My Life vs The Economy

The economy has been on my mind since the word ‘recession’ became a regular feature in the news. As a positive person, I’ve been upbeat, but I have pondered if my optimism could be seen as hedging my bets on an unrealistic illusion. Will the economy affect me, my business and my happiness in a negative way?

To understand the relationship between my life, my business and what the economy is doing, I needed to visualise it. So here is what I have learnt by mapping my happiness to GDP and the unemployment rate for the past 15 years. Nalla has been running for 12 of those.?

Fig 1: An artistic interpretation of the gross domestic product (GDP) and the unemployment rate (UK), seasonally adjusted. For the data geeks, ONS is the GDP and employment rates source. You can geek out more here.

2009

After a stint at SomeOne, I was hired to work at The Partners, the most awarded branding agency globally at the time? (the firm no longer exists after it merged into Superunion in 2018). It fitted well with my solid ambitions and was one of those agencies I dreamt about working for as a student. I felt pretty darn happy and had that ‘I have made it’ vibe. Then to top it off, my boyfriend proposed - as the chart shows, this was a good year.

Happiness score (0 being low, 10 being elated) = 10

GDP dips, Unemployment rate rises

2010?

My father died suddenly and unexpectedly in May 2010; I was 28 at the time, and his funeral was eight weeks before I was due to get married. This absolutely shattered me; I’d never felt this low before. I spent many days trying to find the energy to get out of bed, consumed with brain fog. One day I was so unaware I accidentally cleaned my entire flat with fly-killer, not furniture polish, the icing on the cake. This led to me resigning from my job, which I had worked so hard to get, as I felt I wasn’t worth my salary.

Happiness score (0 being low, 10 being elated) = beyond low -15

GDP rises , Unemployment rate rises

2011

Having taken an extended break from working life and with the support of a bereavement councillor and my new husband, I decided my passion for design outweighed my nervousness about getting another design job. But something changed in me I started to grow a bit of a f**k it attitude and decided to work for myself (this quickly became Nalla). On reflection, this was half based on a positive outlook and half on the fear of not being good enough to work in an agency. Nalla became fully functioning in 2011 with me and an intern (who’s outstandingly talented and still with me as my right-hand woman today, heading up the design team); we had some great clients pretty swiftly.

Happiness score (0 being low, 10 being elated) = 5

GDP slightly decreases , Unemployment rates decrease

2016?

The business growth was steady and stable for the past few years. I was still designing, running the business and line managing everyone. However, my home life was a total mess. My work-life balance was non-existent, and another family loss, with my father-in-law passing away from cancer, meant things were going into freefall in my marriage. The pressure had gotten to both of us, and we were pretty broken.

Happiness score (0 being low, 10 being elated) = - 7

GDP slightly increases, Unemployment rate stabilises

2017

It was a good year - the year started with my relationship being back on solid ground and strengthened through the marriage counselling we had; we also moved from a flat to a house in London. I felt on a total high after Nalla smashed a 1M revenue. I was flying to Dubai first class with Emirates to see clients, work was flowing in, margins were great, and I had invested in a five-year lease for a fabulous new studio for us to grow into.?

Happiness score (0 being low, 10 being elated) = 10

GDP remains stable, Unemployment rates decrease

2018

The beginning of the year started with a high as I fell pregnant for the first time. But it very quickly went sour; with a business still very dependent on its sole female founder, we quickly discovered that a pregnant woman in a pitch was not going to win the project. Our win rate plummeted, and the business revenue literally fell off a cliff; we knew what was going on, but it wasn’t talked about.? We did have one very honest prospect who said, “We really want to work with Nalla, but we feel you are the one that really gets us but we’re nervous as your pregnant and can’t be on the project for the entire time” this allowed us to have an honest conversation about it with them and within the studio as a whole.?

We lost 60% of our revenue that year, and at seven months pregnant, I had to make 4 of the team redundant, and I lost a lot of money.?

Happiness score (0 being low, 10 being elated) = - 5

GDP remains stable , Unemployment rates decrease

2019?

My daughter was born in September 2018, and there was an urgent need to be back in the saddle as soon as possible, yet balance this with being an actual human who needs rest and not burnout. So I came back when she was four months old with the support of our wonderful mums, who were both now widows and superhumans who drove to London to look after the baby while I worked and gave me so much ‘you can do it support’ I think I would have closed the business without them. By the end of 2019, we were back to decent growth again, and it was very much a case of getting up after being knocked down.

Happiness score (0 being low, 10 being elated) = 7

GDP remains stable, Unemployment rates stabilises

2020

Ugh – we all know how this goes! For Nalla, business was actually steady; we had a lot of projects cancelled however, we still managed to flatline rather than decline with growth of 3%, which is still a win mid-pandemic! Although the business was stable, my mum was diagnosed with cancer and needed a big op and daily radiotherapy right in the middle of the first wave of the pandemic. It was overall a shit year, but there were some moments of magic – like driving on the M25 and being the only one on there was surreal.?

Happiness score (0 being low, 10 being elated) = 0

The economy crashes, Unemployment rates rise

2022

This year saw a total overhaul and significant investment in the business, hiring a director-level team and moving to a new studio. Most of this year was about getting set up for supercharging Nalla’s growth for the coming years and getting the right players onto the pitch! I had finally managed to strike the right work-life balance, and we raised a glass to celebrate my mum being cancer free.

Happiness score (0 being low, 10 being elated) = 9

GDP increases, Unemployment rates decrease

2023

I’m feeling very upbeat about 2023. If there is one thing I have learnt through this analysis is that the state of the economy is not the sole contributor to how I feel about what I achieve both professionally as founder of Nalla and personally as I focus on my family and friends.?

This exercise has taught me that business goes up and down; you have great years and bad years, and to date, it's not necessarily mirrored the economy all bar the 2020 pandemic. So, I will keep an optimistic outlook, learn from my past mistakes and keep jumping into the unknown - best foot forward. I hope this exercise has helped ease anyone's nerves about 2023 and its forecasting!