Building your business part time (imperfectly!)
Starting a business and working for yourself can be a bit of a daunting task. Not only are you truly putting yourself and your skills out there for people to judge but you are also welcoming a lot of uncertainty into your life - and if you’re a bit of a control freak like me, that can be a challenge! That uncertainty comes from the finances, doing things you’ve maybe never done before and generally betting on yourself. It’s also part of the fun of being a business owner!
No two business journeys are alike, so today I’m sharing my journey so far, where I’m at now, what I’ve learned and where I’m hoping to go, in the hopes that it will help someone in the same situation. There are a lot of inspirational success stories out there but they can make me feel a bit inadequate, like I’m going too slow and not cut out to be a business owner. My aim with this post is that you see someone going at her own pace but slowly growing her business into something kinda cool.
MY STORY
I’ve been in and around working for myself for some time and back in 2014 I actually did work for myself for a year as a homebaker, selling cakes, cupcakes and macarons. However, it turned out that path wasn’t for me so back to my full time job in architecture I went. The problem is, having a taste of working for yourself and then going back into employment is difficult, I missed the freedom and creativity. It did allow me to buy my own place to live though, which would have been much more difficult had I been newly self employed.
To fill the whole of missing creativity, I started a branding and design business for home baking businesses. This was very much on the side though and looking back I can see I had no real plan to grow the business other than spending way too much time watching webinars and listening to podcasts.
In 2018 I decided that I wanted to seriously start working towards being my own boss again as a Squarespace website designer, for all small creative businesses (not just bakeries) which is when Kirsty M Design was born.
TIME MANAGEMENT
When I first began building Kirsty M Design I was full time at my day job, so working on my business had to happen completely at the weekends and in the evenings. There’s no getting around the fact that this is tough, especially if your day job is sitting at a computer all day, the last thing you feel like doing is sitting at a computer all evening too! This was definitely one of the most difficult parts for me and looking back I think it would have been much more beneficial to have dedicated only one or two evenings in the week to my business with the others for going out and moving my body, I’m certain I would have gotten at least, if not more, done this way.
I’ve been really lucky that my employer was happy for me to reduce my hours and change to a four day week, which I totally understand may not be an option for everyone. For me though, it has been such a valuable move and really until I did that I didn’t truly feel like I was getting anywhere with my business. Freeing up a day in the week, rather than cramming everything into the weekend has been a game changer (amongst other things I’ll discuss below) in creating a more regular monthly income from my business.
This month I’m making a move to three days a week at my day job, which will be the last step before leaving completely. I’m not someone who has the discipline or patience to build up some savings to allow me to take the leap straight away so an incremental shift from employee to self employed has been a super helpful move.
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INVESTING IN YOUR BUSINESS
Other than becoming part time at my day job, the next biggest move I’ve made to make me feel like a proper business owner has been to invest in myself and the business. The investments have come in two areas for me - premium products to help my productivity (rather than free trials) and courses/coaching for myself to teach me what I need to know to take my business to the next level. I know when you don’t yet have a full time income you might think it’s crazy to spend what you are earning but if you make smart choices these are actually investments that will end up earning you more money in the long run. It takes a while for that to sink in as a new business owner (speaking from experience!) but it’s really true.
Of the products I’ve invested in, professional client management software has been by far and away the most worthwhile. I use a software called And.Co and it deals with sending proposals, contracts and invoices to my clients and it is so easy and makes me seem much more professional to the people I work with. Before this I was creating contracts as PDF documents and emailing them out to clients, keeping track of things in folders on my computer and in my brain (never safe!) but using a dedicated program for this takes so much time and hassle off my shoulders allowing me to focus on other things.
The second huge area I’ve invested in over the last year has been myself. I have taken a couple of courses and worked with a coach to help teach me what I don’t know about running a design business. Obviously there is a lot I still don’t know but learning from people who have been where I have been has been such a great experience and given me the confidence to show up on social media more, to raise my prices and to believe I can be fully self employed this year.
The one thing to watch in this area is that you start spending money to learn much and end up never implementing it. I have been in that trap before with free content so I was very aware about what I was enrolling in over the last year and really being sure to implement everything I had learned and not just sign up to everything that sounded like a ‘quick fix’.
PLANNING YOUR GOALS
When time is limited having a plan is essential. When I started in 2018 I did not have a plan and I regret that. It meant I was just floating around trying a bit of everything for months and seeing no real progress. Investing in myself and my business is where I learned to create a plan for my business and I can see the value and where it has been helping. I am in no way perfect at doing this yet as it’s definitely a habit that has to be learned and ingrained but I’m getting there!
What I recommend is to first think about what that big overall goal is for your business. Then think about the different steps required to hit that goal. Keep breaking things down until each task seems manageable and assign them to a day and time in your diary. I love using Trello to plan my overall business goals, my week, my client projects, my Christmas shopping lists...did I mention I love Trello! (If you have a brain that loves lists I highly recommend it and I will be doing a post about how I use it for my business very soon!) Assigning dates to things is key when you’re limited on time and trying to be as efficient as you can. Be careful not to get hugely ambitious with your target dates though. Of course building a business is going to take a lot of hard work but if you keep making things so challenging that you are missing dates or working all night, then you need to take a step back, chill and give yourself some breathing room.
STAYING POSITIVE
It can sometimes get a little disheartening when you see people online moving quicker than you and appearing to have it all together, but don’t let it get you down! Firstly, if someone was assessing the content you post online they might actually have the same idea about you and we all know that none of us is living that ‘Insta-perfect’ life! See the people you follow online as inspiration and continue to ‘do you’ and focus on yourself. Look at your progress on those mini goals you set up for yourself in the section above and don’t forget to reward the progress you are making - however big or small.
If you’re having a low ‘this is taking forever’ moment, take a look back at what you’ve sold, what you’ve created, who you’ve helped or read over feedback from people you’ve worked with and that should give you the boost you need to see you are making a difference.
KEEP GOING!
In short, just keep going! If you love what you do you’ll find a way to make it happen. The main thing is to just keep chipping away with small steps and they totally do add up over the course of a year. I always scoff when people say things like that too until I actually look at the evidence!
