It’s a great idea to look back now and again. To See where you’ve come from and how you’ve moved to where you are now. The how it started, how it’s going idea on social media forces us to look back and we can easily identify the differences between the past and the present. Sometimes I get questioned about how long I’ve been doing the jobs I do. As I approach my ninth anniversary of taking the plunge into the world of being self employed, I thought it would be a great idea to look back.
Why I Started Self Employed
I used to work for big businesses. When at university I worked for the BBC. I then ended up working for BSkyB. Somewhere along that road I did work for a start up business, a chap who was starting to film weddings and this is what I really enjoyed. It was hard graft but seeing the outcome your hard work made was brilliant. That chap left the country and the part time work I was doing for him stopped.
However that sense of working for yourself stayed with me. When the opportunity for redundancy from my corporate job came up, I grabbed it and left. The small amount of redundancy pay would pay the bills for maybe six months. My wife and I decided that I would give self employment a go. Using the skills I had from my journey through university, the corporate world and that entrepreneurial taste I’d had. Nine years later, we’re going strong.
How Much Business Grew
That isn’t to say it hasn’t been challenging. The long hours are often tough and chasing invoices is the worst part of my job, but I wouldn’t change working for myself, for the world. I managed to grow the business over the first six months and make it work. We were in a position where I would work from home. I found new clients, expanded the services I was offering and even set up different arms of my self employed life for variety.
I took inspiration from other people. Spent time in the world of business even when I wasn’t at work, looking at how other people were successful. One of the great things though, was I could work when I wanted to. I could spend time with family. There was no commute. I could get so much done in those hours I’d usually be sat on a train. The work I was doing was actually making a difference for my clients and I could see that.
Diversifying & Being Forced To Change
I continued to diversify my business life. Adding new services that I could offer, but also knowing when they needed to close. I was never scared of that part. As great as a new business can be, you need to be able to close it if it isn’t working. It was a wedding video editing business, yes, something I had been doing during that part time job with the start up, that I ended up setting up,. After a couple of successful years I decided to close it for a number of reasons.
Fast forward a few years and I was running a marketing business, a blog, a YouTube channel, an online shop and I now had three kids. Then pandemic hit. Something that has affected everyone in different ways. Fortunately I am still here. I lost 90% of my clients in a 24 hour period. It was heartbreaking, worrying and eye opening. I ended up realising that taking a little bit more of my destiny into my hands was important. If you aren’t as reliant on clients, they can’t be taken away from you overnight. This is why I decided to build the blogs I now run. I wouldn’t say I have a typical blogger but I love putting content out there. Crafting articles so they read well and bring people value.
Moving Forward
I’ve learned that you need to embrace changes. Jump into new platforms that you might not want to but can utilise for the benefit of your business. However, they aren’t all for everybody and I’d much rather be the master of one rather than a jack of all trades not getting anywhere.
Keep a steady head on your shoulders. Consider your choices before you make them but don’t be afraid to give things a go. We are only in this life once and who wants to be stuck in the same boring career for 40+ years? The future can be bright, we just have to focus our journey towards what we want. How did it start? How is it going? Let’s see how the future turns out as well!
