THE SELF-EMPLOYED ROLLERCOASTER

Hey, Hi, How are you all? I hope you've all had a great week so far. I'm here today to get some things off my chest, as I regularly do here on PagesByMegan but i'm also going to bookmark this page for me to look back on when a mini meltdown is on the horizon. 

Anyway, I better let you in on what the heck I'm going on about hadn't I!?

I'm going to be chatting about what it's like to be self employed and a few of the lows that come hand in hand with it. I think a lot of people think being self employed is all lie-ins and day-trips with the occasional job thrown in the mix, especially when it comes to being a fashion blogger. Well, to be honest, it can be that way sometimes, but it's a hard slog to get to that point and as I'm only twenty four, I'm learning each and every single day what it's like to be your own boss.
Now, first up, a little disclaimer before anyone chomps my head off, I realise that being a blogger isn't the hardest of career paths, with many a job role being hundreds of thousands times harder than what I do. Other job roles have HUGE daily struggles compared to that of mine, but being a blogger is my job, it's what I've stumbled upon doing and what I love and know, so please take this post as just that and don't be a meanie bum... K?

So, anyhooo, back to being self employed.
I feel truly honoured, lucky and proud to be self employed.
To have created a little something for myself to work on, to build up and to strive towards; A world of my own for us to share together. It's something that still blows my mind on a daily basis, the fact that I did this all on my own, it's mental and I'm so proud of it, and so proud of the other guys and gals who are making waves for themselves with their own businesses too.

Blogging and creating videos for YouTube is awesome, I absolutely love each and every minute of it. However, being self employed is tough.

In all industries going solo is seriously scary indeed, it's just you in this big bad world on your own, and it's awfully daunting to say the least. 
Whilst I'm very lucky and work extremely hard to keep doing what I'm doing that isn't without some heartache, stress, tears, the works. It's a tough old slog this self employed lark and I wanted to voice some of the struggles that I know myself, George and my other bad-ass boss friends go through as a twenty something business owner.
As I said this post is partly to get some things off my chest and partly as a little bookmark for me to look back on when things aren't so peachy.

As is with any job, particularly self employed job roles, there are good days and there are bad days. Great weeks and terrible weeks. Busy months and down right DEAD months, it's all part and parcel of being self employed and I must get to grips with the fact that it can't always be GO GO GO as, inevitably I'm just going to crumble under the strain of it all.

I'm the kind of girl who likes to be busy. I like to have lots of projects under my belt, I like to plan outfits, locations and briefs and I love having tonnes of ideas rushing around my head, I buzz off creating content that I think you guys will love and therefore when it's a bad week, it's a seriously baaaaaad week. 

I must try and tell myself, and hope that if you're reading this as your own boss or if you're about to take the leap into being self employed yourself, I hope you will remember that it's true what Ronan Keating said... "Life is a Rollercoaster" And never was there a truer word said when it comes to being self employed. For weeks I could be sat there thinking my career is over, worrying whether any inspiration will come to me or whether any projects will come in. Then BANG all the inspiration, all the jobs, projects and exciting trips and meetings come in at once and I'm laughing once again. 
It happens. One minute it's chaotic, the next it's quiet, we must remember that. We must remember that Rome wasn't built in a day, to be kind to ourselves as nothing blooms all year round and to just learn to relax. 

As I said, this is more of a note to myself as I really need to chill the F out when things aren't quite going the way I hoped. I need to realise and to remember that quiet times are great times too, I want to learn to cherish the quieter times as I know I need them when it's too damn busy to take a break.

I'm currently extremely busy indeed, and I'm absolutely loving it, but just last month I was extremely quiet indeed and really beginning to worry, with the above questions crashing round in my head every hour. 

However, contrastingly to that, just this morning I was panicking about work, wishing I could clone myself to get the job done a little quicker, worrying if I was going to make deadlines and calling in as many recruits as possible when I thought I couldn't make it... Oh life.
 
Being a fashion blogger there's a lot of relying on other people to help me out, which is great. I truly adore collaborating with other creatives to create something totally unique for my blog, however, when the people I love to work with are busy bossing their own self employed-ness it's sometimes hard to manoeuvre through without a mini breakdown of sorts, bring back those tri-pod days eh 😉 (I'm joking)

Another frustration of being a full time blogger is the waiting in for the post man, why can't they all be as wonderful as DPD and give me a time slot... WHY!?
I even spend the majority of the week at my desk and still manage to miss the guy, how does that even happen!?
Without the product I can't create the content, it's a vicious old cycle and one I find to be the most frustrating, especially if thats what I planned to work on that day, it then slows the whole process down and the dream of cloning myself will begin once more.

Similarly to missing deliveries, I am regularly frustrated by that of the rain, thats good old Manchester for ya.
I create content each and every day without fail. I love snapping my daily outfits and the details in my day but if it's raining, then there's nothing I can do but sit back and weep that I'm not able to keep up with my daily quota... Sad, but oh so true, it is my job after all and I'm sure  something many a full time blogger can relate to.

SUNGLASSES- RAYBAN c/o SUNGLASSES SHOP, JACKET- c/o LOST INK, SHIRT- c/o 2ND DAY, TROUSERS- ASOS, SHOES- c/o NEXT, BAG- GUCCI,

Sometimes there's not enough hours in the day and sometimes there are too many hours in the day, we just have to pick ourselves up and get on with it and know that without a little rain, there can't be a rainbow. LOL at me and all my cheesy little quotes today eh? 
I love what I do here on my blog, on my social channels and over on YouTube and I wouldn't change a damn thing. I urge everyone (just ask my friends) if you're thinking of taking the leap and going at it alone, then do it! You simply will not regret it, even with a few turbulent days along the way.

x M

PHOTOGRAPHY BY SOPHIE TRAYNOR