From redundancy to GwenGreen: 8 years on

Starting out

Today, 21st May, marks 8 years since I started GwenGreen and my journey from redundancy to self-employment.

That sounds quite big when I say it out loud, but if I’m honest, it doesn’t feel like that. It’s just been a lot of days of getting up, doing the work, sorting things out for clients, and occasionally wondering what on earth I’m doing… and then carrying on anyway!

When I actually stop and think about it properly though, I can see how much has changed. And probably the biggest thing is that I genuinely love what I do. Not in a loud, over the top way, but in a steady “this just fits me” kind of way. I like the work, I like the clients, and I like the fact that no two days are ever quite the same.

Confidence and backing myself

When I started GwenGreen in May 2018, I’d only been made redundant from my 26-year corporate career a few months earlier, in December 2017. At that point, menopausal anxiety, low self-esteem and depression with the redundancy added on top, had completely knocked me sideways. Looking back now, I was much closer to a meltdown than I realised at the time.

I somehow got through the rest of 2018, but 2019 brought my 50th birthday and an even worse place mentally, not because of the milestone birthday, just because everything had continued spiralling. By October 2019, everything came to a head. I was prescribed antidepressants and referred for counselling.

Counselling started in February 2020 and then, in March, the world shut down because of Covid. Ironically, Covid did me the world of good.

I didn’t have to go out. I didn’t have to see people and make small talk. I didn’t have to force myself into situations I didn’t have the energy for. I could continue my counselling sessions over Zoom (honestly, one of the best inventions ever), work on myself, work on my business and just… breathe a bit.

Don’t get me wrong, 2020 still had some really shit moments, but overall it ended far better than it started.

The strange thing was, underneath all of the struggles, I still knew I could do the work. I knew I was good at what I did. I’d spent years building skills, solving problems and supporting people. And the work gave me something to focus on. In a lot of ways, it helped pull me through that darker period.

Starting GwenGreen wasn’t some big brave “go chase your dreams” moment. It was more a case of “I need to rebuild myself somehow”.

And somewhere along the way, without really noticing it happening, that’s exactly what I did. Some of the rebuild came from the work itself. Some came from clients trusting me. Some came from proving to myself that I could still learn new things, adapt and build something completely from scratch.

But a huge part of it came from the people around me too.

Working with Lizi Jackson through her Confidence Accelerator programme in 2021 was a massive turning point for me personally. It helped me start finding confidence that had been chipped away for years.

Unbelievably, networking played a huge part as well, although if you’d told me that before, I’d never have believed you! Walking into a room full of strangers for the first time back in 2018, only 6 months into this self-employed malarkey, was absolutely terrifying. I was completely out of my comfort zone and probably spent most of the time internally panicking while trying to look vaguely composed.

When Covid hit, networking moved online, which actually worked massively in my favour. I also joined a specifically online networking group, which helped me build confidence without the pressure of physically walking into a room full of people. Because I found the right networking groups for me, they gave me space to find my feet. The meetings were structured, but never restrictive, and over time they helped me become more comfortable just being myself in business.

I’ve actually written before about how much Pop Connect helped me and the role networking has played in building GwenGreen. You can read that blog here.

Now I can, on the whole, stand up and present without wanting the floor to swallow me whole, which honestly still surprises me a bit.

Do I still wobble sometimes? Absolutely I do. But the difference now is I don’t let the wobble stop me.

Learning how to actually work with clients

Working with clients is very different to working with colleagues, which I think you only really understand once you’re in it. There’s more responsibility, more expectation, and a lot more “just figure it out”. No one is handing you a neat little list of instructions and checking in every five minutes, so you’re pretty much on your own!

It’s also something I don’t take for granted. Being welcomed into someone’s business, seeing how everything works behind the scenes, warts ’n all, is a big deal.

And every client is different. Every business works differently. Every person communicates differently. Some want every tiny detail, others want the headlines. Some spot a missing full stop from 50 paces, while others would never notice if the whole thing was upside down!

A huge part of this job is learning how each client works, how they think, what matters to them and how they like things done. That’s probably one of the biggest skills I’ve developed over the years, learning how to adapt not just the work itself, but how I work with people. Over time, my thinking has changed because of that. It’s not just about doing what’s been asked anymore, it’s about stepping back and working out what’s actually needed. Sometimes that means doing the thing, and sometimes it means saying “are you sure you want to do it like that?”

I think that’s one of the biggest things I’ve learned over the years. Clients don’t just need someone who can “do tasks”. They need someone who can think, notice problems before they happen, suggest improvements and sometimes just quietly steady the ship a bit when things feel chaotic.

