Kathy Lawrence, no time for swanning around

As a freelance copywriter I’ve been helping businesses get their marketing words right for the last 25 years. I did that juggling thing with work and children and came through unscathed.

Then disaster struck. Just as my two major clients walked away from their businesses, my parents became ill – father with heart problems, mother with dementia. As I couldn’t manage supporting parents and building up the business again, work went on hold. Now I’m starting to make progress with the business, but life is refusing to get out of the way …

So this was Tuesday.

5.58am How did I manage that? Wake up two minutes before alarm. No noise from slumbering husband.

6.45 Pick up 20-year-old son and his girlfriend from their rented flat a couple of miles away to drive them to Ashford Hospital. Son is popping in for the day for a quick gallbladder removal.

7.30 Plans nixed already. No one allowed to stay with son, so girlfriend and I depart. So busy deciding how to play the day, we forget to say goodbye to son. Guilt plus anxiety set in for the next few hours.

8.30 Bummer. The only exercise I have ever really enjoyed has been cancelled. No Zumba now till Thursday evening. Why is Zumba the exception to the rule? Because it kids you into thinking you’re dancing, not having a cardiac workout.

To work instead. Or at least some social media marketing. There are so many ways of getting your name known, it’s hard to find the time when you’re a one-person business. So I’m focusing on Twitter, aiming to make several helpful posts about writing for marketing every day, and then one or two that add a bit of personality.

11.30 Proper paying work. Excellent! Conference call with a really great client to discuss the next issue of his newsletter. Love the clients who understand how marketing and copywriting are complementary, and actually ask for my advice on communicating with their customers. Client has already pulled two articles that were a bit too close to selling, when what he wants to do is build relationships with his customers by sharing knowledge.

12.30 Return from a quick walk to Waitrose to long phone messages from my most gloomy uncle about my father. At 89, dad is in hospital again having his pacemaker upgraded and other running repairs, and uncle is more Eeyore-like than usual.

12.31 Quick turn around my cherished vegetable plot to mull over my response. Return to find another message from another uncle. Goodness, my dad must really be sharing the pain today.

13.00 Yes he is. Dad calls to tell me his woes. Bite the bullet and offer to have him here until he’s strong enough to go home. My dad is a great person who’s helped many people over the years, and I have no problem with supporting him in return. But, he’s high maintenance nowadays, and he’ll be taking the spare room that’s supposed to be my decorative painting workroom. So less time to focus on work, and no space to paint. Yes, this is a whinge. I’ll get over it.

14.00 Worried about lack of news on the son front but enjoying working on the newsletter. When you’re writing a friendly but informative piece you can really let the words flow.

17.00 Message that son is ready to leave. Sub-text seems to be he’s climbing the walls and needs out. Can’t contact his girlfriend so head off into rush hour traffic alone, leaving dinner half-prepared.

18.00 Son is tired, thirsty, hungry and fractious. Totally out of character he starts an argument with the nurse about what he can and can’t eat when he gets out.

19.30 Call from older living-at-home son. What are we doing about dinner? Get home just as he is heading off to fish and chip shop for a large portion of cholesterol all round. Yum.

20.00 Not much achieved on the work front today. So it’s now time to start thinking about my presentation at the networking lunch tomorrow.

And about what to do with non-paying customers.

And a few more phone calls from concerned relatives about son and father.

And how to deal with stress without Zumba or alcohol (in case of emergency runs to A&E).

And so to bed.

Still on the list:

• Follow up on ongoing work projects
• Do some real marketing
• Water the garden
• Update the decorative painting blog
• Any housework – although the dishwasher’s been done
• Take decent exercise
• Find out if my friends are still in the country

• You can find out more about the Wrightwell copywriting business at www.wrightwell.com
• If you’d like tips on writing for business, try my blog at http://wrightwell.blogspot.com/ and follow me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/wrightwell
• For something completely different, my desperately in need of updating painting blog is at http://artforapurpose.blogspot.com/
• Oh, and you can contact me directly at kathy@wrightwell.com about writing, painting, gardening, aged parents, dementia etc etc

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Zoe Brown, busy working Mum with Abbie and Hollie

I am Zoe Brown, MD and owner of B Websites and Budget Websites.  The business has been established for 7 years and I have 5 children ages 20, 6, 4, 20 months and 7 months.  From the outside I am sure it seems remarkable that I can fit things in to my 24 hours.

