A Day in the Life with Erica Hartwick
Location: Palmerston North, New Zealand
Started using Squarespace: 2017
Title: Freelance Web Designer, Template Creator, and Founder, Big Cat Creative
For Erica Hartwick, no two work days are the same. The Big Cat Creative founder prioritizes a healthy work-life balance while managing a design studio that creates beautiful Squarespace website templates for modern entrepreneurs and savvy creatives. Big Cat Creative teaches businesses how to launch professional, beautiful websites without the cost of custom design or the complexity of doing it alone.
Through their templates, trainings, and resources, Big Cat Creative empowers business owners to build a business that gives them more freedom, flexibility, and fulfillment. For Erica, that freedom means waking up without an alarm, enjoying slow mornings in her garden, and prioritizing her afternoon gym sessions.
Check out a day in Erica’s life and see her top advice for web designers.
Erica’s schedule
7:00 AM: I wake up whenever the sun starts to come up. Luckily for me, I don’t have to wake up to an alarm every day! Then I spend about 30 minutes on my phone, checking messages, emails, and, of course, to see if any sales came in overnight (it’s always good to wake up to!)—and maybe reading a bit while I gather the oomph to actually get out of bed.
7:30 AM: I head to the back door to go stand outside in the garden and breathe in some fresh air first thing. And to say good morning to the birds, of course! This doesn’t last as long as it should…
7:31 AM: Ten I’m straight to the kitchen for my morning cacao and some breakfast. It’s usually accompanied by a podcast or something on YouTube in the background—relaxing or good vibes in the morning only, maybe a funny pod or a good ole interior design before and after video.
8:00 AM: I head into my home office and check ClickUp to see what I have on my list of to-dos for today. I also check Slack to see if the team needs anything from me, and I check my emails and see what tasks need action there. Between those three things, I can map out what my day is going to look like. I get everything I need to do today written down in ClickUp so I can start checking things off!
8:30 AM: Today, I spend 30 minutes of the morning reviewing some blog posts my team has written and provide feedback. This month, we’re working on: “How to Transfer from WordPress to Squarespace” and “How to Add an Email Sign-up Form to your Squarespace Site.” Any feedback is sent and the team will tweak, finalize, and schedule!
9:00 AM: I work through my personal emails and make sure all bills are paid, appointments are scheduled, and the household Google Calendar is up to date—I swear running an adult life is like a part-time job sometimes.
9:30 AM: On my schedule today is updating a bunch of the Squarespace tutorials and resources that come with our Squarespace templates. I make sure my drink bottle is full, do-not-disturb is on, office door is closed, and I lock in to full concentration mode—cue “Focus Flow” playlist on Spotify. I work my way through the “branding” module, checking written resources are all up to date, making any changes to the flow of the content, and tweaking any video tutorials.
12:30 PM: Time to get up and eat again! I head to the kitchen, make a salad, fill up my water, put on a pod and plonk myself down in a sunny spot for lunch. And then a cup of tea, and, of course, a little sweet treat.
1:30 PM: Back at the computer again to finalize anything I was working on before my hunger interrupted me. I spend the next hour reviewing my resources updates work so far, making sure it’s all being tracked in ClickUp, assigning tasks to anything the team can do, making a list of things still to do, and wrapping up this project for the day so when I pick it up next time, I know where I left off.
2:30 PM: I head off to the gym so I can feel like I actually moved my body a bit today. This always makes me feel better and gives me an energy boost to make it through the rest of the afternoon.
4:00 PM: I pop back on the computer for a while, but by this time of the day, I usually don’t have any intentions to get into (or back into) any big projects. I check Slack to see if my team needs anything. Today, it’s a monthly marketing round-up message with any red flags, wins, and some suggested marketing changes for next month. I read through that thoroughly, reply, and work on adding anything actionable to ClickUp, ensuring everyone is assigned and due dates are set.
5:00 PM: I stop work for the day (definitely not every day, but most!) and spend the next few hours on household tasks. Resetting the house (e.g., clearing all of the cups from my office), making dinner, usually a bit of brainless scrolling on TikTok or Facebook Marketplace, reading my book, and making sure I hit that 10:00 PM bed time—yes, I sleep a lot!
Erica's top advice for web designers
Hey designer! Guess what? You really don’t need to redesign your own brand and site for the fifth time this year. I know, it’s so tempting. But the reality is, no one looks at your site as much as you! Just because you’re sick of looking at it— and feel like it needs a refresh—doesn’t mean anyone else is. So next time you look at your site and mentally start planning a complete makeover (it’s in your blood, I know), try to remember this. Spend the time instead doing things like…
Create templates or digital products. If you don’t have any sort of digital product to sell alongside your web design services yet, I’d highly recommend it! It can add just that little bit extra of income to your business and help things feel easier in between finding clients. Whether it’s website templates, branding templates, social templates, or any other sort of design-based templates. There’s endless things you could sell! Just make sure to create something for your existing audience (if you already have a following) because then you don’t have to start marketing from scratch. Your buyers are already there.
Get your processes and systems down to a tee. Whether it’s your client processes or even just your internal management of day-to-day tasks, create streamlined systems, document them, and rinse and repeat. This makes running a business so much more efficient, saves you time and mistakes, and will really help if you’re managing a team.
Want more?
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