12 things I learned in my first year of self-employment

I started working for myself right in the middle of the first lockdown last year. I have loved it, but self-employment has for me been more of an emotional rollercoaster than I expected. When it's your businesses the good bits are great, but the challenges can feel more personal too.

I’ve been reflecting on what I’ve learned, and what I might tell myself a year (and a bit) ago to save a bit of heartache and a lot of time:

1. Success is subjective – you might be motivated by money, interesting work or time off. All of them are valid and success for you is probably different than success for anyone else. The secret, I think, is to figure out what you really want and stay on that path.

2. You have to learn to disconnect from the noise of what other people are doing – social media is a wonderful thing, but the constant chatter can be exhausting, and distracting.

3. There is no rush. You don’t need to do everything. You don’t need to make (or take) that course, upgrade your systems, launch something new right now. It can be kind of miraculous to slow down and enjoy the ride.

4. Self employment does = freedom but that can be overwhelming. The possibilities are endless, and the boundaries between work and life are very thin. If you really want to enjoy the freedom you have to be strict with yourself.

5. A lot of the business world is designed to make you feel like you’re failing but you’re not! You can want to do things better without feeling like you’re not enough now.

6. It’s okay to be ambitious, and it’s okay to be lazy too. I oscillate between the two many times a day. Have big plans if you want to – take a nap if you want to.

7. Self promotion for self employed people is really hard. I’ve been in the PR business forever and doing your own is infinitely harder that doing someone else’s. One piece of advice I find helpful is to try and take your ego out of it and remember that you can help people.

8. Almost anything that seems hard can (probably) be done in 25 minutes. Set a timer, make a coffee, get rid of distractions and focus.

9. Your network is the thing that will keep you sane and help you find work that you love. Join some networks, sign up for newsletters , talk to your freelance friends, go to a networking event (they are not as awful as you think).

10. There are opportunities and clients out there. And actually, the hardest thing is often saying no to things because you know they aren’t quite right.

11. Imposter syndrome gets us all. There is no moment when someone gives you a permission slip and says, okay now you’re an expert. You just have to decide to go for it.

12. Celebrate every good thing. No one else is going to, so have a dance party when you get that brilliant opportunity. Open a bottle of bubbles when you get a dream new client. The bad bits sting when you’re the boss, but they good bits can be much better too.

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