How my values shape my freelance business

If you’ve ever listened to the 99 Problems (but a boss ain’t one) podcast that I host with my friend and business coach Michelle Pratt, you’ll know that we’re big fans of knowing your “why”. This is the motivation that keeps you going even when you’re struggling; it might be a desire to help people, have more independence or create a better work-life balance for your family. When you have a “why”, you also need a “how” and that’s where your values come in. They inform the way you do business and are invaluable when it comes to making decisions.

Say you’ve identified proactivity as one of your values, and you find yourself wondering whether you should reach out to a client to share a new service that could be of interest to them. Your value of proactivity can act as a guide to help to overcome any fear or imposter syndrome that might get in the way of you taking action. Values represent you and what you stand for as a business.

Most lists of business values seem to have convenient one word examples and I think that’s why a lot of them don’t resonate with me. So I’ve made my own! Much to my dismay they don’t follow a particular format, but I wanted to keep them written in a way that still has meaning to me.

Doing things a bit differently

Given that I’m literally making up my own values it’s probably not surprising that the first one is about taking a bit of an alternative approach.

In fact, motivated by my love for doing things a bit differently (and hearing from other people who go against the grain) I set up an online magazine called Own Beat which tackles a wide range of topics from feminism and body hair to ethical consumerism. This is just one of my side projects, and I have my fingers in a few different pies!

Even nowadays, it feels like going freelance means placing yourself in the the daring-to-be-different camp. When I first decided to set up my own business 8+ years ago it was even more maverick, especially as I didn’t really have a plan. I just liked the idea of being my own boss and thought I could probably be useful to some people. Originally I had a notion that I’d offer tech support to charities for a few hours each month, helping them with anything from website updates and setting up email accounts to advice on which software to use. Before I really got anywhere with that plan, I happened to use Squarespace to make my own website. Our eyes locked across a crowded internet and the rest was history.

One of my favourite things about being self-employed is having the flexibility to run your business how you want to. I am not a morning person, and so clients can only book calls with me from 11:30am onwards (it’s in everyone’s best interests). I love experimenting with how I can make my business work for me and my clients and thinking about ways I can grow without going down the conventional pathways of taking on employees. At the moment I’m planning some challenges within my free SQSP Club community along with more group programmes like Bootcamp But Nice and a relaunch of my online courses.

Since moving to Anglesey three years ago, I’ve also started planning my day around the tide times! Whilst this sounds like I’m some kind of spiritual goddess influenced by the power of the moon, it’s actually a lot more practical than that. I live near a little beach and it’s very tidal so there are only a few hours each day when there’s enough water to swim. There’s a quote that goes something like “show me your calendar and I’ll tell you your priorities” and I realised that although I was saying my health and wellbeing were a priority, the time I was devoting to them didn’t reflect this. And so to protect time for an activity that brings me a lot of benefits (physical and mental), I started blocking off an hour in my calendar each day based on the high tide times.

A sustainable and ethical approach

My first foray into sustainability was at the age of ten when I mail ordered (how quaint) the Blue Peter book, Animals Matter and promptly announced I was becoming a vegetarian. Contrary to expectations, it stuck (and I’m now mostly vegan) and in my 20s I got more involved in other areas of sustainability. I started volunteering for Friends of the Earth in Manchester and left my job as a teacher to work for a couple of sustainability non-profits.

When I decided to go become a Squarespace-web-person-freelance-lady type, my commitment to sustainability and an ethical way of working stayed with me.

It might seem kind of weird to have “office supplies” as a category given that my “office” is my dining table, sofa or bed (depending on what kind of day I’m having) but as a freelancer I do have expenses relating to working from home that can have an impact on my sustainability.

My coffee comes from a small business in the Peak District and I have oat milk in my coffee. I’m also experimenting with pea milk (made from yellow split peas, not green garden peas) from Sproud, who have an excellent tagline: Tasty as ***k (milk of course, you potty-mouth).

