Insights: Half a year of running a creative studio as a solo founder

An honest look behind the scenes of studio playground

On February 23rd, I launched a creative and communication consultancy studio playground. I have been freelancing for one and a half year then, but I knew ever since I left my last full-time job, that I wanted to create something beyond one-person team. A studio, a collective, a playground for creative projects - both commissioned for clients and personal. I wanted to make a leap. 

‘Truthfully, I built this studio on my knowledge, work ethos, and expertise. On believing that strategy and creative should always go hand in hand, on believing in content marketing, collaborations, research, quality communication, and tasteful creative work that reaches people. 

Yet, as a business, it started as an experiment. I knew, and still know, that I am not in any rush or don't have a wish to build it fast or big, nor am I making it with an idea to sell (you'd be surprised to hear how many people around build companies with a vision to sell in the following years.) For me, it felt like an extension of me and my work. I felt I needed to put my idea and offer out there without overly strategising. Ok, I still worked on a Business Model Canvas, created five-year and one-year vision (with a lot of space for experimentation! and being open to all changes as we go) to communicate it to others and build a sustainable business. 

I have vast respect, and I am grateful when people share about business and their journey stories at that moment, not only when they reach some big point - fail or succeed. There is some naivety and honesty in telling the story as it goes, and I believe we need more of those - behind-the-scenes stories of early-stage creative entrepreneurship projects. 

So here we are. studio playground right here, right now, and where this is going. Answering all the questions I get, from "How is it going?" to "who is on your team?" Reflecting on the last six months:

• The Team. I started this company as a solo founder and am the only one working on it “full time.” Yet I am not alone; I work with a fantastic Nino, who works with business development and has freelanced with me for almost two years! I feel so lucky to have her by my side, and I hope this can grow into a bigger long-term collaboration between us. Many with whom we collaborate might hear from Nino, so cheers to her. Such a talented, curious, multi-hyphenate person is a rare find. Nino is originally from Tbilisi and is now living in Vilnius, so most of our collaboration happens online. Besides us two, studio playground has an accountant with whom I work directly in Sweden. And my husband, Magnus, is on a company board. He doesn’t work on anything operationally, but is a sounding board and the biggest support every day since the day one. So we are one, or two, or three, or four, however you count. 

• The collaborators. For different projects, we have collaborated with six other freelancers, all on paid projects - from design, copy to website development. We also launched an important Open Call, asking those who’d like to collaborate to join our network (if you or someone you know would like to collaborate with us, the form can be found on this page) and we have some exciting talent in our network, I am looking forward to collaborating with (this includes architects, strategists, set designers, and what not).

• The clients. In these last months, we had three clients in total. Out of these, I have one long-term client and a long-term project; the other two with whom we work on ad-hoc projects. One project is focused on whole creative and communication leadership (I posted about it here), and the other two focused on strategy development, creative conception, and communication messaging. One client is within the design industry, and the other one is within urban development. 

• Sales & Marketing. I did zero sales pitches this year, which is behind my original plan. I do have quite a few project ideas and clients in mind with whom I’d like to expand the portfolio of my own and the studio. I also believe I have the right people in the network to work on those projects, and that is something I’d like to focus on. Yet, I also have to say that sales are probably the most scary thing for me while working in a consultancy business, so I am not prioritising it out of fear for sure. I feel very grateful to people in my network for working and recommending us so far. 

  When it comes to marketing, we have done nothing else besides running organic content on our Instagram, which is a community and content-focused channel, Linkedin, and writing this newsletter (which moved through three platforms in the last 1,5 years, phew, we’re planning to stick around on Substack). We have an exciting new studio project in the works, though, which I have wanted to launch since day one, yet I had to prioritise other things. But the secret project should launch by the end of this year, and it will be built on everything I believe in within culture and creative industries. 

• PR opportunities. Besides not investing in sales or marketing, I got quite lucky to be featured in Lithuania’s national newspaper LRT; the article (in Lithuanian) can be found here, where I talked about my expat journey and career within advertising and on Delfi, another Lithuanian news channel, in their marketing section, here, where I talked about a need to broaden your network and work with talents beyond megapolis, such as London, New York, or Berlin. Besides, I have been lucky to talk at IKEA, my client’s venue, during the Milan Design Festival about the project I have been working on for two years now, Atelier100. A snippet from it is below.

• The finances. You cannot not talk about the finances while running a business, so while our monthly cash flow has been steady due to a current one long-term project, you can also notice a significant effect when a new project comes in or doesn’t. Since I want to invest money into small but stable growth through side projects, I look forward to seeing how it works out in the next half year (especially with the crazy currency instability Sweden has now). I mostly see that it can be hard to leap from having 3-4 clients to more when you need to handle more collaborators, costs, and invoices.

Other thoughts, joys, and worries:

• It’s a bit of a rollercoaster when it comes to tasks when you’re a small team; it works for me because I see myself as a generalist, yet it’s hard to pitch yourself in one sentence.

• It’s the little things that worry me - how do you make a leap from one person to a team? How do you ever make the first full-time hire? 

• While you grow*, it’s clear- dedicate, dedicate, dedicate. Still, I find it sometimes hard to dedicate the creative work because a) I want to do some of it myself, and b) I think it comes with a touch of personality and sensitivity. Something I am trying to read, listen to, and think a lot about. Learning to find my ways. (*and by growth I don’t mean in size, but strength as a team, stable finances, the best work, culture, etc.)

• Did you know that only 1% of creative agencies are founded by women? This fact keeps me going.

So here we are. An open look into my work, and studio playground’s first steps, allowed me to reflect on it all and put a smile on my face. It’s both a very rewarding and sometimes worrying experience, something I really enjoy most of the time. Every day is new, and different, many emotions and ideas cross your mind. It’s an adventure on its own.

Of course, if you would like to work with us or know someone who could benefit from it, please get in touch, and I would be very happy to take an initial phone call, share our case studies, and talk through our offer. 

I’d be curious to hear if you enjoyed this post and maybe got reflections on what other things you’d like to hear from me? :)

Thank you for reading, and spreading a word!

Until the next one,

Auste