Celebrating My 11 Year Business Birthday! + Reflections
This summer I’m celebrating a whole 11 years since starting my business. Happy biz b’day to meee!
I spent some time in deep reflection this past weekend, looking back on the highs & lows; the challenges, how I navigated them, all the magic opportunities & the learnings. It’s been a journey! I’ll be sharing some of those insights soon, and a few in this post.
One of the most important things I’m feeling and want to acknowledge to start, is what a privilege it has been to be able to do this so far… to have had the support of my family, friends, partner, random people along the way, and of course the trust & investment of my dear clients. I wouldn’t have been able to do this without them and do not take that for granted.
Any success I feel on reaching this milestone is not only mine, but is shared by everyone who’s ever encouraged me, invested with me, coached me, trained me or wished me well from afar. Thank you.
I’m feeling thankful that I’ve been able to share offerings and express myself in so many different ways on this self-employment journey as a photographer, coach and artist. I started out doing any kind of shoots anyone would let me in the first few years, before defining my niche in personal brand photography a few years in and going on to work with hundreds of business owners in the UK and around the world.
I’ve also had the honour of coaching & mentoring amazing humans over the years, hosted an online group program, co-hosted a monthly membership group in Brighton, run workshops and talks on creativity, personal branding, self-love & acceptance and intention setting. I’ve sold fine art prints of my paintings, nature photography and notelets. It’s been amazing to have the freedom to try stuff, put my offerings out there and experiment, and I’m so thankful for the opportunities to do that with my business as a vehicle for it all.
I was fortunate to choose a niche in my photography business which was well timed for an increase in self employment in the UK and an explosion in the use of social media for business (and therefore the need for great biz photos!).
Personal branding was just starting to become a more well known term when I became on of the very first photographers in the UK to define my services in that way.
It’s been exciting to be part of a movement which, for a lot of business owners, including many of my clients, is about representing themselves authentically and transparently in their branding, running businesses in accordance with their values and lifestyle, and creating more flexible structures and systems than we’d allowed ourselves to have before. The personal branding movement for some has also been about releasing stuffy, inherited ideas of what ‘being professional’ means, and instead being naturally professional by working with integrity and honesty. For some, it’s also been about using business as a tool for meaningful change in the world, as service, as vehicles for creativity, or even as spiritual practice.
Photo from my first professional photoshoot as a business owner, by Jon Canlas on business retreat in Hawaii in Feb 2013.
It’s not been a smooth or straight forward ride, though.
I think at this stage in my business it’s easy (and nicer!) to forget how confusing, overwhelming and straight up terrifying starting-out can be. It’s been tough at times, a cyclical journey of expansion, wonder, anxiety and isolation. When I look back at those early years, I remember feeling so much fear.
Working for ourselves means we have to show up, put ourselves out there and be visible, believe in ourselves to the extent that we can, and trust that what we have to offer has value to others. There’s no one to tell us what to do every day, and until you can afford to invest in a coach or mentor, there may be no one to consistently hold you accountable or share your vision.
We have to take leaps of faith. Make mistakes. Learn through action. We have to have uncomfortable conversations, charge people actual money(!), and go beyond our comfort zone pretty much every working day in order to create a business that can thrive. We have to invest in ourselves & our business growth.
We have to keep going, sowing seeds, even when it doesn’t feel like anything’s working and nothing is growing and nobody cares. Even once things are established there are new or evolved challenges to navigate.
Still, it is a huge privilege to be able to run a business, and to compensate all that fears, doubt and panic is the joy of getting to the other side; the pride we feel in having made a positive difference to our clients lives. The sense of achievement in having done something courageous. The deep connection we get from being received, seen and trusted. The freedom of being able to generate an income directly as a result of our actions, skills and gifts (and privilege and circumstances). And even when we ‘fail’ and things don’t go as we hoped, and it is disappointing or even devastating, we feel the feelings, take the learnings, and live in the knowledge that we were brave, that we tried.
I haven’t always felt able to do those courageous things, though. Going beyond my comfort zone has felt impossible at times. I haven't been in a great place with my mental health or felt inspired in my business at times. Those times have been scary. If I’m not doing so well personally, my business isn’t doing very well for too long either.
There are chapters where I’ve questioned everything, doubted myself, felt like a massive fraud and wondered whether I should carry on. Using social media has messed with my head. It’s been existentially confronting. I don't know if it could have gone any other way though, and I think no matter what we’re doing in life, we’re always going to wonder if we’re on the right track, have our ups and downs.
It’s healthy to allow ourselves to question what we’re doing, too, to reflect on how it’s all going and whether this is what we still want. It means we can review, check our intentions, and then move forward with greater awareness & integrity (whether that means continuing with our business or not). No shame.
Photo from a brand photoshoot in London with the lovely Molly Matcham, Summer 2016
Defining ‘success’ on our own terms is key.
There’s obviously, absolutely, no ‘one right way’ to run a business, so clarifying what ‘success’ actually means to us personally is so important. It helps us to release ourselves from what we think we should be doing and instead focus on what we would really like to choose for ourselves. It means we can measure how well things are going not by how much money we’re generating or how many cool opportunities are coming our way, but by noticing whether we’re feeling aligned with our values and real priorities month to month.
Defining success on our own terms could have us asking questions like: How do I want to be of service? What matters to me in this world, and what part is mine to play at this time? What brings me a deep sense of purpose and meaning in life? How do I need to express myself? How much money would I like to earn? How many hours do I want to dedicate to my work? How much quality time do I need to spend nurturing relationships with with my loved ones and my community? At the end of it all when I look back on my life, how do I want to feel? What will have truly mattered the most? What does a successful life look like to me?
Knowing the answers to some of those questions gives us guidance. And there are as many definitions of success in this world as there are people.
It’s also important to celebrate about how far we’ve already come.
It’s can be quite ingrained to look ahead to the next project, milestone or goal, never really acknowledging that we’ve already done good work and that it’s okay to pause and rest and appreciate. I am definitely still guilty of that. We live in a capitalist system that can have us feeling like we need to do more, create more, share more, stay ahead of the game, and be in perpetual productivity/harvest mode.
No matter how long we’ve been in business, we need to pause to take stock, regularly… notice what went well. Notice what didn’t work out and reflect on the learnings. Recognise what we’ve already achieved (no matter how small), acknowledge how brave we have been (whether things are going well right now or not) and how far we have come.
Noticing and reflecting gives us perspective, helps to ground us in the present moment, feel gratitude for the people and opportunities that have supported us along the way, and take what we have learned forward.
I’m excited about what the future holds.
I’m excited and am feeling inspired about my ongoing journey with personal brand photography, my amazing clients, the ones who return to me and the ones I haven’t met yet!! I can’t wait to meet you see what creative wonder we get up to!
I’m committed to deeper dives into my personal-work as an artist and creator with deeply personal projects in new mediums coming up - I’m super excited about that!
But, I don’t know what will happen in the coming decade. Perhaps I’ll be celebrating 21 years in this business! Or maybe a different milestone in another one. Or maybe I’ll be doing something completely different. My priority is to stay open to life, learn more about what sparks my curiosity, listen to what calls, and notice ways to be of service in this world, course correcting as I go.