5 things I’d go back and do differently
Rewind back to 2018. I had freshly graduated with my Bachelor in Applied Visual Imaging (a fancy way of saying I have a graphic design degree) and was working hard on building my own online business.
You see, all throughout my last year of study I had only one goal in mind. Get into freelancing.
It was the reason why I had chosen this career path and studied design. Already at the age of 21, I envisioned a future where I could build a flexible job around my husband's job in ministry, be able to raise my future kids and still put my hand to doing what I love while bringing in an income for our family.
While researching inspiration for various uni projects, I’d stumbled across this whole new world of online business and designers who utilised personal branding to market their unique style.
It was like a portal had been unlocked and I was mesmerised by the endless possibilities. So off I went, doing my market research, building a business plan and brand foundations before launching Tamiko Studio early 2018.
Along the way, I made a series of mistakes *ahem* learning opportunities. So here I am sharing them with you, in the hopes that maybe another designer out there can avoid making these exact same ones.
Hindsight really is a beautiful thing.
So here are 5 things I’d go back and tell my 2018 self to do differently:
Just get started
A big thing for me back then was perfectionism. Looking back I realise just how much that mindset cost me. I felt that I had to get everything lined up perfectly before I could launch the studio and start working and in thinking that, I wasted a lot of valuable time getting experience.
A wise person once told me: “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth being bad at it while you get good”. Basically, just begin. Make peace with the fact that it won’t look exactly the way you want from the start. Trust that you will learn and grow along the way.
When you are a designer and have an eye for what looks good, there is this frustration that comes from the gap of what you are creating and how good you know it can be. But it takes time and practise to shorten that gap and if you wait around, you’ll never begin and never grow.
So if I could go back, I would have reached out to other designers during my university years and asked if I could help with any overflow work to start gaining more real life experience. I would have begun building simple brands for anyone who needed them or and posted my work during the last couple years of school. If I had extra time, I would also prioritise something called ‘passion projects’ which are basically made up brands to showcase your style and what you are capable of creating. This would have been a great way to start building an audience who resonate with the style I enjoy.
Knowing how hard it was to find clients once I launched the studio, it would have been far easier if I had built those connections slowly over the years and posted my work regularly to build a small audience. Embrace imperfect action and be okay with posting work that doesn’t feel ‘finished’.
2. Don’t spend $650 on ridiculously beautiful but useless business cards
Yes, I really did spend that much. It hurts to type this out and I still cringe every time. What was I thinking? I have no idea. I blame it partially on the fact that this decision was probably made in the last two months of uni, most likely sleep deprived, highly caffeinated, utterly stressed out of my mind. Also - shiny object syndrome. I thought I needed all the latest printing trends to score high marks on my project and it turns out I missed the most obvious goal: legibility. I printed white ink on gorgeous shimmery copper cardstock (and embossed the logo on it as well for good measure). While business cards are helpful in my line of work, I didn’t consider the fact I was actually not going to be handing them out to local businesses anytime soon due to working mostly online and that there were a lot cheaper ways to go about this.
So the lesson here is, ask yourself what the actual goal or outcome for the project is. Then find the simplest way to achieve that. Don’t believe that spending money automatically means great results.
3. Put a time limit on research and inspiration
While it was Instagram and seeing other designers' work that kick started this whole dream, it also quickly turned into a never ending pull of information and overwhelm. There were just so many options. So many opinions on what to do and how to do it. Looking back now, I realise how distracted I was being pulled in all these directions and starting one project only to read on a blog post about this ‘new thing’ and feeling lost all over again.
Now I would be very clear on what I’m working on and if I come across an interesting post during my working time, save it to my bookmarks tab to come back to later. Otherwise I’ll find myself down a deep rabbit hole of information on email marketing and wonder where two hours just went…
So set a timer or a block of time for education and getting inspired, learning something new etc. then put it aside once that hour is done to focus on what actually needs to get done that will result in finished work.
4. Identify actually what moves the needle forward in my business
This seems like an obvious one but I didn’t even consider this properly until last year. I just wrote a bunch of goals and to-do’s last time round and worked hard to get it all done. Problem was, coupled with my tendency in 2018 to get distracted by new information very easily and not actually knowing *what* was moving the needle forward, I would keep changing my goals and tasks weekly. I would look super productive but really I had no idea what I was doing. This showed in the fact that despite having a whopping 4 whole days each week to go hard on my freelancing dreams, I didn’t have a whole lot to show for it by the time I wrapped things up. I had never identified what my big picture goals were and broke it down into what I had to do daily, weekly and monthly to achieve that. I just worked on a bunch of tasks that I thought I should be doing to be successful.
Now as a Mum to a 1 year old, I can only dream of having that much undivided time again but this lesson was extremely valuable in maximising my hours this time round. I know what I need to do every day and every week to stay on track to hit my goal of getting x-amount of clients per month - everything else I have time to do is an added bonus. But this way I know what moves the needle forward and prioritise that before anything else.
5. Find community and support from day one
Being a freelancer can get lonely and when you add self-doubt, comparison and the inevitable highs and lows of running your own business into the mix, you need a good support system to help you keep going and not give up.
The loneliness can come from multiple ways; working from home on your own without any other adult company, having to make big decisions without other colleagues to bounce ideas off, people not always understanding what you do in business or why and having to explain yourself a lot, the unique rollercoaster of emotions that are hard for people to relate to unless in a form of entrepreneurship themselves.
Because of this, finding other like-minded friends in business is a game changer to feeling understood and supported along the way. Back in 2018, I lacked any kind of real community and while I tried to reach out to a few people and engaged half-heartedly in Facebook groups, my shyness kept me from being really honest and asking for help.
Now I’m so much more intentional about this, simply because I don’t want to give up. And I know I am 99% more likely to quit if I don’t surround myself with people who can cheer me on.
One of my go-to’s this time has been joining an online membership for business owners called Golden Brands. You can find out more info here (for full transparency - if you choose to join, I get a small commission but know that I would only recommend something I highly rate and love myself!) It’s been an incredible resource for business knowledge, masterclasses and guest interviews but most importantly, getting to meet other women on a similar journey as me.
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So there you have it. My lessons learned along the way and the five things I’m prioritising this time round relaunching the studio as a result. I hope there is something you can take away and apply to your own business journey too!
I’d love to know in the comments, what was one thing you wish you had done differently from the start?