Welcome one and all! As I write this, Azalea Design Co. has been open for five months and it is beyond crazy to me how quickly that time has passed.

 

Here I am in the luxury of my home with the freedom to structure my days as I please and to constantly explore any creative pursuit. Nobody can tell me what I can and can’t do, what is and isn’t possible or how much I am worth. That is all up to me and let me tell you, it is liberating!

For three years I worked in Administration. (I know it doesn’t sound like a long time but believe me it was 2 years and 9 months too long for me) I had come out of college at 18 having studied creative subjects like Drama, Media & Photography, meaning I had lived two very creative years to suddenly be put behind a desk five days a week 9-5 basically organising papers.

During that time I was desperate to figure out the question that weighed me down and followed me around ‘What do I want to do with my life?‘

 

Bottom line is, I didn’t have the foggiest clue, I just knew that I needed it to be creative. Problem is I didn’t have certain qualifications or work experience to be able to attain a job in that field, nor was getting experience easy to do where I live and I didn’t have a specific direction to be able to get those certain qualifications. It was literally swings and roundabouts.

So to try and find my direction in life I took so many personality tests that told you the most compatible jobs, I researched into different types of creative jobs, I raided through job vacancies in my area and applied for whatever seemed less constrictive. You name it, I tried doing it to find the answer to that dreaded question that everyone was asking. I felt so lost. It seemed that everyone around me knew what path they wanted to take; they were either studying it at university or getting the experiences whilst my mind was running around in circles and I was stuck in a job that I didn’t see a future in.

I was stuck in this daily cycle of:

• waking up at 7am for a daily routine

• getting to work and trying to find new ways to pass the time

• making endless amounts of teas and coffees for everyone

• answering everyone else’s phone calls

• counting down the time

• getting thrown some of the worst jobs (obviously because of the corporate job hierarchy)

• sitting around still watching the clock

• wracking my brain for that all precious answer

• getting frustrated for not knowing the answer (unluckily Google couldn’t help me with that one)

• daydreaming about a more freeing life

• and then being the first one to run home just to be faced with it all again the next day.

 

Don’t get me wrong, I tried to settle this creative heart with different projects in my spare time but being a part-time creative wasn’t good enough for me. Until one day my best friend showed me this advert she had seen on Facebook and it is crazy to think that that advert changed my life.

It was a community of women who quit their 9-5 jobs to start their own business whilst travelling the world. The Bucketlist Bombshells – Work Online, Travel the World & Live Creatively.

 

I was shown a whole different way of living and I wanted to be a part of it. I realised that I had spent so many years trying to find this, this was my answer, this is what I wanted and I felt the biggest weight being lifted off of my shoulders.

 

If so many other people can live this life rather than the standardised life that society has built, then so can I.

I took the Design course whilst working my 9-5 job and it gave me the confidence I needed to start my business. I remember going back to my daily routine feeling excitement and hope for the future that I could create as opposed to the dread and resentment of someone else telling me how I should live my life and how much I was worth.

So Azalea Design Co. was in its prepping stages. It did take a long time deciding on the name, I must admit it is not an easy job. I decided on the name Azalea Design Co. as it felt the most personal to me as ‘Azalea’ it is almost a anagram of my name and I connected with it. Also, Azalea is a flower so I wanted my business’s mission to help other entrepreneurs to bloom. I wanted to encourage them to chase their dreams and visually bring their ideas to life.

 

Azalea is for the goal setters, the dreamers & the over achievers. The ones who dare to believe in their future success.

 

 

 

I wanted to create this blog to share my story of being a business owner and the issues and successes I encounter along the way. I will also be sharing tips and advice on how to build a visually effective and cohesive business from a brand strategist and web designer perspective.

So stay tuned and subscribe to our mailing list!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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