Life and Business Update
Oh my gosh, what a few weeks/months it has been! I normally write a tonne in my Instagram captions but felt it’s been long enough and I had too much to write so I’d do a little journal entry/coffee chat to get all my thoughts out.
01. There is/was a world-wide pandemic and New Zealand went into lockdown
It all started a bit eerie right, a few cases here and there, our nation wasn’t too panicked but something was definitely up. We had a heap of travel booked this year and flight by flight and rental car by rental car everything began to be cancelled. My brother came over from Australia to visit and for a wedding, he ended up cutting his trip short to get back within the travel restrictions, I was also supposed to visit my Mum in Australia for her birthday and my dad for his wedding reception party – all cancelled. Businesses began to shut, malls and cafes were abandoned, no more close contact (no more nails or facials for me!). Suddenly New Zealand was in lockdown and we watched in horror as we and the rest of the world began getting more cases and seeing more death than we ever had in our lifetime. Pretty crazy really, it still doesn’t feel real.
So my partner and I chilled out at home and did our part to flatten the curve and make the best of it. Only essential trips to the shop, no more going out for brunch, being very careful with handwashing and social distancing etc. I have to say, on my end it wasn’t a massive change to routine – I found out I usually social distance anyway haha and I have been working from home for about three years now so that wasn’t a biggie.
I found the hardest part was not going out to the beach with the dog or for weekend lunches or brunches. It sounds so shallow/materialistic but I think food and being together at a nice cafe is our love language – we love the atmosphere, trying somewhere new, trying new dishes etc we just love. And we adore the beach and fresh air, so that was missed.
The time I did have in lockdown did give me a moment to pause and reflect on just how grateful I am for situation and I know we are VERY lucky and fortunate to have someone working from home in a steady-ish industry and another working in the defence force which stands pretty strong during crisis like this. So it wasn’t lost on me that we had it better than most. Which is why I tried to spend as much as I could where I could on other small businesses and services and now we are out of lockdown we’ll be trying to spend out money on kiwi business where possible, more so than ever before.
Things we did as soon as lockdown rules were loosened:
Went to the beach (yay!)
Not ashamed to say I was in the McDonalds line the day it opened. I was there 45min and it was worth it hehe.
We went and supported other small businesses where possible by buying food/takeaways/coffee, and I’ll be spending a tonne at my hairdressers once I can get booked in again!
02. We ended up fostering a cat during lockdown
A random aside, but that’s life isn’t it! A male tabby turned up a few times and eventually didn’t leave so we are caring for him until a more permanent homing situation can be found. It’s been quite nice though having him around – the dog thinks he’s lovely and he’s just such a cuddler, it’s so cute!
03. I got pretty fit!
Okay so I was CERTAIN that not being able to get to the gym + also staying at home more often was going to lead to some not so health-conscious decisions. While the snacking situation has been dire, I actually have found a love for working out at home. We were lucky enough to be leant some weights from a friend and set them up in our dingy little garage – and it sparked motivation! Something about how raw and rough the set up was coupled with it being a few metres away did something to reignite that love of fitness and I’ve found myself out there more often than I thought! And also really enjoying backyard workouts too, with the sun shining on you is so so nice.
You also need to get a little bit more creative when it comes to working out from home, so we used all kinds of random house items to add some weight and variety (we actually bought weighted vests and a tonne more resistance bands!)
I’ve been enjoying these fitness resources during lockdown:
Madfit on Youtube (her ab workouts are the best! Short and sharp)
Bodies By Rachel (I signed on to the 8 Week Booty Challenge and I love the workouts, perfect for at home with minimal weights)
Netlfix – All the Crossfit documentaries, just wow. I’m not a crossfitter but DAMN those people are fit and inspiring to watch
04. I also worked myself into the ground / it was BAU mostly
While most of the world came to a half, I kept on working. And because I was working from home and everyone was working from home and everyone had more time on their hands and because the future seemed so uncertain – I said YES to probably a lot more than I should have. Or not so much that, I more said ‘well, I may as well work morning and night because I seem to have more time on my hands now that I can’t go out in the weekends’.
Probably not the healthiest mentality but hey, it meant I was kept busy so couldn’t stress too much about the outside world and could only focus on giving the client the best work possible to help them during this weird time. It has made me super keen to get out once the lockdown is fully over and see friends and family as I didn’t really get the chance when everyone else was off.
05. The business BOOMED
Probably the one most people are interested in – how did my business go/how IS it going during a pandemic? Well, so far so good is what I am telling people the most. I saw one of my BIGGEST months to date just after we went into lockdown and I haven’t really been able to come up for air since. I’ve had some amazing businesses reaching out wanting to get online ASAP or pivoting and needing digital help and I’ve been so happy to be able to provide those services. I was also lucky enough during the first real wave of the virus and lockdown to only have 2 postponements and 1 project that needed to be restructured to bring the scope down to the client’s newer, tighter budget.
