Five things we’ve learned since going it alone
Hasn’t time flown? All of a sudden a full quarter of the year has passed and we’ve been so busy it’s come as a bit of a surprise! All good news of course, you pray you’ll be busy at the beginning of a new venture, so we’re very happy to say we’ve been rushed off our feet.
It’s been a flurry of activity and we hardly feel like we’ve stopped. However, every so often, it’s good to just take a breath, take a minute and mull over how things are going. Here’s five things we’ve picked up since going it alone…
1. You never have time to finish your own website
At Littlefish we are perfectionists. We hate for any tiny detail not be right and so it was under duress that we made our own site live. Not that we think it’s wrong, it’s just there’s always something else you can do. Only when our hand was forced by people giving out our details (thank you very much) did we finally relent. We’ve already scoped out new fonts that we’re desperate to buy, ideas we’d like to try and there’s so much we could write in the blog, we’d bore you to death if we could. Like with PR though, you just never have time to do your own!
2. Bookkeeping can be confusing without the right advice
Hats off to any accountants out there! We’re creatives and therefore numbers just aren’t our bag. Starting your own company is a minefield with all of the accounting decisions you have to make and all of the boxes you need to tick. It’s complicated and you can easily make mistakes without a reliable accountant to show you the ropes. Luckily, on our second attempt, we’ve found just the man and we’re very grateful for that fact.
3. It’s easy to become attached to your laptop
It’s inevitable that when it’s your baby it’s harder to walk away and leave it alone. Running your own business means becoming obsessed, becoming OCD and not paying any attention, or caring, when the next day starts and you’re still staring at your screen. If only Apple could invent a shower-safe Macbook, we’d be in seventh heaven.
4. No Wi-Fi = no go
Along with design, our one great passion is fishing. So imagine our horror when we realised that, when out on our very much longed for first fishing trip of 2015, all we could think about was the Wi-Fi connection. Now don’t get us wrong, a time when we don’t long to be lakeside, rod in hand, will never come but a day when being out of circulation from all things Littlefish gives us sweaty palms has well and truly arrived.
5. You don’t know how much you love your job until it’s truly your own
Being creative gives you a constant hankering to be free. To have the time to look around, take things in, learn, practice and try something new. Going it alone gives you the freedom to do all of this on your own terms and we really believe it’s the key to producing our very best work. We’ve been delighted with how things have gone so far in the life of Littlefish. We’re up, we’re swimming and we haven’t sunk yet. Most importantly, we’re excited and we’re hungry. We want to grow, to change and to become even better. It’s been a great start and we can’t wait to see what happens next.