Half a decade since I went independent again

It’s a special milestone for me today. After months of being ground down by hiring processes — thanks to the agency I was working for, going out of business — I had a sudden realisation that I could go back to freelancing. In fact, it felt like the most secure option and still does. Especially with the tech industry fully pulling its own pants down this year.

A client that worked with our agency still had no one to look after them, so I reached out as a potential freelancer. They bit my hand off and 24 hours later, on October 31 2018, they signed a contract and I was back working for myself. The funny thing was, the first day as a freelancer, I was working on the same CSS file I was the day before as an employee.

I’d always been happiest in this industry working for myself, but it was slightly more stressful this time around because our second kid had just been born. In fact, my previous employers told me their company had failed 48 hours before she was born, which as you can imagine, was hell.

The stress has hugely paid off though. In these 5 short years, I’ve:

• Written two courses
• Co-wrote a book
• Published a CSS methodology
• Guest lectured at the local university
• Worked with loads of fantastic clients
• Delivered plenty of talks, keynotes and workshops, both nationally and internationally
• Worked with some of the best people and companies in our industry
• Founded an agency which is going really strong

It’s been by far, the best 5 years of a 15 year career and I can’t wait to see what happens in the next 5 years.

I just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has made the last 5 years possible. Especially those who’ve hired me or Set Studio, or who bought Every Layout or Learn Eleventy From Scratch (when it was paid-for). You folks really are the best.

Stay tuned because the next 5 years of Set Studio — I hope — are going to be truly special.