My two baby girls go to nursery part-time, Tuesday to Friday, 9am to 3pm.  My partner Chris and I share our duties pretty much 50/50 as we both live and work together.  We recognise that in order to work our 40 hours that we will have to work some weekends and evenings.  But that’s fine, we benefit from a super flexible work/living/parenting environment.

So how do I fit it in?  This is a typical day for me at the moment.

6:00 am Baby Abbie usually wakes around now for her first feed of the day.  Up until recently I was feeding her myself but she now on a bottle so Daddy will be sent down to make it whilst I get a little cuddle.  Once baby is fed I am usually catching up on blogs, twitter and emails before getting up.

7:00am Waking up the two boys and getting them dressed and down the stairs for breakfast.  The next hour and half is hectic so there is usually lots of shouting between me and Chris to make sure we know which children we are looking after, where they are and if they have socks on (our kids like to take them off and stuff down the back of the sofa!).

7:30am Hollie reads in her cot quite happily and we will get her out of the cot last since once free she’s a terror!  The girls have breakfast at nursery so it’s best to keep her away from the dining room when the boys are eating.  Getting her dressed which takes the longest amount of time because I can never decide what she should wear and she like to run away a lot!

8:00am We are all downstairs and then it’s a case finding matching socks, shoes and children.  We also have to quickly pack the bags for school and nursery as well as make up bottles.

8:15am Start loading kids in the car.  Apparently not even my six year old can do his own seatbelt up so this is a bit of a chore.  To get them all in the car I end up doing quite a bit of aerobics in the back of the car!

8:20am We are off, I don’t drive so Chris is driving and usually I am already on my Blackberry sending out emails to the team to remind them of tasks for the day.

9:00am With all the kids and nursery and school the day starts.  50% of my job is hands on coding and development and the rest is made up of consults with new prospects, marketing the business, project meetings.

2:50pm Chris and I both take our lunch break which is effectively used to do the school/nursery run.  We use this time to catch up on the events of the day (I know we only sit a metre away but most of our work is done on the PC!) and I will again be on the Blackberry drafting emails.  Chris is very helpful in making sure I remember to avoid cars whilst crossing the road and such like.

3:30pm Most days I go back to the office and work the rest of my day until 6pm while Chris handles kids and tea.  But this is really flexible.  If I go back home then the rest of the day is a bit like this.

4:00pm Finally in the house, coats, shoes, bags all away.  The next 3 hours are a challenge to say the least so grab a quick glass of water and start cooking something for tea.  Usually I like to cook pasta with a quick home made sauce.  The kids eat it and I know that it’s healthy.  I am lucky that my kids also all love their fruit so that’s an easy peasy desert.

4:30pm Tea served and kids at the table.  Abbie is still on baby mush at the moment and she will usually nap whilst the older children eat.  I can take this time to sort out the kitchen and washing whilst keeping and eye on the kids.  In particular I have to watch Holie who will make a real mess with her food if she is full or does not like it.  Whilst the kids are at the table I just keep the food coming, fruit, raisins, jelly, ricecakes, juice…until they finally stop asking for more!

5:30pm Boys are sent up to their room to play games.  If possible I will keep Hollie in her high chair with some activities like music or colouring whilst I feed baby Abbie her mush.  This is by far the easiest option as once she is “set free” I have to watch her like a hawk.  She can open all the doors and likes to have run of the house. I have a playpen which is primarily for Abbie but will pop Hollie in it from time to time if I need to do something.

6:00pm Kids all fed but the kitchen is looking a bit worst for wear!  Luckily Chris is home now so one of us is doing a tidy and the other doing the bath time and bed time chores.

6:30pm Cuddles and bottles for the baby girls followed by bed.

