New business, new blog, new starts. The start of the blog has also coincided with the start of no.1 child at school. Big new start for him, and for me. Hadn’t quite anticipated the emotional turmoil of the ‘newness’ of it all but after the initial couple of first roller coaster weeks have gone by it got me thinking that actually his new start has a few similarities with mine and the start of the business.

1.You don’t have a clue what to expect

For a bit of a control freak like me this was quite a shock to the system. No-one to turn to to ask ‘ is this ok?’ ‘ do you think I should do this now’? The validation comes very much from within at the start. Now nearly 19 months down the road on the self-employed journey I am lucky enough to have some lovely clients who do tell me when I’ve hopefully done a good job. Which is lovely. And actually when you’re self-employed, that’s pretty damn critical otherwise you can skip on regardless –  sometimes in the totally wrong direction.

No.1 child certainly didn’t know what to expect with his start of school and it DEFINITELY was a shock to the system. Now 19 days down the road his validation is starting to come with friendships made and feedback from his teacher – his own wee journey has started.

2. You have good days and bad

We’ve had a couple of bad days with no.1 child. Tears, ‘ I don’t want to go to school’, and excuse making. In sheer desperation one morning trying to get him to leave the house (yes it was that bad), I found myself saying that sometimes grown ups have bad days too but you just pick yourself up, put a smile on your face and get on with getting on. You might find by the end of the day your whole mood has turned around.

3. You meet some great people on the way

I’m loving hearing names of new friends no.1 child has made in the last few weeks. When I first started the business I knew a few people (otherwise I couldn’t have started it!) but what is really nice are the new relationships I’ve made over the last couple of years, new people, new stories, hearing about lives and nurturing those relationships.

4. You never know what the day will bring

The joy of being self-employed. And sometimes the downfall!

5. Reach for the sky

A cliché. But a true one at that. If you don’t do it you’ll never know. If you don’t try you’ll never know. So just do it, reach for what you’re trying to achieve. If it doesn’t work then you’ve tried, if it does work then you’ll never look back.

Go for it wee man.

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