When it comes to remote work, there’s been a lot of doom and gloom over the past few years. Since the pandemic irrevocably altered the way we work, the powers that be have been intent on altering it back. You’d be mistaken for thinking that literally everyone and their moms are dragging their feet back to the office, but that isn’t completely true. I was once stuck in a recruitment job that I hated.
The good news is, I found a way out. The bad news? Well, it involved a bit of a gamble. I’ve never been a gambler, but I think we all have our limits of how much mundane mediocrity we can withstand. My limit, it turns out, was just over four years and three months.
The Inciting Incident
Every story has one: Neo took the red pill, and Cinderella got an invitation to the ball. Me? I got a cancer diagnosis. No – stop. Don’t feel bad for me; just let me get to my point.
When you’re told you might die, your brain just… Changes. It silences all the noise and forces you to focus on the things that matter. Like, really matter. In this case, a thought popped into my head. It started off small, but it started to grow exponentially, to the point where it became undeniable, and action was inevitable.
The thought? ‘If I make it through this, I’m leaving this job.’
What Next?
Fortunately (for now at least), I survived. Then, before moving on to greener pastures, I needed to figure out what Job I wanted. This was pretty simple, because I’d always wanted to go into marketing in the long run. Ever since I got my degree. Back then, as a graduate, I’d been rejected by just about every marketing agency on planet earth before falling into the recruitment industry.
So I had a frank conversation with my boss and told him what was up. Luckily, he didn’t kick me to the curb straight away. Instead, we struck a deal. They’d keep me on as long as I continued to make them money, and I could become a part-timer, taking Fridays off to get some marketing qualifications under my belt.
After six months, two qualifications and probably 100 job applications, I did it. I got a job.
When the Office Became a Chore
Maybe it was the commute. Maybe it was the vibe of the office itself. Or maybe it was the price of parking in central London. Either way, after about a year in my new job, something was off. I liked the job – especially the content writing side, and my colleagues were perfectly nice. But although the office was full of almost 50 of them, it was silent. On top of that, workplace politics were slowly taking over my actual job; knowing which directors wouldn’t work together, and how to best appease egos and just get the work done.
Eventually, enough was enough.
Going Solo
After being forced into the office on a particularly stressful weekend, I knew I needed to move on to something new. But I didn’t yet know what that something looked like. I’d previously moved for a career change, and now I like the job but not so much the feel of the company. I also reflected on my previous job in recruitment and realised that maybe my distaste for the job had overshadowed my distaste for that company too.
In both cases, the company was flawed and made my life miserable. But at least now, I like the work. I was working for designers, restaurant chains, and Tenant Eviction Law specialists, and very much relished the variety. If only there were a way of removing the company element while keeping the work the same.
I handed in my notice two weeks later, without a job to go to. All I had was a list of clients and the ability to Google ‘how to start a company’.
Once the boring stuff was out of the way, I set about establishing my own brand while setting up new accounts with previous clients. The vast majority of them had contracts to honour with my previous employer, whether they wanted to work with me or not, but luckily, I managed to lock in a couple who had just finished up.
The Reality of Working for Yourself
There’s a misconception that people have when they are working from home or when running their own business. However, that is not the case. Running your own business means a lot more responsibility, and this increases overnight. There isn’t a manager who sets you deadlines. Additionally, there isn’t an IT department that fixes the technical issues goes wrong, and there wouldn’t be a guaranteed payslip landing in the bank account at the end of the month. If anything goes wrong, there is only one person to blame.
All of that took a lot of time for me to get used to, something that not many people can do. Multitasking can be very tricky for people but when you are learning these tasks along the way, it can be far trickier. I needed to send invoices, work out taxes, choose the right software, and continue spending countless hours learning everything that is about business rather than doing the work.
That being said, it is extremely motivating, especially when you become successful. With every client that you win, each positive review you receive, and even the referrals that you get, you feel like you truly earned it all. That being said, the failures are far more impactful to your business and can be emotionally draining.
When you are working for your own business, you’ll soon realise that you don’t have fewer hours. In fact, I often work throughout the day, doing extra hours to keep the business running. Not to mention the early morning rises, working through the lunch breaks and working until the late hours at night.
When I look back, leaving my full-time permanent job was a massive risk and one that I wasn’t very comfortable with. That being said, it did feel like the right step to make.
What Now?
Now, here I am. Sitting on my balcony, writing this article. It’s just past 9 o’clock in the morning, and it’s already 15 degrees. I often sit here and wonder where I would be instead if I’d gone down a different path. Probably in an office somewhere, blissfully meandering through life. Likely not as happy as I am now. Anyway, I’m about to go into my home office, because I’ve got a full day ahead of me, but now – finally – it’s all on my terms.