7:30pm Chris does bed time for the boys and I grab an hour and half to do some more work.  Chris might end up flying out to the shop to pick up some essentials and I will also catch up on household admin like paying bills, ordering shopping etc.

9:00pm Settle down in front of TV (whilst multi tasking on Twitter!)

Phew – not too bad really…things I don’t have time for are as follows:

1. Ironing.
Which is fine because I hate it.  Because I am very good at hanging and folding I have managed without an iron in the house for at least 10 years!

2. Cleaning the house.
I am super tidy but I don’t have time for 4 hours of cleaning each week. Therefore I do have recently employed a cleaner.

3. Hobbies.
I don’t miss them – so whatever they were all those years ago, it can’t have been that much fun.

4. Shopping.
Everything is done on-line.  Food, clothes, holidays – everything.

and this is my day in the life.  I am grateful that I am able to run my own business and love the diversity of my days.

About the author: Zoe Brown – Managing Director, B Websites – Surrey. Passionate about building websites that work. With a degree in IT and 13 years internet development experience, Zoe has a wealth of knowledge about what does and doesn’t work online.
Twitter @BWebsites
www.bwebsites.co.uk

Proud of how you balance your busy life? If you would like to be featured in ‘A Day In The Life’  please contact Sue Bown sue@thecoachingzone.co.uk

Keep on running – The Martin sisters complete their challenge
Would you buy more time?
Sarah Martin – aiming high and far
A Day in the Life
How do I indentify my target market?
How changing your view can reinvent your life

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Today’s challenge is to write a weekly round-up and so here it is:

How Changing Your View Can Reinvent Your Life
Inspired by my friends who have moved from London to Dartmouth and have changed their lives in the process, I also wanted to showcase their amazing photos taken from their office window and garden.  If you’ve already read this, take time to revisit and read Carole’s equally inspiring new comments. 

A Sure Fire Tip To Stop Procrastinating
I have to confess the idea for this blog was bourne out of my own procrastination.  Part of the 30 Day Blog Challenge is to become familiar with your key phrases.  I started to do this and the perfectionist in me got stuck by wondering if I was doing it correctly.  In the end I just got on with it!  And wow, did it get a good reaction, I found many like-minded souls who were eager to try out my ‘sure fire tip’

A Day In The Life
All about me and my typical working day.  Not something I would have written before ‘getting into’ this blogging lark.

Sarah Martin – Aiming High and Far
My top story! Thanks for all the mentions on Facebook and Twitter.  I am truly inspired by what Sarah is doing and I know many of you are too.  Don’t forget to watch out for her on telly on Sunday as she takes part in the London Marathon, her third of three marathons in three weeks charity challenge.  I wonder what she will be doing next weekend?

How do I identify my target market?
A touch of marketing. I work with many of my clients on improving marketing strategy,  this blog highlighted a step by step process to follow.

That was my week, it’s been busy.  Thanks to everyone who has commented and given words of encouragement, it’s much appreciated.

Coming up next week, a guest blogger, a song and, fingers crossed, my first guest blogging gig!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Sue

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Sue Bown

It’s day seven of my 30 Day Blog Challenge, today’s assignment is to write a ‘day in the life’ – hence the title.  It’s been a beautiful spring day today and that’s good because it’s Saturday and to me that means golf.  Whilst I could bore you witless with a blow by blow account of my round of golf, I think I’ll desist. 

Therefore, I’ll tell you about my day on Thursday.  It was another beautiful April day, a cloudless blue sky.  Inspired by this, I started bright and early.  I was a little bit bleary-eyed as I‘d had a late but enjoyable Wednesday night acting as a judge at the Toastmasters Area level of International Speech Evaluation Contest.

My work is much more enjoyable these days since I left my corporate career four years ago.  At that time I was in a cosseted corporate role, by cosseted I mean that I didn’t fully appreciate the regular monthly paycheck I received and I didn’t appreciate the benefits working for a large corporate company.   It took a huge brave leap to leave, to be honest I surprised myself.  It has proven to be one of the best decisions I have ever made.  In the relatively short time since leaving  I have learnt new skills, enhanced old skills, made new friends and contacts, got to know myself better and it feels like I’ve transformed myself into a completely new person.

