When the world went into lockdown and multi-story office buildings became really expensive statues to admire from outside - the 9 to 5 crowd suddenly couldn't tell much of a difference to their 5 to 9 life. It was, and for some continue to be, a shock to their day to day routine. With partners, family, kids and neighbours as your new in-office crew, managing time and being able to stick to work commitments has added pressure for everyone.

Welcome to the entrepreneur life.

For the groups of people that have been lucky and deserving to keep their jobs during a global pandemic, the "luxuries" of an actual and separated workspace from your home disappeared. The line between work life and life life blurred and the dance of Zoom links began. Welcome to the life of an independent, entrepreneurial freelancer, only with one major difference: consistent income. With at home work setups, Slack, CRMs, CMSs and stressed internet connections - we can do more than we realise and more with our time than ever thought possible.

Well, most entrepreneurs running that freelance game from home (or some co-working space) already knew that. They had more time to prepare for these unique benefits and challenges:

• Work attire can be sweats, except on video calls when they can be half sweats, half business casual.
• Options to sleep in during the usual commute or take advantage of the extra time; exercising, spending more time with family or getting the side-hustle in action.
• Freedom to plan your own day, set new routines, actually take a lunch break away from your desk (not too far during COVID though).
• Either feeling motivated about what you're doing or forced to contemplate new ideas, new career paths, new client opportunities, just more time to think in general.

There are literally hundreds of pros and cons to the freelance life that affect our financial futures, mental health, family dynamics and personal career paths - but one thing stays true - they both challenge you. Feeling challenged (but obviously not depressed about those challenges) is good - but how we adapt or respond to challenge is important.

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How are we supposed to respond during a pandemic when everything is changing so quickly?

In general, there is no correct answer. There's a lot of good advice on the subject, and some really bad advice that some random Instagram bot will give you.

At BrandSpace our philosophy drives everything that we do.

“The law of simplicity”

We try to uncomplicated things, deconstruct, edit down to a most simple (yet clear, effective and beautifully relatable) thing. When working from home is the new reality for some (because this concept of "new normal" is over-used and could be offensive to people or cultures already living that "normal") - we think that less complicated solutions help in general. Less is less, more is more - less is good thing - more can eventually become overwhelming. In design, in website strategy, in ice cream's fat content - less is powerful. Simplicity gives us an opportunity to consider things while keeping our goals obtainable and actionable.

Complex projects become possible when broken down into simple to achieve milestones. So when it comes to how we adapt to quickly changing, pandemic driven pivots - we think about it simply. We take time to process, understand the changes and make a plan. Then we edit that plan, and then edit it down again. We try to make the travel from A to Z as efficient and straightforward as possible - and we apply that to how we make an office plan, how we send an email, how we communicate with clients and how we order our lunches too.

Ready to start your own business?

Many new business are popping up, passion projects have become active pursuits and the idea of breaking free from the 9-5 when you're already halfway there is motivating. If you can find a balance during this time, even if you're lucky to have that remote work from home job, maybe the entrepreneurial life can stick around for you. Maybe you'll just do that thing you've been delaying, afraid of the risk involved. We all have officially risked a lot - some of us losing, some of us winning - but the opportunity to do something great is typically born during times like these.

Let us know what you've been up to during these last few months, what new businesses you've started or pivoted, and how working from home for your employer has affected you.

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