This week marks four months of running my design studio full time. To say there have been a lot of ups and downs would be an understatement.
I’ll never forget back in March, I was working on a design and I remember sitting there working on it and thinking to myself, “I want to take a chance. I want to take the risk and do this full time.” Pretty much three days later, I just said I'm doing it and made my decision. I put in my two weeks at my 9–5 and began working on Rossi Golf and my design studio full time.
The biggest thing I’ve learned from doing this is that it truly is a straight grind. It almost feels like I have to work on it 24/7 because there’s always something to do and something to stay on top of if I want to see it progress.
I’m constantly thinking about the future, what’s next, how I can keep growing, and how I can continue pushing the brand forward. There’s still so much I want to accomplish, and I’m not looking back.
It’s honestly a scary thing because one week you can feel like you’re on top of the world with all these projects to work on, and the next week, there’s nothing.
But I try to stay as motivated as possible and continue pushing, knowing that more design work will come my way. At the same time, I don’t just sit around and hope for it. I reach out to people. I put myself and my work out there. I make things and show people what I can do.
Some days I'm extremely excited to work on this, other days I'm freaking out about where to even start or just have nothing lined up. But I still have to show up every day and put the work in.
There's not a guaranteed paycheck coming to me every two weeks anymore. I have to get comfortable not knowing exactly what next month looks like.
If you want something to happen, you have to make the call, send the email, post the work, follow up, and make it happen.
This work comes in waves, and a packed week can turn into a dead one quickly. I have to learn not to let either one define how I feel about my business.
I'm not only designing, I'm selling, marketing, answering emails, dealing with manufacturers, fulfilling orders, building websites, creating content, pricing projects, invoicing, and planning what's next. It never, never, never stops.
I can't just make things when I'm hired by a client. Personal concepts and my projects keep my work visible and can create the next opportunity. Some days I set aside stuff just for personal work. This is especially true if I don't have any projects to work on.
So many people won't respond, some projects won't happen, and some ideas won't sell. You just simply have to move on to the next one and not let it kill your momentum.
I took the risk, and I'm doing everything I can to make that risk work. I've learned that working for yourself gives you freedom, but that freedom comes with a lot of responsibility. Nobody is telling me what I need to do tomorrow. I have to figure that out myself. If I want this to work, it's on me to keep pushing it forward.
Thank you for reading.
