Life, freelancing & advice from
Ryan Gibson

Hey! I'm Ryan. I used to run subscription businesses within the educational space generating over 12 million organic visits a year. Having recently sold the company (May 2021) I'm now writing content about my life, running business, where I live and spending time with my family. Browse by interest point below or by date published.

Life Freelance Yorkshire Family Activities Health & Fitness

Turning down clients for ethical & professional integrity reasons

Reading Time: 3 minutes

With freelancing comes choice. A choice to decide what time of the day you work, where you work, and how you work. There is also the more important issue of ‘who you work with’.  I’ve already written about turning down a potential client but I haven’t yet touched upon turning down clients on ethical & professional integrity grounds.

Throughout my time in full time employment I turned down the opportunity to work with a number of companies across multiple industries & sectors because ethically it just didn’t sit right with me.

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Don’t strive to be the best. Be good enough

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Whether it’s in your home life, social life or work life; the strive for perfection is usually a steep climb without a peak. A tunnel without any light at the end.

Many battle with the notion that it’s not worth doing unless it’s the ‘best’. Our consumption of social media and the perfect ideology means we constantly self critique and analyse our own accomplishments. Never satisfied we seek something which perhaps is not attainable.

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2016 Business & Life Review

Reading Time: 6 minutes

2016 was a step into the unknown for me on many levels. A new addition to our family, a house move, relying financially on my educational business, and the building of a freelance business. I certainly haven’t had an easy year.

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Business Name vs Own Name

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Anybody making the transition to self employment has most probably toyed with the decision whether to use their own name or a business name.

I briefly once operated under a business name however the best decision I made was operating under my own name. This goes against all conventional wisdom and ‘guru’ advice. Ultimately there’s no right or wrong answer.

When making the decision I initially sat down and ‘defined’ my goals as a freelancer and self employment in general. Freelancing is approximately 40% of my working week alongside my other business interests so I wanted a solution which worked across both avenues. You may want to do the same.

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Why my business will always be home based

Reading Time: 4 minutes

If I had a pound for every remote working article I have read this week then I would be a rich man. Remote working & working from home articles are a plenty. Drop into Medium and as you flick through you may manage to read three in one session (I don’t get this sentence?)

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Why a coworking space didn’t work for me

Reading Time: 4 minutes

“The whole idea of coworking is to bring bright, creative people together and let the ideas collide”

Often with things in life you have a vision of what it is going to be. Essentially until that one thing becomes a reality you never stray from that vision.

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