Blog — Gwennan Rees

Juggling employment and self employment - 6 months on

Firstly, I can’t quite believe it’s 6 (nearly 7) months since I got my job. The 4 months and hundreds of applications I sent when I was job hunting back in April seemed like the longest 4 months of my life and yet the last 6 of being employed have flown by. It’s the classic case of feeling like it’s whizzed by and feeling like you’ve been there forever at the same time.

Five Easy Cheap Ways To Update Your Workspace.

No matter what you do in life, chances are if you're reading this you have some sort of workspace in your home. Maybe it's an office or a corner of a spare room where you work from home. Maybe it's a desk in your bedroom to do your college work from? Maybe it's just a particular armchair you like to blog from in the evenings. Whatever it is - sometimes those workspaces get stale.

You need to keep your workspace inspiring to keep you inspired and that often requires a bit of a revamp. I am one of these people who simply has to rejig things every 6 months or so or I get bored of my surroundings. When I lived at home or in uni I'd rearrange which side of the room my bed was on or where the wardrobe went so it's no surprise my office is the same.

Here's 5 simple ways you can update your workspace to keep it exciting for as little effort or cost as possible.

7 Failsafe Ways To Motivate Yourself When You Work From Home.

Working freelance from home sure has it's perks there's no doubt about that.

There's the lack off office politics, there's the free timetables, the ability to take a day off on a whim, not having to fill in time sheets and don't even get me started on the perks of working from your sofa.

But for all it's highlights of course, like any job it has it's pitfalls. Working from home and working for yourself has it's strains and the biggest of all comes from the knowledge that you and you alone are making your cash. Sick day? You ain't getting paid. Holiday? You're losing money as the days go on.

It can be a ballache for your mojo so here's 7 of my failsafe ways to stay motivated when working from home:

Handmade Fair Is On It's Way To Wiltshire!

Sometimes you just have a normal Thursday night planned in front of the TV with something beige to eat – and sometimes you get an invite to a press launch in another country and you just up and leave. Ok sure, admittedly the other country was England but a quick hours drive over the Severn saw me in Bristol last week with my blogging bae Sarah at the press launch for Handmade Fair at Bowood House.

SHOP SMALL: Valentines Day Cards #JustACard

I don't mean to alarm you but Valentine's Day is fast approaching and it's about that time of year you start thinking about what card and gift you're going to get for bae.

#JustACard it might be to you, but to us who have spent months designing them (we probably started just after Christmas) your £2.50 adds up to everyone else's small change and creates us a business which means we can pay our bills and stock up on new designs to keep our shop stocked.

Here's my top picks from some of my favourite designers (and myself, cheeky cheeky) for you to buy for V day 2018;

How I Designed My 2017 Christmas Card Range.

It's been forever and a day since I did a creative/illustration based blog post. I don't know if it's what you guys are even in to but I thought it'd be nice to share a little behind the scenes of my business, for those of you who don't know much about what I do, or for those of you who don't know much about the process.

So today I'm sharing a little behind the scenes step by step of how I created my 2017 christmas card range, using my fav design as the example!

How To Take Your Small Business On Holiday.

So you have a small business? So you've just booked a buzzing holiday? But now what? How do you keep your lil business ticking along whilst you're gone?

I've been running my business for 2 years this August and since then I've been on 2 summer holidays and a bunch of mini breaks so I've learnt a thing or two about the best way to put your livlihood on holiday mode and fully switch off from your biz.

Reason #49378 Why The Struggle Is Real Running A Small Business.

I mean I haven't actually counted that this is reason 49,387 but it must be around that mark.

Reason 49,387 of why running a small business can be tricky is thus; the constant struggle between trying to sell old stock vs investing in new stock.

100 Days Of From Where I Stand.

It's done and dusted for another year - the 100 Day Project is over again. I feel like this 100 days has flown by and simultaneously I can barely remember April 4th when it all began.

If you missed it or if you've just joined us, I am a freelance illustrator in the ol' day job and I outlined my project for the 100 days 2017 in a blog post (which you can catch here). This year I decided to recapture a project I did last year but with a new snazzy hashtag - 100 Days From Where I Stand.

A Note On Small Businesses.

As a small business owner for two years this Summer, I've learnt the odd thing about what to expect, what comes as a surprise and a whole heap about customer service. Running a business is difficult, it's not all creating lovely things and making loadsa cash, in fact it's quite the opposite a lot of the time. With that in mind, here's a few notes on dealing with a small businesses, from a small business owner.