We get zero waste grocery and household cleaning products from Good Club, our house is powered by renewable electricity and carbon-neutral gas (although I’m with Bulb who have just gone into administration, so I guess we’ll see what happens there) and even my toilet roll does good. I run an entirely paperless business but that’s more because paper gives me rage and I love having an excuse to use a new app or online tool. I recently bought a Framework laptop which is really easy to repair and upgrade, so should hopefully last longer.

I don’t always get it right though.

When my lovely ethical and sustainable Fairphone got soaked through and stopped working, I didn't repair it as it cost too much, even though its repairability was one of the reasons I bought it. I used to have two phones (one for work and one for personal use) and I did quite like being able to literally switch off when I wasn’t in work mode, but have since gone down to using one dual sim phone. I got a lot of jokes about being a drug dealer when I had my second phone, but I’d often refer to it as “my Fairphone” and people would think I’d said “my affair phone” 🙈 I think they were shocked but also impressed that I was organised enough to have a second phone to conduct my scandalous relations!

My website carbon footprint is reasonable but could be improved if Squarespace switched to green hosting. There’s also work that I could do to improve this such as reducing image sizes and auditing my pages to make sure that all the content is still necessary.

From an ethical perspective, I try to support small and independent businesses as much as possible and work with a lot of other freelancers, rather than big companies who are often (but not always) more evil. My insurance is with Dinghy who are trying to create a fairer approach for freelancers, and I do my business banking through Monzo, a digital-only bank who have a commitment to using simple language and socially responsible policies around money and lending.

I’m experimenting with the option to book a free 60 minute Zoom call with me in exchange for a charitable donation. I’m also using it as an opportunity to highlight the causes that I care most about and raise awareness of some great organisations to support.

It turns out I’ve been doing ethical marketing before I even knew it existed, so it was a no-brainer to take the The Ethical Move pledge. I have no desire to trick someone into working with me and as most of my work comes from recommendations, it would be really stupid to lead people on and sell them something in a way that’s misleading!

Because I want people to have a great experience working with me, I am selective about my clients. I generally only work with non-profits, freelancers and micro-businesses as these are the worlds that I understand and the types of organisations that I can add the most value to when building a website. I’ll also say no to a client if they don’t fit with my values or ethical approach. It can be scary to do this, especially if there’s not a lot of other work in the pipeline, but I’ve never regretted it and surprisingly often an amazing project will come along really soon after, as if to reinforce my decision.

Being open and transparent

My desire to take an ethical approach is really closely intertwined with wanting to be open and transparent, but this does feel like a separate value as it’s so important to me. I want to talk honestly about life as a freelancer; I’m candid about my struggles with mental health and how I like to do business.

I’m upfront with my pricing and the costs for all my services are on my website. I don’t offer hourly rates as I’d rather agree a fixed price in advance; that way everyone knows what they’re getting. In the past I’ve even shared a breakdown of my income and expenditure, which is something that I’d like to do again.

I’ll let people know if Squarespace isn’t the right tool for them, or if I’m not the right web designer for them. It might seem counter-intuitive to turn away business, but often these would-be clients are grateful for my honesty and recommend me to other friends or colleagues who do need a Squarespace website.

Friendly, not scary

Recently on a client call with two awesome ladies, one of them said “We feel like you’re quietly in control” which made me laugh as the idea of me doing anything quietly is quite funny. She expanded on her comment to explain that she felt like they were in safe hands, being gently guided (but not pushed) through the process of developing their website.

This made me so happy, as part of my “why” is to help people who aren’t technical feel like creating a website is a fun experience, rather than a stressful one.

When I first went freelance, I had massive imposter syndrome because I didn’t have a formal background in web development. I was terrified that someone would ask me a question about code and I’d have to confess that I was a huge fake and they’d fire me on the spot! Of course, that never happened and over time I realised that my lack of formal training was actually an asset, as it meant that I wasn’t used to speaking in jargon; I would default to using normal human language to talk about technical concepts because that’s how I think about them in my head.

