Many of you may already know that I have another life – that of a web designer. I’ve been self employed since 2003 and have successfully run Eskymo New Media Design for over 10yrs (although I’ve not updated my website for a few years now). It’s been brilliant to be my own boss and work my own set hours and fit my job around my life etc, but over the past few years things have had to change…
I’m now a mum of one and since returning to work after maternity leave, I chose not to go back fulltime. I made the decision when I was pregnant that I wanted to be a fulltime mum and raise my son during the early years until he reached nursery age and then onto school and so opted to just keep up with work one day a week.
This has proven quite tricky and frustrating as projects dragged on for months and months and it was difficult to work on more than one project at a time and keep up with coding developments and technology that was continuously reinventing itself.
I’ve found that my enthusiasm for the job I’ve loved for so long slowly depreciating and my need and want to create and make accelerating. So I applied for Next Steps in 2013 and was awarded a place on the programme. It was my way of starting the ball rolling to make the shift from Milomade being a part-time occupation to a full time one.
This year I’ve made yet another shift in this direction. One of my web clients has hired me as their ‘web monkey’ so to speak and I’m going to be working for them from now on, one day a week. I’m not giving up on Eskymo completely as I’ve got a few projects for clients still to complete etc, but I’m definitely putting it on the back burner with regards to finding new work. With my new job I can concentrate on one web client and hone my skills and knowledge to suit this clients needs. I no longer need to worry about finding new work or when the next pay cheque will arrive. I’m going to have regular work and therefore regular money coming in, which takes the ball and chain of ‘worry’ away and also leaves me with 2 days a week soley for Milomade.
I’ll also be getting out of the house and out of Kinghorn as my new job will have me commuting into Edinburgh by train and I’m really looking forward to this as it’s going to help me get a sense of myself back. It’s also a way for me to reconnect with a world I’ve kind of had to leave behind for a while and get my foot back in the door… albeit unkown to others I’ve got the Octonauts soundtrack running through my head continuoulsy as I do so…
So I’m not working fulltime, but I don’t think I ever will do so or want to, as I need to fit work around family time and with Milomade I feel I can be more flexible. But it’s such an exciting new chapter and I feel so lucky to be starting 2015 with a firm footing and know what lies ahead with regards to my web work (my bread and butter income from now on) and the freedom I now have to take Milomade to the next level.
What lies ahead with Milomade is uncertain but exciting as I feel that I’m back at square one as I’ve been out of the loop for so long, but I’ve got the know how and the enthusiam and now also the time to get back on track. With two new jewellery collections to launch very soon as well as other new products and the British Craft Trade Fair in April, I’ve got a feeling that 2015 is going to be a great year – here comes that Octonauts soundtrack again…
So it’s onwards and upwards from here!
