Going it Alone: Five Tips for Creative Freelancers
‘’I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else, but i’d be lying if I said it was easy, so i’m sharing my top five most important lessons I’ve learnt in the last two years’’
I’m 25 and I’ve never had a full time job. To some that may sound like a failure on my part, but the idea of working a traditional 9-5 just never appealed. I didn’t necessarily realise there was a viable alternative for me; I went to art school so I thought my options were 9-5 in an art gallery, work as a teacher or get by as a struggling artist while also working at a bar. I now work two part time jobs, about 23 hours in total, and the rest of the time I spend building my business Sugar Storm Studio. Sugar Storm is a creative empowerment brand designed to champion self-expression, DIY and creativity through a collection of alternative fashion, online content and a programme of events and workshops.
I absolutely love running my business, I love learning about the different processes, and building something from the ground up that is all my own. In the last year I did things I never would have dreamed of; I've gone from painfully shy and avoiding public speaking at all costs, to running my own workshop series and going to networking events by myself and not feeling sick, and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of seeing people wearing clothes I’ve designed. I wouldn’t want to be doing anything else, but I’d be lying if I said it was easy. So I’m sharing my five most important lessons that I’ve learned in the last two years.
1. Find your community
After graduating university I felt so lost, worried I’d wasted my entire education and mad at myself because ‘why couldn’t I have got a REAL job?’. For the next year I stumbled through various jobs, went to so many painful interviews, had a lot of meltdowns and eventually started making connections in my area that helped me reach me the big reveal - none of us know what we're doing.
Working for yourself can have a lot of specific challenges, and if you’re the only one out of your friends who isn’t working a typical 9-5, it can be pretty isolating and feel like you’re doing it all wrong. You are not alone, you just need to find your community of likeminded people who are also giving it a go. Find the people in your industry, whether they’re local or online, and support each other, learn from each other and celebrate each other’s wins.
2. Get comfortable talking about money
People are always going to want something for nothing, but if you value your work, and set a precedent that your work is worth the investment, it can make it easier. Lots of people are uncomfortable talking about money, and it seems to affect women even more so. But if we shy away from those conversations it allows people to take advantage. So set your prices before you open a conversation, and be confident in them. If you’re not happy to settle on a price, don’t be afraid to say ‘I’m going to go away and work out a price for you and I’ll be back to you by the end of the day’. And if the people you’re talking to don’t mention price, make sure you bring it up before you start the work. If someone isn’t ready to value your time, work and experience then they’re not worth working for, and someone else will!
3. Make your own rules
A year into Sugar Storm, I found that it hadn’t really become what I’d imagined it would be. I’d followed some wrong paths and spent too much time of certain aspects while neglecting others. It didn’t make me as excited as it used to. So I spent a lot of time looking at what my values are and how they can be present in the business.
I decided to make sustainability a priority. It didn’t sit right with me that I would add more damage to the environment when I had the chance to do better. I’m not perfect, and it’s tough for a small business when you don’t always have the most choice in who you do business with, so it meant I got rid of products that I couldn’t produce in an environmentally friendly way. But it also meant I spent more time building sustainability and customisation workshops and building a sustainable alternative for high-street fast fashion. I wrote a list of rules that I wanted Sugar Storm to exist by, and if I’m feeling stuck, or not sure about a decision, I’ll go back to the list and see what I can do to continue to embody and share those values.
4. You are your own super power
It’s all too easy to get caught up in what everyone else is doing, to compare yourself to their progress. But they’re not you, so their business and life is going to look different to yours. If you see something that someone has achieved and you get that pang of envy, rather than beat yourself up because they’ve done it and not you, remember that if they’ve done it, it means it’s possible, so it can be possible for you to. But only if you get out there and work on yourself, as yourself. There’s no one right way to live, there’s no set timeline and there are no checkpoints that you’re missing. We’re all just trying to make the best with what we’ve got, and if you find something that lights you up, that makes it worth getting out of bed in the morning, do whatever you can to keep that alive.
5. Have fun (+ take some time off!)
By choosing to run your own business, you are in charge of how you spend your time, so it doesn’t make sense that everything feels like a drag. You probably won’t love every single task you have to do, but building and growing your business should be exciting and fun. Let yourself have fun, that’s what being creative is all about. And remember to let yourself have fun outside of your business too. It can be so easy to let it consume you 24/7, but if you’re in this for the long haul, it has to be sustainable, and it will only be if you give yourself days off, the occasional weekend, dinner with friends, all the good stuff to help you blow off some steam and recharge ready to get back to business.
Follow @Sugarstormstudio on Instagram to follow the highs and lows of running a creative business.