friends. It’s been energizing.
Until next time. Keep it SIMPL.
— Saj, CEO of SIMPL. CONTENT
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