Graphic Designer Laura Whitehouse
About this podcast episode…
Graphic Designer laura Whitehouse
Laura Whitehouse didn’t follow the usual path into graphic design.
While studying archaeology and anthropology (told you) at university, she started designing posters for student theatre shows. At first for free, then for £20 here and there (or sometimes just a pint). What began as a creative outlet quickly became the foundation of a freelance career.
Thanks to word of mouth clients and the help of various mentors, she built skills and confidence.
Until five years on, one of those mentors simply told her: "Just do it".
So she did. She quit. And start freelancing full time
In this episode of the Being Freelance podcast Laura talks about:
Building a business through word-of-mouth referrals
Gradually increasing her rates after nudges from other freelancers
Showing only certain types of work online to shape perception
Running her one-woman studio Mighty Fine
Why she prefers working with freelancers rather than building an agency
The reality of managing 45 projects at once
Being completely unapologetic about chasing unpaid invoices
Why the financial side of freelancing can be the most stressful part
And the strange phenomenon of people wanting to “just grab a coffee” to pitch startup ideas
Laura also talks about working in film and TV graphics, co-hosting the podcast ‘Opening Credits’, and how reading fantasy novels recently helped her switch off from work in the evenings.
It’s a fun and honest conversation about building a freelance business your own way, without necessarily following the usual advice about niches, marketing strategies, or growth.
Sounds like a mighty fine idea.
Available as a video podcast too - Watch here on the site, on YouTube, or Spotify.
Read a full transcript & get Links in the tabs.
More from LAURA WHITEHOUSE
Laura on Instagram
Laura’s Might Fine website
More from Steve Folland
Transcript of the Being Freelance podcast with Steve Folland and graphic designer Laura Whitehouse
Steve Folland: As ever, how about we get started hearing how you got started being freelance?
Laura Whitehouse: It started when I was a student, so one of the lesser known paths into graphic design is studying archeology and anthropology.
It's not one many take, it's pretty, pretty unique. I was studying that, but I loved graphic design and I loved, I did it up to A level, so I'd studied graphic design, went off to study something a bit more academic 'cause that was really important to my parents who had both left school at 16. But I just missed being creative and I was standing around in lectures and being handed bags of soil.
And my uni didn't offer a graphic design course, so I ended up doing a lot of freelance graphic design for student theatre shows. And I didn't charge anything to start with, because what, it was fun and I wanted to do it, and I loved Photoshop, and that was, a nice way to spend my time.
But as the years went on and as I got into third year of uni I started charging 20 quid here, 20 quid there. So it started really early days and then I built up a client base. I got known at university for doing these posters, often if not for money, for pints. And I decided then I wanted to be a graphic designer full-time.
So I got a job straight after uni, via supermarket work, at an agency, somehow conned someone into hiring me. But I kept the freelance work on, 'cause that's what I've been doing throughout my degree. So I ended up working full-time in agency, working on the side for whoever would hire me. A mixture of still theatre, arts organizations, startups, and things, doing not very good work. So I was still quite young and untrained, but for peanuts really. And then I'd use the money just to, for nights out and things.
But it was always my aim to learn from agencies and then eventually go out on my own. 'cause the idea of working a nine to five forever was not for me. I couldn't stomach it.
So yeah, I worked in the agency, went to another agency and just built up my roster of clients and it's all word of mouth. So it took from 2015 when I left uni to 2020 to go fully freelance. Eventually, because someone just said to me, just do it. You're never going to feel ready. Just do it. Leave your job. Quit now. So I did, and that was that.
Steve Folland: So five years of freelancing on the side. But it was all word of mouth. You weren't reaching out and saying, Hey, I do theatre design or what... or band design or whatever it might have been.
Laura Whitehouse: Yeah. All word of mouth. I think, to be honest, because when I started out as a student and I was charging absolute peanuts and people were like, Hey, get this mug. She'll do it for basically nothing.
But I was really lucky. I think I... went to obviously some, obviously I went to some networking events and I think my niche was that I was quite young when I started going to them, so it was already a bit interesting.
Steve Folland: That's the first time I've heard 'your age' as a niche.
So you think your niche was...
Laura Whitehouse: Okay. Alright.
Steve Folland: Everybody else was old and you were young.
Laura Whitehouse: I was super young and really hot. So yeah. Obviously... no!
Steve Folland: This or.. This was your USP. Your Unique Selling Point.
Laura Whitehouse: My USP was young. No, I think not niche in the business way. I heard you talking in the last episode actually about niching. It's not something I've ever done.
What I mean was, I guess I stood out because everyone was a bit older, right? And I was 21, and, clearly eager to get started. So I got to try lots of different bits of work for lots of different companies, just small projects here and there, and yeah it just grew from there.
It's all been word of mouth, like everything has. Yeah.
Steve Folland: That's so cool. Now, there must have also been a slight change in doing stuff for 20 quid and pints to raising that so that you felt confident in giving up a full-time job.
Laura Whitehouse: Yes. So how did that happen? That's a good question.
