Insecurity!
The house is currently being rewired. There are belongings and furniture EVERYWHERE! A team of three people are discussing, running up and down stairs, drilling, pulling up carpets, chiselling into walls..! Oh boy, my poor home!
So both me and my (also self employed) husband are hiding out trying to do admin in my attic studio, the one untouched space.
One of the bonuses of being self employed is that I can be flexible to fit around this kind of work or events. If I am not really clear with my boundaries, however, it is often assumed by others that I can simply work on a different day and fit around their timetable. I need firm boundaries to get anything done and keep my business on track, so I have got used to saying no to things. Insecurity in my own boundaries is a slippery slope!
The biggest part of the insecurity is the unpredictability, especially in terms of income. I have specific points in the year, around art shows, where I know I will have an income coming in, yet these too can be very variable.
As a result I also have a tendency to want to do all the jobs in my business myself, beyond the obvious art creation part. There is the admin, the finances, the marketing, the social media, the planning, inventory, maintaining supplies of art materials, packaging, office kit, the insurance, event bookings...the list goes on! Because I do all this myself, keeping the overheads down, it also restricts the amount of creative time in the studio. Swings and roundabouts.
I am my own boss and my own employee all at once. I sometimes miss having a colleague to share things with. Hmm...my so self employed husband says the same thing....perhaps there is a solution right in front of us! I also get a huge amount of support from my art community, which really helps a lot.
For all the insecurity I would not change it!
I enjoy the freedoms and the challenges. I'm happy to take the crunchy with the smooth.
What are your experiences of this?
KM 4/5/22