One year ago today I embarked on my biggest adventure yet – I went full time with my blog and youtube channel, my very own business. If you had told me 8 years ago when I started this little space on the internet that one day I would be able to do it as my actual job I don’t think I would have believed you. Even up until last year it still seemed to good to be true, but I worked every spare hour I had until one day I realised that dream was now a reality.
So, how has my first year in business as a full time blogger/vlogger been? Well, in short – it’s been wonderful. It took a while to adjust from the previous 5 years of 9-5 and to understand that it really was all down to me. I’ve spent months trying to get the balance right and I’ve worked harder than I’ve ever worked before to succeed – having a job that’s your passion, your baby, your life will do that to you.
I was naive. I thought once I went full time I’d finally get my weekends and evenings back and have time for new hobbies but I very quickly realised that it’s not so simple. When you run your own business and (half)the mortgage payments are relying on you to bring in the dollar then the pressure steps up. So you run an hour or two over just to get this last blog post scheduled. Or you pick up your laptop on a Saturday morning to answer some comments and find yourself there 4 hours later fixing a tech issue or some backlink error!
It’s not a job you can really switch off from – every personal holiday we go on I’m usually still running around snapping photos or vlogging our time by the pool, every meal we go for I’m instagramming or snapping photos for a review – It’s all a choice and of course I do it because I love it but sometimes it hits you that we as bloggers never completely take a day off….or a proper lunch break I’ve found!
There are a lot of set backs when you run your own business. You can start your morning feeling on top of the world and be brought back down with an almighty crash after just one email. Because blogging and youtube is still so new a lot of people don’t understand the effort, time or skills behind it all and can belittle you and everything you work so hard for. But when you get feedback from a client who says you’ve done a great job, or an offer from an incredible company wanting to work with you (you, and this little blog you’ve nurtured all by yourself) then it makes it all worthwhile. Not to mention all of your heartwarming comments, tweets and shares because after all, you’re the reason I’m sat here tapping away on my keyboard every day.
Making the move and going full time with my blog was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made and I’m so excited for what’s next to come. Thank you for sharing my journey with me so far and being with me as we road test this whole ‘being an entrepreneur’ thing. I’m incredibly grateful for getting the chance to follow my dreams but you know what? I’m also SO god damn proud of everything I’ve achieved. Success should never be confused with luck – if you’re on your way to being where you want to be, know that you worked for it and you should be un-apologetically proud of your awesome self.
Thank you for sharing this adventure with me and here’s to hopefully another amazing year!
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xax