SME News - Freelance Illustrator and Designer of the Year (East Midlands)
Receiving this accolade feels like the recognition I’m not very good at giving myself, recognition of the hard work and late nights to make it all work in the face of a crazy few years.
Wow.
Just, W O W!
It gives me the greatest pleasure to be able to announce that I have been awarded Freelance Illustrator & Designer of the Year (East Midlands) by SME News in their annual Enterprise awards!
When I received the email last year to say I had been nominated, I couldn’t quite believe it, so much so that I just shelved it thinking it must have been a scam (hello, imposter syndrome?). But as I started to receive more emails about the nomination and consequently the news that I had won it, I started to wonder if I should be paying attention to this news.
When you work for yourself it’s easy sometimes to not notice progression. Especially being a full time mum as well as freelancer, there is little to no time to sit and take in achievements. My ‘colleagues’ are 5 & 2 and they’re not interested if I’ve landed a new client or perhaps launched a new product so I don’t get that same experience as if I was in a studio or office where there are people to bounce that news off with! I’ve very much just been keeping my head down and working through the juggle of running a business, working freelance for clients as well as being there for my kids.
This award means so much more to me than I can explain. It’s been a wonderful moment to just stop, and pay attention to the bumpy and winding road that I’ve been travelling on to get to this point.
As some of you who are self employed will have experienced this year, work has been extremely difficult; I’ve missed out on a few job opportunities, had failed pitches, sales have been down and not to mention the cost of living crises thrown in to help amp up the stress levels. Receiving this accolade feels like the recognition I’m not very good at giving myself, recognition of the hard work and late nights to make it all work in the face of a crazy few years.
After the uncertainty of the last two years or so, relative quiet has been greeted by a rush of announcements, of achievements being announced left, right and centre. Growth, new products, new services, new markets, recruitment – it’s all happening for SMEs across the UK.
Now in its sixth year, the SME UK Enterprise Awards continues to recognise SMEs of all sizes who are endeavouring to bettering business in their industries. Whether it’s by nourishing rich internal cultures to promote employee satisfaction, by offering next-level customer service, or through an enduring dedication to innovative products – British SMEs are truly the lifeblood of the country’s economy and business landscape.
Award Coordinator Holly Blackwood took a moment to discuss the success of this year’s programme: “One of the joys of this programme is realising the sheer talent and skill that permeates every inch of the British business sphere, across all industries and fields. So here’s a massive congratulations and I hope you all have a wonderful – and productive- rest of the year ahead.”
SME News prides itself on the validity of its awards and winners. The awards are given solely on merit and are awarded to commend those most deserving for their ingenuity and hard work, distinguishing them from their competitors and proving them worthy of recognition.
To learn more about our award winners and to gain insight into the working practices of the “best of the best”, please visit the SME News website (http://sme-news.co.uk) where you can access the winners supplement.
I’m very grateful to each and every client I’ve had the pleasure of working with, and for all your wonderful orders through my shop and IRL at markets! Every purchase and commission I get tells me to keep going with this dream career which I’m very grateful to have to work around my home life.
If you’ve been thinking about working with myself to get your illustration or design idea realised, then please feel free to get in touch with me as my books are open to new projects and commissions! Take a look through my full portfolio or even my Instagram to see the kind of work I do. I’m always up for a good chat, especially over a brew and maybe a biscuit or two.
A huge thanks once again to SME news for this wonderful award, and to you lovely lot for your continued support!
Here’s to another year of new illustrated adventures,
Deborah x
Pre-Order my Limited Edition 'Sunset' Tropical Palm Wrapping Paper
A few weeks or so ago I thought I would play around with some different colour ways on my bestselling Tropical Palm wrapping paper and after posting them to Instagram I was bowled over by everyones response.
A few weeks or so ago I thought I would play around with some different colour ways on my bestselling Tropical Palm wrapping paper and after posting them to Instagram I was bowled over by everyones response.
You guys were IN LOVE with these new colour ways, and loved the idea even more of a limited edition print run of my wrapping paper in one of these new palettes.
It was a very close call between the Pink and Khaki and the Navy and Sunset Corals but the sunset colour way pipped it to the post and it’s not hard to see why. Sultry and balmy tones of lilac, rust and sandy beige set against a rich navy just shout heady warm August nights (or the July ones of recent!).
