The Creative Family Feature is a monthly blog series featuring women & men in the C@H family who are building community & education right where they are. We’re inspired by the big things our family members are doing and love being able to celebrate alongside them!! Whether it’s through hosting their own educational experience, building a community-driven team or fostering education with their industry peers, they’re making big dreams happen all over the country!
This month’s Creative Family Feature is Creative at Heart 24/7 member, Gillian Sarah!!
Tell us about your story! How did your business begin? We want to celebrate the highs & lows of your biz journey with you!
I fell like I got off so lucky, because I accidentally started my own business. A few years ago my husband bought me a new laptop for Christmas as mine had been pretty much unusable for the past 3 years. So being a super excited nerd like I am, the first thing I did was download Photoshop and Illustrator and start playing around. One weekend my husband went to the cinema with one of his friends and I decided to try selling little illustrations on Etsy. I posted about it in an Etsy group on Facebook and by the time the movie was finished I had sold over £1,400+ of orders. From there I began to expand my offerings into logos, and then taught myself website design. It all grew so quickly and was very overwhelming. Within 3 months of my first Etsy adventure I was able to take my corporate job down to part time. And then 5 months later quit altogether to go full time in my business. That was more than 2 and a half years ago and I’ve never looked back.
My favorite thing about building my own business is:
I call the shots. I can decide whether to work with a company based on if their values align with mine or not.
If I could give one piece of advice to another entrepreneur it would be:
Try something new. One day I had someone on my Etsy account message me asking if I could draw them a logo. I had literally no idea how to do it but I said yes and now my entire business has built upon it. You never know where you’ll end up.
In 2020, I’m most excited about these things in my business:
Growing my team. I’ve been a solo-preneur for so long and I’m only just starting to aadd in other people to lighten the load and help me grow. So far it’s been fantastic.
Since joining the Creative at Heart family, this has happened in my business:
I’ve connected with so many other like-minded entrepreneurs. I love the education creative at heart provides, but I love the people even more. They teach me so much about business and every person has something completely different to offer.
Before Creative at Heart I felt…
Alone. I’m a creative based in Scotland and there isn’t the biggest community of us here. Joining Creative at Heart opened my eyes to other amazing creatives in the world.
If I could have coffee with anyone, it would be:
Julia Roberts. I love her movies so much and honestly feel like we would be best friends!
If someone is on the fence about joining Creative 24/7, I’d tell them:
This is the cheapest education you will ever receive, which is ridiculous because it’s from some of the industries best educators. You not only get great lessons and lives, but you also get to be part of an inspiring and creative community.
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