My Self-employed journey – Life and Lessons
I was delighted to write a piece for Yorkshire Businesswoman magazine on my journey to self-employment, sharing the highs, lows and the what-I-wished-I-knowns.
It featured in issue 2 of the online publication but in case you missed it, you can read the article below.
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I’ll be honest, working for yourself is not for the faint hearted: you’re the MD of the business often alongside being the Head of IT and HR, Chief Finance Officer, web designer, marketer and Sales Director all rolled into one. And that’s before you’ve started on the actual day job. It’s lonely, all consuming, overwhelming and frustrating.
But. And it’s a big but. It is also incredibly rewarding, varied, exciting and offers a sense of autonomy and flexibility no employer could compare. The sense of optimism and potential is infectious, and you develop skills around resilience and adaptability you may never have known you possessed. These last six months are case in point for many in the self-employment boat.
As someone who never had a burning desire to run my own business, for a long time I felt a fraud calling myself an entrepreneur/founder/MD. I was in a world I felt I didn’t deserve to be in or belong. My road to self-employment was one of circumstance and not an entrepreneurial aspiration. Having had my second child and waking up to the reality of having two children under 5, I knew in those pre-Covid times I would be hard pressed to find a senior marketing role with an employer with a genuine positive attitude to flexible working. But I still longed to pursue a career I loved. It was part of who I was and what made me, me.
When a former colleague offered me the opportunity to work on a freelance project during my maternity leave, I took it as a sign. Running my own marketing consultancy seemed to be the best option that would allow me the ‘luxury’ of being both a mother and career woman. And so Bevic was born - pronounced Be.Vic and a combination of my moniker and the initials of my two children - my raison d'etre.
Falling into self-employment as I did, and two years down the line running a successful, award winning business, there are a few things from my own experience and learnings, that both professionally and personally, have influenced my journey.
1. Establish your brand identity and values
You can spend a long time thinking about the name of your business and the logo to the point of distraction, but your brand is so much more than that. Your values and proposition – what you believe in, your offer to customers and how you present and operate your business plays an even more important part to ensure your viability in the marketplace.
Identify your 3-4 core values for you and the business and stay true to them.
Refine your proposition, that acknowledges your client’s needs/pain points and how you serve them best.
Get help from a branding/graphic design specialist if you are not an expert in design
Think about tone of language and your target market. Do your research and talk to customers.
2. Focus your marketing efforts
Once you have established your name, look and brand offer, start to look at routes to market for your product or service.
Let all your networks know about your business. Word of mouth, recommendations and connections have played a big part in my own marketing plan from the beginning.
If you need a website, creating one yourself is do-able and can save costs. Wordpress and Squarespace have lots of adaptable themes available to keep it looking professional but do factor in SEO from the get-go.
Establish a presence on social media platforms but don’t think you need to be on them all. Select the ones that will reach your target market most effectively. Have a content plan and use a scheduler if needed. You need to be active, engaged, targeted and it should authentically reflect your brand’s look and feel.
Don’t dismiss traditional channels like PR, outdoor, print advertising, networking until you have looked at your target market, your objectives and strategy.
3. Establish a support network
Self-care is so important. From taking time out, to setting boundaries and addressing issues that are causing you additional stress or anxiety. I identified loneliness as a big issue but I found to address it by:
Joining a networking group. You won’t like them all so do try out a few to see where you feel comfortable and going to be of value.
Having a mentor and/or coach. After my first year, I reached out to a former boss to be my mentor and undertook some professional coaching for accountability and support.
Bringing in the experts. Once finance allowed, to take the pressure off I employed an accountant and IT support.
Going to a co-working space. To get out of the home office and have a conversation with someone other than the cat, I tried out a few co-working spaces and found a great local one in Assembly Bradford.
Regularly talking to family and friends and extending my circle to include fellow freelancers and self-employed. A problem shared, really can be halved.