And although these photos may be mock-ups to visualise how the finished product will look, I cannot get over how much I love them!
Now, I’m going to be transparent. Us small businesses are definitely facing a hardship at the moment. I would so love to be in the position like I have before to be able to order this design up front but unfortunately that isn’t possible right now. So I’m making this limited edition design available for pre-order only until August 11th at a super special reduced rate to help raise the money I need to make this beautiful product a reality!
As a pre-order item you will have access to this price until August 11th after which it will be available at it’s regular price. All pre-orders will be posted a few weeks after this date dispatched via first class post.
I would so love to bring this design to life, so if you would like to see it too and own one of the limited 500 sheets I will be printing, please take a look at the product listing below:
I’d love to know what you think of this new colour way! Feel free to drop your thoughts below, I always love to hear feedback and suggestions.
Deborah x
Shop Update
I have not one but two new designs for Father’s Day coming up on the 19th June!
Father’s Day is the one celebration I find hard to design for as I never want to fall into any of the same cliché traps - Think pints of beer, cars, gardening, golf, fishing etc - which I personally find are not a representation of men and father’s. Just like not all mum’s are all about shoes, flowers and Prosecco, so too are father’s more diverse than what the current greeting card climate displays.
So I put the question to my Instagram audience - What do they look for when purchasing cards for their dads? The feedback was so insightful and useful as it helped me see the types of themes and imagery that you guys are looking for. So I hit my sketchbook and drew up these two designs; one inspired by space, constellations and stars, and the other by vinyls, record players and vinyl label artwork.
I hope you’ll agree that these designs are not like the usual fair you’ll see on your local high street, hopefully giving all those dads outside the cliché norms a card perfect for their Father’s Day.
For the dads who collected vinyls in their hey day, or during their revival. For those trendy vintage dads, and those vintage dads who are trendy!
• Card measures 10.5cm x 14.7cm (4-1/8 x 5-7/8 inches)
• Card is blank for your own personal message
• Design is printed on 350 gsm recycled card and comes complete with its own recycled envelope.
• Please recycle your card after use.
• Want to save some postage? I can write your message and post your card at no extra charge! Simply select from the drop down menus and add your personalised message in the text box. Be sure the delivery address is your recipients!
There are some dads who go above and beyond. Celebrate how special your father is this Father’s Day with my illustrated and cosmic greetings cards.
• Card measures 10.5cm x 14.7cm (4-1/8 x 5-7/8 inches)
• Card is blank for your own personal message
• Design is printed on 350 gsm recycled card and comes complete with its own recycled envelope.
• Please recycle your card after use.
• Want to save some postage? I can write your message and post your card at no extra charge! Simply select from the drop down menus and add your personalised message in the text box. Be sure the delivery address is your recipients!
The second product to hit my online shop are these contrasting screen printed patches, which I’ll be honest, have taken me years to list.
Yep, these patches have been in my cupboards for the past few years, hidden away by shame. You see the monkey patches were printed to go on some lovely kids t-shirts which, unfortunately, haven’t sold. Because I was a bit embarrassed about this product tanking badly I decided I would just shove the remaining patches in the cupboard and hope one day I’d make my money back by some divine miracle.
Of course that’s not how you make a living when you work for yourself, so I gave myself the goal of getting them photographed and listed by the summer. It was the little push I needed to get them out there and out of my cupboard, and I hope you’ll like them as much as I did when I had them first printed back in 2019!
Illustrated digitally, these celestial moon and stars patches are perfect for jackets, bags or anything you want to embellish.
• Patch measures 8 x 8cm
• Screen printed with a high quality overlocked hem to prevent fraying.
• Application instructions come with each patch, printed on recycled paper and packaged inside a glassine envelope.
• Please recycle your instructions and glassine envelope after use.
Illustrated digitally, these tropical monkey patches are perfect for jackets, bags or anything you want to embellish.
• Patch measures 8 x 8cm
• Screen printed with a high quality overlocked hem to prevent fraying.
• Application instructions come with each patch, printed on recycled paper and packaged inside a glassine envelope.
• Please recycle your instructions and glassine envelope after use.
Enjoy having a browse through my new products, and if you have any feedback please feel free to email me or drop a comment below!
