Four | The Hickensian

No, not another meme. It took my wife to remind me that last weekend marked four years as a freelancer. Four years under the name Hicksdesign. I can’t believe its that long, it feels like only yesterday that I took that leap.

Its been wonderful, and I don’t think I could go back to work for someone else, but why didn’t anyone tell me:

You would be working A LOT. More than you thought.
That dealing with emails, quotes and enquiries would be more time-consuming than doing the accounts
That you have to keep a photocopy of each VAT return – not just a printout from your accounting software, but of the actual return. Whoops.
That strange distant mumbling is the sound of you talking to yourself.
That in the first couple of months I would be so nervous and lacking in confidence that I would be sick.

Never mind, I soon found out.

I have to say, that I would never have gone freelance, or have survived so long, if it wasn’t for an encouraging, understanding and completely supportive wife. I tried hard to make that last sentence not sound trite, or like some embarrassing acceptance speech, but its the truth.