The Business of Building a Life

Returning to the Blog After Two Years

There is a special kind of optimism involved in deciding to restart your blog during summer break. The children are home. The television is calling their names with the persistence of a determined telemarketer. Back-to-school expenses are beginning to assemble themselves in the distance. Client work still needs to be completed. The business still needs to grow. The house still needs attention. Everyone needs to be fed—repeatedly, for some reason—and somewhere in the middle of all of that, I have decided:

"Yes. This is the perfect time to start writing again."

If that does not tell you something about the slightly questionable confidence of an entrepreneur, I don't know what will.

It has been approximately two years since I last published a blog post for Verley Creative. I wish I could tell you that the pause was part of a carefully considered content strategy. Perhaps I was creating anticipation. Allowing the audience to miss me. Building suspense.

But alas, no.

Life was life-ing—and it was doing so with great enthusiasm.

So…where have I been?

I have been designing, teaching, raising two children, running Verley Creative and trying to figure out how to build a business that does not require every ounce of me to keep it functioning.

I have worked on exciting projects, partnered with talented people, navigated difficult client situations, made business decisions I am proud of and made other decisions that came with complimentary life lessons. I have also spent a considerable amount of time thinking about what it means to move from being a talented freelancer to becoming the owner of a sustainable creative business.

Those two things may look similar from the outside, but they are not the same. Being good at design does not automatically make someone good at running a design business. Edna Manley College taught me how to develop concepts, communicate ideas and create effective visual solutions. It did not teach me how to manage cash flow, develop systems, price for profitability, lead collaborators, market consistently or separate myself from the company I created.

Apparently, those lessons are hidden inside a different curriculum called Figure It Out While People Are Depending on You.Enrollment is automatic. The tuition is expensive.

The business—and the life around it

For a long time, I thought building a successful business meant becoming better at managing all the work. Work faster. Become more organised. Wake up earlier. Improve the workflow. Find a new productivity app. Create a prettier Notion dashboard. Buy another planner and hope that this one possesses supernatural powers.

But I am learning that building a sustainable business is not simply about finding more efficient ways to fit work into every available corner of my life. It is also about deciding what kind of life I am trying to build—and creating a business that can support it. That question feels especially relevant during summer.

When the children are in school, there is at least the illusion of a predictable routine. Summer removes that illusion and replaces it with non-stop snack requests, activity planning, sibling negotiations and occasional debates about why watching television for six consecutive hours does not qualify as “having a quiet day.”

At the same time, the work thankfully does not disappear simply because school is closed.

Projects still have deadlines. Emails still arrive. Revenue still matters. The upcoming school term is patiently waiting with a shopping list that resembles a small procurement tender.

There is always something that requires money, time, attention—or all three at once. And if I am honest, there are days when trying to balance everything feels less like balance and more like survival of the fittest.

Technically, I am managing...Gracefully? That depends on who you ask.

Why return to blogging now?

With everything already competing for my attention, restarting the blog may seem like one more item being added to an overcrowded list. But writing has always given me something that fast-moving social media content cannot...it gives me room.

Room to think beyond a caption. Room to explain the lessons behind the polished project images. Room to talk honestly about creativity, business, motherhood, ambition, money, systems, mistakes and growth. It also gives me space to document a transition that has been happening quietly for some time: the transition from working in Verley Creative as its primary designer to building Verley Creative as a company that can eventually operate beyond my individual capacity.

I do not have that journey neatly packaged into a ten-step formula. I am still in it. I am learning how to create better systems. How to delegate without hovering over someone’s shoulder in spirit. How to make decisions as a CEO rather than only as a designer. How to build new sources of income. How to protect my time without feeling guilty. How to pursue ambitious goals while still being present for the people who matter most to me.

That is the real story I want to share here. Not a perfectly polished account written after I have figured everything out, but thoughtful reflections from someone actively doing the work.

The Business of Building a Life

I have been calling this chapter—and the content series growing from it: The Business of Building a Life. Because that is what it feels like.

I am building a business, yes. But I am also raising children, nurturing a marriage, teaching, managing a home, caring for my health, developing new ideas and attempting to become the kind of woman capable of carrying the vision I have for my future. These parts of my life do not exist in separate, perfectly labelled containers. They overlap. They are constantly interrupting each other and they influence the decisions I make.

Sometimes a brilliant business idea arrives while I am folding laundry. Sometimes I solve a design problem during the school run. Sometimes I have to choose between completing one more task and closing the laptop because my family—or my back—has made it abundantly clear that the workday is over.

The goal is not to create a flawless balance between all these roles. I am increasingly convinced that perfect balance is a myth invented to sell planners. The goal is to build with greater intention. To know what matters in this season. To make thoughtful choices about what deserves my attention. To develop a business that creates more freedom rather than one that looks successful while quietly consuming my entire life.

Beginning again

Starting again after a long pause can feel awkward. There is a temptation to wait until you have a perfect plan, a full content calendar, several completed drafts and an aesthetically pleasing system for managing it all.

But sometimes returning does not require a grand relaunch. Sometimes you simply begin with the truth: Life became full. The blog became quiet. I have grown in the time between, and now I have more to say.

So, this is me beginning again. Not because everything is perfectly organized, but because it is not. Not because I have mastered the balance between business, family and personal well-being, but because I am learning how to build a life that has room for all three.

If you are also building a business, raising a family, changing direction or trying to create something meaningful in the middle of a very full life, I hope you will see part of your own journey here.

Welcome—or welcome back—to the Verley Creative blog.

Let's see what we can build together.

Alright, lata!