continued from..... Starting a business by accident

    ...re social media platforms, using photo editing apps as ‘normal’ photos are not always the ‘thing’ anymore and even giving up my private FB profile so as to use it alongside my business page, because FB ranks posts on profiles higher than on business pages.

I used YouTube as my personal coach and looked up absolutely everything! Even how to do my own website! I’m going to be honest, I’m kinda proud of that one as I am severely IT challenged!! I put it together, one block at a time and I had to learn about JPEG, PNG, SEO’s, Meta descriptions…

There have been a lot of tears at this computer!

You know when you have a job to do, and it’s hard but you know what it entails? You might need to break it into chunks and you may not like doing it, but you can? See those jobs are grand. Like they might be a bit of a pain, but you just get on with it.

It’s the jobs that you don’t know how to do, don’t know where to start, can’t recognise the chunks and don’t even know the meaning of the language used, it’s those that catch me out big time!!

And then, it’s the juggling of family life, which funnily enough, doesn’t stop, slow down or take much consideration for your new business life. Whether you are a mother, a care giver of someone elderly or infirm, or help out within your immediate or extended family, this doesn’t stop. They are not being inconsiderate or meaning you any harm, but their needs continue and if you have always attended them, well, you have some new boundaries to apply…

My family was, and is, extremely supportive. I am blessed to have a great husband and children who would do anything they could that I asked of them. But I find it hard to ask. (One of my personal ongoing challenges). And they still wanted to eat, be brought into town, have friends over, wear clean, ironed clothes and (thankfully) spend time just hanging out in my company.

So this is what I want you to know;

• I had to learn to ask

• To delegate

• To compromise

• To leave something untidy

• To let the weeds grow

• To forget something and it be ok

• To roll with the hard days

• To celebrate the good days

And this is what I want to tell you, all women out there, that it is do-able. It’s hard, but do-able. Everyone has a busy life, so that’s no excuse. And you don’t have to know the whole plan. You don’t have to see the whole picture. But if you have a want, an idea, a thing that you want to do, then do it!

If I had known at the start, what I know now, I don’t think I would have had the courage to do what I have done. Owning my own business was never a goal, dream or even a fleeting thought for me. You could have chased me down the road with Excel, SEO’s and Instagram stories!

A very wise and gentle woman told me that when things get tough, I have to warrior up, and this is what I think of every time I hold my head in my hands, and I tell myself; one step at a time, one step at a time.

I have a sign on my clinic wall that says;

“You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.”

Martin Luther

Take the first step!!