Back to Thursday, I got started with my first client of the day, a telephone coaching session.  This lady has  recently started working with me she is working on her work/life balance and managing her stress levels.  She has a session weekly, she is doing very well and feels much calmer.

My next client was another telephone session, this time a Business Breakthrough client who is working to grow his small business.  We speak monthly, each session is focused on creating an Action Plan to move him towards his targets.  He too is making good progress and is much more focused and motivated.

Then I took some time to update my own Action Plan following a meeting with my coach and mentor on Wednesday.  I intend to continue to grow my business, so it’s important to plan and have my own targets and goals.  In my opinion everyone needs a coach, even coaches need a coach.  It’s vital to maintain the focus and forward momentum.

After lunch it was time to visit another Business Breakthrough client, we meet in a coffee shop in a local hotel.  We have worked together for eight months, in that time she has increased her sales by an amazing 300%/

Following this meeting I drive back to my office, it’s time to catch up on some emails and phone calls.  That’s about it.

My evening, well, once I have received my 30 Day Blog Challenge email it’s time to start blogging again and of course to watch The Masters golf on TV.

The great thing about what I do now is the variety, every day is different.

I have found myself a freedom that I didn’t know existed.  I am happy.

___

About the Author: Sue Bown: Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

Twitter @thecoachingzone
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TheCoachingZone

Other blog posts:

Would you buy more time?
Sarah Martin – aiming high and far
How do I indentify my target market?

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

Website - Twitter - Facebook - More Posts

Busy working Mum and trainer, Hilary Nunns

My double life as an ICT trainer and also as a Behavioural Management consultant (not to mention as a lone parent of two teenagers) tends to bring about a variety of activities from one day to the next.

I work with individuals, small businesses, charities and other organisations.  As a former teacher in Further Education I still occasionally teach but primarily (when I work in colleges) I am coaching teaching staff who would like increase their classroom management skills.

My day today began with coaxing my two children to school by 8.30am, although I do often leave earlier than them in order to reach colleges all over the UK.  With a clear head and a load in the washing machine, I updated my ‘do’ list and switched on the laptop.

My first task was writing a guest blog for an education training company in response to an article in the Guardian referring to the imminent raising of the leaving age of compulsory education and how this would negatively impact on teachers.  The 16+ environment is my world of work and I feel strongly that we should be promoting the extra benefits of staying on in education.

Next I set up a series of tweets to be delivered periodically via Hootsuite.  If I know I’m due to be away from my desk I try to ensure there’s a little stream of information flowing through Twitter in my absence.
At 11.30 I met with a new private client who has just purchased a new PC and all the latest software.  The meeting was a two-hour overview session of the Microsoft 2010 software.  It was great fun, she is a lovely lady with an enormously busy life!  We’ve arranged that I’ll go back next week to drill down to specifics such as practical use of Word and Excel, and then some sensible e-file management.

Arriving home for a late lunch I have time to answer emails, and prepare papers for meetings the following day before the children are back from school.

Today has been seriously satisfactory.

Hilary is a teacher in Further Education and a member of the Institute for Learning.   Her FE subject specialism is Business and ICT and Hilary has great experience of teaching both in mainstream and supported/foundation learning (including adults).

Hilary became a specialist in devising and implementing classroom behavioural management techniques, managing a behavioural support department at a medium-sized mainstream FE college.   In 2009-2010 Hilary was the appointed Behaviour Specialist Lead for Action for Inclusion in Surrey and in this capacity Hilary worked closely with Surrey Local Authority and colleges in Surrey. This was the springboard to providing staff training and INSET to FE and 6th form colleges nationally.
Additionally, due to popular demand (and utilising Business and ICT training skills), the ‘Courses’ arm of Can Do offers ICT training to individuals, small businesses, charities and other organisations.

