An introspective of Jon Wallace's business development throughout 2009
What a difference a year makes… Wow how things have changed, this time last year I was saying my farewells to a great bunch of folk at Adobe and about to embark on a radical switch in career direction.
Previously
I had always aspired to work at the biggest agencies in the UK if not
the world, working with some of the best clients and the best talent in
the digital design field - learning new tips and tricks with every
project and aiming to outshine all the competition agencies and winning
award after award... These days my aspirations are very different. After a
year of setting up jonwallacedesign
- digital design studio I can safely say it has been the best career
move of my life! I love being my own boss and the transparency of
working directly with clients; being able to affect and influence their
businesses; such an empowering feeling, which as a designer who's main
role in life is to take a brief from a client and make them beam with
sheer happiness as a result of the hours of hard-work, is what it is all
about for me.
Don't get me wrong, I loved my days working with the likes of Matinee, Panlogic, Graphico, glue London and Adobe but the feeling of winning clients, designing, developing and delivering directly back to them gives one a sense of satisfaction not achievable within a large agency/organisation.
One thing I am continually aware of from running jonwallacedesign, is not standing still, running your own business means you can never stop marketing yourself, looking for your next projects and bringing new clients on board. I guess this works well for me, as I have always been the kind of person to never stand still or stop wanting to work - I was always in the office hours before the rest of the team and could never stop thinking about work even after leaving the office! My desire to continually improve means whenever client work is not taking my attention, the next version of www.jonwallacedesign.com is on my mind, the mobile spin off version, what other business streams we could tap into and where the next new client might be resting… These things keep the mind focused at all times.
Having spent working 10 years for others, I can easily see me working for myself for at least the next 10 if not 30! If there is one piece of advice I can offer other designers who are considering taking the plunge and setting up for themselves, I would say go for it; as long as you are prepared to work harder than you have for anyone else and are 100% into the idea, if you can't oblige with these two things then it might be best to take that next role within an agency as nothing less than 100% effort works here.
So, as it's Christmas time, I raise a glass to the future and would like to clink a glass with my clients who have helped make the maiden year of jonwallacedesign - digital design studio a real corker and look forward to a prosperous 2010 - a clink for you if you are reading this and looking for a digital team to help make 2010 a special one for you too.
Merry Christmas - http://www.jonwallacedesign.com/xmas2009/
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