On the 12th episode of my podcast, I interviewed Siedah Mitchum. Siedah helps businesses and one-woman shops tap into the essences of who they are and their mission to create a beautiful, online home for their business that allows them to grow, change lives, and get their message out to the world.
She got her first client as a web designer at the age of 14 years old working part-time for herself.
Three years ago, while she was working for a small business, her boss cut her hours due to shortage of income, which was really a blessing in disguise, as it propelled her to start working for herself. In this episode, I share Siedah’s story about her leap to entrepreneurship, and her tips for YOU, on what you may need to get started on launching your first website.
Episode 12 | Special Guest Siedah Mitchum
In this episode:
- How she began creating websites at the age of 14
- Learning to price her services correctly for clients
- Finding out which kind of clients she wanted to work with and which ones she didn’t
- Leaping into the unknown with confidence
- Consolidating her debt in order to start her businesses with stability
- Her tips on where to start to create a professional looking website on a budget
- How your branding can grow with you and how technology is changing
Memorable Podcast Snippets:
“I love the creative space, the freedom and flexibility. Being able to take the day off if I want, to go travel or go back home and visit my family. I can do that. I love that. I can just bring my computer and my headphones now that I’m a podcaster. And bring my stuff 400 miles away from my home office if I want to. I absolutely love that.”
“I freelanced first. I started off designing as a hobby. I used to create websites with a bunch of friends online, a few girlfriends, for our favorite stars. And that’s when we were in our pre-teens. And then I did a website for a friend of mine who was actually racing motorcycles, just for fun. A speaker, had seen his website, and he used to come to the high school and speak about gang violence. He said he had worked with another company, locally, in Albany, New York where I’m from, but he really loved my website and he wanted to work for me. He told me that I needed to go home and figure out a price and figure out a contract and I was 14. So, since then, I’ve worked with him and so many other non profits and small businesses so it just kind of fell in my lap. So I definitely started freelancing first, and then build it into a business and got serious once I quit my job. Besides that, all these years, it was always referrals.”
“Plan for it. Start before you’re ready. I started designing at 14 so I’ve worked in different industries and I know what industries I don’t want to work with, I know what clients I don’t want to work with. I know the market and the industry and what people are charging, so I have found out all of that information along the way, so really start now, while you’re still at your job. If you are a person, who money is a really big issue for, and you have so much fear and anxiety about quitting your job cold turkey and starting this business, pay off the majority of your debt, so you don’t have to worry about that.”
Resources listed on the show:
Learn more and get in touch with Siedah:
Website: www.siedahmitchumdesigns.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/siedahmitchum
Twitter: https://twitter.com/siedahmitchum/
Podcast website: https://thefreedombiz.com
You can also add The Cubicle Crashing Podcast to your RSS feed:
https://screwthecubicle.libsyn.
Enjoying The Cubicle Crashing Podcast?
Please leave a review in iTunes to help more people find me! All you need to do is click onto “View in iTunes,” then click on “Ratings and Reviews” followed by “Write a Review” under Customer Reviews. Thanks so much!
Stay Connected
Like the Screw the Cubicle Facebook Page.
And follow me Twitter and Instagram.
Lydia thank you so much for the opportunity to come on your show. It was fun. I appreciate it!
Lovely to have you on the show Siedah! Thank you for taking the time to spread our shared vision of choosing freedom 🙂