It’s pretty hard to believe — thingsthatarebrown.com is now just over one year old (April 1st was the birthday, no joke). I don’t really want to wax too sentimental syrupy about it, but for anyone considering the move to freelance, here’s a 5 minute recap.

The big rush

Nothing can really prepare you for it. No matter how much planning you do upfront, you’ll learn about 80% of what you need to know about freelancing in your first few months. My talk “The First Four Months of Freelancing” was literally a brain dump of all the things I had to learn just to keep things moving, sane, and profitable.

Really, a freelance design shop is just a business like any other. Selling a service requires an ability to promote, sell, educate, and lead — you’re an agency of one.

I’d say, unequivocally, that if you’re not interested in the challenge of learning and juggling all the roles of a typical agency — design, project management, development, business development, resourcing, strategy, and client relations — think twice about starting out on your own. You’re going to find that you end up spending far more time managing projects, client relationships and business duties that you do with the “real work” of design and development. If you’re excited by the opportunity of working with and building relationships with great clients, growing and expanding a business, and challenging yourself, freelancing is a wonderful career.

Getting your bearings

After the headrush of learning how much you just don’t know about what you’re now doing, you’ll spend the next few months getting your bearings. You start to nail down the crufty business details (taxes, healthcare, purchasing, invoicing, etc.), and find a working rhythm that makes sense for you. For me, I realized how much I needed a consistent work day and a solid schedule.

In general, you’re still over your head, but hopefully swimming to the surface. During this time I was really lucky to work with a few other freelancers who served as really amazing mentors. I really can’t recommend it enough — be friendly and reach out to others for guidance. You learn things a lot faster, and you’ve got the confidence that others have made it work.

The Mango Sadness

For me, a strange thing happened, earlier this year. Once I had really nailed down how to run my freelance business — consistently found great projects, kept my clients happy, and made things profitable — I lost my creative energy. I still delivered solid work, but it I just wasn’t having much fun doing the work, or feeling excited about thingsthatarebrown. While it sounds like a luxury to “love your work”, for any freelancer, it’s a must. If you don’t love it you just won’t do it. Your business won’t grow and things will stagnate very quickly; even if you’re still delivering to clients.

After the newness and rush of freelancing wears thin, you realize you spend your days indoor and alone, working with people you rarely meet. That lack of social interaction and any physical collaboration on your work — well, it can be a bit crushing.

Creative Reboot

For me, SXSWi this year was the kickstart to re-setting myself. It’s an amazing experience — you get to see pretty much everyone who designs and builds the internet, in one place, in real life (IRL, FTW!). Even if you don’t go to many panels just meeting other people who do what you do can really re-start your creative drive. Passion and excitement are wildly contagious.

You’ve got to keep that feeling alive though, and that takes a bit of work. If you let it go, it will sag and you’ll slowly lose hold of that energy. So find ways of keeping your creativity alive — go to conferences, audit an art class, go to a museum, read a good book, have beers with other designers. Really, just have fun and always keep learning.

Onwards and Upwards

In short, my first year of freelancing has been wildly fun, challenging, and rewarding. It’s decidedly not easy, but noting good ever is. Here’s to another solid year of freelancing.