It’s Thursday, 15:22 and I’m in a classroom with a group of 13 year olds in front of me who are currently making Christmas songs using GarageBand on iPads. Thursdays have been like this for many years (unless it happens to be the school holidays). 19 years, in fact, is how long I’ve been making my living from teaching.
But today is the last Thursday of a full day of lessons. My Thursdays from now on will be in my control, no longer dictated by a literal timetable or classes of teenagers appearing at my door.
I left full-time teaching two and a half years ago, but have kept a part-time role while I’ve steadily turned my work on its head.
Almost three years ago, aged 38, I made the decision to turn my passion of interior design into my work. I’d learned a lot through renovating our homes over the years and I believed I might be able to make it into a business which would allow me to eventually step away from teaching - the only career I’d ever known.
I left a very busy Director of Music position in July 2023 and exchanged it for a part-time teaching role in a more local school which would allow me to build my interior design business and take some courses when I wasn’t teaching.
And that’s what I’ve been doing for the past two years. What I didn’t expect was that I would also discover my passion for writing, start making a podcast and meet some incredibly inspiring people along the way, all of which would give me a renewed zest for life.
The past couple of years have felt like I’ve been gradually breaking free from a pathway that was set for me a long time ago.
And now I’ve taken the next step. A rather big one.
After the Christmas holidays, I won’t be returning at all to the classroom. Instead I am going to be 100% self employed and dedicating all of my working time to my interior design consultancy business and writing. My business. I had to write that twice because it still makes me excited to think about it in that way.
I needed to write this piece and share another milestone on this journey that I first began to document back in the late summer of 2023. Writing has, I suppose, been a form of therapy to help me to make sense of these big work and life changes. I’ve been working towards creating a life that I want and I have chosen, rather than simply following a well-trodden path that seems safe and straightforward.
Right now I feel 65% excited and keen to see what adventures await me in 2026 but also about 35% terrified that I won’t make enough money to pay my share of the mortgage and bills. I started to write the reasons I’m terrified in a list and it turned out that was the only thing I could think of that I was terrified of.
Finance-wise, I have put aside some money as an ‘emergency fund’ to dip into if I absolutely need to in the early part of 2026.
Something I’ve learned is that making change doesn’t happen overnight or even quickly and when we put too great expectations on ourselves, we set ourselves up to fail. I don’t want that. I want to be honest and realistic, but also kind to myself.
I’ve told a few of my older students what I’m going to be doing after leaving teaching and they have all said without fail “wow, that’s so cool!”. Clearly I’m not doing this for validation from 16 year olds, but it’s an interesting reaction which is lovely to hear.
Writing has been a challenge for me over these past few weeks and I wonder if perhaps that’s because I’ve had so many things going on in my head that I’ve found it hard to focus on exactly what it is I want to say.
Standing in that classroom during the final half an hour of my last year 9 lesson started to give me clarity. I was waiting for it to come to an end and then I would know what to say. Here I am saying it.
During the past three months I’ve been getting myself as organised as possible for January and this new chapter, both in terms of work and how I want to live.
How I’ve been preparing for entry into my self-employed era
📒 Stationery: no self-respecting 40-year old woman can be without good stationery, especially when she is about to launch herself into full time business running mode. So, I’ve treated myself to a Circle Planner. I’m genuinely so excited for this to arrive…
🌊 Cornwall Writing Retreat: In late January I’m going on a four-day writing retreat where I’ll have my own little cabin by the sea in Cornwall. I plan to make further progress on my book and the proposal as well as having some reflection time. My circle planner will almost certainly be travelling with me.
❌ 100 rejections challenge: earlier this year Helen Ridley told me about this idea where you create a spreadsheet tracking everything you put yourself forward for/enter/pitch with the aim of 100 rejections. Of course, the reality of this is that it’s quite likely that at least a few of those 100 will not turn out to be rejections. And that has been true for me! The best one of those so far was my application for the Hatch Incubator Programme (also a recommendation from Helen), and I found out on Friday that I have been accepted onto this programme from January 🥳.
🌍 Website: I still design and update my website myself using Wix and I’m always tinkering around with it and learning new skills along the way. For a while now I’ve had a plan in my head for a more in-depth remote interior design service and I’ve finally added a new page and booking calendar for it on my website. You can learn more about it here: Renovation Roadmap please do book or share with anyone you think might be interested!
📈 Marketing: In the summer when interviewing a guest on my podcast, I was recommended a marketing programme which involved just 10 minutes of work per day. It sounded interesting, but I fairly quickly forgot about it. A month or so later I saw it recommended again by someone else on Instagram and my interest was peaked for a second time. I delved deeper and decided to give it a go. It was £90 for 90 days and also seemed like good timing for me in terms of working towards my January goal.
I can honestly say it has been the best £90 I’ve spent in a long time! These 10 minute daily tasks and the community that comes with it are wonderful and I’ve signed up for another 90 days from 1st January. Honestly, if you have a small business or even a side project you’d like to get better at marketing, I cannot recommend this enough. My Instagram stats have 🚀. If you’d like to sign up or find out more, click here (this is an affiliate link so I will earn a small amount if you decide to sign up, but I don’t think you will regret it!)
💷 Money: I’ve been working hard to get all of my finances in order and as the interior design work has been steadily increasing I needed to become much clearer on what was going where. In the process, I opened a new business bank account with Tide. I’ve had it for a couple of months now and I like it. The app is easy to use with a linked savings account and if I ever needed it I could get a card reader for payments. If you’re on the lookout for something like this (and you’re based in the UK), we can each get £100 if you sign up and enter my code: 23GJOA
It can be entered either during the sign-up process or retrospectively on the app within one week of opening the account. More info here.
🗺️ Self Care: I’m so aware that being self-employed can lead to burnout as much as a stressful salaried job (such as being a teacher, for example 😳) and so I am determined to remain in control of my time and energy. In mid-January, me and my husband are going to France for a week - part holiday, part working-from-somewhere-different. I am SO excited to be able to go away in January; something I’ve never been able to do before!
I’ll be writing more for my paid subscribers before Christmas, but this is the last Chez Hanny free post for 2025. I appreciate all of you here very much and especially those who pay to read my words. Every penny helps keep me on this journey and I am very grateful.
I’d love you to share this email/post with anyone you know who is thinking about or currently going through a career change.
Wishing you a restful Christmas and I will see you in January!
Hannah x
p.s. I’m running the final Early Bird Writers’ Hour on Friday at 6:30am for paid subscribers. Hope to see you there!
I'm also going to be 100% self employed in January having been juggling it with a part time job so I really resonate with this post! Congratulations and good luck 🎉
Your post fizzes with energy Hannah. I love change, it revitalises me and that's the impression I'm getting about you. I feel sure you will embrace this new life with thoughtful, stealthy progress - I can't imagine you hurtling in without a plan - and you will be successful of that I have no doubt.