What I Learned in 2021
Photo by Green Chameleon on Unsplash
Looking back on five years of my business, I feel more confident that this works for me. Early on, I was never quite sure if everything would end up falling apart. Would clients stop calling eventually? Would I get too stressed or too challenged by it all and have to give up? Now that I have a solid five years under my belt, I have more evidence and experiences to help me see how positive this whole solo-entrepreneur/small business owner endeavor can really be.
2021, like 2020, was a strange year. After spending the first full year of the pandemic “pivoting” and trying to figure out the “new normal” while we all kind of assumed it would all be over soon and we’d get to go back to “normal normal,” I think this was the year we both got to see where we’ve landed, while also accepting that nothing is really going to be static. But despite all the strangeness, 2021 was a year I did feel solid in my shoes in some ways. Here are five things I learned, accomplished and questioned:
1. National MS Society is a core part of my multiple sclerosis advocacy.
I have been involved with the National MS Society through Walk MS fundraising ever since I was diagnosed in 2011. This year I had some new opportunities to engage. I wrote a blog post about my hand lettering for the National MS Society blog and recently was accepted to be part of the Emerging Leaders Network for the The Greater DC-Maryland Chapter. It helps to lean into volunteering with a big org like this because I feel like all my effort is amplified by the others I am working with. It also helps me feel less alone in my health experience.
2. Referrals keep my business going, even in tough times.
In 2020 and 2021 I had less work for projects needing in-person event design support. But much of this business was replaced by new referrals from past clients and acquaintances. Some folks that I had met years ago or hadn’t talked to for a while turned up. I can see how staying connected online with people I meet is valuable over time. Sometimes it feels silly to put time into my overly curated Instagram account, but several of these helpful referrals came from people I have stayed in touch with there specifically!
3. Adapting is okay.
One area where I needed to do some adapting this year was in our virtual doodle sessions for the Unofficial Hand Lettering Society of Silver Spring. Throughout 2020, the number of participants on our Zoom sessions started to dwindle — too many people were experiencing Zoom meeting burnout. I also had a hunch that even virtual socializing during quarantine was getting more difficult as we just didn’t have anything new to talk about (that’s how I felt, for sure!). We had the idea to have a featured member each month to share their lettering during the meeting to help give us some inspiration for our art and our conversation. We also encouraged folks to listen in without the camera on if that’s where they were at that day. We had some really fun energetic meetings in this format and I’m glad we made the adjustment.
4. Community is more important to me than ever.
I got to reflect more on how community connections drive everything I do and share my story through my F&M Alumni Master Class. I’ve always known that even though my business is made up of just me on paper, I am never really going it alone. I really enjoyed getting to map out all the examples of how things play out, like a Tweet-Up leading to a design collaboration, and then to a hand lettering club and a dear friendship. I hope I get to share these kinds of stories again so people know how much support and collaboration goes into a solopreneur business like mine.
5. My business’s accessibility is now a priority.
Recently I’ve come to identify myself as part of the disabled community because of my chronic illness. I wanted to show up for other disabled folks by making sure my content was accessible. I took a course on accessibility and learned about things like using closed captioning on Zoom, making social media content more accessible to people with visual and audio disabilities, as well as many common website pitfalls. I started adding alt text to my Instagram posts — that’s when there’s a description of what the image shows, so screen readers can describe them to visually impaired people. I also hired Square ADA to keep my website ADA compliant. They began by fixing 1542(!) accessibility errors on my site, and will continue to monitor monthly to make sure I have the necessary high contrast mode, alt-text, etc. for any new content.
CHANGE MAKER OF THE MONTH
This month, I’m spotlighting and supporting Chizh For Cheii (Diné for 'firewood for grandpa'), a grassroots organization providing a warm home environment for Diné elders living on the Navajo Nation. Many elders on Navajo Nation live in remote rural areas with limited resources to acquire their household needs, such as firewood. Fire plays a huge factor in offering warmth, cooking food, and purifying hauled water for many Diné relatives during the cold seasons that do not have electricity.