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I had a lovely weekend away in Dorset visiting my fiance's nan and husband. We went for lots of long walks by the sea and my fiance and I did a lot of talking, mainly about the future and what it may hold. We also talked a lot about me and my business and my joint blog with Nikki. 

Nikki and I have decided we want to create a new fresh blog with a new name and new exciting content. We feel we need to change and grow, I think it's all part of business you shouldn't stay in one place, you should move forward and hopefully on to better things. I am doing the same for my own business Naomi Designs. After talking with Matt (my fiance) I feel refreshed and excited again I am going to re-do my 5 year plan and start making some new plans. After a year of doing freelance illustration part time I am starting to gain confidence and feel I have learnt so much. I had help though from friends and the following three books.

My friend Niki Whittle (personal stylist, she set up her own business a few years ago and is doing amazingly well, you can visit her site here) gave me a fantastic book which helps you step by step to create a business plan. Its called 'Start your business week by week' by Steve Parks you can find it here.

The second book is just amazing, it's especially good for creatives, it's called 'Creative Inc' by Meg Mateo Ilasco and Joy Deangdeelert Cho. I love the design and the content is great, there are lots of case studies which offer really good advice. you can find details here.  There is also a cool little video to go with the book.

The third I have mentioned before it's called 'Writers and Artists Yearbook' It's packed full of advice from all sorts of people running there own freelance careers it also has up to date listings of newspaper, magazines, agencies and card companies which is just indispensable information. Which you can find here.

If you are thinking of staring your own business in the creative world, then I highly recommend these 3 books. They really helped me to order my chaotic mind and gave me a great starting point. - Nai

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