I’ve been self-employed for nearly five years now. Of course it definitely has its perks (like our cats being our colleagues), but there are a ton of misconceptions about what it’s like to work for yourself. Let’s tackle ten of the common ones I get asked about most often.
You don’t get to wear pajamas every day. Let’s address the notion I get questions about more than anything else. Yes, I do get to wear pajamas a lot, but it’s definitely not every day. At the very least I don’t have to put on business attire every day, so there’s that.
There’s still a set schedule, even if you’re the one making it. When I first started working for myself I had this idea in my head that I’d wake up well-rested and excited to tackle whatever the day had in store for me. It’s more like waking up still half asleep and quickly reaching for the mile long to do list. The only way we’ve found to be successful working at home is to have a set schedule, rather than letting the day take us where it may.
There are still meetings. Meetings were top on the list of things I couldn’t wait to stop doing when I left the traditional workforce. Sadly they’re still just as much of a thing when you’re self employed. We meet people constantly for the
promotional business as well as to build relationships and collaborations for the
stationery side of things.
You end up working more because you work where you also play. I can’t tell you how many weekdays end with us still at our computers only breaking to eat a quick meal (at our desk) before getting back to work. I do miss having a place where I could leave work behind more or less.
People think you have free time, all the time. So often someone will have the day off and think I’m free to spend the day hanging out with them. I wish. If I do decide to take the day off as well, I still have to make up that work time in the evenings or over the weekend. Just because I’m at home, doesn’t necessarily mean I can just drop everything.
Deadlines are still very much a thing. Honestly I think they’re even worse now that I work for myself. Before I had a team of people helping me reach a deadline, but now it’s usually just me. Sure I’m also the one that makes the deadlines, but my company and my audience are relying on me to hit that deadline. The pressure feels more intense now than ever before.
Finances are always a concern because they very often rely solely on you. If you work for a larger corporation, you very rarely worry about if you’re going to get paid that month. When you work for yourself, that question pops into your head more often than you would think.
There are seriously dry spells that you wouldn’t really consider. Planner supplies don’t sell well from now until about May. So finances are always top of mind this time of year as we try to navigate the drought.
It becomes lonely once the novelty of not having to work with other people wears off. At first I loved not having to make small talk in the break room, but now I’m starved for human interaction with someone other than my husband. Whenever I hang out with friends I feel like I haven’t seen another person’s face for years and word vomit all over them.
The threat of competition is real and it’s everywhere. Sure this also exists in regular 9-5 jobs, but when you’re self employed, it’s all consuming. Because being better than the competition means whether or not you get to pay yourself this month. Even when you try to do your own thing, it’s nearly impossible to ignore what other people in your field are doing.
Despite all of these things, I still would choose this life over and over again. Self-employment definitely has it’s upside, but there are a ton of misconceptions out there about the glamour of working from home. Alex has this great metaphor about self-employment. He says it’s like smoking. You’d never recommend to anyone else to start doing it, but you’re completely addicted.
One of the very first things I did before 2019 hit is to finally get my blog brand in order. The name change was just part of the larger picture to get a more cohesive brand identity. Now that all my back links have been fixed and redirects are in order, I thought I’d share with you how I built my brand toolkit to better convey what my blog is all about. It’s honestly a lot easier than you think.
1. Define your brand’s story or identity. What is your blog/company about? What’s its mission? If someone were to describe your site in a few words, what would they be? What are things that interest you? I have a serious love for plants, minimalism, and modern design. I wanted all of those elements to come through in my new branding. My blog is all about making your life simply beautiful through planning, organization, and business tips. Sure I throw in the occasional board game review here or there, but the overall message is clear.
2. Define your official brand name/logo. If you already have your name and logo, great! For me, Microscope Beauty just did not fit my brand’s story or identity anymore so I needed to switch it up. I chose Oh, Hello Living because it coordinates well with my main company Oh, Hello Co., but also has more of a lifestyle feel to it. If you haven’t figured out your name yet, take your brand’s story and brainstorm some ideas that clearly embody your brand identity. Leave yourself room for growth with your name too. You don’t want to call your blog “Cooking with Casey” when a few months down the line you might want to expand into book reviews.
