It’s been a very hard year

27 November 2025

Unlike many places in the tech sector, my company, Set Studio/Pikalilli, has no outside funding. bootstrap I think that’s what the LinkedIn people say.

It’s been a tough year this year. A Very Difficult year. I guess someone innocent would blame it All On the seemingly industry-wide attitude of “AI can do it for us.” Although it certainly hasn’t helped that – as I see it – it’s been a tough year because of a combination of lackluster economies, tariffs,. Even more Political instability and severe cost of living crisis. In my opinion, it has been a very similar year to 2020.

Why am I writing this? All of the above has had a really negative impact on us this year. Landing the project for Set Studios has been extremely difficult, especially for us Will not done From an ethical perspective, work on product marketing for AI content, but huge Most inquiries have been made for precisely that. Our reputation is everything, so associating with that technology quickly shows us what it is In fact This would be a terrible move in the long term. I personally wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing that I too have contributed to this.

We create really well designed websites and design systems that actually work For And with People. We share our knowledge and experience through a ton of free content on Piccalilli, funded by premium courses to keep the lights on. We do not include in our content annoying advertisements from companies in which you have no interest.

I have talked about myself Dream For us to run Piccalilli full time and oh my god, it could still happen. for him To However it happens, we really needed this Black Friday period to be as good, if not better, than it was last year. So far, unfortunately that’s not happening, but there’s still time.

I get it, money is very tight this year and companies are not investing as much in employees with training budgets as they did. We actually tried to circumvent this a bit earlier that year by testing the community funding model that I outlined I’m tired of making the rich richer And we also started publishing some content.

it went down unbelievably OK, but when the pressure was on, we were left far behind in terms of funding support. As I say, we are not investing investors’ money, so without support on Open Collective, no matter how much we lost, we had to pull the plug. It’s really a shame – it happens Incredible – But then again, I take itthere is money tight,

This is not my post; That’s not how I roll. This post is meant to give some context to what I’m going to ask next and how I’m trying to deal with difficult times. I’m asking people to help We So we try to help everyone we can, whether it’s with web projects that actually work for people or continuing to produce extremely high-quality education content. Here are some ways you can do this.

You’ll see messages like “This is the most important time of the year for us” and that’s extremely true. To break the fourth wall a bit, it’s rarer than you think for people to buy courses at full price. Often, discount events are what keep the lights on.

We’ve launched two courses this year – JavaScript for Everyone and Mindful Design – which sit alongside my course, Complete CSS, which we launched last year. I know you’re probably burnt out Nonsense courses in the past, but these three courses are far from that. I promise.

I cannot emphasize enough how excess Matt (JavaScript for Everyone) and Scott (Mindful Design) have taken these courses this year. Both of these are elite individuals with incredible reputations and have shared a seemingly impossible amount of extremely high quality knowledge in their courses. I would definitely recommend giving them your time and support as they will really change you for the better. For owners reading this, all three courses will pay for themselves tenfold – especially when you take advantage of the huge discounts – trust me.

Share our courses and our studio with your network

Many of you have already purchased the course and I am forever grateful for that. I can’t stand the term “social proof” but it works. People may be on the fence about taking a course, and seeing a peer talking about how great it was could be the difference.

You may think that it is not appropriate for people to post about courses on social media must see thisEspecially on platforms like BlueSky with their custom feeds. We see it too!

testimonials are Always Welcome because we can pop them on the same course marketing pages as me.

In terms of sharing studios, if you think we’re good, post about it! it’s all about eyes And good words. We will do the rest.

We’re really good at what we do! I know every studio/agency says this, but we’re different. Were In fact apart.

We won’t charge you for shoddy work – just deploy a small portion of our team, as many agencies do. I set up this studio to be the opposite of these methods – and I will say this out loud – Charlatans Operation.

Our entire focus is on you partner So you can run your business/organization – you know – and we will take the burden off your shoulders. We are highly skilled and have thorough projects because they go far above your normal duties. We to get He. In fact, the most effective way to get the most out of a studio like ours is to do just that.

I know “the numbers add up” is really important and yes, the numbers do too. Definitely Head over while we work with you. We also do this without exploiting your users and customers. There is no misleading pattern coming from our side. we put instead Everything Branding, messaging, content architecture and making everything extremely fast and accessible. he is What makes the numbers add up for you?

Our pricing is also incredibly reasonable. We are not in the business of charging ridiculous fees for our work. We’re only a small team, so our overhead is nothing compared to a lot of agencies. We go the extra mile for you within your budget and really give you more bang for your buck with a fair pricing model.

We start getting availability from the New Year because starting projects in December is never an ideal way to work. Planning those projects and getting them ready to start Is It’s a good idea in December though, so get in touch!

I’m also slowly getting back into CSS and front-end consulting. I’ve helped some of the biggest organizations And The smallest organizations like Harley-Davidson, the NHS and Google write better code and work better together. Again, from the New Year I will have access to consulting and engineering support. This might be a little more palatable than renting an entire studio for yourself. Please contact again.

wrapping up

I’m always transparent – maybe Very Sometimes transparent – but it’s really important for me to be honest. Man, we need more honesty.

It takes a lot of pride to write this, but I think it’s more important to be honest than to be unnecessarily proud. I know there will be someone else reading this who has had a hard year, so if anything, I’m really glad they’ll at least feel seen.

It’s harder than ever to get good leads, so I’ll do this I would really appreciate people sharing this with their networksyou will do Never Sorry for not recommending Piccalilli courses or Set Studio. In fact, what you’re doing will look really great once we knock it out of the park.

Thanks for reading and if you’re struggling too, I’m sending you as much strength as I can.

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