Deborah x
Submission for Castle Rock Brewery x Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust
To celebrate 20 years of friendship, Castle Rock Brewery launched a competition to design the can and keg labels for their collaboration beer with Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust.
To celebrate 20 years of friendship, Castle Rock Brewery launched a competition to design the can and keg labels for their collaboration beer with Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust. Whilst my design wasn’t selected to win the awesome prize of having their design printed and showcased across the country, it was a really fun brief to work to! Both organisations are personal favourites of mine, and you know I love a good British woodland theme to work to.
The above design was the finished artwork for the keg labels, whilst below the illustration was adapted to fit their beer can labels.
Huge congratulations to Matt Newton for his beautiful winning design!
Mental Health as an Illustrator and Mother // Maternal Mental Health Awareness Week
Freelancing and motherhood. What a rollercoaster it has been so far.
I often have people say to me, “I don’t know how you do it, working from home with a toddler!” or “you must be so disciplined to get any work done at home, I’d be so distracted”. And yes, a lot of that is true and is also extremely flattering.
The thing is, I am a complete imposter, because you see the problem is I am not nailing it one bit. One human being (or should I say woman because let’s face it, this isn’t necessarily an issue for all working men…) cannot be 100% full time working and 100% full time mum.
Freelancing and motherhood. What a rollercoaster it has been so far.
I often have people say to me, “I don’t know how you do it, working from home with a toddler!” or “you must be so disciplined to get any work done at home, I’d be so distracted”. And yes, a lot of that is true and is also extremely flattering.
The thing is, I am a complete imposter, because you see the problem is I am not nailing it one bit. One human being (or should I say woman because let’s face it, this isn’t necessarily an issue for all working men…) cannot be 100% full time working and 100% full time mum.
Those are two separate full time jobs, in their own right, and the maths doesn’t work. So what happens is the inevitable; comparison, guilt, feelings of failure and then the ‘all expected but not expected at all because you’ve been lying to yourself’ crash.
I had mine back in September/October. I may have been portraying that I was nailing this working mum malarky all over the internet (because I’m just as guilty of doing that as anyone else), like a multi-armed goddess, but really I was at the start of what was to be a sharp downward arc. I had come off my meds so myself and my husband could have another baby, and whilst I was only on a low dose anyway I was not prepared for how I would feel just coming off that mixed with the hormonal tsunami that consumed me with getting pregnant.
I felt ill. Not just mentally, but physically, like I had never experienced with Ophelia. Having both the mental and physical battering made my mum guilt multiply when I couldn’t play with Ophelia the same, or couldn’t make it out the house. Then the work guilt would kindly join in when I didn’t feel I could sit at my desk and work, or have the mental capacity to open an email.
Comparison was often rife when I would see other mums just being totally amazing and not complaining one single bit. Mum’s who had it much worse than me, or more children, or more work pressures. Single mums, and mums on lower incomes. Mums with unsupportive partners or distanced family.
I’d sit there and think, “woman, what’s wrong with you? You have a very supportive and loving husband, family all around, a gorgeous toddler and another healthy baby on the way. A freelance career you’ve worked hard for. A house you own. What could you possibly be feeling sad about?”
But I just was. I didn’t feel good enough, or worthy of anyone’s time or attention. I didn’t feel special, or interesting, or that any of my feelings were valid.
Because that’s what happens when you tell yourself something enough times; you actually believe it.
With the help of my perinatal support worker, my MBCT group, my family and close friends and even my pregnancy yoga class, I’ve managed to make it to the 8 1/2 month mark in pregnancy. I’m feeling pretty battered and bruised from the journey to get here (let’s throw in my dad getting sick and going to hospital, Ophelia going to A&E, heavy work loads, and of course lockdown and a pandemic…) but remarkably, I’m still going.
I am anything but stubborn.
A lot has been acceptance, which I’ve only managed to achieve through time, space, meditation, journalling, talking to my loved ones and (within lockdown rules) getting out in the sun and walking it out. The pandemic has stripped me of a lot of things that used to help me cope and manage my mood, but it’s also shown me that I can be adaptable and I can weather it.