Eventually I started charging more. I would basically every couple of years run into someone who would tell me to up my rates. And that was normally someone much older than me, also a freelancer, either through an official mentoring scheme like Creative Edinburgh, which is where I lived briefly, or through a guy that gave me my first freelance job who had known me for a very long time and said, come on, sort it out.
It was literally nudges from other people constantly telling me to up my rates, and it's terrifying sending that first email when you stop charging pitance. But the more you do it, the easier it is. And it's still, now, even now, I, I raise my rates every now and again and sending out that fast quote with a new rate, I think, oh, they're gonna, they're not gonna say yes. And then they do. And you think, oh, great. Sorted. That's perfect.
So it's just other people who are more experienced telling you to do that. And I try and do that for younger freelancers as well. When I meet them, I always ask them what they're charging and I'll tell them if I think they need to bump it up.
'Cause as you probably know, charging too little doesn't help anyone. It certainly doesn't help you. And it also means people don't treat you as professionally I think. So...
Steve Folland: How did it evolve? Because you said, I don't have a niche. Beyond the age thing. Which is interesting though, because when I first came across you online, I would've said that you were like a film and theatre kind of graphic designer.
Laura Whitehouse: Yeah.
Steve Folland: So we can sort come onto why that might have been. But is that true? You, feel like you are a generalist?
Laura Whitehouse: Yes. I just don't share the work that doesn't fit into those categories, and yet people still come. I'm baffled too. I don't understand. So my Instagram and my website is full of work for arts organizations. I work a lot with women. Normally women who are leveling up their brand, small companies and just, yeah, more creative side of graphic design.
But then in the background, the stuff I don't share really, is I do a lot of marketing materials for universities, financial reports for, I don't know, wealth management firms. Layout stuff. And I guess I don't share it because I don't find it interesting to look at.
I mean I try and make it lovely, but I don't think it's interesting to see really, the sort of, once you've seen one report, you've seen them all. I do a lot of work that you don't see basically. And I will rarely turn a project down. The only work I turn down is male owned startups. Sorry. Sorry.
Steve Folland: Okay. Okay so actually there is niche or work that you like to be known for. Yeah. And that's what you put out in the world when in reality, of course, if stuff comes to you, you are, happy to still do it.
Laura Whitehouse: Yes, and I think, I love the variety is good for me. It's why I went freelance to start with. I, wanted the variety and be able to say yes to everything and not just be given the things I'm, I don't know... I was gonna say good up, but I hope I'm good at the other things too. But the variety is what keeps me happy.
Steve Folland: Yeah. Okay. So how would you say 'cause word of mouth has obviously served you well. How do you think, or maybe there is no answer to this, but if there is, we could strike gold here. How do you think you can encourage word of mouth? Is there a science or a secret way of doing it or...?
Laura Whitehouse: I think just having really positive interactions with people and being very genuine and putting your hands up when you think something's not quite working and being honest is what people really value when they're working with someone. Just coming across as a human. I think that people then want to work with you specifically. I guess they feel like a loyalty to you, which is good. I guess also being good at what you do helps.
I always ask for Google reviews, but I don't know if that's particularly helpful. I try and get those. Is that word of mouth? I guess not. I think just leaving a positive taste in someone's mouth is good.
That sounds really wrong, doesn't it? That doesn't sound right. Yeah. I don't think that was gold, but, it's not gold. Just try and be nice. I think that's the, yeah, I think that's it.
Steve Folland: It screams social media clip to be honest, but, maybe not how we were intending so... would you ever reach out to people within your network that you've then built up?
Like how do you stay in touch with 'em? Do you reach out and say, Hey, I'm doing this. I have availability for this or...
Laura Whitehouse: Not anymore. So I did a big, I went freelance fully in 2020. My last day at work was February 27th or whatever the date was that was the day before you could be furloughed. So I was royally screwed and I had a slew of client jobs that were just canceled immediately and I thought, God, I'm in trouble here.
So I sent out lots of emails to various companies that basically told me to go away. They told me to go away in a nice way. But that was the only time I've done outreach work and actively sort work. And oddly one of them, despite saying no in 2020, emailed me last year for a job because I emailed them five years ago. And I thought, God, that's mad. But so it does work.
I don't really, I sort of leave people to their own devices. I don't put pressure on clients to, to work with me or I'm not a hard sell person. I think if you want to work with me and we get on. That's brilliant. That's perfect. And I try and yeah, no, no pressure really.
Sales isn't my forte. I just think if I try and just be genuine and if I'm excited about a project, I think that comes across. Would I do outreach? Possibly. I think, you know what? This year I really want to do packaging for a small food brand, maybe like a woman that makes her own ketchup or something. And I was thinking I should just email people nearby and see if they want to hire me.
So I guess I have been considering that, but it's because I want to get into that. I want to give that a go, rather than I need work in general. I think I'm coming across as horrifically smug. I...
Steve Folland: Not at all. Not at all. I run a smug filter over the whole thing, otherwise, I'm scuppered as well. That's fine. But I said, I thought your niche was like film and design.
