Club turns 1: Hannah's thoughts

We’ve been trading now for over a year. And what a year it’s been.

Being all too aware of the high failure rates of startups in their first year, we’re over the moon to say we’re 1.

It hasn’t been easy, mind.

The first thing that struck me when going through the process of setting the company up was the amount of work it is to organise. There’s so many different processes, legalities and... just hurdles in general, to learn about and tackle before even starting work using the skills you plan to sell.

Scott and I have had to wear many different ‘hats’. Some of them weren’t so comfortable to start with but over time have become more familiar.

The accounts hat, for example. I’m not a numbers person but this headwear is unavoidable. We decided early on that the secretary role would be more of a pencil skirt than a hat - Scott was nominated as the secretary so he wears that (hypothetically). Then there’s admin, marketing, sales, account manager, and all of the other roles that go into making a business like ours tick before you even get to the creative layer.

It’s tough. Anyone who says it isn’t is either lying or has distributed all their different hats to the respective people within their (probably massive) team.

Being part of an already established company often means just focussing on your role within it. In our case, we’ve had to learn new skills and practice them daily to make sure Club remains afloat, while still retaining the same quality of work we know we’re capable of delivering. This has a huge effect on how much time we spend ‘at work’. It starts to consume your time, thoughts and life.

It’s not the 9-5 that you grow up presuming work will be. We could go and find Dolly Parton’s idea of a job but we know we wouldn’t be satisfied. The fact that we’re contributing to our own brand - a brand that we’ve created, nurtured and love is what drives us and is definitely part of why we’ve made it this far.

We’ve been lucky to find great clients, work on some amazing projects and see our brand grow. It’s what makes all those hats, all those late nights and imagining Scott in a pencil skirt worth it.

Can’t wait to see what the next year brings!