I recently came across a blog post I wrote about my first week as Freelancer and it blew my mind seeing that it had been almost 4 years to the day! So much has happened in these 4 years and it’s good every now and then to reflect on these things.
So this post will be a follow up to that original blog…what has happened in the last 4 years, how much has changed since that first week as a freelancer (and how much has stayed the same.)
For background on my journey to being self employed, I’ll give a little history. I graduated from the Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) in July 2013 with a BFA in Graphic Design, and upon returning home I got a job as the in-house designer for Restaurant Holdings Ltd. (Burger King & Popeye’s franchise holders in the Caribbean) where I worked from September 2013 to September 2014. It was a good initiation into being a working designer, and because of the relatively slow schedule I was able to practice illustration and work on freelance clients in my down-time at work to further build my portfolio.
I was designing stuff like this for Burger King
In 2014 I started working at McCann Port-of-Spain as a senior art director. The job listing asked for 5 plus years of experience in advertising, and I considered not bothering to apply because in my mind I was completely under qualified. I applied anyway and after 2 rounds of interviews I got the job. There was no time in between these 2 jobs; I left work at RHL on Friday afternoon, and the next Monday I was going to work at McCann. The world of advertising was a different beast to what I was accustomed to. It was really a baptism by fire and I would go home every night looking at tutorials to try to figure out how to do certain things in Photoshop that was required for making ads. I had pretty limited experience with Photoshop, and I quickly realised that that needed to change. Luckily I had the help of the other more experienced art directors there who always helped and before long I had settled in to my new position.
Jolly Saint Nick?
Two and a half years later, and having worked on some of the biggest brands in the Caribbean (bmobile, Angostura, Nestle, RBC to name a few) on a wide range of award winning campaigns, I decided that it was time to do my own thing. By then my freelance work was eating into all my free time…weekends, early mornings, late nights, holidays…and my income from these freelance jobs was starting to overtake my monthly salary. I felt that if I had more time to work on building my own business that I could at least match my salary every month, and after a month or so of restless nights and trying to decide if to do it or not…I quit my job at McCann.
I was part of the team at McCann that worked on one of the biggest rebrands at the time… bMobile
In my first full month of freelancing (April 2017) I worked on Constance Estate Infused coconut oils for CGA, a brochure, a couple logos and couple illustrations. The bulk of my work at that point was branding and packaging design and that’s when I decided that I can niche down and focus mostly on those two areas. That being said, I still wanted to get a monthly retainer client that could secure some sort of guaranteed monthly income to ease my mind. By July I had 2 monthly clients that I was creating social media content for, one of whom I still work with 4 years later.
Constance Estate Oils…the very first job I did as a Freelancer
After year one of being self-employed, I had worked with over 45 different clients on many jobs from branding & packaging, to social media, to murals, to illustrations, and more. The next year was much of the same, and I was seeing a steady growth of my business. I worked with a multitude of other freelancers on projects and it was at the end of 2018 that I decided to start operating under the umbrella of my own creative collective, and that was the birth of Backyard Design Co.
With the formation of Backyard Design, I made my first hire - Chevonne, an account director/project manager who would deal with the client service side of things as well as act as liaison to the group of creatives that I work with. It was also an investment that allowed for me to have more time to focus on design and less on the more administrative side of running a design business. At the end of the day, a design business takes a lot more than simply making cool stuff for clients; it’s meetings, contracts, quotations, invoices, ideation, accounting, project management…and above all else…making sure your clients are happy and well taken care of. Hiring Chevonne has helped Backyard Design to scale our business while maintaining all these touch points.
Here’s a photo of me & Chevonne at our favourite Cafe! Full Bloom.
Another big thing was hiring two junior designers in September 2020. This allowed me to offer my clients a wider range of perspectives in our work. It also meant that we can now handle more design work without compromising the level of quality that our clients have come to expect. I also recently started working with a business coach to make sure that I am making most efficient use of resources and help keep me focused on what’s next for the business.
Of course, over the years there have also been a lot of other very cool achievements. Winning our first Addy Award in our first year of business for the work we did for Ortinola Chocolates was a big highlight. Winning our second, third, and fourth addy was also as good as the first! The opportunity to work alongside Kes The Band on their album was definitely a career highlight, and the fact that it won a gold Addy Award made it even sweeter. We have been fortunate to be able to work alongside some really great clients and to collaborate with some amazingly talented individuals, and that has to be one of the best parts of the job.
It’s not all glamorous obviously…as an entrepreneur, I’ve worked harder in the last 4 years than I ever have or even ever thought that I can. Trying to balance work, social life, gym, eating healthy, learning new skills, and everything else that life throws at you has been the hardest part. Being able to travel a lot (pre-covid) has been one of the best things about working for yourself; but of course you can never really fully turn off as your business relies on you everyday. It’s a path that I definitely recommend but also understand that it’s not for everyone as so many things have to fall into place perfectly for it to work. I’m lucky that it has for me, and if it’s a journey that you are considering, just know that it is HARD WORK.
I hope you enjoyed this little insight into my last 4 years, if you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment and I promise I’ll reply!
Nick