You did start putting that out into the world. You, did a podcast, right? Or you do a podcast.
Laura Whitehouse: Yes.
Steve Folland: Which is more centered around that. Where... how did that come about? How was that?
Laura Whitehouse: So I... there's an area of film and TV where you make graphic props and they're the things that people are holding or reading or looking at in shows.
So Bridgerton's out, I'll use that as an example. There might be Lady Whistledown's papers or the banners, the tapestries, the carpets. They're all designed by graphic designer. And I decided just before going freelance that I wanted to give that a whirl. So I had a brief foray into the film and TV industry.
Which... mixed success. I did a few big jobs. I had a really good time and I also had a not a good time. If you don't like the constraints of a nine to five, then the constraints of an eight till six in film and TV is not for you. But off the back of that, I worked with loads of really interesting people and one of them was Steve, a fellow Steve.
And he set up a podcast called Opening Credits, where he interviewed graphic designers in film. I was a guest in one of the, in the first series. And, he said, I had a really great time talking to you. Do you wanna join me as a co-host? Which I'm expecting to happen here as well. It's fine... A hundred percent success rate in infiltrating podcasts.
And I said yes. And then we interviewed, it's on a hiatus, so I'm talking in past tense here, but it's all online, you can listen. We interviewed lesser known roles in film and tv, so intimacy coordinators, greens teams who sought the plants for film and tv.
And then we got interest from a company that do promotion and they sent us to interview some more big wigs. Yeah, we did some really cool stuff and it's all, it's a really hard industry to get into, so we ask everyone that we meet, how did you get into it? And we hope for answers that aren't, 'my dad works in the industry'.
We are on a bit of a hiatus at the minute, but the episodes are online if you wanna check them out.
Steve Folland: How did you find that experience and did it help you in any way?
Laura Whitehouse: I loved it. I love talking to people and I love talking in general, as you can probably tell. And it was really nerve wracking, I think talking... I used to be kinda scared of the bigger, big wigs in film and it was nice to just have a normal chat and not feel intimidated by them. Also it was nice knowing everyone feels they're winging it. Every single person feels they have completely accidentally ended up where they are, no matter whether they are top of the chain or bottom of the chain. So that was really nice.
Steve Folland: That is a good reminder. Do you felt, feel like it helped your, freelance business?
Laura Whitehouse: No. No. It was much like Instagram. Purely a vanity project. And there's nothing wrong with that. I did it because, and do it because I enjoy it. Definitely didn't feed into work or gaining clients or anything, but that was never the intention. Did it help my freelance business in terms of my process?
I think it made me more confident to start just saying whatever I wanted to say and, standing by my guns if a project wasn't going quite right. Yeah, I think that was helpful.
Steve Folland: So you mentioned Instagram, I've brought up the podcast, but how do you put yourself out online? What works for you?
Laura Whitehouse: It's changed recently, so it's, I used to, it's only Instagram. I don't use LinkedIn. I don't find it fun. I decided earlier this year I was only going to do social media that I found fun to do. So last year or the year before, I've worked with different social media people and they've all been fab and they've helped me do videos and work out content strategies, et cetera.
But I found it really overwhelming and I didn't really like being told what to do, which is no fault of their own. I just thought, this doesn't feel very genuinely me. It feels very strategized. So I decided at the start of this year, I was going to just post every day whatever I wanted to with a vague order to things. You've gotta have some sort of rhyme and reason.
But I decided to post just because I wanted to, and because I wanted to share insight into what it's like being a business owner without any of the sheen. So I try and share behind the scenes of how I make things. So theatre posters, like little Photoshop tips and tricks. I've got quite a lot of young graphic designers following me, and I just want to help them. I had a lot of people helping me.
The reality of owning a business and the kind of financial side of things and just to reassure people, it's, you never feel like you've fully made it. it's never a moment where you wake up and think, oh yeah, done that work, complete.
So yeah, I post every day, or I have been for a month. Check in next month. We'll see how it goes. A mixture of just personal stuff and projects and yeah, work. I'm enjoying it. I am, I'm really enjoying it. It's nice... it's such a community on there and I have met so many people that I talk to all the time via Instagram, and these people are virtual strangers, but we talk about the books we're reading, we talk, they recommend places to go. We talk about the work we're up to. It's such a nice community.
Steve Folland: When you say you post every day, is that as in, on your grid as it were, or to your stories, are you doing carousels or reels or like what, sort of thing have you found working?
Laura Whitehouse: So it's every day on my grid. The algorithm is a mysterious beast, isn't it?
I don't, I try not to do it for reach or for likes or for anything. I, know that's important, but I try and not worry about those things, and not really think about it. So every day I will tend to alternate between a carousel, which are performing really well at the moment. I find the carousels have more longevity, so you post them and nothing will really happen.
And then people still comment weeks later and they have second spikes and things. Don't quote me on that. That's just what I found. And then I do reels where I just do some B roll of me hanging around, and then I do more of a caption where I talk... I normally do like a list of a listicle of, what was one I did recently? What I thought success would feel like when I was younger versus what it feels like now.
