The Solo vs. Team Crossroads
Finding Your Path as an Independent Consultant
Are you one of those people who hit a crossroads in your consulting practice? Maybe your client list has grown to the point where you cannot handle all the work yourself. Then you face a decision many independent consultants eventually encounter: Do I stay solo and limit my client load, or do I build a team to expand?
This question has no universal answer. I’ve seen consultants thrive in both models. Some prefer the simplicity and control of working alone. Others find fulfillment in building something larger.
I spoke with Salim Sharif, founder of Radical Digital, about his journey from solo consultant to team builder.
First, A Bit About Salim
Salim Shariff is a visionary leader, award-winning digital strategist, and dedicated father who has built his career around creating meaningful impact in the progressive movement. With 15 years of digital experience, Salim has managed multi-million dollar advertising campaigns, raised millions for progressive causes and candidates, and mobilized hundreds of thousands of people to take action both online and offline. Salim established his consultancy in 2023 following the birth of his son, creating a firm deeply rooted in community impact and transformative change. His unique approach prioritizes capacity-building and long-term strategic planning, equipping organizations with the tools they need to achieve their goals independently.
Prior to founding Radicle Digital, Salim served as Executive Director of Contest Every Race, a multimillion-dollar project that recruited over 250,000 potential Democratic candidates. His impressive career includes roles as deputy digital director for Obama’s 2012 campaign in Ohio, digital advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services, and leading Hillary Clinton’s digital operation in Ohio during the 2016 election.
Since then, he has dedicated himself to driving progressive impact across issues ranging from prison reform to climate change, from the 2020 census to addressing COVID-19 equitably. When not working to build a more just world, Salim can be found discovering the best macaroni and cheese in town, hiking with his family, enjoying live music, or playing video games at his home in Oakland, California, where he lives with his wife Joanne and children, Rami & Juhi.
The Path to Building a Team
Salim didn’t set out with grand plans to build an agency. He started consulting with a straightforward goal: match his previous salary while gaining more flexibility.
“When I first started, truly the only measure of success was can I match my salary with this more flexible life,” Salim told me. “Once I was able to do that, I still didn’t have a smarter thought than, ‘How can I maintain my values and progressive client base while making as much money as possible and not working insane amounts of hours?’”
Success came quickly. Soon he faced more client demand than he could handle alone. Rather than turning work away, he began collaborating with former colleagues on a project basis.
What emerged wasn’t a traditional agency with employees, but what Salim calls “a collective of solopreneurs” — independent consultants who collaborate under the Radical Digital brand while maintaining their autonomy.
Salim shared with me:
Even though we are three partners who have made a commitment to each other, the commitment isn’t, “Hey, you’re going to get paid $150,000 from Radical Digital every year.” The commitment is, “You told me you want to work X number of hours at this rate, and I’m going to do everything in my power to help get you there through more proposals, through mentoring, through collaboration.”
This approach gives him the best of both worlds: the collaborative benefits of a team without the stress of making payroll or managing employees.
Why Consider Building a Team?
For Salim, the decision to expand beyond solo work came from several motivations:
Combating loneliness. “I was pretty lonely working by myself,” he admitted. Many independent consultants miss the camaraderie and energy of working with others.
Better ideas through collaboration. “Every time, in my experience, the best ideas come from the field organizer who technically has no digital experience, or the volunteer on the ground,” Salim said. “I would be handicapping my own growth and my clients’ impact by not working with more people.”
Capacity to take on larger projects. Working with others allows Salim to serve more clients and tackle more complex projects than he could alone.
The Case for Staying Solo
Despite these benefits, staying solo remains a perfectly valid choice for many consultants. I’ve worked with several who deliberately limit their growth to maintain the lifestyle that drew them to independent consulting in the first place.
The solo path offers these advantages:
Simplicity. You avoid the complexity of managing others, coordinating work, and handling team dynamics.
Complete autonomy. Every decision — from which clients to work with to how to structure your day — remains entirely yours.
Focus on craft. Without management responsibilities, you can focus exclusively on the work you love and excel at.
Lower overhead. Solo operations typically have minimal expenses, allowing you to convert more revenue into personal income.
Many consultants find that staying solo allows them to maintain an optimal balance of meaningful work, adequate income, and personal freedom.
