Learnings from 1 year of working for myself
It’s been over a year since I started working for myself. I handed in my notice from my full-time role last year while on maternity leave. I was terrified, but excited at the same time, which is how I tend to feel about most of my decisions.
Before I made the jump, I sat down and wrote what I called my ‘Life Plan’. I wrote down how much money I had and how much money I needed to spend. I then did some fancy Google Sheets forecasting to know when I might need to seek a full-time job again (if things don’t work out!)
Yes, I was already planning for the worst-case scenario, before I’d even started. But, this is how I function best.
Three Questions
I’d given myself until the end of 2023 to evaluate if this would work out for me, or if I’ll need to consider returning to full-time employment.
I decided on three questions to base this on:
Do I earn enough to contribute towards my bills and savings?
Do I enjoy the work I do, and feel fulfilled?
Do I have the flexibility I need for a good work-life balance?
Short answer: I’m happy to confirm that I have no interest in returning to full-time employment, and for now, this is the right thing for me to keep doing.
Long answer: Let’s dive into each one of those questions and see how it went.
1. Do I earn enough to contribute towards my bills and savings?
That was my biggest concern, and it would’ve been detrimental to deciding if I could continue working for myself. But thankfully, yes, I have earned enough to contribute towards my bills and savings.
It also helps with my nerves that I have a really good accountant who isn’t passive and actually answers all my questions. I didn’t have a great one before, and I’m glad I went with someone new. It’s essential for me to be contributing equally as my partner to the household, and so far, so good.
2. Do I enjoy the work I do, and feel fulfilled?
Yes, absolutely!
The other week, I was chatting with a friend about how nice it feels to “look forward to the work week” because of how much I enjoy my work. It’s been a long time since I felt that way.
I’m also proud of myself for saying a lot more “No” than “Yes” this year. I was worried I’d say yes to everything, but I actually surprised myself. It was definitely a learning curve, especially with the style and structure of the work and the type of projects I enjoy working on. But it was a good discovery process.
As the year progressed, I took on less SEO client work and more Women in Tech SEO work, because that’s where fulfilment comes in for me. At least 70% of my time now is spent on WTS projects and events. I don’t know if this ratio will shift more next year; I plan to keep checking in with myself and decide what feels right for me.
3. Do I have the flexibility I need for a good work-life balance?
I work 4-day weeks, from Tuesday to Friday, and my core working hours are between 9am - 4pm, because that’s synced up with my child’s nursery days. I have a 3-day weekend to spend with my family.
In the weeks where I do stick to that, I feel a lot better. But I can’t say I’ve done such a great job at it. I do find myself doing some work here and there during the evenings or weekends. I tell myself I’m “getting stuff done”, but it can feel exhausting.
I’m personally someone who enjoys working from home. I feel very focused working at my desk, and I’m grateful for the lack of commute, but it does make it too easy to access my laptop any time of the day. It also doesn’t help having things like my email and Slack on my phone.
I also took much less holiday than I normally would in a full-time job. I took a break in June to visit family, and I have a break planned at the end of the year—no other time off. When you work full-time, and you have a holiday policy, you always make sure that you make the most out of it and you book it off. But it’s not as easy to remind yourself to do that when you work for yourself.
So, to answer the question, yes, I believe my work-life balance is better than when I was working a full-time job, but I think there’s a lot more I can do next year to improve it.
Five Learnings
If I were to summarise my top learnings from the past year of working for myself, this is what they would look like:
1. Be part of a community that lifts you up
I can’t begin to imagine how lonely it would’ve felt this year, working for myself, and not being surrounded by a community of wonderful people.
Of course, a massive shout out to the Women in Tech SEO community; I’ve had so many conversations with brilliant women throughout the year off the back of it, and it’s always the first place I head to if I have any questions to ask. Meeting many of our members in person for our London and Philadelphia conferences this year was so beautiful.
I must also shout out the DMU (Digital Marketing Union), run by the wonderful Dan White. I joined that group at the start of my self-employment journey, and it’s been so helpful. They do Friday calls where you get to catch up with one another on different topics, and it has one of the most useful Slack groups; even just reading some of the conversations between others can give me lots of new ideas.
I plan to continue being more active in communities that help lift me up next year; it’s so important and makes a big difference when you’re working for yourself.
2. Stay in your lane, and focus on that
This is a tough one for me, and I probably feel really vulnerable bringing it up. It’s easy when you work for yourself to compare yourself constantly, not just to others, but also to compare yourself to the version of yourself that you hope to become one day.
I’m always very hard on myself on “should’ve, could’ve, would’ve” thinking. I should’ve done this by now; I could’ve been more productive; if I hadn’t done so, I would’ve done so…and so on.
We all have our own goals that we’re trying to achieve, and it’s important to stay focused on that and to try to stay in the present as much as possible. Having said that, it’s also really good to take inspiration from other people’s work.
What I found helps me when I get into this ‘comparison’ mode is reaching out to folks whose work inspires me and letting them know. Instead of comparing yourself to someone, connect and learn from them; the next thing you know, you may even work or collaborate together.
3. Keep learning, and invest in yourself
I spent more money than I thought I would on learning opportunities as a self-employed person, but I’m glad I did because there’s a lot of inspiration that can come off the back of it.
I usually only attend conferences I speak at, but this year, I deliberately went to some as an attendee, which was a wonderful experience. I attended MozCon in Seattle over the summer and learned a lot from the talks and connecting with others in person.
I also enrolled myself in a fundraising bootcamp, and I went to a residential writers retreat. Investing in yourself and learning new things that aren’t part of your typical day-to-day help inspire you and give you new ideas.
4. Your calendar is yours to own and manage
This took me some time to learn, but I finally nailed it over the last few months of the year. I really dislike Zoom calls; they interrupt my flow and work day, but I know they’re needed. So I made the decision to only have calls on a Thursday, and it’s been glorious! It does mean that there are some weeks where my Thursday is literally stacked up from start to finish with calls, but it also means that I don’t have calls for any other days of the week, and I can have sit-down focused time then.
What works for me, might not work for you, but the main learning is to find what works best for you and stick to it. I know some folks with a day or two of no meeting days, others only do meetings in the morning and so on. Remember that your calendar is yours to own and manage; make sure it’s something you enjoy looking at, not something you dread.
5. Carve out time to celebrate your achievements
This is the last one I’ll end with because it’s something I’m awful at doing, but I know how important it is. I’m the type of person who ticks something off my list and quickly says, “Okay, what’s next?” before even giving myself a pat on the back or a moment to breathe.
When you work for yourself, you no longer have review sessions or appraisals. So, we need to ensure we’re doing it for ourselves and celebrating our own achievements.
If there is one thing that I’m most proud of achieving this year, it’s the fact that I said the most ‘Yes’ I’ve ever said before to things that absolutely terrify me.
Here’s to doing more stuff that scares me next year! =)
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If you’ve read this far, thank you. It’s not easy writing these reflections in public, and I appreciate any conversation that may come off the back of it.
