The personal disquiet of

Mark Boulton

July 27th, 2006

Leaving the BBC and going freelance

Emma and I have just returned from a cel­eb­rat­ory meal from our favour­ite little place in Cow­bridge, which is about ten minutes drive from our house. The reason? Well, you may have guessed from the title of the post, but this morn­ing I handed in my resig­na­tion from the BBC. The 25th August will be my last day. On return­ing from Por­tugal, the 7th of Septem­ber will be my first day trad­ing as Mark Boulton Design LLP.

Excited? I can barely con­tain myself. 

I star­ted work­ing for the BBC nearly four years ago. On the whole, I’ve enjoyed my time there. Com­ing from an agency back­ground, work­ing client-side took a lot of adjust­ing, but on the whole, it’s been incred­ibly reward­ing. I’ve grown both pro­fes­sion­ally and per­son­ally but over the past couple of years it’s become clear BBC New Media and I are on a dif­fer­ent career paths and it’s time to take advant­age of the oppor­tun­it­ies that are present­ing them­selves to me on an almost daily basis. I can’t do that and con­tinue to be a BBC employee. 

Over the past eight­een months, I’ve been doing pro­jects on the side (some pretty big pro­jects as well as this site), and it’s been incred­ibly dif­fi­cult to juggle that com­mit­ment and a full-time job. I’ve been doing 50–60 hour weeks for over twelve months now and something’s got to give. 

What’s in a name?

As I men­tioned, from the 7th of Septem­ber I’ll be trad­ing as Mark Boulton Design LLP (the LLP stands for Lim­ited Liab­il­ity Part­ner­ship, which basic­ally means the com­pany will be a legal entity and all that that entails). I pondered long and hard about what to call my new busi­ness. Ini­tially I’ll be freel­an­cing, but the plan is to grow to the work­load (hope­fully!). Any­way, after talk­ing to friends, fam­ily and col­leagues, it became clear that I was the brand. Why asso­ci­ate myself with another brand and try and build that when I already have a pro­file of sorts on which to build rather than start­ing afresh. 

The Plan

Well, I’ve dec­or­ated the spare room! This is now my office, com­plete with apple-green wall, proper fur­niture and, yes, new car­pet. Now I know this doesn’t make a good busi­ness, but I’m start­ing as I mean to go on. Try­ing to sep­ar­ate work from home. The hope, like I said, is to move into a small stu­dio in the near future to really get that sep­ar­a­tion. Yes, I’m scared to death. I think it’s nat­ural, but also a good thing. I’m sure it will make me work hard to make this a success. 

Need a freelancer?

Do you work for an agency who needs an exper­i­enced freel­ance designer? Are you a busi­ness who needs a brand or web­site design­ing, or a com­pany who wants to work on a pro­ject together? If so, then I’d love to hear from you.

A blow by blow account

Now everything is out in the open, I’m plan­ning on doc­u­ment­ing the jour­ney. Not just for my bene­fit, but maybe for those who, like me, are about to take the leap.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 27th, 2006 at 8:47 pm and is filed under Business, Personal.

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72 Responses to “Leaving the BBC and going freelance”

  1. Karl said on: July 27th, 2006 at 9:41 pm

    Excit­ing news Mark, good luck with the new venture!

  2. Jeff Croft said on: July 27th, 2006 at 9:41 pm

    Awe­some, Mark. Con­grats. Look­ing for­ward to see­ing where you go from here.

  3. Jason Santa Maria said on: July 27th, 2006 at 9:43 pm

    Woo! Now is the best time for some­thing like this. Con­grats and best of luck. Welcome!

  4. F said on: July 27th, 2006 at 10:00 pm

    Ooh, big step.  Hope it all goes well.  Good luck :)

  5. Colly said on: July 27th, 2006 at 10:21 pm

    I know how much this must scare and excite you, but if any­one can excel alone, it’ll be you. Rate card to Agen­zia whenever you can…

  6. Andrew said on: July 27th, 2006 at 10:26 pm

    Good luck, you’ll do well I’m sure. 

