Business talk: one financial year later

I've always wanted to run my own business. Working for someone else always felt like time biding, the rehearsal before the real show began.

It took a little while for me realise what that business would be. I'd assumed it should be something "traditional", like consulting or opening a shop, so when I started freelance writing it felt like a hobby. At the start of last year I went along to a business club, seeking clarity. I got it. Talking about starting up a consulting business was like reading my lines, but turning the conversation to writing fired me up right from my soul.

That was an "aha!" moment. And then it was about whether I could actually make it work...

I gave myself one financial year to find out. My timing is terrible, however, as that happened to be the year I had one child at home with me, an exhausting pregnancy and then of course a new baby - so I set quite a modest goal. I scaled everything back and focused any time I had on my freelancing to give myself a chance of making it work.

I blitzed my year's goals in the first six months. Not just the financial goals, either: I figured that if I only had a year to make this work I might as well try things, so I pushed through mental barriers and achieved what I wanted to.

That financial year is almost up and I've been working on setting some goals for the next one.

Barrier number one: time. My four-year-old is now at preschool a few short sessions each week, but my nap-hating baby is here and I know from experience that working from home with a little one around just doesn't work. It ends with frustration at each other and still no work done. So my Mum has come to the rescue, offering me half a day each week of child-free time in which to sleep. Work! I mean work! The plan is to do the smaller things - emails, research and pitches, for example - during the week while using the larger block of time to write. And if things get as busy as I'd like them to, I'll be scheduling in another half day or so each week, too.

Goals are set, financial and otherwise. Pitches are being sent out. Travel famils are being booked. Work is being scheduled in - and it's quite tragic how excited I feel at being able to schedule my work rather than snatching snippets of time anywhere I can.

This year is going to be bigger and better for my business. I just know it.


PS - I'm available for hire! That is, writing for websites, magazines, corporate clients, copywriting, social media - anything with words. Just email me if you'd like to work together.