When I was 19 and in school, my lecturer was telling us to find our passion, the thing that we want to excel in. Be it web design, graphic design, great at illustrator. Just be great at ONE thing, and you can go a long way with that skill. I didn’t really believe him. I was trying to learn as much as I can and basically when I started freelancing, I wanted my niche to be a one-stop solution. I did all the graphic stuff and also tried to go into web programming (commerce, CMS). I picked up coding through forums and tutorials and I was really proud of myself.
Slowly, as the internet world starts advancing so fast, I was not able to catch up. As I was swamped with so much work, I didn’t have the time to upgrade my skills. Then slowly, I find my website design suffered as I dare not design things that I can’t code. So I have stopped taking in so many web design jobs as well, allowing creative agencies to take the lead on such areas. Until I met someone, who got me to do purely web design. I was having fun. I didn’t have to think about the code and really focused on the design aspects of the website. I could take my design so much further! It was exciting.
People use digital design agencies to fulfil their web needs – with a big team – but I fulfil their web needs simply on my own. But, with the internet expanding so fast, I finally understood what my lecturer said about finding that ONE thing you are good in. Maybe in the future, I could find a fantastic programmer to work together with and I can start taking more exciting website projects.
It’s a brand new year and my business (Praise Lord) has been growing steadily. Looking back when I just started freelancing in year 2007, giving out free stuff to build my portfolio. And 6 months ago, quitting my job to do this full time. I have registered my company as well. My clientele grow and worked with people like Johnson and Johnson, Far east floral, Mediacorp. I never thought that this will happen. I think should pat myself on the back, I have come a long way.