What I’ve learned in my first year of online creative business

This time last year the words ‘I’ve decided to take my blog full time’ burst out of my mouth. 

Silence.

Not the reaction I was hoping from my husband for but one I later came to understand. Until this point we’d both focused on building his business, we’d made a great team and I was about to leave him high and dry to follow my own creative dreams.

Saying these words out loud took courage. Nora Ephron and her words ‘be the heroine of your life’ rang repeatedly in my head. I’d go as far as saying that the words was harder than following them through with action. Once I’d leapt, I’d leapt. The truth is I’d already been blogging full time anyway. I’d been doing it in addition to all my other work but this enabled me to stay in a dysfunctional sort of limbo hidden place. I spent years talking myself out of starting a blog before I finally took the plunge off the back of a new year mindset wave. Since starting I’d become more and more obsessed with my work. When my blog started to pay out some money I slowly began to believe I could do this. 

Last September was a big leap for me. A year later and this blogging is still my job – though it looks different to how it used to. 

Here’s what I’ve learned about creative business over the last year. I wanted to share these lessons as a reminder for myself but also for anyone else who is thinking of taking the leap and might benefit from them. 

It’s always going to be one big experiment. I’ve spent a lot of time and energy experimenting and I’m thankful I gave myself permission to do this. Without experimentation I would’ve never figured out what works for me and what doesn’t or that what I really want to do is write. Working for myself means I’ve got to adapt, bend and improvise regularly. I don’t expect my work to look the same from one year to the next. This can feel really scary to someone who started in the public sector where nothing ever seemed to change but in reality it’s exciting. Allowing myself to try new things, mess up and then learn from my mistakes is essential. 

I couldn’t do this on my own. Well, I could but my life would be much harder and if I’m being honest I don’t think I’d have the confidence. There’s a common myth online that there’s millions to be made by working for yourself it all happens overnight. I think the reality is we’re all doing what we can and need to do to make it happen. J is the breadwinner in our house and I’m so grateful to him for supporting me with this work I’ve chosen (he eventually broke his silence and came to terms with the changes).

You can make a living online. This realisation has like been unlocking the door to wonderland. I make money via a cocktail of brand collaborations, ebooks, freelance writing and affiliate links. It’s never steady, it’s never guaranteed and it ebbs and flows in seasons but knowing it’s possible to work for yourself and get paid gives me confidence to keep going. Realising I can also make money via meaningful work that’s in line with my values without selling out has been the cherry on the cake. 

It doesn’t have to be complicated. This, I think is still my downfall and something I need to come to terms with. I’ve found working for yourself and building a business doesn’t have to be a spiders web, in fact the simpler you keep things the easier it will be. A great book on this and a great one for fellow magpie syndrome sufferers is The One Thing.

Some work pays more than others. Virginia Woolf had it right when she said to write we needed money and a room of one’s own. Deciding I wanted to spend my days writing has meant accepting I may never earn big bucks. Staying close to the vision I have for my work has meant giving up on much higher paying opportunities like courses and coaching. I’m ok with this but learning this lesson has meant I’ve stopped questioning why I’m not earning as much as others and better yet, blaming myself for that. 

I’m happy to stay small. Typing I’m happy to earn less money feels like I’m going against everything society throws at me on a daily basis. But it’s true. I feel privileged that my needs are met. More than that I currently have everything I need to enjoy my life so what’s the point in working more to earn more? I’m happy to live within my current means and I’ve created a life I love. A bigger house, flashier car or kids aren’t on my wish list. Being diagnosed with cervical cancer when I was 25 changed my entire approach to life and thanks to that I know I won’t wish I’d worked more when it’s all over. I’m grateful to have a grasp on what matters to me in life. The tricky part is managing this knowledge with my beliefs that I don’t deserve to make money and the money I do earn will disappear one day. Re-wiring my brain whilst sailing close to my values is a process.

Those money worries will never go away. I have to live alongside them. There have been months when I’ve made £400 and months where I’ve made £4,000. I regularly have meltdowns over everything I’ve built so far disappearing into the abyss but I think this would happen no matter how much I earned. Pair this with the fact J is also self-employed and things can get quite stressy around here. Luckily we tend to have meltdowns alternatively. The truth is I’ve come to believe that being self-employed isn’t for everyone because we can’t reassure ourselves the money will definitely come at the end of the month (even though we can be made redundant at a moment’s notice in a salaried job). It’s my freedom that makes it worth it. I value my freedom above all.

I’m only at the beginning and there’s beauty in that. I’ve got friends who have ten years of blogging under their belts. They’ve moved on to different things now but I’m still enjoying my beginnings. I think there’s a lot to be enjoyed about beginnings if we just let ourselves. I’ve devoured a fair few rock star autobiographies from J’s collection and they all tell us the same story, the best times were those early days – just before they ‘made it’. This inspires me to hold my beginnings close and always look forward to what’s coming without feeling the need to race ahead.

I’ll never please everyone and that’s ok. This is the largest pill to swallow. The idea that someone doesn’t like me fills me with that sick feeling and makes my spine vibrate with anxiety. I can’t stand the thought. Flip the coin and I’ll admit there are plenty of people I share this planet with that aren’t for me. If I don’t like everyone, not everyone is going to like me. Trolls, nasty DMs or unfollows can hurt but I’ve learnt the best way of dealing with them is not to take it personally. It can be hard to believe at sometimes but what others think of me or my work doesn’t affect my worth or make me any less of a person, I’m already enough.

This feels like the perfect time to say thank you to you for reading this blog, sharing it far and wide and supporting my work. It means the world that I get to spend my days writing, photographing and creating and I couldn’t do it without you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you xx