Things like that. And then just selfies, things I'm up to. I'm reading, there's a lot of romantasy at the moment. I have been for the last six weeks. it's like A Court Of Thorn And Roses and stuff like that. And I just posted all of the books I've read and said, help me stay immersed in this genre.
It's not relevant to my job, but I just, I wanted to, this is what I talk to people about in my dms and I thought, just chat about it out in the open. And it's nice, to see everyone talk to each other as well. It's like a, crossover episode, oh.
So yeah, that's how I use Instagram. But I am not a social media pro expert, so this is definitely I just do it because I find it fun and I might stop. If I don't find it fun. So...
Steve Folland: You did say though that you had worked with social media. It sounded like maybe you'd hired people to try and figure out your marketing or something, is that right?
Laura Whitehouse: Yes. More outta curiosity really. It was never a need for work. It was more that I wanted to put myself out there more and I wanted to feel confident. I get a lot out of putting myself out there and talking to people. I find it really rewarding. And Instagram for me was a place where with reels and everything, I suddenly didn't know how to do that and I felt really overwhelmed and I wanted someone to help me figure out how to talk to people and how that world works.
And I got really in my own head about posting the right thing and Not being annoying and everything. So I, hired a lovely person called Chloe, who runs a company called Un Scrunch, and she did a little strategy for me. And then I worked with Lynn at Noodle Horse Media and she recorded some videos for me and they were both really great, but it wasn't so much for sales, it was more so that I could feel more confident just putting stuff out there.
I know it's very contradictory because it's like, why are you doing that if it's not to do with your business? But I don't know. I find it enjoyable. I'm maybe a bit self-obsessed?
Maybe. I don't know. It's, yeah, it's literally just a vanity project and I hired them, for that. And I, will say I have never ever had an inquiry by Instagram that has ever led to a job. It is predictable. Every single time someone dms me, I say, yeah, send me an email. I don't conduct business on here.
And, they either never do. Or they do, and then they never reply when I reply. No exceptions. So why do I bother? Who knows?
Steve Folland: That is weird. I like to think that surely it all feeds into itself as to, it gets to almost to a point where people forget, like where they've seen you, for example.
So I'm sure I would've seen you on Instagram first then, especially if you're not on LinkedIn. One of those things coming up or like the podcast for example, or promo for the podcast, and it all just raises this existence of, oh yeah, Laura.
Laura Whitehouse: Yeah.
Steve Folland: Although there's a question. You have a business name, right?
Laura Whitehouse: Yes. Mighty Fine Design or Mighty Fine, as I'm gonna be known as. Oh, this is a whole, thing. I'm currently straddling my name, Laura Whitehouse, not even my legal name, because I just got married. And Mighty Fine, the agency.
When I went limited a few years ago, I wanted to ditch Laura Whitehouse because I had notions of growing, hiring people and you can't say, oh, I work for Laura Whitehouse. That's weird. And it's very vain. So I thought, Mighty Fine Design. It's a bit cowboy. I used to watch cowboy films with my granddad, so I just, it just seemed to fit very nicely.
And then those.. I decided I didn't want to grow and I was very happy working for myself and hiring freelancers, which I do for some projects. But I wanted to move from Laura Whitehouse to Mighty Fine, which will be happening imminently. I'm having a new website done. It's been going on for about a year.
It's a hard one, I think for designers because I am by no means pretending that it's more than me. Like I, I think it is just me and I like that personal side of things, but I think having it be Mighty Fine gives more of a scope for... when I say I'm bringing on someone else for your project, or I'm subcontracting work, which I don't do often, but sometimes within a project there might be a little bit of artwork that needs doing and I'll always tell a client about that, but it's less of a surprise, it's, I'm gonna be a bit more upfront about that.
And I also think when going for bigger jobs, not being called Laura Whitehouse will be better. This is based in no fact, like this is just pure vibes. My entire business is just, that seems like a good idea. So yes, my business name is Mighty Fine, but I'm still very much going to be a one woman company.
Steve Folland: So how long have you been Mighty Fine?
Laura Whitehouse: Since 2022, but I haven't really used it until recently. I'm doing that thing that I always tell clients not to do, which is roll out your brand bit by bit. So it becomes incredibly confusing and no one knows what's going on. It's really effective and doesn't cause any confusion whatsoever.
Steve Folland: I did see you describe yourself on LinkedIn as it happens as a one woman design agency. Like not in your bio or anything.
Laura Whitehouse: Yeah.
Steve Folland: But in one of your posts. So that did come up.
Laura Whitehouse: This must have been a while ago.
Steve Folland: Yeah. 'cause you don't post or post.
Laura Whitehouse: I don't post. I don't use it.
Steve Folland: .
You don't post. It was probably Christmas and it was still the most recent thing.
Yes. Yeah. One... yeah. But I liked actually the post that you did was good.
Laura Whitehouse: Thanks.
Steve Folland: It was about, it was looking back at your year. that had just been.
