Day One of Freelancing

So I'm here on day one of my brand new business and I thought it might be useful to someone if I wrote a little bit about how I got here (it won't be my life story, I promise). 

After being in full-time employment with Yelp for 3.5 years, I was made redundant in November. I knew straight away that I was going to start this business. It had actually been floating around in my head for quite a while but I didn't have the impetus to actually do it until I found myself unemployed, free to do whatever I wanted. I've spent the last two months working on my ideas, the administrative side of things, setting up this website, re-doing The Glasgow Food Blog, as well as chatting to a few potential clients. 

Along with that two month period of working away on the details, I'd seen my self-confidence plummet. It was pretty much in line with this exact graph: 

Via Austen Kleon via Maureen McHugh

I think the effects of redundancy (worst word ever) and having very high expectations for myself meant that I was putting a lot of pressure on myself for everything to be perfect from day one. 

This morning I bit the bullet and set my new little business free into the world (via social media). I'd hoped to get a few supportive comments but was really overwhelmed by just how lovely everyone was, how many people shared and RTed, and how many people messaged me about coming on board as clients. So I've spent the day arranging meetings (in between taking many deep breaths and even having a little lie down at one point) and feeling about a million time better about my venture than I did yesterday. 

I'm excited for the coming weeks ahead! I'll be writing about the journey of starting my own business as well as some advice for anyone looking to do their social media a little bit better in 2017.