Time for Change
Making the move from freelance.
That’s a scary thing to write…So what’s going on?
Well, as most of you know I wrote an article about the struggles I’ve had recently with freelancing. I was feeling uninspired, tired and like I’d plateaued in my career. I’ve been focusing on what brought me to design in the first place and had re-kindled my love for design again.
The thing is, that alone doesn’t solve everything. I’m definitely more motivated, and I’m ready to focus again but I need a new challenge. Otherwise I know that it won’t be long before I fall back to the way I was.
Progress is impossible without change.
Leading up to writing that article, I had been talking with Ryan regularly. We had both been feeling very similar and were able to talk and help each other through it. We already had a great working relationship, we’ve been working on several client projects over the past 18 months and launched our side project oozled.
After several long discussions we decided that together, maybe we could actually help each other through these tougher times, maybe we could avoid getting to this point again? There’s also the hope that with two of us working to the same goals we’re far more likely to achieve them. I saw a slide recently in a talk by Chris Murphy, which read 1 + 1 = 3 and this really resonated with me, I’m definitely stronger within a team.
Obligatory inspirational quote:
“Any goal worth achieving involves an element of risk.” — Dean Karnazes
You can probably see where this is going, but I’ll say it anyway — Ryan and I are forming an agency and it’s called No Divide.
Why?
Well, other than the reasons above, I’ve reached a point in my life where I want more stability. When I started I had very little in the way of overheads so it wasn’t really an issue if I went a month or two without a project coming through the door.
However, over the last 18 months my overheads have increased dramatically. I won’t go into detail but I’ve got to have more stability now. Forming an agency means that I can take a wage and while I’m away someone else is able to answer emails and work won’t grind to a halt for a week or two.
Two minds are better than one.
Since working together we’ve found that we are able to provide our clients with a much better service. We’ve been getting more involved in the projects and spending time getting to know the client — we’re forming relationships that we want to be a part of.
While things are changing, it’s still going to feel familiar. I’m still going to be designing every day but I’ll also be working within a team (albeit only a two-man team right now) working to achieve goals that we’ve set ourselves each month.
We’ll also be able to dedicate time to our side projects. oozled has been a little rejected recently, mainly due to finances being tough recently. oozled has the potential to be a great marketing tool for us, reading Mikael Cho’s recent post on how their side projects saved their startup opened our eyes to how important oozled can be for our business, and therefore we’ll dedicate time to working on it each week.
Of course, I’m quite aware that we may be replacing one set of worries for another. But at least we’ll be able to share the load and help each other along. I’m no longer responsible for just myself, for the first time in 6 years someone else now relies on me.
Anyway, so here’s to the next chapter of my career, I can’t wait for the new opportunities that are ahead of us and what the future holds for No Divide.
If you want to work with us, then please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.