Depression and anxiety when you have kids, as well as running your own business, can feel like the worst thing to befall you because it’s up to you to keep your shit together, to be accountable, to make sure you get up so you can play with your kid. I’d feel this pressure to be sure I was on top of everything, despite how I was feeling. To put dinner on the table. To answer that important email or fulfil that order because it’s got to go to the Post Office.
I used to worry constantly that the way I am would affect Ophelia, would rub off on her and make her unhappy, but honestly what I see in her is total compassion. When I’m having a bad day, or just a really good cry, she comes over and she gives me her bunnies to soothe me. She’ll say “It’s ok mummy, Flossy will make you feel better and then your tears can go”.
She’s seen all emotions, not just the super shiny positive ones, and I’m starting to think that’s actually a really good thing. It allows her to be sad and to feel whatever feelings she has. It gives her the permission to feel whatever she needs to, no judgement, and the amazing thing is the sooner she acknowledges how she’s feeling the quicker she moves on from it.
Honestly, we could all be more like a three year old in some ways.
I’m not ‘cured’ and I’ve stopped expecting that this will be something I will get rid of completely. It’s just something I have to manage the best I can, and hopefully once the pandemic is over the coping mechanisms that used to help me manage my thoughts and mood can be put back in place; seeing friends and family, long walks out in the countryside and plenty of adventures.
Maybe I’ll go back on meds once baby is born, maybe I’ll just need a new form of therapy. I can make those decisions once he’s earth side and we’ve settled into our new family of four.
So I’m really writing this for any of you who are struggling, silently or with the aid of our amazing NHS. For anyone who has ever felt like they are just the worst mother ever, or that they haven’t got it all together and they should. For those who feel like a failure because they chose to work over staying at home, or because they chose to stay at home and not work. For any of you juggling and wondering when you will ever be able to do one job 100%. And I’m writing this for me too, because I need to hear it(and remind myself) just as much that I am worthy of good things too.
Remember:
You’re doing great.
Just keep going.
Deborah x
If you ever feel that life, and stuff, is getting too much there are some amazing people out there who you can talk to if you feel that you can’t talk to friends and family. PANDA’S Foundation have a free phone line you can call 0808 1961 776, as well as the Samaritans who you can contact on 116 123. Of course your GP will be there too to help and guide you, so please seek help if you’re struggling.
Hello 2020! A little look back at 2019 (PART I)
A very happy (and belated) New Year to all of you!
There’s nothing like a new year, let alone a brand new decade, to bring out the sentimentality in people. It’s been both interesting and a little depressing watching through everyone’s round up’s of 2019 via Instagram (I get it, you guys got to have a lot of holidays whilst we never made it out of the UK!) but I thought it would still be nice to share what a wonderful year it was - minus holidays - both work and in personal life, to maybe help myself not have so much FOMO.
A very happy (and belated) New Year to all of you!
There’s nothing like a new year, let alone a brand new decade, to bring out the sentimentality in people. It’s been both interesting and a little depressing watching through everyone’s round up’s of 2019 via Instagram (I get it, you guys got to have a lot of holidays whilst we never made it out of the UK!) but I thought it would still be nice to share what a wonderful year it was - minus holidays - both work and in personal life, to maybe help myself not have so much FOMO.
Who am I kidding, I’ll still be wildly jealous, but it’s been wonderful looking through photos of all the work we’ve put in this year; renovations to our 1940’s house, birthdays, amazing commissions and wonderful events I was privileged to take part in.
JANUARY
I started the year with working on fresh designs for Valentine’s Day
I also started the 30 day Dedicate Yoga program by Yoga with Adrienne to get myself in a better exercise regime
I was finally prescribed with some glasses for working in to help with all those teeny tiny illustrations!
Amazing meet ups with the other leaders of the Nottingham Etsy Team
Worked on designs for my friends party invitations for her son…
FEBRUARY
We started work again on renovating our 1940’s home - starting with taking up the carpet on the stairs and landing and revealing these beautiful floorboards.
My new Valentine’s collection launched and I had the pleasure of posting them out!
In my bid to make 2019 my year for making my home and business more eco friendly, I started making small swaps around the house when things broke/wore out.
We had plenty of cold but beautiful walks in and around Nottinghamshire.
And then we had our old gas fire taken out…
Ophelia had her first trip to London to visit her Auntie.
