Hard Truths I’ve learnt as a founder
Hi I’m Siena, the founder of Hutch & Co. Design.
Ever since I can remember, I’ve always been obsessed with drawing, art & everything creative. At the age of 12 I had already set up an ‘art studio’ in our summer house in the garden, religiously drawing female figures wearing the latest collection I had designed.
Fast forward a few years, I found myself dropping out of studying economics and instead applying to study fashion design at an upcoming University in East London. I loved my 4 years there and the opportunities to actually make all the clothes I had sketched.
I worked at various fashion houses before realising that the industry just wasn’t for me. I wanted to express my creativity my way and had also always had the dream of working for myself (perhaps due to growing up with an entrepreneurial father).
So, whilst trying to figure out my next steps, I started working my first freelance client designing various posters, assets and a logo. I had NO idea what I was doing - I didn’t even know how to send an invoice. But if you want something you will do just about anything to achieve it.
I embarked on a long and hard journey of teaching myself design skills through Youtube videos, tutorials, courses, you name it. It’s exhausting thinking back to this period of time because progress seems so slow at the time. I got a million rejections and re-branded myself as a freelancer about 6 times until I decided it was time to take things seriously so I went back to university (whilst still working as a freelancer), to study graphic design.
Balancing full time client work and a masters degree was one of the hardest things I’ve done. I’d regularly go 3 months without having a full weekend off and felt like giving up too many times to count. During my last year, I did my final re-brand and launched Hutch & Co. as a proper company with the hope to grow a team one day.
These are some of the hard truths I’ve learnt as a business owner over the years…
You have to wear all the hats to start with
I’m talking about the accounting hat, the marketing hat, the client relationship hat, the social media manager hat, etc. It can definitely feel overwhelming and most of the time (if you’re like me), you’ll have no idea what you’re doing until you keep practicing and eventually become a master of all hats (it’s still a work in progress) 🧢.
No one is coming to save you
I realised that no one was coming to save me at the beginning of this year and to be honest, it was one of the hardest truths I’ve learnt so far. No one is there to keep you motivated, tell you how do things, or come save you when the going gets tough or when you loose motivation. You HAVE to be your own motivator as a founder.
You have to create your own opportunities
For a long time, I trusted that people would choose to work with me through referrals and my network. Once they dried out, my enquiries dropped and I realised it was up to me to get out there and to create my own opportunities. I began going to as many networking events in London as possible, posting every single day on multiple social media platforms, cold emailing, catching up with previous clients, chasing any lead I could to breathe life back into my business.
Live in the moment, embrace it
The truth is, most small businesses fail within the first few years. I realised that success to me was ultimately enjoying my work and daily life and not focusing so much on the bigger picture and where I wanted to be in 5-10 years time.
Have smaller goals
I used to sit down on January 1st every year and write a big list of goals I wanted to achieve during the year. I’d often never look back at the list again or if I did, get very discouraged because I would never reach them, or reach very few. I’ve found that writing down 1-3 month goals are much more helpful because you can take the smaller steps you need to achieve your goals and you’ll feel more rewarded and motivated when they come true.
I hope this post has inspired you to keep moving forward towards achieving your goals, however big or small they may be!
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