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My Journey from Full Time to Freelance

My journey from full time to freelance didn’t quite go to plan but I believe that some things are meant to be and maybe for me, it was just meant to happen this way. I wanted to share my journey as sometimes the best laid plans don’t always happen and you have to make the best of a bad situation.

 

My Journey From Full Time to Freelance Designer | Branding for Creative Small Businesses

Launching Fleurir Creative

I launched Fleurir Creative in May 2016 after dreaming of running my own branding and web design agency for about a year. I eventually took the plunge in February of 2016 and began researching everything I could that would help me build my business. I worked on my branding, designed my website and then come May I was live.

I did all of this whilst working four days a week as a Marketing Manager in the corporate world and also whilst juggling being a mum to my two year old son, Dominic. Don’t get me wrong, it was hard but it was doable. I knew what I wanted to do and what I needed to do to achieve it. Evenings and nap-times were spent working on my business which I really didn’t mind as I’m not one for watching huge amounts of TV.

My husband and family were (and still are) so supportive and I even told my employer what I was doing. As a small entrepreneurial family run business they were happy as long as it didn’t cross over with my day job.

 

My full time to freelance plan

I always had it in my mind that I would continue working until after the birth of our second child (if we were lucky enough to be parents second time round). The main reason for this being that we knew when we wanted to start trying and we also had some debts that needed paying off. My day job was paying the bills and Fleurir Creative was the money we were using to pay off our debts. I worked out that it would take around a year to pay off our debts and by this point we would hopefully be pregnant with our second child. The decision would then come as to whether or not to return to work after maternity leave. With my son starting school next year, I knew juggling school times and work would be difficult.

This wasn’t the only part of my plan. I wanted to ensure that I had enough money saved up to cover six months worth of living expenses and also ideally clients booked up three months in advance.

 

So what happened?

Redundancy happened. Something I hadn’t even encountered for. During my yearly appraisal in January of this year, I got the feeling that my role would be made redundant. We were a small team and a full time Marketing Manager was most definitely a luxury. I should also mention that at the point of this meeting, we were six weeks pregnant with our second baby. I went home that evening and said to my husband that I had a feeling I was going to be made redundant or that my hours were going to be cut dramatically. My gut feeling is very rarely wrong and at that point we made a second plan. If this were to happen then I would work for myself. I would only be working for another 6 or 7 months before going on maternity leave so why not take this opportunity to see if it would be possible to do what I love full time and become a branding designer.

In February, my gut feeling was right and I was made redundant. At this point, I told my employer that I was eight weeks pregnant. They were amazing and we worked out a plan that was realistic for the company financially and that would give me a cushion each month. I now work for them for a set number of days per month from home and I go into the office once a month.

I started working on Fleurir Creative full time on Monday 6th March and I am now in my third week. I’ve launched a new look brand and website, put together a content calendar for the blog and have upped my Pinterest and Instagram game. It’s early days but I am loving being my own boss and doing what I love full time.

 


Fleurir Creative is a small branding and website design agency and marketing consultancy for creative entrepreneurs and small businesses. I work closely with clients on their business strategy and target audience before we dive into the branding. For this reason, I only take on a limited number of clients per month.Find out more about how you can work with me via my branding & web designmarketing strategy and SEO services pages and then pop me a message via my contact form.

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