Reflecting on one year of self-employment
Wednesday 1st July marked a significant milestone for me: one year of self employment.
When I embarked on this journey a year ago, I wasn’t 100% confident I’d make it this far. I didn’t have as much savings as I had planned to have, I wasn’t sure where clients were going to come from, and it was quite clear a recession was just round the corner.
So hear I am, one year older, wiser and slightly fatter. What can I tell you about my experiences?
The first thing that strikes me is just how busy I’ve been. Apparently we’re in a downturn, but (and touching lots of wood) I can’t say I’ve been particularly affected by it. And I say this in all sincerity - I live in one of the worst affected towns in the UK and many people close to me have had their lives turned upside down!
Sure, there’s been a handful of days where I’ve not had much to do, and some periods busier than others, but I have not had any one prolonged period of time where I’ve been twiddling my thumbs or wondering how I’ll pay the bills.
This has surprised me, and not having regular work really was my primary fear. To be honest though, I get a trickle of enquiries coming in and that’s enough. I am but one person and it doesn’t take a lot of work to be at capacity.
But in case you were thinking I’ve been living a life of luxury, working in my underpants as and when I want to, let me tell you one thing: it’s not been easy!
Keeping people happy
I have been working a lot of hours. I work long days and I often make up lost time at the weekend. Nearly every job I do takes me more hours than I estimate and I never have enough time for the deluge of meetings, phone calls, emails and general admin.
I always anticipated long hours so this is no surprise to me. But after 52 weeks of continuous slog, it takes its strain and I’m certainly looking forward to my one week break in the south of France next week.
In more recent weeks and months though, my biggest challenges have come from something I didn’t anticipate. Keeping people happy all of the time has begun to get increasingly difficult and complex.
I’m a conscientious chap and I pride myself on offering a quality service. I hate letting people down or even feeling like I’ve upset someone.
As a self employed person, however, it is inevitable that you will encounter situations were you have to talk to your clients about difficult topics. Usually, but not always, related to money.
Naturally people don’t like having such conversations, so as a conscientious self employed person who doesn’t like upsetting people, you face a choice. Do you keep the peace and avoid the conversation, or do you do the morally correct thing and ask those difficult questions, no matter who your client is?
There’s no right or wrong answer to that question. Which is why I don’t like it and find it a challenge. Being self employed means I have to make that call. I can’t duck the responsibility and pass it up to someone else. I make the decision and I live with it.
Looking to the future
Reflecting on a year that has been surprisingly successful, I’m prepared for a second year that is going to get more difficult. I’m sure work will continue to trickle in, but is that enough? Should I be raising my rates? If so, by how much and how do I let my clients know? Should I be looking to take on more work and outsource? Should I be aiming to go Ltd and take on staff?
Being self employed isn’t easy, and don’t let anyone tell you it is. But I’m loving every minute of it!
4 responses
Luke responded on with…
Hi Aaron - congratulations on a successful first year.
It wasn’t until I saw this post I realised I too have just clocked up my first year, having become an ‘official ‘ self trading freelancer last July 7th. And I’d say your experience has pretty much mirrored mine - a steady trickle of work has been more than enough to keep me busy (50+ hour weeks are common), even though the economic downturn has hit my area hard (Cornwall). Such are the benfits of webwork - location needn’t effect you.
One thing I’ve decided nevertheless is to resist the temptation to ease my workload by getting full-time help and going Ltd. If that trickle does dry up, I’m not sure I want to be responsible for paying wages. Stories I’ve heard about the sheer cost of running a full agency / limited company mean I’ll be putting that off for some time.
It’s damn hard work, and eventually like you say, you have to realise you just can’t keep everyone happy all of the time, unless you want to stop sleeping completely, or work for peanuts - in which case you’ll become unhappy and resent the work you loved. Sticking to your guns and getting paid what you’re worth is one of the hardest things I think when starting out - the fear that work dry up makes it hard not to make concessions.
Those are the times when I think I might be less stressed if I jacked it all in and sold ice cream to tourists. But I’d be a terrible ice cream seller, and I’m too far in to stop thinking about grid systems, typography and colour theory.
Year 2 then: onwards and upwards!
Emina responded on with…
hi Aaron, Congratulations on your 1 year anniversary. Must be exciting. I wanted to see if you could tell either in a blog or respond to me on how do you market your business. I’ve been doing freelancing part time for more than 6 months now and with full time employment and being a mother of a 1 year old it is very hard to network and get my name out there. I am looking to see how are other succesful designers doing it so that I could start doing the same. My goal in future is to just do full time freelancing. If you could write I would really appricate it. Thanks, e.d.s.dezign studio
Fred Rogers| responded on with…
Hi, i found this article very interesting and informative. I myself want to go freelance and at the moment i’m trying to get my head around all the administratrive aspects of running a small one man company. Its a very daunting prospect to be your own boss, managing the taxes, income, knowing how much to pay yourself and how much to save, pension plans and insurance….ect. Do you have any suggestions in regards to this kind of information ? Thanks
Aaron responded on with…
@Luke - Sorry for the late reply, was enjoying a spot of sun in the south of France last week. Thanks for sharing your story - it’s interesting to see that you’ve tread a similar path to me. I agree re going Ltd, it’s certainly not something I’ll be doing soon but I guess it’s the next logical step at some point down the line. Lets get year 2 out of the way first ;)
@Emina - Thanks for the congrats. You know what, if truth be told I put in very little effort with regards to marketing - I should probably do more. What I did do before I went full time is similar to you, for a number of years I combined freelance stuff with full time work and built up a small client base. I also put in effort blogging and networking online for years before I eventually took the plunge, and it paid off - as soon as I went full time several people I knew exclusively from my online network offered me work straight away.
I think the fact that I was working towards going full time freelance for a number of years before I eventually did it is important - rather than just jumping in without any clients or contacts. That said, there comes a point where you have to go for it as once you’re sat at home all day everyday you can put more effort into getting your name out there than when you’re trying to combine two jobs at once. A bit chicken and egg. Anyway, I wish you luck!
@Fred - Phew - there’s probably a blog post in that answer! Although it’s probably not as daunting as you’d think. With taxes I know I have to pay a massive chunk of cash once a year so it’s crucial to put money aside. As a rule of thumb I chuck 20% of everything I earn into a savings account just for tax (as per UK tax rate), I make sure I keep records of everything I earn and, more importantly, everything I spend. I just use a spreadsheet to keep track of it all. Then once a year I have to count it all and offset my expenses against my earnings and send the tax man a massive cheque! As long as you keep on top of it through the year it’s not too bad.
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