My first year fully self-employed

By the end of November 2022, I had been fully self-employed for one year. (Data) freelancer, and photographer.

That year wasn’t always easy. That was having to eat bread with Nutella one week and being able to sleep in a five-star hotel the next.

It was a year with many investments: both in myself and my business. Hard work for my business to be able to finance work that contributes to my business.

Weeks of 80 hours and 7/7 were no exception to getting all that work done and being able to pay my bills – actually, that is not something to be proud of. (Never mind that startups should take this as a benchmark…)

Everything I want to do with Evelien Geerinckx Photography, I want to do well. Almost perfect actually, although I have since learned that “just good” is also more than enough.

I am proud of what I have achieved in twelve months. Grateful for what was and ready for what is to come.

I do everything myself. From A to Z. Personal contact also remains my number one. But that does mean that at the same time … I have to be the CEO. And the communications manager. The receptionist too. The marketing specialist. The social media manager. The copywriter. The photographer. The graphic designer. The accountant. And … I’m sure I forget some.

So how do I practically arrange everything in and around my house, my household, and for Flinn, my best friend, on four legs?

I have the most wonderful parents in the world. And for that, I know that I’m the lucky one. Without those two, I lived in a dirty house, was among the mess, a meadow of weeds had grown around the front door, and Flinn had to walk herself (almost) every day.

Can I encourage anyone who wants to start as self-employed? And especially every photographer? Put all your doubts aside. If I can do it, so can you!

Don’t underestimate the life of a start-up self-employed person, though. Everything that goes on behind the scenes takes time, money and a lot of patience. Think of legal fine print that needs to be in order or a website that needs to also excel in terms of SEO and copywriting, profiling yourself as a brand through personal branding, writing brochures that need to be correct, … just too much to mention.