    Keep this site reg­u­larly updated — its excellent.

  7. Phil Wright said on: July 27th, 2006 at 10:35 pm

    Yay! Hav­ing dis­cussed this with you over the week­end and know­ing your uncanny abil­ity to be bloody good at everything you do I know this is going to be a massively pro­duct­ive ven­ture. Just as long as you don’t start chant­ing ‘Be the brand’.

    Plus Emm might get a chance to see you now. : ) 

    Good look bro from your proud best man.

  8. Dave S. said on: July 27th, 2006 at 10:38 pm

    Right on. Con­grat­u­la­tions, it’s a big scary step, but you’re gonna love it.

  9. Stuart Maynard-Keene said on: July 27th, 2006 at 10:48 pm

    Good luck Mark, doubt you’ll need much though!

  10. Paul said on: July 27th, 2006 at 10:55 pm

    Fant­astic news (though not for the BBC it would seem).  I have every reason to believe you will be a hit in the world of freel­an­cing — good luck!

  11. John Beales said on: July 27th, 2006 at 10:57 pm

    Good Job and Good Luck! I did the same thing this spring, (albiet from a non-design job), and am start­ing a lot lower on the totem pole than you will, but it’s really great and I love it — as I’m sure you will too.

  12. Nathan Smith said on: July 27th, 2006 at 11:19 pm

    Wow, gutsy move. I applaud you. I’m still try­ing to muster up the cour­age to go it solo, or pos­sibly with a group of guys I know. Best of luck to you in the future! Now that you’ve got more free time, I look for­ward to the inev­it­able increase in art­icles on typo­graphy and layout! :)

  13. Dio said on: July 27th, 2006 at 11:23 pm

    Nice one, it’s no secret you (along with many in the depart­ment) were wasted there. Hope your able to get plenty done. :)

    Now, did they allow you to take a VR or was it just a plain bye-bye?

  14. steve karsch said on: July 27th, 2006 at 11:35 pm

    funny…the wall in my office is apple green as well!

  15. Tor Bollingmo said on: July 28th, 2006 at 12:11 am

    Great Mark, I’ve been a lurker for some time now ? and I hope you get to work on some major pro­jects in the future. You’ll do well.

  16. Egor said on: July 28th, 2006 at 12:59 am

    Con­grat­u­la­tions and best of luck!

  17. Rob Weychert said on: July 28th, 2006 at 3:38 am

    Con­grats and good luck, Mark! A tiny bit of advice: Main­tain­ing the sep­ar­a­tion between work and home is abso­lutely key. Keep that in mind from the begin­ning and you’ll be fine.

  18. Nathan said on: July 28th, 2006 at 4:31 am

    Con­grat­u­la­tions Mark!  I wish you all the best in the new phase of your career.  I know you’ll do great!

  19. Jonic said on: July 28th, 2006 at 4:31 am

    Con­grat­u­la­tions Mark! You’re a great designer and you obvi­ously know how to get work done, so I hope this works out for you. You’ve cer­tainly put in enough hours to deserve the success! 

    I’m sure you’ll let us all know how it goes, and I look for­ward to hear­ing about it.

    Good luck! :)

  20. Mike Stickel said on: July 28th, 2006 at 4:50 am

    Excel­lent news. Con­grat­u­la­tions on the momentus occasion!

  21. bernd said on: July 28th, 2006 at 6:41 am

    i only wish you the best. you will make your way, because you do a great job ;) 

    bernd

  22. Caspian said on: July 28th, 2006 at 7:49 am

    Good luck! I know the feel­ing. I too am leav­ing my job on the 26th, head­ing to back to the mother-country after giv­ing 5 years of my life to design in NZ and start­ing afresh. But, as they say out here, “She’ll be right,” and I am sure they know what they are talk­ing about.

  23. Ivan Brezak Brkan said on: July 28th, 2006 at 8:53 am

    I’ve happy for you and wish you lots of luck with your new busi­ness. I doubt you will have prob­lems get­ting pro­jects with your expert­ise and good busi­ness as well as design sense! In any case, have fun and good luck!