Laura Whitehouse: Oh yeah, I did post that! I designed that for Instagram and then I thought, oh, stick that on LinkedIn.
Steve Folland: Why not?
Laura Whitehouse: Yeah, I haven't looked at it since, so my God knows if anyone even commented. Just shoved it out there. Moved on.
Steve Folland: And in there you also, you did mention as you just have about working with other freelancers, you had this thought that you might grow an agency. You've decided not... that it won't be.
Laura Whitehouse: Yeah.
Steve Folland: Is that because something happened or just a general feel?
Laura Whitehouse: As humans, we tend to just assume the end result is growth. That is what you want. You grow. You get bigger and bigger. And I spoke to so many people, mostly women. I had enough clients who had grown agencies, closed agencies and were starting off again by themselves and I was doing the branding for them, that I thought, this is a pattern here.
They start off by themselves, they get teams of three and then a team of eight, and then a team of 20, and then, oh God, they're having a miserable time and it's just admin admin and they're responsible for people's mortgages and close that business down and start by myself.
And I thought, I'll just skip out that middle bit. Let's just go straight to the end. And I love hiring freelancers. Like I hire animators and 3D artists and copywriters and photographers. And you can hand choose who's good for each project and you get to know them really well.
And it's a lovely, I call it like my little black book of people I like working with and I love recommending them to other people as well. And they're not bound to me. And I'm not bound to them. And we just are individually responsible for our mortgages. Which I really like, and never say never, you don't know. I'm, as you can probably tell I'm slightly flittery as a person, so in 10 years maybe I'll own an empire. But, for now, at least for the foreseeable, I can't imagine ever hiring anyone properly.
Steve Folland: Do you find there's ever like the reciprocal, as in some of those people also hire you to work on projects?
Laura Whitehouse: Yes. Yeah, all the time. Funnily enough, there's a great pair of marketers called Cup of Ambition. They work mostly in theatre. Izzy and Grace, they are some of the best people and they hire me for projects all the time. And they also hire PIP films to do the filming for a lot of theatre shows. Erica and she has just hired me for a project.
All of the photographers, the photographer I worked with about two weeks ago, he got in touch with me to do his brand. We throw work around each other, I'm pretty sure in a few years, we'll just realize it's all worked out equal and no one's paid anyone anything. But it's really nice.
Yeah, the world is small. I, sometimes think the theatre an arts world is very tiny, because I design theatre programs as well, and you will always get a list of credits for production crew. And I recognize most of the names. I'm like, oh yeah, this is this. We all did this together. And yeah, it's nice.
Steve Folland: And how do you find like the managing, maybe you don't feel like you're managing those people when you hire them and you work with them.
Laura Whitehouse: I find it easy now. I didn't use to find it easy, so I worked on a film called, I worked on a TV show that was not very well reviewed called Secret Invasion. This is relevant, I promise. And I had to actually manage two junior designers on that job for six months. And it was horrible. And I was a terrible manager.
I cried in a toilet. I was very stressed. It was not good. And I passed that on to them. That was not good. And I realized then that also was another reason why I thought I can't grow an agency. And so when I started hiring freelancers, I was really worried about micromanaging and being too responsible.
But actually over time you find the people that you like working with. It's only hard when you're working with the wrong people. I think the freelancers I work with now, I, trust implicitly and I think they're fantastic. I don't need to manage them. They, do their thing, I do my thing. We come together and it looks great. Ideally.
I have had experience of hiring freelancers where it hasn't gone so well and I always, obviously I never make a fuss. I always pay them. I don't even tell them, which might be terrible actually. I normally say thanks so much. Paid. Move on. I just don't hire them again. But that hasn't happened for a long time because now I have a set group of people, that I like.
Steve Folland: You mentioned earlier, a mentorship scheme. So have you had any mentors or business coaches or, any, or people around you like mastermind or any of that kind of thing in these years?
Laura Whitehouse: Yes. Oh my God, I'm gonna name drop so hard. When I started out one of my first proper freelance jobs at uni was designing the student prospectus, which was like an alternative prospectus for students and a lovely man called Theo Sundh who was head of marketing at the Student Union, and he hired me, a lovely Swedish man in his thirties.
Just calm personified. And he taught me everything. He sent me on an Illustrator course paid for by the university. He taught me how to use InDesign. He fixed my InDesign files for me. He was constantly just hyping me up, because bear in mind, I wasn't studying the right subject, and I felt a bit like an imposter.
He was constantly saying, oh, Tinker. That's lovely. Oh, Tinker. That's so nice. Tinker is a pet name.. It's, good. It's fond. Okay. it's nice. So I was not groomed. He was lovely. And he still is lovely. He's not dead. And, yeah, he taught me so much and was so patient. That was, so that was one.
And then my first agency straight out of uni, One in Oxford, Jem Proctor ran that. She's an incredible designer. She's an incredible brain. She's an incredible human. And these are still friends of mine. And she... I mean she hired me without a relevant degree, so she's gotta be pretty cool, right? She just said, yeah, I like you. Let's go. I spilled tea everywhere in my interview, like all over the table. I was getting flustered.