3. Explain your logo and how it should be used. Once you have your name and logo, give clear rules as to how that logo should be used. Oh, Hello Living for example is a straight across line of text. Decide now if you’re ok with the text being broken up into separate lines, or if you want to be more strict with your brand.
4. Brand color palette. This is definitely my favorite part of the brand toolkit process and the easiest one for me. Choose at least three colors that represent your brand. Have two main colors, and a few supporting colors as well. These colors you’ll use across everything so make sure you pick ones that look good together and help share your brand’s story and identity.
5. Fonts that fit your brand identity. While building your toolkit it’s also super important to pick which fonts you’re going to use to represent your brand. You don’t want employees or yourself down the road getting willy nilly with the font. Choose a nice serif and sans-serif font and maybe one or two other options. That way you’ll have a cohesive brand look across any platform.
6. Supporting visuals and information. Think of this as the mood board for your brand. Whether its tangible or digital, find images and elements that help to communicate your brand’s story. The simplistic home drawings of my brand can be seen over all of my various platforms so you know you’re on an Oh, Hello Living site when you’re there. Using cohesive elements gives your audience a better understanding of your brand and makes it easier for them to recognize at a glance.
I recommend opening up Illustrator or even a Microsoft Word document and dragging different elements, fonts, and colors into one place so at the end of these steps, you have your brand toolkit all in one place. Print it off, pin it up somewhere so you can see, and get the year off on the right foot with a more cohesive brand.
It’s very unlike me, but I’m eager for the new year to start. I’m excited. And I haven’t felt like that in a really long time. With so many projects and plans for the 2019, here’s how I’m preparing my business to start the new year off with a bang.
A few weeks ago I sat down and made a marketing plan for the entire year. I mapped out a year’s worth of sales, promotions, and sales goals. This really helped me to visualize the entire year at once. It became obvious that some months were heavier with sales than others. I spaced everything out and have a clear road map for the year ahead.
I’m terrible at this, but I’m trying to get better at delegating more. I have a small but mighty staff that I’ve been passing off more projects to so I can focus on big picture things like our subscription box I mentioned in my last blog post. Plus a big goal for 2019 is to get into retail!
Despite being excited for all the work things next year, I’m also scheduling time off for self care and travel. I want to make sure I have time to recharge, shake off an burned out feelings, and seek creative inspiration.
I’m brainstorming. A lot. Like writing down any possible idea that pops into my head. I always brainstorm best right before I fall asleep, so I keep a notepad by my bed for scribbles in the dark I have to try and decipher the next morning. I’ve mastered the ability to not accidentally write over other ideas in the dark. Do you think that’s a skill you can endorse on LinkedIn?
I’m also trying really hard to listen to ideas from other people. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I’m too close to my business. It’s so valuable to listen to new ideas because they’re seeing my business in a way that I physically can’t, from the outside.
But above all else, I’m celebrating the victories of this year. 2018 marked the year of trying to slow down and appreciate accomplishments more. Take a second to breathe, look around at how far we’ve come, before moving on. As the year comes to a close I’m proud of what I’ve done, but excited to see what’s next.
2018 has been a dozy of a year for me. From some serious highs to some even lower lows, the year has been one for the record books. And through it all I found myself to have fallen out of love with Oh, Hello. That truth made me miserable. Alex and I have worked tirelessly for over four years to craft our business and I just felt…exhausted. I started to question why I was even bothering. Things got pretty bleak there for a while, but luckily this is a happy story.
I went through a lot of personal mental health stuff in 2018. I want to dive into it in more detail later (because I think mental health deserves to be talked about no matter how good or bad), but it’s not really the point of this story and it always has a way of overshadowing things anyway. Luckily I found solutions and the help that I needed so that as we entered autumn, I had a new positive outlook on things. It wasn’t all doom and gloom. I had help both literally and metaphorically and I could finally breathe. I was ready to fall back in love with my business.