  24. r0sk said on: July 28th, 2006 at 10:24 am

    Good luck in your new busi­ness, I think it’s a good new for you :)

  25. acidsmile said on: July 28th, 2006 at 11:12 am

    Yeah Yo! Good move. 

    Can’t wait for the “Journal” bit of your move. It’s alright get­ting tips on how to be a freel­an­cer, but I can’t wait to see how it actu­ally pans out and the every day to day issues that crop up.

    All the best for the brave move. Don’t over­work your­self, just enjoy the ride :)

  26. Mark Boulton said on: July 28th, 2006 at 12:58 pm

    Thanks for all yor kind words every­one. It’s enough to make a grown man weep! Keep check­ing back for pro­gress, I’m determ­ined to doc­u­mentthe ride as thor­oughly as I can.

  27. Lauchlin said on: July 28th, 2006 at 1:09 pm

    Good luck with your new endeavor!  Tak­ing such a big step can be very scary, but you have the sup­port and exper­i­ence to make it!

  28. Veerle Pieters said on: July 28th, 2006 at 1:41 pm

    Con­grats Mark, You’ve got the tal­ent to make it work! Good luck and lots of fun :)

  29. Catherine Morley said on: July 28th, 2006 at 2:29 pm

    Excel­lent Mark. I’ll be look­ing for­ward to read­ing about your journey.

  30. Guy Carberry said on: July 28th, 2006 at 2:37 pm

    Good luck Mark! I remem­ber we spoke about this at @media. Great to hear you’re strik­ing it alone. I’m sure you’ll be a great suc­cess. We may have some work to pass your way and will make sure you’re in the ‘people to call on’ list.

  31. Reuben Whitehouse said on: July 28th, 2006 at 2:50 pm

    Woot!  Big con­grats, Mark!  Lookin for­ward to read­ing about the journey…

  32. Bruno said on: July 28th, 2006 at 3:03 pm

    Con­grats, love to see pic­tures of the new office!

  33. Mark Boulton said on: July 28th, 2006 at 3:07 pm

    Bruno: Well, Emma and I aare hop­ing to fin­ish it up this week­end. Carpet’s being fit­ted tomor­row, all the painting’s done, fur­niture bought and new fix­tures and fit­tings. Once I’ve got it all sor­ted, all be sure to post up some pho­tos. I have to warn you though, the green is pretty bright!

  34. Bruno said on: July 28th, 2006 at 3:11 pm

    My home office is blood red in 2 of the 4 walls so I know the feeling.

  35. Gabs said on: July 28th, 2006 at 4:45 pm

    Wel­come to the world of work­ing for no one..

    Been a while since pga ;)

  36. Fredrik W?rnsberg said on: July 28th, 2006 at 5:33 pm

    If I ever needed a web­job done, I’d either con­tact you or andy rut­ledge, you guys are the best ;)

  37. Lea said on: July 28th, 2006 at 5:44 pm

    Mark, you rock. This is such an excit­ing time, and I really hope to col­lab on a pro­ject with you one of these days. Congrats!

  38. James P said on: July 28th, 2006 at 8:04 pm

    Excel­lent! I wish you luck with your business. 

    I have no exper­i­ence but I definately think that sep­ar­at­ing work from nor­mal life by giv­ing your­self an ‘office’ space is a good move. It must be a really excit­ing exper­i­ence set­ting everything up.

  39. Aaron Gustafson said on: July 28th, 2006 at 8:05 pm

    Wel­come to the world of self-employment. Hav­ing just made the leap myself in Feb­ru­ary, I can empath­ize with the mixed feel­ings of sheer joy/sheer ter­ror. On the whole though, I’m really glad I did it and this com­munity does such a good job of sup­port­ing its mem­bers. I couldn’t ask for bet­ter col­leagues. Wel­come to the fold and shoot me a rate card while yer at it. 

