Design Grove

The daily struggle is real! Ya feel me??

7 years ago today I decided to leave employment.

Take a chance on myself that there may be some money in this freelancing malarkey.

Set myself a lofty target of £500 a month, smashed through that in the first week.

1 client, 2 clients, 3 clients by March 2020 and then, bu**er! What now.

Thanks to an amazing community from MOVE - the two years that followed were amazing.

Post Covid people spending their unspent budget on marketing left, right and centre.

Some stability for a while. Hit 2024, and diagnosed with diabetes, took my foot off the gas for a bit sorting my sugars out, and business suffered a bit I won’t lie.

2025 was a weird year. Combination of market factors, my positioning, my mental health, just fell a bit flat.

Thankfully 2026 has been a cracker so far, my health is fair to middling, the clients I have are fabulous and the future is looking promising again.

Only time will tell whether we get any global stability and whether that improves or gets worse, but for now, I am really happy and optimistic for hitting that 10 year mark.

I am looking for a team member to join me. I think the Design Grove needs to go big or go home, so very excited for what’s to come.

Life is never promised, living with no regrets. Let’s do year 8!!!

If you’ve been saying for a while that you “need to get better with Canva” now’s your chance.

Only a couple of spaces left on my next workshop. Friday 12th June.

My in person class is at FireUp in Rochdale and I’m building a waiting list for online training.

So if you’re interested in getting involved, give me a shout.

This week I’ve been a networker, speaker, delegate, bus rider, metro passenger, and mums taxi.

Kicking off the week with Shout Bury, had a great laugh with everyone and looking forward to seeing their faces more often.

Heading into Wednesday I delivered a talk on employee engagement/internal marketing to a room full of HR professionals.

Ending Wednesday at the launch party of this years’ Rochdale Business Awards at Defiance Spirits - bringing good vibes with that place.

Thursdays adventures took me into Manchester to spend the day with the ever lovely, Jean Atkinson.

We went along to Del Parsons Marketing & Sales Summit - the highlight of which was hearing from the CEO of WUKA and her work in creating VAT free period pants.

Seeing her receive a standing ovation for the work she has done was truly inspiring.

So all in all, one hell of a week - who said being a solopreneur is lonely - not this week!!!

Next week though, it’ll be head down, grafting, kind of a week. Finalising plans for two websites and content creation for all my clients. Onward and upward.

Don’t neglect the “About Us” page of your website, especially if you’re a service business - let me tell you why!

I’ve been looking for a service provider to help me with my business, I go on the website to have a nosey and I head to the about page.

About 50/60% of the time, it’s just a repeat of some other page content, and there is no real “guts” to the story at all. No picture of actual humans. No flavour of personality.

And that’s massively important if you’re expecting people to hand over their hard earned cash - you’re a total stranger to them remember.

Less important if the purchase price is quite low, but if it’s a bigger investment, it’s even more important that people see who they’re dealing with.

Especially with so much AI knocking around.

So, if you are struggling to understand why you’re not getting web enquiries, check your story telling, check your images, is your face even on there?

I’m here if you want to know how I can help, but this is low hanging fruit, it can make a big impact.

Are you brilliant at what you do but you’re the best kept secret?? Let’s get your business out into the world.

It’s a 3 screens kind of a day today.

Busy busy busy.

You know that feeling when everything in your business relies on you… and you can’t quite switch off?

You’ve got the vision. You care deeply about what you do. You’re brilliant at your craft.

But the marketing? The making it happen? That’s the bit that keeps slipping down the list.

Not because it’s not important.

Because there’s just… no time.

So you end up in this constant loop - doing a bit here, trying something there, reacting to what’s in front of you - and quietly wondering:
“Am I even focusing on the right things?”

Meanwhile, you’re working all hours, your head’s always “on”, and home life starts getting whatever’s left over.

—

This is usually the point where people think they need an agency.
Or more tools.
Or a magic strategy they haven’t found yet.

You don’t.

You need someone who can work alongside you - someone who gets it, who can take what’s in your head and actually bring it to life properly.

Someone who:
- Knows what works
- Can structure the chaos
- And quietly just… gets things done

Someone like me
I’m here to:
- Turn your ideas into something real
- Give you a clear direction (and stick to it)
- Take things off your plate so you can breathe again

Because you don’t need more noise.

You need a safe pair of hands who’s done this before (many times over) and knows how to move things forward.

If you’ve been feeling a bit stuck, stretched, or unsure where to focus next…
let’s have a chat.