SE1 London – diary

Time for SE1 diary…fashionably one week late.  I have been moving houses from London SE1 to Dorset. Waived goodbye to my collection of 50 pairs of high heels (my trademark) and swapped them for more practical wellies. To ease the pain, I have found out that Madonna lives in a neighbouring village and Guy Ritchie even popped down to our old cottage to ask directions to the local pub……With my usual luck, I wasn’t there but my friend who had escaped the hectic life in London for the weekend kindly gave him the directions.

 

  

 

So with all this activity and a baby arriving next Friday, (I am booked for caesarean as she is as stubborn as her mother and is and has refused to turn around) I have been forced to evaluate our business model. How to keep the business up and running and play the role of a yummy mummy at the same time? I have no idea how all that will work out, only time will tell.

 

Since last week, Alex has stepped down from her primary role of doing some PR work and taken over of running the shop. This obviously comes with a price since hiring staff can be expensive and bits into your profits. However, it will give me more time to concentrate on running the business. I have been forced to acknowledge that I am no superwoman, as there are areas of the business that I have been neglecting badly. Running the shop has taken so much time, which has left me little or no energy to run the business properly. Often I have found myself doing paperwork, emails and designing at midnight. Being pregnant at the same time has not been easy.

 

Now I am hoping to catch up with all that boring admin work that I am constantly neglecting and spend more time on designing, selling and in general improving the business model and the product.  A key point to remember is that there are very inexpensive ways to get help. Students are often very keen to do unpaid work experience to improve their CV’s. This is how I started with Alex, who is doing her Masters Degree in Marketing. However, with her hard working attitude and great ideas she quickly became valuable part of the business.

 

So the message is that you do not need to be nearly 10 months pregnant to need a little help once in a while. Good employees will give you more valuable time to concentrate on running the business, as well as great ideas that can be used to improve your business.

Next week I will cover how to get your product out there….an area where I could use some help as well……..