Manic Monday

Hello again,

Well here I am on my first Monday back at work and I'm fairly convinced that the universe is conspiring to assist me in my endeavours. I have also noticed that I might actually have some good people reading this, so just to recap, here's where I'm at: I am setting up a social enterprise offering coaching and mentoring services. The general idea is that we will provide private coaching and mentoring services to individuals and that a tenth of the money spent by private clients will fund coaching and mentoring of those who can't afford such services.

Today has been 'fairly' manic. My planned session with a like minded business woman was cancelled due to illness, so I got off out to get some exercise as scheduled. The class trainer at the gym failed to turn up and so the only other attendee and I set to work on the spin bikes by ourselves. Turns out she works in program management at the MoD and they are looking at how they might provide mentoring to their staff in that area. This just added to my instinct that now is a really good time to get into paid mentoring. Equally she seemed a little curious herself as to whether I might help her with her career, so I gave her my contact details and made a mental note to get into gear with my web-site and business cards.

Next I spoke with another young woman who is on maternity from the MoD and was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the choices she has open to her at present. I bestowed my details on her as well, after she volunteered that she might be interested herself.

I also caught up with another business woman I know, who having had to give up her singing career is looking to set up an organisation which helps parents with parenting. We had a fantastic discussion about how we both hope to reach those without the money to access or services. We also discussed BusinessLink, Women in Business networks and tax! We have agreed to keep in touch.

From here I went to the mall to collect some clothes I'd ordered on line and was lucky enough to hit the shops fully stocked with new business wear in my size. I have come away with three new work tops and perhaps more importantly the feeling that this morning's discussions have convinced me that this really is an area which leaves me feeling energised and full of excitement for what I might achieve with people.

I have come back to the office and read up to 40% (thank you kindle for the stats) in my social enterprise book, which to be honest I am struggling to put down. That said my determination to not work at all on a Sunday has paid off, because I almost literally jumped out of bed at 6 this morning.

So achievements for the day will look like this:

* Made two new contacts and renewed another
* Purchased three work tops for meeting clients
* Read up to 40% in Social Enterprise book
* Created Google share calendar for childcare etc
* Agreed use of gym café with gym manager who was pleased to be asked and very encouraging
* Spoke with another business friend who offered to give a personal testimonial or help in any way they can big or small. She has recently completed a course herself in which the trainer was super keen on the power of testimonials on web-sites.

Spoke with a communications expert at the weekend as well and she was really supportive and said she thought I'd be brilliant at this and that it all sounded great. She also suggested that it would be useful to have on the web-site examples of what people had achieved through coaching or mentoring, to give people an idea of what they might expect to achieve or areas they might want to consider. 

Started this blog mid afternoon and have only just got back to it having realised last minute I had a personal appointment that I'd booked before starting all this. Hence I have now set up a google calendar to keep track of everything for work, home and also share what's going on with my wonderful husband, who is currently being an absolute superstar supporting me with all this, despite having a lot on his plate at present.

Right that's all folks, just a little word of wisdom to finish me thinks. This one comes from John Speden Lewis. It is about the move he made to making his business a partnership, but reading the social enterprise book I am reading reminded me of it. There is an underlying theme in the book that sometimes social entrepreneurs are going forward with something that the majority do not really see the value of. John Speden Lewis must have known this when he said:

"Rightly or wrongly I feel quite certain that the general idea of substituting partnership for 
exploiting employment is now-a-days in the air and will spread through industry of all kinds. 
It is already dear to many hearts besides my own, for it makes work something to live for as 
well as something to live by. Here may be the new source of working energy of which our 

country is in such grave need". 

The words, which really speak to me though are:

'for it makes work something to live for as well as something to live by'.