Roll on Spring - here's March!
| Published: 24th March 2008 23:26 |
I'm Lauretta - a 30-something mum to two year old Luis and six month old Nadja. I'm a journalist and have lived in Petts Wood for the last 6 years. Last year I married Jamie - a great husband and father - and we now work together in offering you this site. Oh, and we've just started a new business networking business. My 'mum blog' as I call it, shares the stresses, strains (and yes the joys) of family life...
Sunday 23 March
Easter Sunday and Jamie designed an Easter Egg Treasure Hunt for Luis. Being almost 3 years old, as he can't read Jamie had the great idea of taking a picture of items around the house, printing them out and giving them to Luis as clues on where to find the next picture (and the next clue). It worked a treat. Luis loved the game and tracked down the huge selection box of treats Nanna had bought for him. The smile on his face was priceless. I think we'll be doing another treasure hunt before long - just to see his little face light up when he realises where things are hiding makes the wearing out of the colour ink cartridge in the printer all worthwhile!
Thursday 20 March
I've got a little group of friends who I meet most Thursday mornings. There's four of us and we're all mums. Well, two of them are soon-to-be 1st time mums - so practically all mums. As much as I find it difficult to justify getting out the house to meet these great girls for a coffee and a quick natter, I'm always glad I go. It's nice to spend some time with Nadja out and about and seeing people coo over how cute she is. And all she does is look at people and smile. I realise that not all babies do this of course and I appreciate that I've been very lucky. I just hope the soon-to-be mums are not disillusioned by her and think that it's an easy ride, as much as I want them to know that being a new mum is great, it's also a big change in lifestyle and there's that little thing called tiredness. I don't think I ever knew the real meaning of being tired before I gave birth!
Tuesday March 18: My First AGM
I sit on the commitee for the Petts Wood & District Residents Association (PWDRA) and tonight was our AGM and the first I've been to. I have to say I actually enjoyed the experience. It's a great networking event and nice to meet some of the people that we as a Residents Association represent. The numbers were well turned out and the three local ward councillors attended as well as Sgt Kemp and his team, alongside other Residents Associations and community clubs. Fortunately my job was to sit at the top table, try to look intelligent and keep smiling. I don't think I did too badly as no one approached me after the formal bit of the evening and grilled me about my involvement. If fact I don't think many people saw me at all. This website got a mention from one of the residents which was a (very) nice surprise and most welcomed. I think I heard the words "How much did you pay her?" pass the chairman's lips as one of the residents spoke about how great this site was. "Enough" was my muttered response.
Saturday March 15: George and His Big Grin
I met a young boy called George today. George (age 7) didn't know he was going to meet me, or indeed that I would be congratulating him on winning the May Fayre Poster Competition until I knocked on his door this morning. His mum - bless her, took off George's glasses and cleaned then then told him to give "a big toothy grin" while I snapped away. George's Design will be used on the flyers and the promotional material for the May Fayre, which incidentally is on Monday May 5th this year. Sitting on the May Fayre commitee has proved very interesting, and it's amazing the months of preparation, meetings and work that goes into making the day a big success. Being on the commitee has certainly opned my eyes to just how much co-ordination there is involved in making the day happen. I just hope the weather fairs much better than last year.
Wednesday March 12: Another Successful Evening
Well, that's the second Networking Event that's taken place - this time paid for and from reading the feedback at the end of the night it all looked very positive. Business Networking is a very powerful tool if you know how to use it. Many people expect just to turn up and sell to the people they meet. But that's only a tiny proportion of what people should be doing (if they are to make networking scuccessful for them)
Easier said than done I realise - even more so when you're "Speed Networking" where you have a little over a minute with each new business contact. The key is to get the elevator pitch down to a few seconds and let the questions come rolling in. Of course if you say "Hi, I'm Michelle and I'm a dog walker" then you're not opening the door to many questions. But if you start off by saying "Hi, I'm Michelle and there's about 10 different breeds of dogs that look forward to seeing me every week", it makes a big difference in getting some interest. Roll on April for our third networking event - we're hoping to hit the big 30 next time around - which means that the speed networking will really have to be speedy to get done and dusted by 9pm.
3 March: Business As Usual
It's a tricky thing this business malarky. When I left full time employment I was determined to spend more time with my kids and try running my own business.
I enjoyed it so much I vowed I would never again work for anyone else. Whilst I'm not eating my words (just yet!) time and time again I hear people complaining how hard business is.
Are we just going through a pretty rough time at the moment? It doesn't seem to matter who I'm speaking with at the end of the phone, things seem pretty rough for the majority of us right now. And it's not made easier by people expecting things for free or mega cheap - and there's plenty of them about!
I've had my own experience of people expecting me to offer something free. One very recently actually, but rather trying to explain the many reasons why I couldn't I turned the tables this time and asked them if they could posisbly offer their services FOC. What happened? Not a lot as the conversation ended quite abruptly after that.
