The honest truth? I’ve failed, a lot.

The honest truth. The whole truth and nothing but the truth.

TGS is almost 4 years old. And turns out, you can never really know everything there is to know about running a business. And just when you think you've got it all figured out, surprise, the little back to reality nudge is a very humbling experience.

So, here's a condensed list of things I've failed at since the conception of Third Ginger Studio.

Boundaries

I never used to establish clear boundaries. For me, my clients, my work schedule, my downtime, my creative boundaries. Nada. I just worked and worked and worked and burnt out.

During these times where a client took advantage of the service I was offering, or when I received ‘urgent’ texts for no reason, or those times clients would call me up out of the blue, long after their project had ended, I learnt how important it was to not only set the expectation of my boundaries, but to also stick to them. It’s so hard to come back to your boundary once that line has been crossed and is never to be seen again.

Remember, your boundaries are there to protect your energy. And that’s it.

Investing

I took a long time to invest in myself. It's incredibly scary putting yourself first and actually spending money to further your skills and knowledge, because it's a whole new ball game.

I didn’t want to invest in myself because I didn’t think I was actually worth it. I was scared that by investing in education when I’m meant to be the ‘expert’ was admitting that I wasn’t the ‘expert’. In truth, that’s total bullshit. Of course, as the expert, you continually learn and evolve and show up better for each client, each project. It’s okay to not know everything, that’s also part of what it means to be a business owner.

Advice

I sought advice from and trusted everyone's opinions on what I should be doing. Even worse, a lot of them didn't own a business, never had a business or didn't have any knowledge of what I was trying to do.

This was a big one for me to learn from. People that don’t own a business, don’t really understand what it takes sometimes. They don’t see the late nights, the imposter syndrome, the loneliness, the needing to make decisions all on your own. They don’t understand your passion or your determination to create something for yourself, and that’s ok. Just don’t ask for their advice (or their opinion). Why would you listen to someone who hasn’t been where you want to go?

Money

I undercharged. So much. I was doing logos for $100 and would spend weeks getting it right. That, paired with poor client onboarding and a healthy dose of naivety just didn't bode well for the first year of business.

Another learning opportunity was the constant state of stress about how much I was charging and being scared to raise my prices because ‘no one would ever pay that much’. That’s just a form of imposter syndrome and being too scared to really back myself. So, when I started upping my package prices, that didn’t include adding deliverables, that’s when the clients got real, that’s when they got better and that’s when I had more control in my business than ever before.

While there are so many more things I could list here, just remember that there’s always going to be something to learn. There’s always going to be a mistake or two made. Get used to it, because it’s a fact. Making mistakes means you're trying things and learning and doing something that's outside your comfort zone - which is amazing! Always remember that you will always fail, just remember to fail upwards.