    PS — I’m on my second green office. The first was more apple, this one’s a bit more sub­dued because it’s a bit darker in the basement.

  40. Mark Boulton said on: July 28th, 2006 at 9:02 pm

    Aaron: That is a nice, green office. I myself have only one green wall and the room is con­sid­er­ably smal­ler, but the hope is to move into a lar­ger green room in the near future ;). Rate card will be on email shortly…

  41. Kim Siever said on: July 28th, 2006 at 9:07 pm

    Oh, I wish I could. Good luck and congrats.

  42. wonderful electric said on: July 29th, 2006 at 12:36 am

    Good luck Mark, some employ­ers just don’t know when good staff are star­ing them in the face. Or bad staff, for that matter! 

    Shame you didn’t take my name sug­ges­tions though ;)

  43. Bob Easton said on: July 29th, 2006 at 1:24 pm

    BBC’s loss. 

    Won­der­ful move.  All the best for every success!

  44. Frankie Roberto said on: July 29th, 2006 at 5:51 pm

    Crikey, another per­son leav­ing the BBC… 

    Good luck in your new venture!

  45. Dan Rubin said on: July 30th, 2006 at 2:53 am

    Con­grats on mak­ing the leap—the BBC’s loss is every­one else’s gain :)

    I’ll join the “send me a rate card” group, as Alex and I are try­ing to increase our work­load over the next few months, and I’d love to be able to use you if the right pro­jects come along.

  46. Graham Sanders said on: July 30th, 2006 at 2:47 pm

    Hi Mark, you seem to be suf­fer­ing with an acute con­di­tion of ‘pat on the back syn­drome’ at the moment so I’ll put a tem­por­ary hold on my wishes of good will. You’ll be happy with that as I’m cur­rently suf­fer­ing with ele­phant­istis of the hands.

    Keep in touch and if you should need any point­ers for tem­por­ary freel­ance work in dear ol’ Kaird­iff town feel free free to give me a shout.

  47. Owen said on: July 30th, 2006 at 7:42 pm

    Good luck, Mark. I’ve no doubt that this is a great time to take the leap. Congratulations!

  48. Timothy Martens said on: July 31st, 2006 at 2:28 am

    Nice One Mark! I’m sure your mov­ing on to big­ger and bet­ter things.

  49. Leslie said on: July 31st, 2006 at 2:55 am

    Mark,

    on behalf of every­one at pMa­chine we wish you the abso­lute best! That Colly guy needs some good com­pet­i­tion anyway.

  50. Luke Stevens said on: July 31st, 2006 at 6:39 am

    Yeah all the best Mark, hav­ing just made the jump I can tell you its crazy, excit­ing, scary and lots and lots of fun :D

  51. Simon Clayson said on: July 31st, 2006 at 9:11 am

    Nice one. Good luck.

  52. Nathan Pitman said on: July 31st, 2006 at 9:29 am

    All the best Mark. It’s a decision that I doubt you will regret. :)

  53. James John Malcolm (AkaXakA) said on: July 31st, 2006 at 5:25 pm

    Excit­ing!

    Do well.

  54. Erwin Heiser said on: July 31st, 2006 at 6:07 pm

    Good luck, and as someone who’ll be tak­ing the plunge too one of these days I already look for­ward to the articles!

  55. Mark said on: August 1st, 2006 at 5:05 pm

    My future office will have one orange wall.

  56. Auntie Bev said on: August 1st, 2006 at 11:38 pm

    Hi Mark, I always fol­low your journal, so proud of how well you are doing.  I wish you lots of suc­cess in your new ven­ture.  I had a strange exper­i­ence on Fri­day night, I vis­ited a spir­itu­al­ist church, and was chosen by the medium, I was hop­ing for guid­ance with our situ­ation here.  But instead I was asked if I knew someone called Mark with a cel­eb­ra­tion or birth­day in May, I was dumb­struck, I said yes, and was told there is a lot of spir­itual heal­ing around you and that you are much loved and that all will be well.  Shut­tup, talk about spooky!!!