Know What You Want
One of the most valuable insights from my conversation with Salim was about the power of knowing exactly what you want. Salim shared a humorous parallel between his approach to dating and consulting to illustrate his point.
“When I was dating before meeting my wife, I had a very specific approach,” Salim told me. “On every first date, I forced three conversation topics: politics, religion, and having kids. And I was completely upfront about what I wanted for all three.”
Surprisingly, Salim’s directness didn’t drive people away. “What I realized was that it was very attractive to date someone who knew what they wanted.”
Salim found this same principle applies perfectly to consulting. “As I describe the kind of work I want to do with prospective clients — that we want to work ourselves out of a job, that we want to equip you with the capacity you need so you don’t have to keep paying us — they get motivated by my passion and confidence.”
The result?
“Not a single client has ended a contract with us in over two years.”
This clarity about what you want to offer and how you want to work helps attract the right clients, and it helps you make better decisions about your practice’s structure and growth.
For some consultants, success means building a collaborative team like Salim has done. For others, it means maintaining a focused solo practice that maximizes autonomy and work-life balance.
The key is defining success on your own terms, then designing your practice to align with that definition.
How To Decide?
Your definition of success might include scaling up with a team, or it might mean deliberately staying small. Either path can be right. What matters is that it’s right for you.
The beauty of independent consulting lies in its flexibility. You can design a practice that aligns with your personal definition of success.
Salim suggests two fundamental measures to consider:
The first is what is the impact you seek to drive in the world and with your clients. The second is your life balance and creating something that works for you and/or your family.
Whether you choose to stay solo or build a team, knowing what you want from your consulting practice helps you make decisions that align with your goals.
The path I’ve chosen might differ from yours. That’s the point. Independent consulting offers the freedom to define success on your own terms.
What’s your definition of success as a consultant? I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Challenging Convention: The Case for Early-Career Consulting
One of the most refreshing insights from my conversation with Salim challenges a fundamental assumption in our industry: the idea that consulting is only for seasoned veterans with decades of experience.
“I strongly believe more people should try it earlier in their career as a gap-filling measure,” Salim said. “The first time I consulted was because I turned down a job that an agency really wanted me to take. They asked if they could just pay me as a consultant instead."
I definitely held the view that consulting is only viable after you’ve reached a senior level in your field. I thought I needed to accumulate decades of experience before clients would take me seriously.
Salim disagrees. “The conventional wisdom is just wrong.” He pointed out how almost every consultancy’s profitability is predicated on the senior partners hiring junior people and charging a big fee on top of their rates. Meaning if the big agencies or companies think your time is valuable as a junior person, maybe you should see it that way, too.
For those early in their careers, consulting can provide:
-Exposure to multiple organizations and working styles
-Accelerated skill development across various projects
-Higher income potential than many entry or mid-level positions
-Flexibility between full-time roles or during career transitions
“There are many avenues and projects in the political arena where that is exactly what an organization needs,” Salim said. “I think what’s really hard is finding those opportunities and communicating to people that you’re open to and good at serving on those projects.”
The key insight? You don’t need to be an expert in everything. As Salim put it, “Literally you only need to be good at writing. If you’re good at writing, then you can consult on a number of different things.”
So if you’ve been waiting until you feel “senior enough” to start consulting, you might be missing valuable opportunities. Consider starting smaller projects now, perhaps alongside your current role, to build experience and test the waters of consulting earlier than you might have thought possible.Now follow me, roll stroll
Whether it’s Hell or it’s Heaven
“The Crossroads,” Bone Thugs-N-Harmony
The good news about your consulting crossroads is that it’s neither hell nor heaven, unlike for the Bone Thugs. One topic we’ve explored in a few recent newsletters is the definition of success consultants have for their businesses. Several folks like Hannah Fine and Heidi Overbeck made the case that success for them looks like a flourishing solo practice. And that’s a great choice!
For Salim Shariff, it’s building a company. Radicle Digital gives Salim a platform to explore new models for relating to clients and relating to teammates, and hopefully to having an even bigger impact. If that’s the path that sounds interesting to you, Salim’s story provides some great considerations and lots of useful food for thought. Reach him at salim@radicle.digital to bounce ideas or discuss how you might follow in his footsteps.
Until next week,
Sam
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