3 Things My 9-5 Has Taught Me For My Business

Something unique about The Essentielle Studio is that along with running the studio, our head designer also works full-time. Although it can be a lot to handle sometimes, I have learned so much that I have been able to implement more into my own business.

Establish an effective business process.

While starting off as a new designer, I was always trying out new ways to go about different aspects of my business. Things such as learning how to onboard clients, communicating with them, managing my design process, and so much more. But changing things up so much just caused more instability in how I ran things. Yes, I would still deliver, but ultimately there was no solid path that I could take and know that I could efficiently get a project done. Since working at my current job, I saw how having an effective process could make things so much smoother for companies. No matter what, there was always a foundational path to help guide us in knowing what to do. So, of course, I had to take some time to take a step back and upgrade my business process to be effective for my business. And since then, things have been so much easier!

Utilize better time management

I will be first to admit that there would be some times when I'd find myself staying up late at night working on client projects because I wouldn't properly allocate time towards it or working simultaneously on different things at once. As someone who works full-time too, this is not an ideal way of running things. I do believe you do have to work a little harder sometimes to manage both, but you should never have to sacrifice basic things like sleep. Of course, with a 9-5, the majority of my days are taken up with work for my full-time job and little time is left in the evenings to get studio work done. With the limited time, it was important that I properly managed to be able to still do what I loved. My current job is very self-driven so time management and time batching are key! Because of this, I started implementing the time batching strategy I use for work to handle tasks for the studio.

Setting better boundaries

Believe it or not, working a 9-5 has helped establish better boundaries in my business. As mentioned before, with working full-time AND running a studio, my time has become so much more valuable to me. I've been forced (in a good way) to prioritize myself and not get so consumed in work. I've been able to take a step back and see how much work I can take on when I have the energy to do it, and quite frankly, be more choosey with who I want to work with.

Working a 9-5 can definitely help open you to new ways to help your business. If you're working a 9-5 I hope this inspires you to take a look at your job and see how the tool and skills you use within your work can be transferred to make your side hustles more efficient and enjoyable for you.