Being a parent is wild.
Being a small business owner AND a parent is a self-imposed endurance test that will never end.

You have two babies, now (if you're a first time parent).
A human one that needs you to survive and a livelihood one that needs you to survive.
And only 24 hours in a day.
What the actual fuck have I done?

After 40 weeks of absolute fear of what I couldn't control happening inside my body, I had a kid! They LET ME LEAVE the hospital with a kid?! Terrifying.
On top of that, I had a career hanging in the balance - waiting for me to decide if I wanted to return to it. While I wanted to be the best mom I could be and give my child all the time in the world, I was hurting. New motherhood had me drowning in my own inadequacies.

Motherhood is wild.
For the next 2 months, the lists of 5 will center on being a creative AND a parent.

Let's start at the beginning: 5 Challenges I Faced As A Pregnant Freelancer

Over the years, I have developed a lot of questionable work/career habits that I am slightly embarrassed to share...but in an effort to be transparent with anyone looking at freelancing long-term, we have to be open about these things so others can avoid the temptations.

Over the years, I have developed some habits I am slightly embarrassed to share with people (that will be next week's list) and I few I am really proud of that I share with peers and emerging artists.

Whenever I feel overwhelmed, I always think about a quote by David Allen:

"You can do anything, but you can't do everything."

We can only be experts at so many things before we are stretched too thin trying to learn a all these skills and platforms in order to run our businesses. It has taken me almost 15 years in the design business to recognize what I love about my work and what I hate. It also, frankly, took me just as long to start earning enough revenue to hire someone to do the things I no longer wanted on my plate.

I have worked with a few big organizations in my day and despite the (sometimes) bigger paycheck, I have found working with smaller organizations a lot more rewarding.

I think we all know that owning a small business is difficult. What I don't think is as well known is WHO makes owning a small business even harder...

Here are 5 situations that all small business owners can identify with that I beg you, if you are new at owning a creative business, train yourself to not take personally.

Rock & Roar was created after 10 solid years of doing freelance graphic design without a real plan.

Here are 5 situations that I would not wish on any small business owner, and if I could go back in time, what I would have done instead.

We relocated to Ecuador in 2017 (pre-pandemic ... as in the world was not ready for completely remote careers ... I certainly wasn't.) Here I'll reflect on 5 things I had to do contend with as an individual and/or to keep my clients happy while setting up shop in a different hemisphere.

Back in 2017 when I was trying to come up with a company name (for the work I had already been doing in Philadelphia since 2008),
I looked at my past and into my future.

Rock & Roar is 5 years old!

We survived moving abroad.
We are (still) surviving a pandemic.
We are growing, we are learning, we are doing fun stuff this year!