Admin Moon: A Business Startup
What do you do on your (unexpected) year out? When you need to be flexible, but still want to use your skills and learn?
You go crazy and create a business. My initial plan was temping, and financially, I still may need to do that (or delivery, as I have recently discovered that it's not a bad earner). However, temping left no room for my career journey, as much as I needed to be available to others. I also needed to have space for me. My growth. My needs. My identity.
Economically, I wanted to get going as soon as possible. I made a basic plan, with advice from my long-suffering Husband and Besty, while finishing my last assignment. Essentially, I needed to put together the basics and start. Initially, there is always plenty of time to do the ‘other bits’ while you are waiting to find clients.
I decided that I needed 3 things before I could properly start:
- An email – everything requires an email.
- A burner phone - Cheap and cheerful. Preventing weirdos from using your personal number. It also allows you to control your business hours and allows customers to text you at crazy hours without worrying about waking you up.
- An explanation of my business – The idea was simple (Admin for small businesses), but the person-centred nuances were initially hard to communicate.
Setting up a business email took longer than I expected. I opted for a Gmail account as it comes with storage and free software. However, I couldn’t have the word ‘Admin’ in the address. On top of that, There was some business verification thing, which I eventually realised I didn’t have to do.
The phone took half a day to get. Tesco phone shop didn’t open until mid-morning. ASDA advertised phones but didn’t have them. In fact, the whole ASDA phone-buying attempt was both awkward and comical. No one could find the phone I wanted in the random lockbox at the front of the store. When the lockbox was finally opened, there were no prices and, I kid you not, dust. Two staff awkwardly scanned a few, while telling me I would have to purchase a sim separately. That was it for me. There had to be a better way.
After a cup of coffee, I recovered and began hunting for a pay-as-you-go phone on the internet. Within half an hour, I had a cheap, but cheerful smartphone on its way from Vodaphone—Complete with a sim card and £10 credit.
The business description was going to be in the form of a brochure/flyer. After a bit of LinkedIn Learning, I decided to attempt making a WordPress website. This would be far more accessible for potential clients and look more professional. Learning WordPress would also help me with my architecture plans, as it is a great way to present a professional digital portfolio, and the skills look good on a design CV.
While creating my website [https://adminmoon0.wordpress.com/], I expanded on my business plan. Going through additional business training. Initially, I looked at it from a creative perspective as a brief. Now, I am mixing the idea of a business plan and a brief. Using a sketchbook for notes as it's comfortable, allowing for my own layout.
Originally, the home page had illustrations (missing a picture of the final illustrations), but they were not up to scratch. After a couple of weeks away from building the website, I decided to exchange them for stock photos. They are the only stock photos on my website, and most businesses use them. However, creating my own pictures is important for my future in architecture. They would be an excellent way to showcase my skills to clients. Additionally, stock photos are not as personable as created images and the brand I am cultivating is personable. I plan to create some new images in the future.
Website Improvement
Since writing this post and not posting it (if I had a brain, it would be dangerous), I have edited the website further. Acting on feedback from my university start-up team and attending some online training, I re-designed the site.
It will be updated over time, but I feel like I have learned so much about website design through this process.