Alex and I have talked about doing a subscription box for years. It always felt too risky, too much work when we already felt drawn thin. But one morning I woke up and it felt like time. And then I didn’t sleep. For weeks. Every time I’d try a another idea would pop into my head, another box theme, another product. The idea storm became so bad that I sometimes crept into our guestroom to work in the middle of the night to let Alex sleep. I felt alive and invigorated for the first time since 2014 when I had the idea to start Oh, Hello.
The Oh, Hello Box was born. A box dedicated to self care, self love, and some fun thrown in. With so many subscription boxes out there I didn’t want to just add to the noise. I wanted to create something simple, beautiful, and packed to the brim with high-quality products. Over $100 in lifestyle and planning items every month for under $50.
I haven’t felt this passionate about my business since its creation and I’m loving every thrilling and terrifying second of it. The first box launches on January 5th, and if you’d like to get more updates about the box there’s a
newsletter you can sign up to.
I cannot wait to continue to share my business journey with you as well as box themes and products. It’s going to be an amazing start to a new year.
It’s one thing I suck at. Celebrating small accomplishments when you’re running a small business is nearly impossible. You’re always moving on to the next thing, planning out the next release, and constantly going, going, going.
It’s safe to say that this is one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced working for myself and with my husband. We’ve become so engrossed in the next project that we rarely pause, look up, and see how far we’ve come.
The other week we had the opportunity to make promotional products for Milani Cosmetics through our
promotional company we started a little over a year ago. It’s one of those “pinch me” moments. Never in my life would I have ever thought we’d be making items for a makeup brand to give out to buyers of companies like Ulta. Like, what?! It wasn’t until I took the time to shoot a few photos of the products for our
Promo Facebook Page that I really stopped to realize what we had accomplished. And in that moment I kinda became quite sad. What other huge milestones did I not appreciate because we’re always so focused on the next thing?
If there’s one thing I improve on as we quickly approach a new year, I want it to be my ability to celebrate small accomplishments. To take even just a second to pat myself on the back, hi-five Alex, and be truly happy for everything we’ve done so far. We’re nominated for Small Business of the Year through the Grand Rapids Chamber. It’s a huge deal and I want to make it feel like one.
So no matter what you’re doing in your life, make it your mission to celebrate a small accomplishment at least weekly. It can be something as small as finally folding that pile of laundry, but it’s so important to give yourself recognition for the work you’re doing.
Just at the word “networking” I can hear my fellow introverts running for the hills full of blankets to hide under. Trust me, I get it. Nothing sounds less fun than going into a room full of people you don’t know to meet a ton of them back to back. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the past year that’s changed my business mindset, it’s networking.
At first I thought it was just one of those buzzwords people used before the internet. Like business cards, I thought it was probably dying out. Nope. So wrong. Most (read: all) of our promotional clients (more on this second business later) have come from networking events. Every time I talk about our traveler’s notebooks people haven’t a clue, but decide they definitely need one in their life.
Networking is magical. Us introverts need to suck it up and do it. For business sake.
Through our local chamber of commerce and promotional client base, we’ve had the opportunity to go to quite a few events over the past year. I convinced myself to go with Alex to the first few ones over the promise of free food, but continue to go because there is so much value in them. Of course they’re still not easy for me and I often crash as soon as we get home from all the social interaction, but there’s value in using up my outward energy on networking.
And it’s not sleazy like the word sometimes feels. More often than not, it’s just shaking the hand of someone, asking what they do for a living, telling them what I do, and then us both trying to figure out if the other has something that can help us. It’s when you go to networking events trying to get everything out of it while giving nothing, that you have a rotten time and just leave with a few drinks.
If you find yourself with a networking event on the books and the introvert in you flares up and eggs you on to cancel, take a beat. Then invite someone to go with you. Alex is the main reason I’ve grown to love these events. We get to be a power team, using each other’s strengths to meet new people, close deals, and spread the word to non-planner people about planners. So bring an extrovert with you to help get you warmed up with the first few interactions. Or baby step into networking by going to an event by someone you know. Nothing makes the process easier than having someone do warm introductions for you.
Our promotional business wouldn’t have gotten off the ground without networking. Our stationery business continues to grow and expand because of it. So take the time, save up some extra “social” energy, and get out there.
