Bringing order from the chaos: building Wildings Studio
Building Wildings Studio (#4)
We are a creative design boutique based in Derby and this month we are reflecting on:
Why a designated workspace for husbands and wives or couples working at home in business is a life-saver
Plus our surprise for the month: how effectively video can perform on social media
Recap
This is the next instalment in our self-reflective approach to business. If you’re new to this series, we write about our personal experiences of launching a small business, cataloguing our successes and failures.
Avoid the kitchen table if you work from home
This post is dedicated to all the husband and wife teams or couples out there working from home
If you’re in that situation, we know how it feels from bitter experience; it’s not ideal and we salute you
At the beginning of January, we moved into a dedicated studio space at home, having worked on the kitchen table and in various other configurations around the house for about six months full time
Frankly, it was really difficult and wasn’t conducive to family life or business
Why working from the kitchen table is difficult
Crumbs, Coco Pops and mess on the table when we came to start work after the school run in the morning, so it felt like we were in mess all the time
Putting out and tidying away computers and paperwork every day was frustrating and gruelling, which set a continual level of background stress
Lack of proper storage meant that paperwork and screens were never really out of sight, which meant we found it was hard to step away from the business in family time
How things have changed
Thankfully, we were able to renovate our loft and move our children out of their former room, leaving us one of the largest rooms in the house for our studio
We set ourselves a deadline of the beginning of January 2020 and summarily moved in, leaving the kitchen table behind, I hope, for good
It’s not finished by any means, we realised how grubby and dirty the girls’ room was after we had pulled out all the beds and furniture; a good lick of paint is in order
We also had to rig up a temporary desk with some Ikea trestles and an old tabletop from eBay
However, I love being in the studio in the morning, as the windows catch the dawn, and sensing the sun rising over Derby as I get going for the day is a delight
Increase in productivity
Because of family duties, such as the school runs and sorting out children in the afternoon, it was very difficult for me to put in a full stint per day in the former setup
I was averaging between five to six hours in the kitchen, before needing to step away
Even with working in the evening, it felt like it was hard to build up momentum over a day
This was exacerbated by adding in things like networking meetings, travel and other commitments to clients
I found getting estimates and proposals particularly stressful, as they often got pushed late into the evening when tiredness kicked in
After the move into the studio, I’ve been able to add on about two extra hours, which may not sound much, but the added continuity over a week has made a big difference
Playing to your strengths
Running a family business with both parents involved has meant that we have had to balance how we look after children
Because I (Simon) am a morning person, I get up and aim to get behind my desk by 7:30am at the very latest
Rachael takes the children to school and then we swap the arrangement in the afternoon, allowing Rachael to work later
It doesn’t always go smoothly, as a child might have a meltdown outside the door of the studio, looking for socks, or cumulative tiredness wipes out motivation to get up
Overall, it has worked well, and the key has been dividing up household tasks between us and then anticipating what needs to be done to free the other person up to work
Creating an inspiring space
We’re multi-faceted in our interests and hobbies - outside of work we love our allotment and enjoy bring character to our Edwardian semi-detached house
The digital world of our work doesn’t always sit well with those aspects of our lives
Having the studio now as our dedicated workspace means that we’ve been able to invest in it and set it up as a place where we can plan, dream and get inspired for projects
Putting up whiteboards, targets and pieces of paper about branding wouldn’t have worked in the dining room, but in the studio it makes perfect sense
It also gives us the motivation, inspiration and appropriate atmosphere to do our best, which has fed into the overall feeling of increased productivity
There’s still a way to do, and clutter has an uncanny habit of appearing and multiplying, but we're on our way!
Surprise of the month
We produced a short, announcement video for a barrister’s chambers, which was publicised primarily on LinkedIn
After the client posted it, we followed up with our own, mainly reinforcing their message and as a bit of publicity for ourselves
However, we weren’t ready for the reaction it got, which blew us away
At last count:
It had over 1,500 views of at least three seconds
14 reactions and three comments
Views from businesses and individuals that could become potential clients
A distinct majority of the audience was in the same location as the client
And most of all it generated warm business leads for us
It was a reminder that quality content used well on social media can have a huge impact on business in terms of lead generation, sales and general brand awareness
Here’s the video if you missed it on our YouTube channel
We hope you've enjoyed this week's installment. If you've got a website, branding or video need, do get in touch - we'd love to chat and see how we can help you!
Previously in the series
Catch up on our previous posts with reflections on building a small creative design business
