The good, the bad & the awful – an honest assessment of my first year in business

The day was Tuesday, the date – 1st August 2017 – and it was the first day of an “experiment” which would either sink or swim – a venture into self-employment. No clients, no guaranteed income, and an overwhelming feeling of trepidation. That morning, with the sun shining and the birds chirping, for the first time I also began to notice the whir of commuter traffic outside – people in their cars, vans and lorries – all travelling to their jobs, doing their work, getting paid, and going home – a luxury which I quickly realised I no longer had.

I was somewhat bleary eyed from the night before, after my previous employer kindly took me out for dinner and drinks – but despite the copious amounts of brandy and wine, I got up – on time, readied my coffee and croissant, and opened the laptop on my dining room table bang on 9am.  It was the first day of “work”, and whilst I didn’t have any clients that I could pull across from my previous job (not that I would anyway), what I DID have was some excellent relationships with every single person that I had previously worked or liaised with – therefore I began by emailing colleagues about my availability, pointing them to my temporary website – which was slowly being moulded into the finished site you see today.

Huge Doubts

Whilst I was developing my website, a large part of my brain still had huge doubts about what I was doing, and sleepless nights were part and parcel. Web design is insanely competitive, not least in Bournemouth & Poole – an area which currently boasts the fastest digital growth in the UK. Added to that, the popularity of DIY web-building platforms means that an increasing number of people are designing sites themselves these days, which certainly makes this more difficult (whilst I mention it, here’s why services like Wix and 1 and 1 MyWebsite are NOT all they are cracked up to be).

Once the website was finished, I was confident to advertise my services using Gumtree, Facebook, email, and LinkedIn to spread the word.

Anyway, back to the story. In the first few weeks, I did not advertise publicly, as, if anyone was to check my website whilst it was in a half-finished state – I’d be a laughing stock.  However, once the website was completed, I was confident to advertise my services using Gumtree, Facebook, email, and LinkedIn to spread the word.  I started by paying £6.99 to place an ad on Gumtree. The first thing I noticed when looking at my competitors ads on this platform was that all of them were faceless adverts with meaningless stock pictures of the “internet superhighway” or a stupid icon of globe with an @ sign on it!  Therefore, to be different, I posted a picture of me as the main photo.  I’m not a narcissist by any stretch of the imagination, but I thought it important that people can visualise who on earth they will be working with. Similarly, on my website, I purposely decided not to go the we do this and we do that route wth my marketing – why lie? It’s me doing the work – not someone else!

My First Client

Through the ad, I got a number of enquiries, and feedback was really positive.  As a result, my first job came in, was completed, I was paid, great feedback was received, and then getting the money in the bank felt like a real “feather in my cap” moment.  Fortunately for me, the enquiries kept coming in – some big, and some small. I did any job I could – it was money in the bank, and it was a chance to showcase what I can do. Throughout the weeks and months ahead, I just about managed to keep a steady flow of work, and although the sleepless nights continued – constantly wondering where the next job was coming from – I did thankfully manage to pay my bills and continue to push on with the dream of being a self-sufficient freelancer.

I really am quite proud of the steady and organic growth of Website Right. I’ve gained great clients, some excellent reviews, and some wonderful repeat business.

Twelve months later – and I’m still doing it. I am sat down writing this article, and despite sporting a few more grey hairs than I’d ideally want, I really am very proud of the steady and organic growth of Website Right. I’ve gained great clients, some excellent reviews, and some wonderful repeat business – without once deviating from my core values of providing honesty, transparency, and a quality personal service. I’ve worked some horrendously late nights and have consumed one too many coffees to get to this position, but due to the modular growth that I have put in place, I am confident that I will soon start to get back to the “normal” lifestyle that I’ve been desperate for!

I’ve had so many challenges along the way, and over the course of the next month, I’ll be writing a series of articles in the self-employed category of this website, which will detail the problems I have faced, as well as the ways that I managed to resolve them.  Everything is covered – from the challenges of juggling heavy workloads (difficult, but good), keeping on top of tax bills (bad), and trying to prevent cashflow issues (ugly). I also will cover accounting problems, keeping clients happy, limited companies vs being a sole trader, not being taken advantage of, and a whole lot more.