Is freelancing a hustle-culture sham?

When I went freelance full-time to write Culture Study, I had no idea what I was doing. NONE. It took me several years — and encouragement from my accountant and other writers — to begin thinking of what I was doing as a small business. And it took me several years after that to understand how small businesses, especially small creative businesses, have to figure out strategies to fend off burnout in order to, well, stay in it for the long haul. We have to make our creative work and our business practices sustainable.

Printmaker and textile artist Jen Hewett was one of the first people I saw talking frankly about what it's like to run a creative small business — the stuff that takes way too much time, the stuff that's super annoying, how she budgets and takes time off and deals with eldercare and divides her days and weeks and years. We loved answering all your questions about SMALL BUSINESS LYFE — balancing the 'business' with the 'creative,' how to think about social media promotion, how to protect a hobby from becoming a business — and I can't wait to talk more in the comments.

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Side Note: We're experimenting with producing our own (very imperfect) transcripts. You can find it here.

If there's enough demand, we might consider putting in the not insignificant labor to make these super readable — but for now, they're a backup to the podcast, not a replacement for it.

Thanks to the sponsors of today’s episode!

• Visit AuraFrames.com and get $45 off Aura's best-selling Carver mat frames by using promo code CULTURE at checkout

• Support local bookstores and get 10% off your next purchase at Bookshop.org with code CULTURE

• If you're in the market for a beautiful new sofa, dining table, or bed, check out the beautiful, long-lasting options at Article.com

• Go to WildAlaskan.com/CULTURE for $35 off your first box of premium, wild-caught seafood

Show Notes:

• Follow Jen Hewett on Instagram (she is SUCH a good follow)

• Jen's Reimagined Landscape Fabric Collection just came out AND IT IS EXQUISITE

• Learn more about Jen's work here

We're currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:

• WEIRD ENGLISH WORDS (where do they come from!) with Colin Gorrie, who writes explainers like this one on the word DOG

• Questions About How to Respond When People Ask/React To the Knowledge That You're Not Having Kids

• How Did Everyone Low-Key Become an Influencer? AKA How do you see influencer posting logic creeping into non-influencer accounts

• The Wild Largely Unregulated World of IVF

• Audiobooks!!! (with MVP audiobook narrator Julia Whelan)

• Anything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segment. You can ask about anything, it’s literally the name of the segment

• As always, you can submit your questions (and ideas for future eps) here

For this week’s discussion: I'd love to hear about your own experiences (and challenges) running a small business!