Then I had the pleasure of talking about my illustrated business and how I started out illustrating at the Select Vegan networking event.
I mean, look at the spread they put on…
MARCH
I started designing invitations for Ophelia’s 2nd Birthday.
After my unsuccessful Kickstarter campaign, I finally released my Eat Kind meal planners into the world - my first 100% recycled and eco friendly product (including packaging).
We had snow!
I started my creative business coaching journey with Amy from Women Who Create
Then we had the loveliest little weekend away to Stamford visiting stately homes, beautiful tea rooms, and then this church near Rutland.
More renovations carried on, finishing off our fireplace with these gorgeous star tiles for the hearth.
And just like that, our Ophelia turned two.
APRIL
Using the designs from my friends party invites, I created my first range of sophisticated children’s age cards, which have been received so well.
I also designed some new Easter cards featuring this Victorian style Easter bunny
We sanded and painted our staircase!
And then went on to paint our living room this awesome pink colour called Pink Alabaster by Valspar
MAY
We started May trying to make another eco swap with locally delivered fruit and vegetables from Kerry’s Fresh
More house updates, making our little balcony/patio out the back into an outdoor living room ready for summer!
I had the pleasure on working on this beautiful branding for Out of the Woods Hypnotherapy
Worked out in the sun and rain for the Sutton Bonington Summer Festival.
More lovely Etsy Team meet up’s at Debbie Bryan’s
And finally, celebrated 5 years of marital bliss in the best way we know - with the best vegetarian burgers in Nottingham at Annie’s Burger Shack
JUNE
We started June with the loveliest impromptu trip to Matlock
Then I saw my latest surface design for Godâ Skjorter come to life in these beautiful Hawaiian style shirts.
It was my birthday! And my mum made the tastiest banana cake.
I had the second product from my Eat Kind collection release, these beautiful screen printed tea towels.
I finished the month starting work on a new print
Check out my next post for July-December of my 2019 journey!
House of Illustration Summer Fair
SUPER excited to announce that I have got in (again!) to the House of Illustration Summer Fair!
SUPER excited to announce that I have got in (again!) to the House of Illustration Summer Fair!
I did it for the first time last year at Christmas, and as well as meeting some amazing illustrators (including a long lost relative Aleesha Nandhra!) I got to chat to all you love humans who support and believe in the Illustration industry.
So I’ll be back this year, Saturday 13th July at The Crossing (near Granary Square) bringing my cards, prints and stationery, as well as my Eat Kind kitchen collection!
Hope to see you there!
What Ophelia has taught me // #1
When I became a mother I knew that I would learn life lessons but I never anticipated how much they would filter in to other aspects of my life.
I liked to keep my ‘mother’ label mostly separate from my ‘freelance’ label, because I was almost defiant that I didn’t want to be defined as only a mother. I also didn’t want to share photos of Ophelia because she was such a special part of my life, that I selfishly treasured for my own, so it didn’t feel right to put her up on the internet everyday.
Illustration by Deborah Panesar ©
When I became a mother I knew that I would learn life lessons but I never anticipated how much they would filter in to other aspects of my life.
I liked to keep my ‘mother’ label mostly separate from my ‘freelance’ label, because I was almost defiant that I didn’t want to be defined as only a mother. I also didn’t want to share photos of Ophelia because she was such a special part of my life, that I selfishly treasured for my own, so it didn’t feel right to put her up on the internet everyday.
My PND also had me scared to be too vulnerable. I was afraid my followers would think I had given up on illustration, or that everyday I was going to be posting more and more content that they hadn’t signed up for.
Really though, I couldn’t have been more wrong.
I still don’t greatly like sharing too many photos of Ophelia online (she can tell me when she’s older if she’s happy for me to share) but I have done a full 180 on how I feel about being too vulnerable/sharing personal content.
I cannot deny that this little human has changed me. She has shown me so much that I had forgotten in becoming an adult, and made me self aware as a friend, wife, daughter and sister. So I wanted to pay homage to that in a new blog series, showcasing some of the good, bad and ugly stuff that she has taught me in her short but wise life (so far).
#1 Rushing is futile
If you have a small child, it goes without saying that you’re guaranteed to be late for a lot of stuff. With so much to remember (especially when they’re really small, it’s like packing for a mini break) as well as making sure they have enough layers/options for weather/things to go to sleep with. You can guarantee they’ll fill their nappy right before you get out the door.