But yeah, she was fantastic and that was great because I remember I'd had a hard month or so... I'd been, I worked there for about three years and I think maybe a year in I started really struggling to design anything. I dunno what happened. I just hit a bit of a wall and I just, I was being really slow suddenly and just really in my own head about everything. And she pulled me to one side after work one day and she, asked me in for a chat and I thought, oh God, I'm gonna be in such trouble. And she said, you're not in trouble. I just, what's up? Like something, are you all right? We just had a really great chat about why I was struggling.
And she said, okay, let's, fix this. Let's break everything down. Let's give you one small thing to do that's just really achievable. And it just, it fixed it. And I just felt. The next day I just nailed the whole thing, like I just aced it and yeah, so she was great. And then who else has the been?
There's been Kaush Bharti who always loves a shout out. I worked with him in film and he taught me loads about film and I laughed every single day with him as well, which was great.
And through Creative Edinburgh, which is this great scheme if you live in Edinburgh, I got a mentor called Owen O'Leary, who was very much more of a structured mentor. Like I think we had six sessions over six weeks. And in the first session he said to me, tell me about what you do. And I did. And he said, tell me why you're not freelance. And I did. And he said, that's silly hand in your notice tomorrow. He did.
Steve Folland: Whoa.
Laura Whitehouse: Yeah. He was like daft! Leave. And I did. It took me a bit longer than the next day. But yeah, literally, I think about two weeks later, I handed him my notice. He costed everything out for me basically. He said, this is what you need. Tell me about all your expenses. Let's work out how many days a month. Also, your rate's too low.
Yeah, he's fab. He's in PR. Owen O'Leary. He's lovely. So yeah, mentors are important.
Steve Folland: Wow. That is important. Also, just in case, it needs underlining for anybody. The bit about, like when you slowed down and you were struggling and you weren't quite sure why, what was the tip?
Laura Whitehouse: Just break it down into small pieces. Start with something tiny. What's that saying? How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.
Steve Folland: Sorry to all our elephant listeners if that was triggering. But that's magic. And then the next day you're back on it. I've just mentioned that because sometimes that, very often that happens to us, but we're working by ourselves, so to maybe stick that as a reminder somewhere to... to get back in it.
How do you find dealing with your workload. So one thing I noticed when you did your, 'here's what I got up to last year', was like you had a lot of clients, you had a lot of projects, a lot of invoices going on. All great. So yeah. What's your workload like? Do you tend to work on one thing at a time? You have multiple things going on. How are you managing that sort of thing?
Laura Whitehouse: So I actually counted yesterday. I have 45 projects on at the moment.
Steve Folland: Sorry, I've just taken a sip of my drink. 45?
Laura Whitehouse: Isn't that unhinged? Ah it's unhinged. But I think it's that one bite at a time thing. They're all completely different. And they're all at completely different stages as well, so some, I'm in mood board stages, so that's, I'll, I just need to do a couple of rough bits. Some are in polishing stages, some are in the chunky, meaty bit. But I work best when I have a lot on, I'm the worst when I have nothing on.
So I need that. I need all of these plates to juggle. Otherwise I can't, you don't juggle plates... to spin. 'Cause otherwise I can't really concentrate. I need to feel a bit overwhelmed in order to do anything. That's how I work best.
Steve Folland: But in recognizing, but that's how you work best.
Laura Whitehouse: Yeah.
Steve Folland: How do you tend to work with your payments just out of interest? Are you a milestone type person or..?
Laura Whitehouse: No.
Steve Folland: If these projects are going on for a while?
Laura Whitehouse: I do half up front and half when we're finished. Anything to reduce the admin. So milestone payments are great, but then you have to remember where you've put the milestones and remember to invoice and it's a whole other thing.
So I always take half upfront. Sometimes maybe I've done this twice in the last few years. I will do 25% payments if they're a really small business. And they're just starting out. And I also, they seem really nice. I'm like, yeah, that's fine. But in general, half upfront, half at the end, and I have 14 day terms, which some people just disregard and I don't really chase. I will give them 30. That's terrible to say, isn't it? But I'm like, the impression of 14 day terms, when in reality I have 30 days. Yeah. That's how I charge.
I say that, after it's been a long time, 30 days bit more. I am ruthless at chasing invoices. I don't care about being perceived as rude or pushy. I, I'm not, I am not rude or pushy, but. If they perceive it as that, I don't... I don't care. Because I think the work is done. You have the files. This is silly now.
I would always try and get a phone number and call them rather than email. Because it's much harder to explain to someone on the phone why you haven't paid them.
Oh God, I sound like a horrible person. I back that though. You have to...
Steve Folland: Don't backtrack. Stick to this. This doesn't make you sound horrible.
Laura Whitehouse: I think you... It's awkward, isn't it? A phone call is awkward and I live it. I love that awkwardness. It's so good.
Steve Folland: Okay, you sound like an awful person.
Laura Whitehouse: You told me not to backtrack Steve, so...
Steve Folland: No, I'm joking. I'm joking.