If you are a working woman and would like to write about how you balance your busy life and have it featured please contact Sue Bown at sue@thecoachingzone.co.uk

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Vanessa King - The Lady In Red

Mid-August is a perfect time of year for a wedding. Sunny days, long evenings, gentle weather…

My first thought on August 13th this year was “please don’t let it rain!!” I looked outside and the sky was grey, so I went hunting for my giant toastmaster umbrellas, one white and one ivory to match the bride’s dress.

My uniform was hanging on the door, new trousers pressed, shirt starched, jacket and waistcoat spotless and my medallion brighter than the sun was at that moment. I always have a big breakfast when I’m working because I never know when I’m going to get to eat, so bacon, eggs, beans, mushrooms and tomatoes made their way onto my plate, coffee in the cup and I sat to eat while reviewing the program for the day. Before every event I meet with the couple to get a detailed picture of what they have planned for the day. From this I create a detailed itinerary of the day and play it over and over in my head, imagining the day as it unfolds, looking for possible problems, thinking about what I’ll say and when. I don’t follow a script, but I do have a general idea of how I’ll do things.

First task for the day involved picking up a phone, a necessary prop for the first dance (more on that later). I was quite worried about this, because I had to go to Maidenhead and I had not the slightest clue where the shop I needed to go to was. I got quite anxious about it, a bit lost, but I just kept thinking, I can’t give up because when I get to the venue with the phone it will just make my couple’s day. A few hurried questions, directions from generous shoppers and the phone was in my hands. You wouldn’t really expect a toastmaster to be running errands, but I see my role as being the general fixer of all problems, preventing the tapestry of a wedding from unravelling and picking up any loose ends that might appear.

I made it to the venue a bit later than I usually like to, the errand in Maidenhead having delayed me, but I got there in plenty of time.

The venue manager was on hand to answer my queries, he would turn out to be one of the best of his breed I have ever worked with. Everything was set up perfectly so I had time to relax and once again run through my itinerary before the photographer arrived. This always heralds the imminent arrival of the bride and groom, as the photographer will race from the church to the venue, ready to take photos as they arrive.

This is usually when my heart starts to race and I start to wonder why I’m doing this job. It’s supposed to be fun, for heaven’s sake! But of course, when things get going that adrenalin is channelled into doing my job and I run on it for the rest of the day.

The bride and groom arrived in a white vintage Morris Minor – talk about classy! Guests arrived and I directed them to the car park and the venue for canapés and drinks. During this time, there wasn’t a lot of officiating to do, so I used the time to talk to the guests to get a feel for the audience I would have later in the evening. I helped the photographer get various people ready for their photographs at the right time – the ushers come in very handy for this, as it’s rather hard to organise people you don’t know by sight – and made sure the string quartet was fed.

At the appropriate time I moved guests over to the Barn for the meal.

I never shout or bang a gavel, I don’t even own one, I simply approached different groups of people and asked them with a smile if they would move over to the Barn. It’s a much less obtrusive way of organising people, they realise they’re being organised but it’s gentle and I don’t interrupt their conversations.

Once the guests were seated in the Barn I introduced myself and almost immediately had an issue with my phone interfering with the radio mic.

Guests winced as the speakers squealed, but I made a joke of it by making fun of myself, put the phone out of the way and moved on. It’s why I don’t use a script, you never know what’s going to happen and you have to be ready for anything. I then introduced the happy couple.

This is my favourite part of the evening. It’s the first time they will have been introduced as Mr and Mrs and I get to do it! I consider it a real privilege and I like to make a big deal of it. I got people laughing and clapping, the room was filled with excitement and then, in a big voice, I announced “Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome MR and MRS!” The room erupted with cheers and whistles as the couple entered with huge smiles on their faces.

The meal was served before speeches, which was a brilliant idea because it meant I didn’t have to worry about speeches going over time. Usually speeches occur before the meal which can cause a problem for the caterers as they like to be sure the food is hot and cooked to perfection and obviously the careful planning that goes into serving a meal for 100 people can be seriously challenged by over-running speeches. I love introducing speakers, but it’s even better to speak to them beforehand and allay nerves. The speeches at this wedding were very memorable, rather surprising in content but the audience howled with laughter and that’s the main thing. The groom had a special surprise for his new wife, a four-foot tree made of sweets! I alerted the photographer and videographer so they could position themselves for the surprise and it went down very well – the bride’s face was, quite literally, a picture.