  57. x5 said on: August 2nd, 2006 at 3:10 pm

    Good luck!

  58. Monjurul Dolon said on: August 2nd, 2006 at 6:49 pm

    Best of luck on the new ven­ture, I look for­ward to read­ing a follow-up soon.  Will you be shar­ing your jour­ney as you go along?  I’m quite curi­ous as to how you’re mar­ket­ing and man­aging yourself.

  59. Big Warby said on: August 2nd, 2006 at 8:41 pm

    I know this will be a great move for you, mate.

    I don’t know if I could do it, with the con­stant tempta­tion of a fresh brew and Richard and Judy!

    Si

  60. Lee Wilson said on: August 2nd, 2006 at 9:16 pm

    Well done Mark, takes guts to make the move. I did too and I am so glad I did. It can be hard at times but soooooo rewarding. 

    All the best for the future. 

    Lee

  61. Thomas said on: August 3rd, 2006 at 4:37 pm

    wish you best of luck !

  62. Graham Sanders said on: August 3rd, 2006 at 4:46 pm

    C’mon Mark that’s enough now of this thread, there’s only so many nice com­ments and ‘spirtual head­ling’ a guy can take?

  63. prestiti said on: August 3rd, 2006 at 11:10 pm

    con­grats and good luck Mark !

  64. Daniel Eek said on: August 5th, 2006 at 8:54 am

    I’m look­ing for­ward to read about your new adven­ture as a freel­an­cer! Cheers!

  65. Andres Lopez Josenge said on: August 5th, 2006 at 10:11 pm

    Good Luck! | Buena Suerte!

  66. Damien said on: August 6th, 2006 at 5:38 am

    Con­grats mate, my Wife & I star­ted up on our own 2 years and at the time with no web exper­i­ence at all.  Its all going great now so stick with it and good luck.

  67. Alison said on: August 6th, 2006 at 6:33 pm

    Spooky.I was just read­ing your com­ments about refurbed imacs when I spot­ted this piece. I resigned from my Senior Art Dir­ector pos­i­tion two weeks ago to go freel­ance after a severe case of office-politics-itus. 

    My first offi­cial day of freel­an­cing is 21st August and I’m also scared as hell. Just wanted to share some solid­ar­ity. I’m also cur­rently busy buy­ing a new mac, sort­ing out my office at home and think­ing com­pany names etc. Hope it all goes well for you (and me!).

  68. Marko Mihelcic said on: August 7th, 2006 at 10:37 am

    Woo­hooo! :D

    All The best Mark!

    Good luck!

  69. Gabs said on: August 8th, 2006 at 1:40 pm

    C?mon Mark that?s enough now of this thread, there?s only so many nice com­ments and ?spirtual head­ling? a guy can take?

    lol… hehehehe

  70. Nick Clement said on: August 8th, 2006 at 3:22 pm

    Con­grats Mark,

    Go for it fella. Reap the rewards. Enjoy. 

    Take a look at http://www.6721.co.uk in Cardiff.

  71. Lisa McMillan said on: August 8th, 2006 at 7:18 pm

    All the best Mark! You have more than enough tal­ent to make this work. And clearly, you have a huge net­work of tal­en­ted people here to help you if you need it. 

    Can’t wait to see your suc­cess and new projects!

    I have some advice: Make sure you take care of your body k? If there’s any­thing I’ve learned, it’s that office ergo­nom­ics are worth invest­ing in. While you might not think a good chair is a worthy pur­chase, it really is. Work­ing for a com­pany, we don’t really have to worry about that stuff, but work­ing at home we totally do.

  72. Ben Bishop said on: August 15th, 2006 at 10:51 am

    Good luck Mark. I have been read­ing this blog for a while and really enjoy it. I am eagerly await­ing the ‘blow by blow’ account!

  • Me

    Hello. My name is Mark Boulton. I’m a designer, an author, a speaker and I run a small design agency where we work with lovely cli­ents and pub­lish books as we go. This is my blog.

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