So you will phone them up and you will say...
Laura Whitehouse: 'Hello, I sent you an invoice. It hasn't been paid. Do you need more time?'
And they'll say, 'what invoice is that?
And I'll say, 'let me just send it to you again while we're on the phone'. And then I'll send it to them again.
And they'll say, 'ooh...'
And I will say, 'can you just let me know when it, I'm not saying you need to pay it now, I'm saying, can you let me know when it's possible for you to pay'?
And they will give me a date and I'll say, 'great. I'll give you a call the next day if it's not been paid'.
And they always do. They always pay.
Steve Folland: Ahhh.
Laura Whitehouse: I'm not like press ganging them for money immediately, but I am saying I will call you again.
Steve Folland: Well actually when you said, do you need more time, that comes across as very...
Laura Whitehouse: That's what I said. I'm not rude. So if they think it's rude or pushy, then I don't...
Steve Folland: That's on them.
Laura Whitehouse: I disagree. Yes.
Steve Folland: What would you say you found the most challenging part of being freelance?
Laura Whitehouse: The financial side of things. I say that, chasing invoices to me is not financial. I think the... the PAYE versus dividends versus tax decisions, it stresses me out. HMRC terrifies me. I'm for some reason always worried I'm going to be arrested.
And I just, I've always had accountants and I always trust them implicitly. But that being said, accountants aren't tax advisors, right? So like they do the numbers, they do everything legally, but they're not telling you the best way to do things. Which I didn't really realize until a couple of years ago.
I had an accountant who very much did whatever I asked. But she, I think there was a miscommunication in that I thought she would stop me if it was a bad idea, but she wouldn't, if it was illegal, she would, but... And that has been a, that has been really hard I think. I did make some bad, bad decisions financially, I think in the first few years. But I think that comes from just not understanding. I'm not very good at... something my brain does when talking about financials and it, I just, it makes me wanna cry. I can't do it.
So that's been the hardest part, I think. But we're on the up. We are on the up. I've got some fantastic accountants and I've had them for a couple of years now, and we had a really good meeting when I first went to them where I just basically told them everything and they said, okay, we're gonna sort this. And I was like, thank you Andrea. Thank you.
Steve Folland: Yeah, that is good to hear. Not just the fact that it's feeling better about it now. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. They're not... our accountants aren't necessarily there saying, you seem to be taking a lot of dividends, are you also setting that aside as your own personal tax? Yeah. Or anything like that?
Laura Whitehouse: If I could just hand everything financial to someone else, I happily would. But to do that, you have to pay to someone else. I don't, that's the problem. I can't, I, I feel like throwing, it's throwing money after a problem, just... but we're on the up and, but every time I've spoken to HMIC, they have been so nice.
Steve Folland: Yes.
Laura Whitehouse: But they still scare me.
Steve Folland: Yeah. Yeah. There... it does feel like there is an opportunity, if any freelance, financial people are listening, it feels like there is an opportunity for some kind of freelance financial ops service.
Laura Whitehouse: Yes.
Steve Folland: That sits, it's not your accountant, it's something else which looks at your figures and goes. Huh?
Laura Whitehouse: Yeah.
Steve Folland: And they look at it maybe every quarter, for example, so that they stop you before you've made something... you've gone too far down one route.
Laura Whitehouse: I would love an email every month after I've made sales saying, you are fine, or you are okay. Or stop spending money. Just someone telling me these things, and yeah.
The good thing about my account at the minute, the ones I've had for a couple of years now, that I will keep, they, they very much tell me long in advance about costs and I pay them monthly and things, whereas my last accountant would suddenly be like, oh, obviously it was a 15,000 pound bill. You've just got that aside, Laura, right?
And I'm like, yeah, no, cool, definitely. Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent. Thanks. Sorry, I shouldn't say her name, a hundred percent, lady. But these ones are better. But yeah, I would love a freelance financial opps person to just give me a thumbs up or thumbs down every month.
Steve Folland: There you are. We've put it out there. Somebody pay attention on LinkedIn and start... it needs to exist.
Laura Whitehouse: It does.
Steve Folland: Okay. One thing I hadn't asked you about, how do you feel about your, like your work life balance? 'cause it sounds like you enjoy your work. It sounds like you've got a lot going on.
Laura Whitehouse: Yeah.
Steve Folland: How's work life balance? How's that figuring out?
Laura Whitehouse: It's good recently, actually. I think I got really into reading at the start this year, and that has helped. That's such a tangent. But I used to work all the time in the evenings, in the mornings, at weekends, because I love it and it, my work doesn't feel like work, which I'm aware is a very lucky position to be in.
Obviously there are times it does, but in general, I, it's what I would choose to do. It was like my activity of choice. But since I got really into these romantasy books, I don't , I don't work in the evenings anymore, and it's, actually, it's, I think it's making me a better person. I think having something...
Cause I used to always, in the evenings I would work and watch tv. Every time I work, something is on, whether it's the radio or the tv, I like that double stuff going on and you can't work and read.
