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Prepare Yourself – a Recurring Theme

If you are considering venturing out on your own, I encourage you to have some contracts signed and an office plan worked out for yourself. If you can office at home, more power to you, but I knew that wouldn’t be best for me, I needed to at least have a few people around, and also get up and out everyday (pjs are for lounging, not kicking ass and taking names). A family business had an open office space for me so that’s where I set up for a very low monthly cost.

Prepare yourself for the upfront costs. I opted for swanky business cards, since I’m (will be?) a creative agency, and they were expensive. I have to drive back and forth to my BFC and so my gas budget has gone up. My teeny tiny mac book pro that my husband bought for developing mac software – so I didn’t get a nice new computer – isn’t compatible with my outdated HP oversized printer, so I had to get a new one. (Which, admittedly, was kinda great.) I had to get a nice monitor but couldn’t stomach the thought of the $1000 mac cinema display. I got office decor, not necessary but definitely helpful for feeling like I’m in a creative space. I still needed pantone books, an external hard drive, some subscriptions and memberships. The list goes on. I want to be locked and loaded for marketing myself and landing more clients. Again, not all of this was necessary, but I believe it is what will set me up as an agency – NOT a freelancer. That’s important to me because of the business I want to attract.

The next big task is my own website. Designers and agency owners will feel my pain in that sometimes it’s hardest to market yourself. Your wheels just spin and spin and you contradict and doubt yourself at every turn. At least I had a great concept that I loved with some legs.

More on that in the next post.