My first year as a business owner 🎉

One year and one day ago, on November 2nd, 2020, I was creating my own business. It all went so quickly and at the same time, when I look back to the beginning, so much has changed. I’m all in for celebrating small victories, so here’s an article to celebrate my first year as an entrepreneur. 

[There’s a video at the end, in case you feel like watching instead of reading.]

I remember that when I created my company, I had prepared a lot before, and I was quite scared and yet excited to start this new adventure. I was just recovering from a burn-out in a company that showed me everything I didn’t want to be, everything I didn’t want to do, and I had decided that I was worth more, and that I could do more. 

Having my own business was a dream of mine since high school. I just didn’t know yet what kind of business it would be. I loved languages and I had briefly seen online that translators could be freelancers and stuff like that, but teenage me thought that this was impossible. That such a perfect lifestyle was impossible, that there would not be enough work for it to be sustainable. 

Fast forward 7 years after I graduated high school, and here I am, freelance translator and self-published author, and I’m happier than ever. I’m going to be honest with you, it’s the first time in my life that I’m happy to work, and this has been a big concern of mine over the years. I was afraid I would never be satisfied in my professional life, because every company I would join, would make me feel upset and frustrated at some point. 

Now I know I’m a multipotentialite and thus, just not made for doing one single job all my life, but back then, it caused me a lot of anxiety and worry. But now that I’ve found the right balance between translation and writing, with the freedom to add new projects whenever I want to, I feel so thankful. So thankful that I’ve finally found my way. 

So let’s do a little recap of what happened during that first year as a CEO. I’m my own boss, so I am a CEO, right ? It reminds me of the quote “become the CEO that your parents wanted you to marry” and I’m like… well, it’s done. I’m not making millions yet, but I’m making enough to live and that’s already amazing haha.

When I started I was so scared to fail, so I added lots of services to my business, just in case. I was an author of course, but also a recruiter, a translator and a proofreader. I had also decided to focus on my home market, the French market, because well, I thought that since I was living in France, it would be easier that way. 

Now I see how my choices were all linked to my fears instead of what suited me the best. That’s what is wonderful about being self-employed. You work on you, you have to, there’s no other choice, and you see yourself evolve, and get better, sharper, smarter.

So now I’m only a translator and an author, and I’m more focused on the international market. My main clients are companies from South Korea, and I write in English so even my books are aimed at the international market anyway. 

In-between the start and now, I also tried to be a career coach, because I thought it was a nice transition from recruiter, and I thought this would match better with me. That’s why I started Kain Ramsay’s life coaching course (available on Udemy), I thought it would help me become a better coach. In the end, I realized that I don’t have the mental energy to make a business out of coaching people. I like to help, but it’s draining me to spend too much time on the phone, or in a video call. It took me a while to admit that being a translator and an author was the perfect fit for my introverted personality, but that that wasn’t the case for being a coach. For a long time I thought that being introverted was a weakness, and that’s probably why I started my career in recruitment. I wanted to be more at ease on the phone and with people, and I think that I did a great job, but it was draining all my energy. It made me grow in some aspects, but it was not the kind of thing that I could do in the long run. 

• 7 potential clients
• 2 I had to reject
• 5 became clients, and out of these 5
• 2 became long-term clients
• 3 online courses completed (French spelling – studying and working in English made me forget some rules of French spelling and grammar, so… – , psychology and nutrition)
• 1 ongoing course on life coaching
• 1 poetry book published + 1 poetry anthology
• 4 other books on the way + 1 other poetry anthology
• 36 articles on this blog that I’ve started in March
• 20 videos on Youtube
• +750 followers on Instagram 
• +2000 followers on Twitter

So I keep following the life coaching course because in terms of self-development, it is so interesting, but for now I’m putting aside any coaching practice. I’m done trying to be someone that I’m not.

So, let’s move on. Here are a few numbers. I’m not a big fan of numbers because there’s so much to tell behind them, but I guess that’s a must when you’re assessing a period of time.

Like I’ve said before I’m not much into numbers but let’s say it’s just a way to see that there was a growth. I started from scratch, and here we are.

So what’s next ? 

You know, there’s great power in believing that you can do anything. Once you start doing things, you will realize that with hard work, so many things are actually possible. So I have lots of projects coming. 

For the end of this year I’m working on creating book boxes. You know these little boxes you can order now with for example a selection of snacks coming from Japan, or a selection of cosmetics adapted to your skin type. Well, I want to make a book box, and do a special edition for the release of the hardcover of my poetry book “Talking To The Moon”. I’m preparing lots of nice stuff to add to it, like a bookmark, notebook, stickers… and it’s super exciting to make. I will create an Etsy shop to sell them there I think, or just take orders on social media, I’m not sure yet, either in December if everything is ready, or in February to celebrate the one year anniversary of the book.

I also have plans to move abroad once again next year, if all is fine with the pandemic of course. I am fully vaccinated so this is why I’m considering this seriously. Now that I have a more regular income, I know that I could become a digital nomad. And it sounds crazy to me, but I know it’s possible now. And there’s a country I’ve already lived in, that I miss, and that is South Korea. So I hope that I can get the chance to go over there next year, and then travel a bit more in Asia as well. 

So, this is it for today. I hope you enjoyed this article, and that you are all doing well. Let’s enjoy the end of year festivities as much as we can.

I hope you have a lovely day, thank you for reading, and see you next Wednesday !

Marie.