I only had one absolute ghost of a client which was eventually resolved, so I am so thankful 95% of my clients were transparent about their needs and communicated with me clearly on what they could and couldn’t do during these tough new times.
Passive income was a saver during this time as well. I was able to get the Website Project Planner out for purchase just before we went into lockdown which was a hit and has been so helpful for my process along with a lot of other designers and clients. It had been a labour of love for such a long time and I knew if I didn’t get it out soon then I’d overthink it and never hit publish. So I grabbed some spare moments to refine and finalise it and get it up on my shops and it has been received well which I am so thankful for.
Money isn’t something I talk about much on here BUT I’ve never been too worried about chatting about it, we were very transparent about money growing up and the importance of savings and making smart financial decisions, so I’d love to chat more about it when I feel I can do it without offending or scandalising anyone haha. What I do want to say is that passive income generation within my own business is beneficial two fold and I recommend everyone gives it a try. Not only does it just ease the pressure on the purse strings (probably the less important factor in my mind) but it’s such a major creative outlet that you’ll actually feel addicted to generating resources, whether they make you money or not!
The reason they are so fulfilling is that you are creating them based on your own passions and brief – they can look, sound and feel exactly like you want (as long as they are geared to your target audience of course!) and you know they are meeting a need. Whether this is offering something more affordable for a more budget-conscious audience, or they are a massive time saver for a time-strapped audience, or they are teaching someone something invaluable – they meet a need and it feels GOOD, trust me!
I recently listened to The Health Code’s podcast on How to Be Successful and Kurt and Sezzy had some wonderful tips that speak to the stuff I’ve mentioned above. It’s one of my fav podcasts and I definitely recommend giving it a listen!
06. Pricing went up + services changed
I kept this pretty quiet as it was a horrific time to be changing anything, but my pricing did go up and my packages did change. I had always planned to make these changes to coincide with the end of the NZ financial year – it also just happened to be a global crisis on a the same time.
I finally sat down and reevaluated what I was charging and how I wanted revamp the whole structure. Notable changes to my branding service with a price increase and additional marketing options included in the package, and add ons now included in my social media template service. The biggest change was to my website packages, or now should I say Website Package – I just have one now! I just found the most common cause of confusion on the client end was ‘what package will suit my needs?’ and while I thought I was scope accurately, the biggest challenge I faced was when someone asked for a ‘simple’ website and I scoped for the work involved and decided on my basic package, only to get to the start or midway through the project and be asked for out of scope features that were not simple, or required additional css and plugins that just hadn’t been scoped for.
SO! My new Website Package is a totally new, almost all inclusive service that provides all the essentials as well as provides comprehensive code and plugin solutions and additional pages. I’ve decided Shop set up is an add on as only 50% of clients right now need this and not always right away, so it can be added on just like additional pages, but is no longer built in where you need it or not, or doesn’t just go hand in hand with a more complex website. I’m still ironing out a potential second package which * may * cover Blog/Podcast focussed sites as these can have an entirely different set of requirements. So this may be on the horizon!
So to sum that up, updated pricing is now on my website as well as through custom quoting. I’m working with more people that value the investment and are committed to working through the process for quality design (fingers crossed no more time wasters or ghosters!) and I finally won’t feel like I have to break my back working 24/7 to produce quality work but at the end of the day still be living week to week. By taking on less but working on more quality hours with clients, it means I can prioritise our time and will be focussing more heavily on strategy and consulting.
07. Finally, I did my first guest podcast appearances!
I’ve said it before, I’m a bit of a shy Sally, an introverted Isabelle. So I had long thought any sort of speaking would be out of reach. However as I’ve hiked further into my business journey, I’ve found that if I am speaking on a subject I love and I am passionate about, I actually love it and find it a bit easier to do now that the irrational fear of failure/embarrassment has eased (it was those darn speech presentations at high school English class!).
I was HUMBLED to be asked to speak on not one but THREE podcasts during lockdown, two have now been published and one is still to come. I am so excited to have finally done then and gotten over the initial nerves and the girls I spoke with were just beautiful and made me feel so comfortable.
Podcasting it something I’d love to get into myself one day and I love consuming them and often think there are topics I’d love to chat about but can’t be bothered writing about. So watch this space! (maybe haha).
You can listen to the live podcasts below by following the links, AND I have done some more guest interviews which the links are further down to click on and read.
Podcasts Featured In:
Pricing, Instagram and Attracting your Ideal Target Audience
Emma Jane Lemke Podcast
Managing Client Expectations
Seriously Sorted Podcast
Thank you so much for reading if you got this far, it was nice to just do a little life update/debrief and talk a bit longer than an Instagram caption.
Chat again soon!
Nicole x