So that's really helped me to carve out time where I'm not working and it is helping me get a bit, just get a bit more of a life really. Because if I was just watching TV for example, I would think, I might as well be working because I can do both. And which isn't a really healthy attitude to have. So yeah, I'm gonna try and keep this up.
But I'm... I've always worked a lot more than most of my friends. Not in a, it's not a good thing or a bad thing. I just, because I love what I do and it's so creative, I don't think that will ever change. But yeah, I think having activity where I can't do it is, good for me.
Steve Folland: That's so true. Laura, if you could tell your younger self one thing about being freelance, what would that be?
Laura Whitehouse: That it was doable. It's absolutely doable. You need to take the risk and it'll feel scary, but it will work out. It's not something you're really told about in school that you can work for yourself. And it would make me much less panicked as a young adult if I knew what I knew now. If I just knew that it would be fine. I would eventually be freelance. Yeah.
Steve Folland: Yeah. It's funny 'cause sometimes though, I think, but also you meet in that period when you haven't done it sooner for example, you meet people, you learn things from being in those companies. Be it, I'd do it this way, or I wouldn't do it that way, as well as...
Laura Whitehouse: Can I change my answer? Can I change my answer? I've got a better answer. Oh my God. Okay.
When you start going freelance, men will randomly ask you to talk about their business over coffee, right? And you'll be really early days in your career and they'll say, let's just go for coffee. 'Cause I've got this great new startup idea and I wanna talk to you about it. And you'll be like, yeah, cool.
And then you'll be like half an hour away from the coffee and they'll say, oh, do you mind if we meet in a pub instead? And then you'll go to the pub. And then they'll just talk at you about their business idea for three hours and you'll be too polite to leave. Because they'll be talking. And then they will never hire you and you will never hear from them again.
Just don't go. Don't go. I'm telling you, I think it's something specific about maybe being a younger woman when you're starting out and you are excited by these opportunities. Also, I'm a mug and I just think it's nice, but no, they... Don't meet those men. It's a waste of time.
Steve Folland: Wow.
Laura Whitehouse: Yeah. Sorry I had to get that off my chest.
Steve Folland: No, I'm so glad. We are here for you Laura.
Laura Whitehouse: Thank you. They were nice men, don't get me wrong. Yeah, nice guys.
Steve Folland: But this happened multiple times, that suggests?
Laura Whitehouse: Oh yeah. Three or four times. Yeah. Which is enough. It's enough. And the business ideas were always completely incomprehensible. Like they were like something to do with data or I don't know, the economy or science, and it was like. Just ramblings of a madman, and you'd be sitting there, I would be sitting there... ooh, okay. That's cool.
I think, yeah, there's something about being an approachable woman. I think that means sometimes you can be taken advantage of when you're starting out, so don't meet those men. That's what I would say. Can you keep that in?
Steve Folland: Definitely keep that in. But what would your advice be though? So say somebody has an opportunity's come your way.
Laura Whitehouse: Yeah.
Steve Folland: If we're not necessarily picking on men with startups, but like how do we get around that? Because there, there is also that time sink in, when people have said, oh, can you come in for a coffee? Or, yeah. Let's meet and you are like, okay, but that's like a 45 minute drive. And then okay, we're gonna have coffee and there's this whole time and costing. Yeah. And yet also you are always aware that meeting people is good, connections being made.
Laura Whitehouse: Yeah.
Steve Folland: Like how, would you wrestle that thought or answer it?
Laura Whitehouse: I always knew. In these specific cases beforehand that it was weird.
I always had a gut feeling and I never listened to it. You just have to listen to your gut. You'll know if it's odd. But also if you're really not sure on that, because that is pretty vague, just protect your time. So make it clear before you go. Especially if you have a weird feeling that you have half an hour.
Oh, great, but I've got to go at x time. Yeah. Love to meet you, but will need to dash at... Because then you have a get out clause. Because I'm... you have to invest time, you have to meet people you don't know, do you? But if you're not sure you get any sort of weird feeling, just ring fence the time you have so you're not stuck there for four hours. It's exhausting. I stand by it.
Steve Folland: Yeah. No. Do you know what there, that is great advice. Whether their situation is weird or not. But no, thank you for sharing that. Okay.
Laura, thank you so much. Go to beingfreelance.com. There will be links through so that you can find Laura online. Go see what she's up to. Check out her work. Go say hi on Instagram unless you are a man with a startup.
Laura Whitehouse: No, sorry.
Steve Folland: Laura, it's been so good chatting to you and all the best being freelance.
Laura Whitehouse: Thank you.
Steve Folland: We are done. How much fun was that? As I mentioned, go to beingfreelance.com as well as the links through to Laura. You'll find loads of other episodes, over 350 of them. Make sure you have subscribed and followed. And if you've enjoyed this, please do think about sharing it with other freelancers so that they can know that it exists as well.
I'm out of here. I'll see you on Instagram, LinkedIn, or of course in the Being Freelance Community. It'd be great to see you there. Or for another one of these very soon indeed. In the meantime, you have a great week being freelance.