Happy New Year, Reader, I truly hope you've had a wonderful, healthy, restful beginning to the year.

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It's my business birthday! Perfect time for a walk down memory lane.

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Well, last Wednesday was the official biz birthday date, but I was on the beach on the Argentine coast and barely opened my laptop. Hooray for that hazy, sleepy week in between Christmas and New Years, I love it.

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Four years ago on December 28, I quit my agency job and jumped into full-time self-employment.

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We often use words like "leap" or "jump" to talk about transitioning into freelancing but my transition was more like...

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...a sloooow stroll into the world of self-employment.

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2018 is when I officially celebrated the beginning of my business, but in reality I had started to build up my freelance clientele 3 years before, in 2015.

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Because it was just a side hustle, I had no pressure on my freelance work, and could take on any clients that sounded interesting, without the pressure to support myself with that income.

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From 2015 to 2018, I was working full-time at an advertising agency here in Buenos Aires as a copywriter.

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And on the side, I:

• Wrote a website for a cooking startup that aimed to be "the Airbnb of cooking classes"
• Wrote an assortment of food and travel articles about Buenos Aires
• Wrote an article for National Geographic Travel (to this day, I think this is still one of my favorite assignments)
• Wrote some random pieces of copy about random things all over the map. Like biophotonic weed jars and Paralympic athletes and period tracker apps and leadership courses. I did pretty much anything to gain experience.

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I knew I didn't want to work at the ad agency forever, but I also wasn't in a hurry to leave.

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I figured I'd stay as long as I felt like I was learning and growing as a copywriter, but the minute I got bored, I'd start making plans to leave.

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The work wasn't exactly soul-feeding. We were writing marketing emails for corporate brands like United Airlines and Coca Cola.

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I got to write lines like "Earn miles as you explore the unknown" and "Unlock 50,000 bonus miles with this special offer." And I'd walk through the airport and see signs that my friends and I had written.

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It was fun, but not a dream job.

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What made the job so wonderful was my team. I had a great boss who gave me great feedback and helped me grow as a writer.

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And I worked with four other women who are still some of my best friends today.

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When I started feeling the urge to leave the agency, I made a deal with myself: if I could earn my full-time salary three months in a row through freelancing, I would quit.

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So four years ago on December 28th, I walked into the Argentine post office and sent the official "I quit" paperwork, and got beers with my writer friends to celebrate.

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It was pretty unexciting, and also not as terrifying as I expected.

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Four years later, I've defined my business as a SaaS and tech copywriter. I define my style as "human, conversational copy that connects with people."

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I'm still loving it.

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Things I'm loving about being a business owner, four years in:

• Having the freedom to tinker with my business and change things often
• Getting to know my clients over months and years, and make a tangible impact on their businesses
• Being able to work remotely from Boston (or anywhere) and visit my family a lot
• Collaborating with talented writers, editors, and designers
• Being in control of how much I earn — that's exciting
• Defining seasons — getting to slow down or speed up work depending on what's going on my life
• Creating my own schedule — and tweaking it constantly

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It's also been freaking challenging at times. There have been many tears.

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Víctor, my partner, has been my most trusted advisor over the years. He has patiently listened and watched me grow so much through the roller coaster that is growing a business.

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And. And I'm so lucky. I love what I do, I get to work with clients who are creating products and services that help solve real problems to make other people's lives better. It's the best.

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I'm so grateful to my clients, my team members, my collaborators, and everyone who's helped me over the years. Thanks for being here.

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Here's to another year. LFG!

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Take care of yourself,

Annie