So far, the wedding had been running to time, but a big spanner was about to be thrown into the works.

The bride and groom had gone to a lot of trouble to create a very personal first dance, creating a special music file themselves. On checking with the DJ, it turned out he didn’t have the correct file, which caused a huge amount of stress to the couple. The only thing I could do was to allow them to experience their upset and frustration, offer a drink and make suggestions for solving the problem. As they grew calmer a solution presented itself. A backup file was located and the first dance went off perfectly, albeit 30 minutes late, but that didn’t matter. The dance involved a parody of the video of Lionel Richie’s song ‘Hello,’ hence the need for telephones. The dance culminated in exploding balloons and a big kiss. The guests loved it and the couple were ecstatic.

There were all sorts of wonderful personal touches at this wedding.

Each table had been named after a romantic movie and on each table there was a booklet of the movie posters. The actors’ faces had been replaced with photographs of the couple adopting the appropriate expressions, so much fun! Later, an act called Faces of Disco who were on The X-Factor, came and did their routine. They are a couple of dancers who do exaggerated disco moves wearing giant faces of famous people such as the Queen and Prince Charles, Posh and Becks, Simon Cowell and many others. The act was brilliant because the first half was just the same as the one they’d done on the television show, but the second half they had faces of the bride and groom, friends and family. Everyone had such a marvellous time, but I have to say the best bit for me was when I had to go to the dressing room for the Faces of Disco guys to return their iPod. I was telling them how wonderful their act was and how much the audience had enjoyed it and while I was speaking they started to peel off their clothes! I was quite challenged to keep my eyes front and centre and continue to speak without turning into a blubbering mess while they divested themselves of clothes down to their underpants… There really are a lot of perks to this job!

Vanessa King

“Australian lady toastmaster based in the South, serving nationwide. Weddings, charity functions, dinners, any special occassion. How may I help you?”

Contact via Twitter @ladytoastmaster or email vanessa.toastmaster@gmail.com

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

Website - Twitter - Facebook - More Posts

Louise Reynolds, Property Venture, busy working mum

I started my company Property Venture with a view to striking a positive work, family-life balance, as well as pursuing a passion in property. I had done all the city-commuting bit, doing a demanding job and still trying to have a family life, but cracks were starting to appear.

So Property Venture® was born, to make an ethical mark in the overseas property scene, operating a low overhead business model and allowing for home life. So,am I achieving it?

Well a typical, recent, Monday looks like this…

My alarm goes off at 6.40 a.m. but my alarm clock knows that there is a big difference between it going off and me getting up!  But, I am in action at 7.20 a.m. corralling, cajoling, chuntering and just generally getting the kids ready for school.

By the time I have dropped off at their schools at 8.25 a.m. and 8.35 a.m. respectively, I can be at my office desk at 8.45 a.m.  My low overhead business model means that my work is close to the childrens’ schools.

I check e-mails first thing to see if anything urgent needs to be dealt with and my Twitter Direct Messages, through my Hootsuite panel, as well as a whistle-stop at my Facebook Property Venture Company Page. When I first started using social media for business I was scared stiff about how much of my time it would sap away from doing productive, “hard-nosed”, work.  Now it has become part of my weekly routine and by using all the support tools, management suites and pre-saved tabs on my internet browser Firefox ( I find it more robust than Internet Explorer), I believe it has helped me become a more prolific and efficient business communicator.  This and property-forum posting have helped build the business profile on the property scene. I now have a following of over 1200 on Twitter (I like to think it’s because I have something valuable to say about property and investing, but it may be some people have nothing better to do…), and on LinkedIn and Facebook I have over 500 valuable connections respectively.

