- Blogging, modeling, and being an influencer are all jobs I dream about having, and all jobs that I try (not as hard as I could, admittedly) to have. They just aren't the job I work every day, or as some say - my day job. My every day job does keep my busy for a lot of the hours of the day, and weeks, and, as you can tell by the sparatic posts, months. Which is why I sometimes fall inactive for periods of a time with the numerous blog I have started, the countless modeling groups I am apart of, and the reason I have so many companies waiting for me to get back to about them collaborating with. Also, total side note, my time management skills are not as fine tuned as they could be, but that's a different issue for a different blog topic. BUT because I believe in chasing your dreams, they are areas that I plan on spending more time on. I mean, if I didn't chase my dream career, I wouldn't have my day job. Which is the next question to answer in Ask Rachelle - the series.
Today's questions are : do you want to have a business? Which business do you want to have and why?
Working for someone else has always been a challenge for me. I have a tendency to think that my way of doing things is the best and the right way, because it is. And other people don't seem to see that. And working for people usually meant doing it their way first because I was told to, to only have it not work and wind up doing it my way anyways. So I decided that I wanted to start my own business. There were a few people in my life that had started their own companies, so I was able to talk to them about how to go about this new adventure.
In all honesty, I hadn't fully decided to leave my stable job and branch off on my own when one of the companies that we had partnered with brought an amazing marketing campaign to my desk and when I took it to my boss she vetoed it without even listening to the full proposal. That was my breaking point and I ended up reaching out to our partner and started working freelance for them. And that's how I started R-EllE Creative Services, a webdesign and digital marketing comapny based out of Vancouver.
I had been working in web design and digital marketing for about 5 years before that, always for another company, and while I learned a lot, I was never really happy. I didn't like going into an office, it gave me anxiety. I didn't like working for someone else, it stressed me out. The work was never the issue, I loved what I did, I just hated where I did it and who I was doing it for.
I've been designing websites since I was 13. I was never that popular in high school, and I really liked infotech and computers, so I spent a lot of my spare time on the computer. At first it was just graphic design and photo manipulation, then it was designing layouts for magazines, and then blogs, and then eventually I found web design and was hooked. In one of my post secondary ventures we had a few introductory classes to digital marketing and e-commerce, which is when I realized that I was understanding and advancing a lot faster than my classmates, and maybe this was a lucrative market to get into.
From the time I can remember I have always wanted to work for myself. I have always wanted a career where I am my own boss. My dad owned his own company and I always loved that he was able to travel, his schedule was flexible, and he never had to go to an office. I was always in awe of how cool his job was. My mom owns her own company too, and it's kickass to watch my mother run things her way (just like how it was suppose to be growing up). So I am sure that having entrepreneur parents played into my career path, and for that I am forever thankful.
I love working for myself, I love putting in long hours and hustling to get new clients. I love the ups and the downs, I love the freedom and the reward when you see what you've worked so hard for finally pay off. I love that I turned my dream into a reality, it's proof that with enough time and dedication, you can do anything you want.