I spent a lot of time getting crazy frustrated with Ophelia; Why is she doing this to me? Why can’t she sit still? Why does she now decide to get upset about the shoes I’ve put on her feet?
Thing is she isn’t doing anything to me. Toddlers and babies have no concept of time so it is literally impossible for her to know that she’s making me late.
Really, I’m making myself crazy frustrated; I’m frustrated at myself for not giving myself enough time and I’m frustrated that I’m going to be turning up to wherever I’m going to as a palpitating, hot sweaty mess.
Yes, rushing is futile. The more I rush, the more stressed I get. The more stressed I get the more I forget. The more I forget the more cross I get at myself, and the more cross I get the sweatier I get (you see a sweaty pattern here?!).
So i’ve decided to stop rushing, in more aspects than one.
I’ve stopped rushing emails. Rushed emails have tons of mistakes and I know half the time they don’t make sense and I have probably not even attached the work I needed to send to the client.
I’ve stopped rushing work. If I have to put in a few more hours, then so be it. I’m not going to rush the quality of my work just because I now need to balance being a full time mum as well.
I’ve stopped rushing conversations. Nothing says ‘I’m not interested in what you have to say’ than when you have one eye on your phone for that email notification and one ear on your husband who is just trying to have a conversation with you after a long day.
I’ve stopped rushing my to-do list. This one’s a biggie. I used to think it was how much I got done rather than how good I got those things done. Quality over quantity > Quantity over quality. I’m now a little more accepting if I just get 1 thing done off my to-do list, so long as I’ve done it to the best of my ability and I feel confident that it’s finished.
Most importantly, I’ve stopped rushing Ophelia. She’s at an incredible age where the world is magic and everything that we see as mundane is a new discovery. I try my very best to give her the time to explore those little things, even if it’s a pine cone, a bus stop or to stand and wave to the man in the van. It really isn’t always possible, all the time, because sometimes I really do need to be somewhere! But it’s a goal I can strive for.
When I feel the need to rush well up in me, and I’m watching the hands on the clock move but my daughter isn’t, then I just try and take a very deep breath and think fuck it.
I’ll get there at some point, but right now is pretty good.
National Treasures Food Map Illustration
Grab yourself a copy of this month's Asda's Good Living magazine and you'll be able to see one of my illustrations as a double page spread!
Grab yourself a copy of this month's Asda's Good Living magazine and you'll be able to see one of my illustrations as a double page spread!
I had the pleasure of working on this commission from Hearst publishing for a wonderful piece on some of the UK's best food products (I'm all over the Rodda's classic clotted cream) and it's still so exciting to see my work in print, on the shelves nationwide!
This piece has now been added to my Illustration portfolio, which you can browse through here.
On another note, some of you may have seen from my Instagram and Facebook that I am officially on Maternity leave! I won't be accepting any new commissions for the time being, however my husband, Avnish, will be running my shops & website and publishing blog posts for me whilst I'm away. If you drop me an email, he will be sure to reply ASAP.
Let's keep making mistakes!
It's been one year since I proclaimed from the rooftops (well, my Tumblr page) that I was going to stop working on my business and to instead pursue designing and illustrating full time.
Reading through this post (which for some reason makes me cringe and want to delete it forever from the eyes of the internet) I can recall so vividly how burnt out, tired and quite dejected I was feeling about the whole thing. The 'tipping point' part of that whole post was true - something needed to change in order to for me to change how I felt.
12 months on, what can I tell you?
It's been one year since I proclaimed from the rooftops (well, my Tumblr page) that I was going to stop working on my business and to instead pursue designing and illustrating full time.
Reading through this post (which for some reason makes me cringe and want to delete it forever from the eyes of the internet) I can recall so vividly how burnt out, tired and quite dejected I was feeling about the whole thing. The 'tipping point' part of that whole post was true - something needed to change in order to for me to change how I felt.
12 months on, what can I tell you?
Well, I did not succeed in making this dream a total reality. I'm here to tell you today that I did not end up making not a particularly smart business / life / wellbeing decision that I only realised the other day.
And I feel so damn positive about the whole thing.