I try to limit my time on this so I can start with meaty projects.  It’s that time of month again…(no not that one…) when I send out my e-newsletter to my database.  I make sure I have all my Property Blogs and Press Room posts up to date (my latest mention has been in A Place in the Sun for my Turkish tips), as I feature them all in my newsletters. This mailing can be quick, or really time-consuming, depending on technology.  I use 1shoppingcart to manage my database and if I don’t work in the mornings, it chugs along more slowly when the USA wakes up in the afternoon.  Still, I console myself that last month’s newsletter got a promising 19% open rate, so there must be interest in all my latest tips on overseas property buying.

I manage to grab time to follow up on a Spanish property enquiry and have a conversation with the Spanish Lawyer I am working with to help people who have paid a deposit on an off-plan property, but have not got a finished property to show for it. This has hit a nerve for many, who have had a frustrating time dealing with this from afar.

I don’t usually take a lunch break, which is part of my way of extending my working day.  This is even better if the children have after-school clubs, so I don’t have to pick up until 4.15 p.m. I then get home and do a bit more work, although this isn’t a great way of making sure the children do their homework properly.  I have often found myself feeling guilty at Parents’ evening for not doing better at this!  Anyway, it seems a small price to pay for that ever-seemingly-elusive, work life balance.

Louise Reynolds is the Director at Property Venture® and would love to connect with other Business Ladies either through Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn

Property Venture® has been featured or mentioned in: The Sunday Times, The Times Online, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday, Independent on Sunday, Homes Magazine, HSBC Liquid Magazine, Easyjet Magazine, London Homes & Property, A Place in the Sun

If you would like to write about a day in your life and how you manage your own work/life balance, please get in touch with sue@thecoachingzone.co.uk.

admin

Here I am inching along through my 30 day blog challenge.  I started off guns blazing and was managing to write a blog a day.  However, after a couple of weeks I made a decision to slow down, there were too many other things getting left behind so by the time I’ve finished it will be a 60+ day blog challenge.  Never mind, I’m determined to get there and I’m surprised to find I really am quite enjoying the process.

Thanks to all of you who have sent me comments and feedback on my blog, it’s lovely to receive your thoughts and insights into my writing.  It is much appreciated.

While we are on the subject, I’d like to know what you’d like to be reading about?  How can I help you?  What would you like me to cover in my blog posts? How can I help you to continue to be motivated, to develop new habits, to stretch yourselves and to reach your goals.  What are the challenges you face in your day to day life?  Let me know and over the next few weeks I will feature your selected subjects in my blog.

Be my guest. Also, I am keen to find more of you who would like to write ‘A Day in the Life’ for my blog, I already have received contributions from Zoe Brown, Bwebsites and Kathy Wright, Writewell Services, and of course I’ve written one myself.  Have a read of these to inspire you and if you fancy writing about a day in your life please get in touch.  The purpose of these ‘A Day In The Life’ blogs is to show how we all have our ways to balance our busy lives.  Also you can tell readers a little about what you do in your business, go on be bold, give it a try!

Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Misty morning - pic courtesy of www.tvftdo.com

It’s week three of my 30 Day Blog Challenge, I have to say it’s turned into a bit more of a challenge than I expected.  Problem is the daily inspirational emails to prod my blogging mind and help me create this electronic tome, have stopped arriving.  Nikki Pilkington, who has been supplying the emails has been having some technical problems with her website and I suspect the problem lies there.  At first it was good because it gave me chance to catch up with a backlog, but now I’m missing them.

So time to go solo, no safety net, here I am!

My blog this week, saw huge amounts of traffic, all created by the interest in my blog.  It’s great but I did have a bit of a shock when I recieved an email to say I’d reached my bandwidth on my website.  So a quick email to my hosting company Anagio soon got that rectified.  Good learning though if you are considering doing something to raise online interest, make sure you can support it!

Weekly Round Up

Keep on running – The Martin sisters complete their challenge
After visiting the London Marathon last Sunday I couldn’t help but blog about the intrepid Martin sisters on the last ‘leg’ of their 3 marathons in 3 weekends challenge.  I spent a very enjoyable day in London inspired by the determination of all the participants and inspired by our beautiful capital city and its people.

