The Indie Biz Sundae - What does it take to Keep Going in small business

To keep myself motivated and share experiences with others I am a member of several different business groups.

One of the most colourful of these is the Indie Roller Group, set up by indie biz champ Leona Thriftola to support and nurture small business talent. As part of joining her kickstarter campaign at the end of last year I gained access to a full year's membership of the online community and so many amazing resources including the Indie Roller Handbook.

My first exercise from the book was to take the words 'Keep Going' and create something that I felt resonated with me.

For me, I juggle my self employed business life with parenting my brilliant 5 year old, and dealing with the challenges that living with chronic health conditions (Endometriosis and Hypothyroidism) can cause. People with chronic health conditions often refer to themselves as 'Spoonies' so I added my 'Keep Going' text to the spoon of the Sundae, a reminder that you only have so many spoons (energy) per day, and can only do what you can until the spoons run out, then it's time to recharge and rest before keeping going again.

I wanted to show how much goes on behind the scenes, I think sometimes it can be hard to get across the care and love and many many roles that we take on a self employed makers and creators, all behind the sweet veneer of an Instagram post. It's also so important to acknowledge the areas of our lives out with our business life, the family, the friendships, our health, our goals and dreams. All essential to us creating the lives we want, doing something that we love and inspiring others along the way.

I hope you like my drawing, I made it on my iPad Pro with my Apple Pencil which I blimmin love. I was loaded with the cold and heavily fatigued but it made me feel so much better to create something fun. I've also added a black and white version below that you can download to fill or colour in for yourself, hope you enjoy!