Ten years ago, I started calling myself a designer. Before that, I was making art, building my own website, and helping friends and family with bits and pieces whenever they asked. Nothing formal. Just something I enjoyed.
Then it became something more. Deadlines. Briefs. Clients who paid me. I became a freelancer.
People still ask me whether I regret it. It is a fair question.
The honest answer
No. Not even close. But I will not pretend it has been easy.
More than half of all graphic designers either leave the profession or change direction within the first two years. That is a real statistic and it makes sense when you think about what the early years actually look like. No one to ask. No one to tell you whether your quote is too low or your instinct on a design is right. Just you, a screen, and a client who might have no idea what they want.
I was lucky. I had a few people around me early on who took the time to talk through the difficult bits. Not mentors in any formal sense, just people who had been doing this longer than me and were willing to say: yes, that is normal, or no, you should not accept that.
That kind of thing matters more than most people admit.
What ten years of working for yourself actually looks like
There is the work, obviously. Websites built. Clients helped. Problems solved. I have been in the top three web designers in Harrogate with Three Best Rated every year since 2019. That is something I am genuinely proud of.
But there is also everything else. The client you cannot get hold of. The brief that changes three times after sign-off. The project that goes quiet for two months and then needs finishing urgently. The invoice that is sixty days late.
None of that is in the brochure when you start out.
Why I think it is worth it
Because I get to work with people I like, on things I care about, in a way that suits how I think.
When John from Carriages Knaresborough came to me after a difficult experience with a previous designer, I had his site built and live in under a week. I could do that because there was nothing in the way. No approval process. No waiting for someone to come back from leave. Just the work, done properly.
Screen Yorkshire told me they used to wait three to four weeks for a response from their old designer. I turn things around the same day. That is not a selling point I invented. It is just what happens when you care about the people you work with.
Jackie Burton, a writer, came to me with very little confidence around technology. Now she can update her own site and use it to reach producers and funders. That is the kind of outcome that makes the quiet Tuesday afternoons worth it.
What I have learned that might be useful to you
If you run a small business and you are thinking about who to work with on your website, here is what ten years has taught me.
The relationship matters as much as the work. A designer who picks up the phone and answers your email the same day is not a bonus. It is the minimum standard. If that has not been your experience so far, you are not asking for too much.
And if you find someone who gets what you are trying to do, treats your project like it matters, and is still around six months after the site goes live – hold onto them.
I am still here. Still building sites in Harrogate. Still picking up the phone.
If you want to talk about yours, get in touch.