Since then, I have learned the relevant coding skills that I needed to create more custom websites, but have made sure that doesn’t affect how I talk about websites.

I also know from experience what it’s like to feel like you’re being stupid because you don’t understand something, or you have to ask the same question five times and still not have a clue what the answer is! When working for a non-profit prior to going freelance I was tasked with working with a team of web developers to create a website for the project. They were a lovely group of guys and I was reasonably technical, but I was still overwhelmed by the words that they used and struggled to make myself understood as it felt at times like we were speaking different languages.

Silliness and being “un-professional”

This is one I've definitely never seen on one of the business values lists! I feel like it’s a bit different nowadays but when I first went freelance in 2013 there were still a lot of ideas about what it meant to be a “professional” business person. Wearing jeans to a client meeting or networking event? Scandalous. And you can’t swear. Well fuck that. I’d rather work with the sweary jeans wearers and alienate the people who are offended, as they wouldn’t have been a good fit for me anyway.

When I first started out, I wanted to reach a wider audience and so booked a stand at the Business Startups Show, held at the mahoosive ExCel conference centre in London. Long-time followers will have heard this story before, but it is one of my favourites so kindly indulge me.

I'd maxed out my credit card to pay for a stand (borrow responsibly, folks) but had forgotten that I'd also need furniture. Whilst scouring the internet for some low-cost options I came across a site selling cardboard flat pack tables and chairs; I loved the idea of having plastic-free furniture, and it was much more affordable.

Now usually, the company would have branded it for you and sent it directly to the venue. But as I was on a budget, I asked if they'd send the plain versions to me so I could brand them myself. I created some stencils based on my logo and some key letters, bought some cans of black spray paint, and added the words "Websites! Woo! Yeah!" on all of my furniture.

After an interesting train ride down (flat-packed, the furniture was still taller than me and I caused some consternation amongst the Virgin Trains staff who couldn't decide if I should be paying for an extra seat) I made it to the venue, and began to assemble everything. My spatial reasoning skills are basically non-existent, so I'm not sure why I thought this was a good idea and I was almost in tears trying to figure out how it all fitted together.

Somehow I eventually managed it, but then I looked around and realised that I was surrounded by a sea of corporate professionalism. All the other stands were gleaming, with their shiny branding and here I was, wonky cardboard furniture that said "Websites! Woo! Yeah!". It was gloomy with a chance of teardrops again.

At that moment, an angel appeared in the form of a lady from the HR booth around the corner. She told me how she loved my stand, that it was so unique, and that she would send people my way if they needed websites (and true to her word, she did). After that, another person walked past, and commented on how much they loved my stand because it was so different and fun. And this continued throughout the weekend; all of my ideal customers were drawn to me and it was only the crusty middle aged men in suits that walked by and scoffed at me. Oh, and one told me off for not having sweets on my stand 🤷🏻‍♀️

So I have no desire to be "professional" if that means stuffy and uptight. I want to be silly but still be considered a legitimate business owner. I want to write blog post titles that are based on songs and have a fun, colourful brand that doesn’t look like so many of the other female Squarespace web designers with their pastel shades and floaty script fonts (not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s not me).

And to me, being professional actually means meeting deadlines, delivering quality work, listening to clients and turning up on time; essentially doing what you said you were going to do, when you said you were going to do it (and if for any reason you can’t, then be proactive in communicating about this).

Funnily enough, at the same time as I was writing this post, I got an email from Julia Davies in which she talked about what it means to be professional. One of the questions she asked was “Is it professional to talk about my emotions and my ‘life’ stuff to potential clients?” which reminded me of an article I wrote for Own Beat about the time I cried on a client call. So I would argue that yes, it is!

In fact, I think a lot of my values come down to that human factor; I have really lovely relationships with a lot of my clients because I genuinely care about them and the work that they’re doing.