Somehow its 2024 already and we’re catapulted into the season of new years’ resolutions – new strategies, aspirations and ambitions for the brand shiny new year ahead. One thing I’ve done is complete the Year Compass – reflecting back on the year gone and looking forward to the year ahead. What I love…
Tag: Founder
The Feast and Famine of Freelancing
It’s a phrase I’ve heard so many times – that freelancing is all about feast or famine. Newbies and established players seem to agree on it, there will be times when you have more work than you know what to do with, and times when you worry how you’ll pay the mortgage. It’s…
Lessons in Co-Design
This summer delivered a fantastic opportunity to work alongside a fellow freelancer on a co-design project, working to develop national policy asks for the upcoming election. I jumped at the chance – to build on my policy experience, to go deeper into co-design and to work in a freelance partnership. What’s Co-design? Co-design…
How to Be a Great Client
So, there are clients and then there are clients. I braced myself for a range of clients when I started out – the brilliant ones and the hair-pulling ones, because that’s life, right? Some people are clear, logical, structured and great communicators, and some people….less so. I’ve been looking back over the last…
The Freelancing Essentials: Accounts & Apps
After thinking about the top bits of equipment you might need as a freelancer, next up is the accounts and apps. There’s a whole host of options for almost every area of business (and life), so what are the real corkers if you’re starting out, whether you’re looking to simplify your admin or…
Sleep: An Undervalued Superpower
My consumption of podcasts rose exponentially this year – partly from trying to distract myself from the painfully long runs of marathon training and partly trying to make the long car trips to a friend in the midlands a bit more productive. I found “Diary of a CEO” for the first time and…
How September is the New January
As we ease our way into a month, it’s got me thinking about how much September is a month of transitions. The crazy British weather definitely hasn’t helped – for the past two weeks you’d have thought we were already in October from autumnal it felt. It’s also a reflection on what’s going…
How to Keep Yourself Accountable
I’ve had a really unexpected success this year – it’s something I’ve been meaning to trial for a while and now I’m a little bit addicted. I signed up to a time tracking app. If you aren’t using one, here’s a few reasons why I’m sold: Project Value for Money Some of my…
Lessons in Facilitation: The Power of Feedback
If you were asked what skill you’d use to survive the zombie apocalypse – what would you use? Would you negotiate? District them with jokes? Would you knit your way out? It was the exercise that caused the most laughter at the latest away day I ran. Exploring what left-field ways teams would…
When Your Holiday Isn’t a Break
I’ve just had two weeks off work, and it’s the longest stretch I’ve managed since I went freelance. As I returned to my projects, everyone was quick to ask the standard “how was your break? question. But here’s the thing, I’m not sure a holiday with two small children qualifies as a break….