Is it possible to make goals too scary?
Inspired by client’s experience this was my first guest blogging gig!  Wow, it felt good to have a blog published on www.BirdsOnTheBlog.com I even got some comments too, have a look and add some comments of your own.  This applies to all blogs by the way, bloggers love to receive comments.

A day in the life – Zoe Brown, B Websites 
Time for my first ever guest blog.  Zoe Brown, business woman and Mum of five children gave an exhausting account of her daily life.  I hope this is the first of many guests to write about how they balance work and life.  If you’d like to write ‘A day in the life’ please contact me.

Where it all began
I’d been asked to write about how I left corporate life and got started. I didn’t think it would interest many but it was surprising the amount of attention this blog post received.  I wanted to highlight that if I can do it anyone can, so stop thinking too much about doing something and just do it.?

Coming up next week, a personal journey, another song, some marketing and hopefully another ‘Day in the life’ guest.

Have a happy week,

Sue Bown

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Our wedding - a good decision

Once upon a time there was a very frustrated, unhappy, unfulfilled person working in a very good job in sales and marketing for a large international airline.  My life was not as I’d have liked it to have been.  I had only been married for two years and during that time my Golf Pro husband, David took Mondays and Tuesdays off, I was off Saturdays and Sundays.  I was working long hours and it wasn’t working for me and my life.  Then the company I worked for offered voluntary redundancy packages and I applied.  Part of me wanted them to turn down my application and the other ‘brave’ part was desperate for them to say ‘yes’.  When they did say ‘yes’, the brave part of me suddenly turned into the ‘not so brave’ and it took a good number of  sleepless nights to begin to get used to the idea.

Did I have a plan of what I was going to do – No

Did I realise what it all entailed – No

Did I give much thought to what I was going to live on – No

A couple of months later, I left my cosseted corporate life.  Gulp!   I say cosseted, I didn’t realise that at the time.  I took my monthly paycheck, my company car, my company phone, my private health insurance for granted.  I didn’t realise what it was like to be out there on your own without the big company name behind you.

The day after I left I remember going to my golf club, texting all my friends, basically bragging about where I was and what I was doing.  This was the life!   I was going to play golf every day, spend time lunching with friends and have a good time.  Which to begin with I did.  As time passed I realised there was more to life than golfing and lunching, also I needed to start earning some money.

By chance, I met a lady who was training to be a life coach, she was looking for practice clients.  Her offer couldn’t have come at a better time.  Her advert said ‘Are you at a crossroads?’   I felt I was at a crossroads, the lights had broken and were stuck on STOP.  Working with her was one of the best decisions I have made, finding out about coaching and what it could do opened my eyes to me and to my life.  In fact, I enjoyed working with her so much that I decided to do the Life Coaching course too.  The decision was that unscientific.

I immersed myself into the course, I loved every minute of it.  I learnt so much about me, my personality, others personalities, communicating, achieving, having a choice, goal-setting and so much more.  I appreciate you shouldn’t look back with regret, but I should have done it years before.  However, on further reflection I probably wouldn’t have taken it seriously.  Being that bit older gave me the wisdom to see coaching for what it is – brilliant and life changing!

In the time since I trained, I have set up my own coaching business, The Coaching Zone.  I work with clients on work/life balance issues, on setting goals and targets in their businesses,  I work with corporate clients on improving communication, getting better jobs and lots more.

My clients have achieved improved business revenue by 300%, redundancy avoidance, redundancy survival, saved marriages, weight loss, promotion, the list goes on.

And me, well I’ve discovered talents I didn’t know I had, I’ve amazed myself with my achievements,  I have days off with my husband, I enjoy my golf and I’m happy!

So that’s how it all began, four years ago.  Leaving my job, studying to be a coach are some of the best decisions I have ever made in my life, oh and marrying my husband!  Funny how the best decisions I make are taken with not too much thought.

A Day in the Life – Zoe Brown
Keep on running – The Martin sisters complete their challenge
Would you buy more time?
Sarah Martin – aiming high and far
A Day in the Life
How do I indentify my target market?
How changing your view can reinvent your life

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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