Genuinely, I have never been more ecstatic than realising I had made this mistake. I felt it in my entire body, this happy revelation, that I gave it a damn hard try, and no one can take that away from me. I slogged the year, I trialled and boy did I error. I made some monumental fuck ups, some of which are embarrassing and some of which are truly teachable moments.
Bathe in the glory of your fuck-ups, embarrassment and face-palm-worthy errors because these are your sign posts and slip roads to a new direction.
Some of you might be curious how I came to this state of delusional bliss where I seemingly lost my mind in the many fuck-ups and laughed? It's quite boring really - but I did some sales forecasting.
I kid you not - I spent two days (out of curiosity more than anything) making a detailed year on year comparison of my sales from 2013-2016, which I'll explain below. I've made a template of the model I created should you wish to embark on this mind-numbingly revelation-worthy task [NOTE: remember to save a copy of it, not input your information directly onto it, as it's a public Google Sheet and all your financial information will be shared with everyone which is not good].
The madness first started after reading this super helpful Etsy Blog article, to try and forecast Christmas sales for my shop. And when the results were tallied, all the information from each months revenue and number of sales input into my spreadsheet, I sat back and thought, damn, I underestimated the power of my wonderful little illustrated business.
So then I went off a tangent and I pulled up ALL my accounts for the same timeframe (2013-2016) and started inputting all my revenue information, month by month, year by year, to start painting a picture of what my year on year sales were like. I even went as far as to break this down into the each revenue stream, so I could get a better idea of where my money was coming from.
And when all of that was done, I sat back and looked at the cold hard evidence which only number crunching can give you - and I realised a number of things:
- I made decisions last year based on feelings and not on financial evidence.
- I did not appreciate what I had till I stopped doing it.
- I busted some serious ass this year, and although it wasn't my strongest from a money point of view, it's been the smartest I worked in a long time.
Who knew that all this meaning could come from something as mundane as sales forecasting? Admittedly there are heaps of businesses who do this every year, and are probably wondering why I never got on with this before, and you're right. I'm a little late to this smart financial forecasting party. But I'm here now and I'm loving it.
I'm geared up and I'm positive about where to take my illustrated business.
I'm excited to get back into making and designing products to sell. I can't wait to head out into the world again to meet my customers face to face at craft fairs and events. I'm looking forward to the thrill and the anxiety of launching new ranges and approaching stockists and being so fully immersed once more in the designer maker world.
It's been a learning curve this year working solely as a freelance illustrator whilst my shop took a bit of a backseat - and I've been so grateful for all the projects, commissions and opportunities that came my way. I've learned so much about how I work, function and thrive as an illustrator, and I'm excited to come back to normal business as it was pre 2016.
Most importantly however, the one thing I've learned that I feel you should take with you from this moment on after reading this: Embrace how much this may also be a fuck-up.
No great business ever grew or became the power-house they are without taking some wrong turns; trusting the wrong people, investing money in the wrong thing or even taking their business down a route that maybe wasn't such a good idea. Mistakes = progress and progress is better than sitting and waiting for it all to happen.
So before I leave you to go out into the world and embrace all your error-making ways, that only a human can do, I want to leave you with a profound quote from Amanda Palmer:
““Everyone in this room is going to be gone pretty quickly — and we will have either made something or not made something. The artists that inspire me are the ones that I look at and go, ‘Oh my god — you didn’t have to go there. It would’v been safer not to — but, for whatever reason, you did.’ And every time death happens, I’m reminded that it’s stupid to be safe… Usually, whatever that is — wherever you don’t want to go, whatever that risk is, wherever the unsafe place is — that really is the gift that you have to give.””
Read the full article that this quote was taken from, 'Vincent Van Gogh on Fear, Taking Risks, and How Making Inspired Mistakes Moves us Forward' by Brain Pickings and also take some time to watch this incredible interview with Grace Bonney, the owner of Design*Sponge, on Marie Forleo's blog entitled 'Overcoming Fear, Accepting Imperfection, and the Real Deal with Work Life Balance.'
Now I'd like to hear about your monumental fuck-ups that you're grateful for (if you have anything, perfect human) - leave them in the comments below or tweet them to me @deborahpanesar
Keep up the trial and error and don't be ashamed to shout about it.
