Behind the Scenes With Love Chic Living: March 2018

So a little later than planned, but here is the behind the scenes gossip from the Love Chic Living camp in March. You may know that earlier this year I started documenting my freelance life in a bid to be honest about how I make my living, showcase the ups and downs of running a blog (and wider business) and give you an insight into my working week.

You’ll know that last year was a tough one for me where I tried several different new routes for growing the business, some of which were successful, some of which didn’t work at all. It meant a time of reflection at the end of the year and a refocusing of my efforts coming back to what I love – the blog.

If you want to catch up on the story so far this year then take a read of January and February’s reports.

Blog Highlights:

March was busier on the blog than the previous month, and the giveaways continue to be a feature, celebrating the blog’s 6th birthday. We finished the Skirting Boards and Wax Lyrical giveaways with very happy winners and launch two more with Black by Design and soak.com.

Brand Collaborations:

It was great to head to Birmingham with Amanda from The Ana Mum Diary and see Swoon Editions at their pop up shop along with Grillo Designs and The Green Eyed Girl. I’ve been gifted a coffee table from Swoon so will feature that when it arrives in May.

There were lots of interesting collaborations this month including how good design can help your health, how you can choose holiday homes for special occasions, and how you can plan out a perfect kitchen.

I did some styling for a few brands too with jewellery storage for The Holding Company and my favourite, using window film on my little home office window to reduce the sun’s glare.

I wrote for a few external sites this month including storage on Spaceslide and Hafele kitchens as well as a post for the Girl with the Green Sofa (who you may know from Instagram) on how to cultivate great brand collaborations.

Finally my new work with Real Homes Magazine online has started and I’m really excited about this one. I wrote 2 articles for them in March, the first on ideas for grey living rooms and the second on garden decks. If you’re looking for inspiration on either of those areas, head over and take a read. Lots of great bloggers and instagrammers shared their ideas with me and I’m really proud of the results.

Instagram:

Instagram continues to go well and in March we picked our #SUYHome winner from Feb, and launched a giveaway with two smaller independent companies. The hosting lineup changed slightly and we welcomed a guest host – Liz from Liznylon.com for the month.

Don’t forget to find me there and take part in our #SUYHome event each month (we have fresh flowers on offer in April!)

Pinterest:

Pinterest is hotting up and I’m revamping a lot of what I have on offer.

I’ve updated the FREE email course – 7 Days to a Killer Pinterest Strategy – with new 2018 information and some bonuses too. It’s getting great feedback so if you haven’t got your Pinterest act together yet, go and sign up!

Power Hours continue to be popular too, and I ran several sessions throughout March. An hour of online Pinterest debate helping you fully understand how to use it to market your business or your blog seems to have really appealed to people. Feel free to email me if you want to book a session (we run them over Skype audio) or find out more here.

I also did an interview style article for a Health Blogger’s magazine community all about using Pinterest which was fun.

Income vs. Expenses:

The financial year ended well. The latter part of 2017 was a struggle financially so the focus at the beginning of the year was to bring this back in line with my goals, and I managed to end the year just slightly up on the 2016/17.

The accountant has started preparing year end accounts (we finished back in January), although I do now have a new accountant saving over £1k per year!

Month in Review:

PIN THIS POST FOR LATER:

I actually feel quite exhausted having written all this down – no wonder I needed some time off in April. I’ve definitely been working hard, but it seems to be paying off. Work is diverse and creative, just as I like it, and I’ve formed relationships with new brands as well as revisited some older ones.

I’m proud of the content I’ve created for the blog this month and client blogs too.

At the beginning of April I took two weeks off – well I was still around but enjoyed hanging out with my children, dabbling with social media and doing jobs I’d been putting off for a long time. It was definitely required and I’m going to do it again very soon!

It’s very hard taking time away as a freelancer; having built up a work momentum it’s worrying to walk away and potentially lose readers and collaborations. So April will be interesting with a few weeks off, and a few weeks cramming in a month’s worth of work. Fingers crossed I can pull it off.

I’d love to hear your thoughts, queries or question, so leave a comment or email me at jen@lovechicliving.co.uk

Until next month,

Jen x