Happy (Nearly) Birthday Monaco PR – Setting Up Shop
We are nearly One Year Old. And what a year.
In September 2019 after an intensely stressful period, I decided to set up shop solo. Normally people speak of an A-HA moment before a big decision and in my case, I decided to follow my gut and was suddenly left with a big void of time. Time has been a recurrent theme during this year of solo working; a year like no other (more of this in moment) and a common predicament of the freelancer. Hopefully this inaugural snippet will provide a snapshot of key learnings and what to expect after a career ‘leap’.
To keep us on track, the dulcet strains of pioneering boy band New Kids on The Blocks’ 90s hit ‘Step by Step’ will provide the main strands of the one-year trajectory to date, which may prove helpful for those considering freelancing or setting up solo:
‘Step 1…We Can Have Lots of Fun’
Who needs to obtain content, knuckle down on a website and think strategically of a plan when setting up alone? That would be me, you and all the yours truly who need to market themselves. Otherwise how will potential customers find you? In my case, content creation got the creative juices flowing and enabled me to drill down on the main vision of what I was trying to achieve.
For anyone starting out, it’s advisable to write a business plan and ask yourself some key questions, tailored accordingly to the services you will be providing, for example: ‘What is your ideal number of clients?’ ‘What Are your Key Services’, ‘What Are Your Points of Difference?’. This is a great opportunity to link up with likeminded people in your sector and share key learnings. 99.9% of them will be supportive and open to sharing best practices.
‘Step 2 …There’s So Much We Can Do’
When faced with a blank canvas and without the teetering presence of a corporate hierarchy, it can be a little overwhelming to know where to focus your efforts. Should you scour your local area in search of local SMEs, attend conferences, write a business development plan, focus on SEO, devise a one-year campaign or indeed, all of the above? The truth is that all these factors have value, however, eventually the mental ticker timer of your mind that reads ‘I AM RUNNING OUT OF FUNDS. MONEY IS TOO TIGHT TO MENTION’, will get ever louder and you will realise that you have spent the day googling ‘how-to-input-graph-in-excel’ or similar. As a soloist, time is money and any time you spend on endeavours that don’t bring potential business is time that could have been spent otherwise.
‘Step 3 ..It’s Just You & Me’
Ah yes, the perennial dilemma of void and silence that befalls the solo worker. Where is your office buddy to chat with in the kitchen? The lunchtime companion to reflect with on the day ahead? The steadfast joker guaranteed to raise your spirits by sending a one-line email to bring you out of a slump? For parents, its irrefutable that all of this becomes obliterated into the ether because you will simply have no time left for these fanciful, yet very crucial, human interactions.
Transitioning from a busy, hotel environment with twenty plus people in an open plan office to a kitchen table with just the hum of the fridge for company was a big adjustment for me. The good news is that I discovered that there were thousands upon thousands of people in the same boat and online networks were my saviour. I looked up SMEs in my local area and attended a couple of networking events and courses. These networks will keep you sane and on track on the long, slow days when you question why on earth you decided to isolate yourself in the first place. The ones that I am a part of to date include two in my local area of South East London; ‘Self Employed Club’, ‘Hello Social Media’, on Facebook: ‘Flexible Working People’, ‘Freelance PRs’, ‘Self Employed Club’, and I also signed up to ‘The Dots’ and ‘The Professional Freelancer’ by Anna Codrea-Rado. Many of these networks will post potential jobs and contract roles so it’s worth keeping an eye and adding to your inbox ‘safe’ folder.
‘Step 4..I Can Give You More’
It may seem counterintuitive in light of Step 2 when trying to delineate our priorities that we should think of adding an extra tab of the ‘To Do’ List, but when starting as a soloist it is vital to think of the trajectory as long term and as an investment for the future. This means that you may not get work from the offset and may need to keep other projects in the pipeline or be flexible with your time. In my case, I was extremely lucky to meet my first client Traveljar at a Sustainability Conference run by Verb. A chance meeting lead to a six-month retainer before the dreaded Covid-19 hit.
In tandem with my own little enterprise, I set up a group on Instagram for parents in the hospitality sector under the moniker ‘Hospitality Mothers’ and have garnered a following of career coaches, HR and hospitality professionals. We were due to host an inaugural launch back in May with Emma Jayne, Area Director, People & Culture at Dorchester Collection and Lizzie Martin, Executive Coach and Founder of Work, Life, Mother but life had other plans leading me to be under hospital care.
The exemplary experience I had at Kings led me to train as a volunteer and I lent one day a week as a patient befriender. Needless to say, if the paid work does not roll in like a trigger-happy slot machine, it may be worth lending your time in other ways, whether that be volunteering, having a side project to keep you motivated and expanding your network. To avoid getting into a negative thought pattern if the work does not come in straight away, it could be worth upskilling or keeping in touch with your sector to avoid falling into the slumber of daytime telly and ‘let’s put another wash on’. I was in touch with two brilliant journalists during the course of lockdown, eminent freelancer Elizabeth Mistry, and John O’Ceallaigh, Founder of LUTE who hosted several Zoom seminars that were related to the travel industry providing advice and guidance on how to plan for the future. At such a fraught time for me both professionally and personally, it was heartening to be checking in with each other ongoing.
‘Step 5 …Don’t you Know That The Time Has Arrived’
Like with anything in life, there will never be a 100% ‘ideal’ time to take a leap of faith or a leap of risk. If this year has taught us anything it’s that the notion of the ‘Five Year Plan’ is not foolproof and the world can turn upside down in the same breath as ‘2-metre rule’. The hospitality industry has seen a wave of upheaval and so much change. Our ability to adjust to the ebbs and flows of the last six months is a true testament to our resilience and perseverance. If you are still standing, as am I, after this spate of time, then you my friend, are ready to jump.
