A Lesson in Taking Break

This is my first post in nearly two months, I wrote this whilst taking a short holiday last week and boy did I need it. I've tried to learn from the past six months and here's what I have to share, interspersed with my holiday snaps and a video. I love the 8mm app! 
Don't worry I have stack loads of dresses to share over the next few months for every day!

Currently I am sat in a cottage by a log fire in a teeny tiny fishing village in Devon with barely any access to the Internet or even my phone and it's the best thing ever.

The past six months have been crazy busy. Busy, exhausting, exciting, painful, emotional, inspiring, wonderful .......... everything. I have worked harder than ever, Seven day weeks, late, late nights and 17 hour 'focus' days where I wasn't allowed to even think about picking up the phone or glance at an email. One customer referred to my regime as Nazi like!

I have designed amazing dresses over the past six months, launched my second bridal collection, worked with countless brides on huge wedding wardrobes. It's been fantastic.
And we kept saying "we're so busy, but we must not complain".

There is such a thing as being too busy. Over this time I have learnt a few home truths and came to realisation that if I continue like this I won't be here much longer to make anyones dresses. It's only because Wing insisted on a break that I am even here, sat on a sofa.

Bucks Mills Village Square leading to the Sea

When running your own business you don't want to ever say no to work because you don't know when the next job will come in. I was desperate to please people, say yes and bend to everyone's wants and whims.
I read Outliers a while ago and was convinced that to succeed I had to put in the hours, say yes to everything and that it was all learning to be the best at what I do. I'd feel guilty for not working weekends like people would think I was lazy.

Creatively it can be hard to have confidence in your work, it's personal when you have designed something and you are so pleased when people want to pay you money for this, that the confidence boost becomes more important than the money and getting paid. Wanting to always improve your work is very different to undervaluing it though.

Then things start to grate when you are so overstretched. There may be an adjustment that you hadn't counted on, a customer who wasn't wowed by your work or just an enquiry that tries to haggle on the price of your product. Exhaustion makes these little things painful and you start resenting the work you do.

Emotions run high, one minute I would be having a full on breakdown in tears working on a dress because  I couldn't get my hands to work fast enough, or something didn't go exactly as planned. It can be so frustrating and it feels like the world has ended, you can't think rationally at all. The next second I would be in ecstatic happiness that a dress looked so beautiful. 



Things really hit me when I took a day out to go to the Rockn'roll Bride workshop in April. I will be writing about the wonders of this soon, it was totally brilliant and inspiring!

Talking to people in the bar afterwards I just couldn't focus, and when we decided to stay the night and continue getting to know everyone my mind went into panic mode. All that was going through my head was, "shit I have to finish these dresses and meet these deadlines, how am I gong to make up the hours" like I was gong to go home and sew from midnight until 11am anyway?
Then the conversation drifted onto how many hours people work a day. "oh around 8 hours" quite a few people said. My stomach sunk at this, WTF eight hours a day, and they have money in the bank and they are happy and they have relationships and they are successful brilliant people? These people work really hard but they are focused.   Like a shot in the head I realised that I was going badly wrong somewhere.

I whimpered myself to sleep that night, mainly from being overly tired and miserable that I had to go and sew for another thirty days straight. All I wanted was a break. Just one day.
I'd also let myself down. I wasn't myself, just a tired boring bag that tried to be sparky and happy but couldn't quite get there. I was a bit moany and a bit weird (not in a cool way!)

This little hut on the beach saying that that the coast was enjoy and to use these rights freely. How nice.

This is what happens when you take on too much and can't take a break. I love what I do and I love working really hard feeling that I have achieved great things each day, but there is a limit to what is physically possible.
Being over stretched means you panic even more about the quality, you can't ever afford for this to drop so you put in extra hours. At horrible points I would conjure up plans in my head to break my hands so I couldn't sew. Complete drama queen!
And I made SO many admin mistakes, losing money on orders because I didn't have time to sort invoices properly and just letting things go because I didn't want to say I had forgotten to charge for an underskirt, or extra fabric or hours etc. I even made a whole wedding dress in the wrong colour because I didn't double check on the particular shade. Emails turned into blurs with no organisation.



I know this all sounds very sob story, poor me for working hard and having lots of orders, give me a medal! Yes when you run your own business you have to be prepared to put in the hours but balance is important too. I'm being honest because I need to make sure I learn from this. I'd seen this happen to another designer and thought it wouldn't happen to me, it did. Hopefully what I've learnt will help.

So here at the pointers I have to stick by ....

• Don't work seven days a week. Take one day off a week that suits you. It's good to step away and come back focused.

• Get organised. Admin and emails can be a killer so take some time out to make these tasks quick and simple every day.

• Charge properly for your work. I know we LOVE what we do but you don't owe anyone for liking your work and when you still can't pay the rent despite being fully booked with orders, you're not going to last.
  A really quick way to learn this is by adding up all the hours you've put in and then working out what you should have earned if you'd charged for them. I clocked up 1,300 hours in 17 weeks, I now resent the calculator!

• Spend time with your friends and family, I missed birthdays, being there for friends who needed support, Wing was totally neglected. It leads to more stress because you feel guilty about this too!

• You have to say no to some people. It's your business and you can say NO to anything you like, especially if it's going to make you miserable. Stay in control.

• Get back to loving your work and spending time doing it excellently. A little bit of pressure is great, unrealistic pressure is bad. You'll feel the difference.

• Working too hard really is bad for business and your work. Burnout will stop you doing anything if you push yourself too hard without any time out.

• Take a break.

Taking time to look at stuff like Daisies seems silly but they look awesome.

My Mum and Anna and Wing have been amazing supports during this past six months, throughout the roller coaster moods. Thank you so much!!!! An extra thank you to Mum for staying up with me sewing until 2am hand stitching a dress!

With all these hours spent and many more to spend on existing orders, I have soooooooo much to show and tell coming up. Completely wonderful things, beautiful brides and such great stories. I'm re motivated already.  xxx

Ernest says " take a break and enjoy the wind in your ears"

Further reading

Rocknroll brides green room is an amazing source of knowledge
http://www.rocknrollbride.com/#greenroom

Indie made has great articles on time management and running an indies business
http://www.indiemade.com/

I love this article from etsy on productivity, physically and mentally tidying your workspace http://www.etsy.com/blog/en/2011/creating-space-for-success/

And this article that reminds me to take a break and step away.
http://www.thesfegotist.com/editorial/2012/march/14/short-lesson-perspective

And I found this via Gala Darling this week. Finishing on time.
http://www.sarahwilson.com.au/2012/05/what-would-it-take-for-you-to-finish-work-at-530/