And I genuinely love being that person.

The tools and learning new things

One thing this business has definitely taught me is that I actually really enjoy learning. Not in a “sit quietly and read a manual cover to cover” kind of way, but in a “right, this client needs this working, so let’s learn how to do it properly” kind of way.

Since I started, I’ve properly learned platforms like MailerLite, Mailchimp, Funnel Sketchers, Jotform and Wix because clients needed them, businesses relied on them, and I wanted to confidently support people properly. Some of those platforms felt like another language at first. There’s definitely been some muttering at screens, a fair amount of trial and error, and the occasional “why on earth is this not doing what I told it to do?!” moment! But I love the satisfaction that comes from understanding how something works, especially when it solves a genuine problem for a client. Even Adobe Acrobat, which I already knew before GwenGreen started, has become a much bigger part of what I do now, especially with forms and more complex functionality.

And I think that’s why my work naturally shifted more towards the creative and technical side of things. I like building things that are useful. Forms that make life easier. Funnels that actually flow properly. Workbooks that people genuinely use instead of downloading and forgetting about five minutes later.

How the work has changed

The work itself has changed quite a bit over the years. When I first started, the list of services on my website was as long as your arm because I basically offered everything I could do. And to be fair, I can still do all of it. The difference now is that I get to choose. I can choose the kind of work I take on, the kind of clients I work with, and the projects I actually enjoy doing. That’s one of the best things about being self-employed.

These days, my work sits much more in the creative, technical and strategic space, which suits me far better. I genuinely enjoy building things, solving problems and helping clients untangle the stuff they’ve been putting off for weeks because it feels too overwhelming.

That doesn’t mean being self-employed has been easy though, because it definitely hasn’t. At the start, clients were few and far between and there were absolutely times when I worried about paying the bills. But I kept going and thankfully, the work did start coming in and I can honestly say that I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work with some amazing clients.

In 8 years, I’ve only ever had to sack one client because they genuinely drained the life out of me. But I have also turned work away over the years, either because it wasn’t work I wanted to do, or because I knew the client and I simply wouldn’t gel.

That’s another confidence thing actually. Earlier on, I probably would have said yes to everything out of fear. Now I know that not every client is the right fit, and that’s ok.

The milestones that actually matter

There have been some obvious milestones along the way. Getting my first client who had no connection to my old job was a big one. Creating my first website felt like a proper moment. Bringing in associates, gaining my certifications as a VA mentor and business strategist, and now working towards my Certified Launch and Funnel Strategist qualification.

But if I’m honest, the ones that stick with me most are the quieter ones. Invoicing slightly more each year, year on year. Nothing dramatic, just steady growth. And that little buzz when an invoice number rolls past another hundred – 100, 200, 300 and so on. It’s a small thing, but it’s one of those markers that reminds you things are moving. Being recommended without asking is another one. Knowing that people trust me enough to mention my name when I’m not in the room.

And being asked to host the Chigwell Pop Connect group and an online ScreenPop group were both a bit of an “eeeeeek, holy crap, I can’t do that … actually I can, ok then” moment as well.

Those are the bits that make me realise it’s actually working, even if it doesn’t always feel like it day to day.

The client side of it all

This is the part I enjoy the most, and probably the reason I’m still doing it.

It’s not the flashy stuff, it’s the behind the scenes things that make a difference. Fixing something a client didn’t know where to start with. Taking something off their plate that’s been hanging over them for weeks. Getting something done quicker than they expected, not because it’s rushed, but because I’ve done it before and I know how to approach it.

And the feedback that sticks is never complicated. It’s things like “that’s bloody brilliant”, “you are a star”, or “I’d be lost without you”. Simple, but it means a lot. I think that’s also why so much of my work now comes through referrals and recommendations. People trusting me enough to pass my name on to someone else genuinely means a lot, because it’s not something I take lightly. Some of my clients have been with me for years now and have seen GwenGreen grow alongside their own businesses, which is quite a lovely thing when I stop and think about it properly.

There have also been times where I’ve helped in ways that go beyond the task itself. Telling a client to slow down when they’re clearly doing too much, stepping in to deal with unpaid invoices that they don’t want to touch, or just being there when things feel a bit chaotic their end. That side of it matters just as much as the actual work.

The business has grown up too

Even the name has changed over those 8 years. From GwenGreen Virtual Assistant Services, to GwenGreen Creative Virtual Assistant Services, and now to GwenGreen Creative Business Services.

That shift reflects what the business actually is now. It’s not just admin support, it’s a mix of creative, technical and strategic work, and it’s grown into that naturally rather than being forced into a box.