Life as a Creative Entrepreneur – The First Days

So far, I have been working for myself since June 1st.  And I LOVE IT!

Beautiful day…me pretending to be introspective. 🙂

To be honest, I had no clue what to do with myself the first week of self-employment. When I worked 40 plus hours outside of the home, I could think of a list of stuff I wanted to do during my off time. But now, I have a ton of time to work, play, and chill and sometimes I just don’t know what to do with myself!

Setting up headquarters…almost finish. I need to put stuff on the walls.

I was able to get 9 days all to myself while my spouse and daughter were out of town. I did a lot of work, enjoyed some well needed alone time, treated myself to dinner, and did some more work!

This week, my family is home and now I am adjusting to balancing my work and family life.  We start homeschooling in July so that is going to be another adjustment. I think we can handle it.

Work, work, work, work, work, work!

Me…looking busy when really I’m trying to figure out if I want a corn dog or hot dog from Sonic. Tough business decisions. 🙂

Interview with my friend Tracie Claiborne for Live Inspired. So much fun!

I have spent majority of my time working on my first online scrapbooking class. (More details to come!). I’ve found it difficult to figure out what I needed to do first – my creative tasks or business tasks. There are so many things to get done and at times it can be a bit overwhelming. I have to stop myself sometimes and say, “Hey girl! You work for yourself! Your are bound by no one! Do whatever you want when you want!” I have the inclination to get up at 6:00 am and get to work. Instead, I’ve enjoyed leisurely mornings and restful evenings.

Daytime shopping!

Target…always!

Yummy lunch…no rush.

Spending time with these two!

Fitness program at Victoria Marie…thank you Daily Burn!

Tools of the trade!

 

Hot mess…picking layouts for my upcoming class.

I like that I am able to schedule my work in “pockets of time” – I do most of my administrative business stuff first thing when I walk into my studio. (I like to start with the stuff that I least enjoy.) Once that is done, I focus on my creative tasks – the really fun stuff that keeps me inspired and motivated! I light candles, put on my favorite tunes, and get to “work”!

Music is awesome!

Class production.

Lunch with my mom! Ladies of leisure. She’s retired. 🙂

A subscriber sent me this. Thank you Shelley Marsh!

Long hours…exhausted!

I also enjoy the fact that my little buddy joins from time to time. My studio/office will also serve as our homeschool room.

Busy busy!

Here’s what I have learned so far:

• My time is mine! I answer to no one and I love it!
• I need to slow down and enjoy this opportunity. I do not have to rush. Yay!
• I found that I was working on a variety of tasks each day – it felt disjointed. I recently heard about “batching work” – in other words, spending a day or a few hours on one task (i.e. full day of filming, next day editing, and so forth). This has helped me to be more productive and efficient with my work.

Overall, so far so good! I will admit, there are times when I freak out a bit…worry about my projects, projected income, and such. But I remind myself that I CAN do this! I AM doing this! And it’s fun!

I’ll write more about my transition to solo entrepreneurship in a couple of months. More lessons to learn, lots of stuff to do!