Thursday, 19 May 2011, Day 177/365.

A couple of weeks ago I was feeling really down on myself with nothing really on the horizon to look forward to, but things have been afoot in my head and now in my life.

You see, I thought rather than wake up in the morning and think negatively about the day or weeks ahead, I’d wake up and think about what I had to look forward to. A friend also had a chat to me about putting things positively rather than negatively when she heard me say something to a mutual friend about my job situation.

Some days all I might have to look forward to is just be that I’m alive and well and so are my loved ones, although that’s a pretty significant thing. Other days it might be catching up with a friend for coffee, or seeing my man that day. And then soon I will have more work to look forward to, that’s the plan.

Last Thursday I took this photo while I was waiting for a recruitment consultant to come and talk to me about some temp work. I’d also been contacted by another recruitment consultant via LinkedIn for a potential job opportunity. Other job applications are in the pipeline and so is something else non-job related – just going to firm up details.

I also did a soft-launch of my new website. It’s kind of ironic that the website is focused mainly about online/digital and the two aforementioned jobs are both focused more on writing.

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A few days ago I was out of sorts. I hate feeling in a funk like that because it’s hard to just snap out of it really quickly which I’d like to do. Instead it usually takes me a day or two to get over those feelings and this time was no different.

I can see how easy it would be to wallow in the feelings of self doubt, pity and all the rest of it and I can’t pinpoint exactly what helps me get out of a funk. Here’s some ideas though:

Time is definitely a factor. If I’m having a bad day then usually the whole day will stay that way and I just have to hope that the next day will be a lot better.

Talking to friends. It’s isolating staying at home by yourself. I know this full well from being a single mum with a young baby. Nearly ten years ago I didn’t have the online network that I have now with blogging, Twitter and Facebook. I only had the phone and if I didn’t speak to an adult on the phone at least once a day I think I would have gone mad. Now that I have the social networking available to me it helps the feelings of isolation but I still need to talk to people.

Getting out and doing something. I’ve got a dog so I need to walk her while she’s still up for it. She’s around 14 years old so I’m dreading the day when she just doesn’t want to go for a walk. I also try to make lunch or coffee dates (although not too many because of the financial situation). But I don’t always have to leave the house because just even keeping busy around the house helps keep my mind off things. I got out the furniture polish to do some polishing yesterday, something I rarely do. I usually just get a dust cloth for the dusting. And I’ve been watching The Love Boat – some good escapism.

Thinking positively. I think this is the hardest to do but probably one of the best things and let me tell you why. I have to constantly remind myself that I am a useful member of society and have something great to offer the paid workforce, whether it’s in a freelance capacity or otherwise. I’ve got some excellent skills and people who’ve seen my Resume recently have commented  on how impressive my skillset is. I had a Facebook message yesterday from a friend who works in wine marketing asking for my help with their Facebook page. I haven’t definitely heard yet whether they will get me to help (but I’m hopeful) and it won’t be a stack of work, but it’s something to start with and I don’t think this opportunity would have presented itself when I was feeling really down the other day.

Now, I do need help with procrastination. I’ve bought myself and started setting up my own website to further my professional branding but have been sitting on it without really adding any content. I find mrketing myself quite hard to do but I’m going to have to swallow my pride to some extent and just do it.

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It wasn’t long ago that I took this photo. We both had a day off, well I’m having lots of days off, but it was kid free as they were all at school. We took the dog down to the beach, bought some lunch along the way and were sitting down in the sun eating our pasties.

Did I mention it was warmer? The last few days, autumn has well and truly hit here. I’m wearing more clothes, and socks and shoes and I’ve even considered putting the heater on. It’s also been raining quite a bit, although that’s been normal this year too.

I spent the day in front of the computer working yesterday as I’m doing a website for a friend’s clowning business. I haven’t started my own website yet. I get all gung-ho about it then I see a job advertised that I’ll apply for and might get and then what’s the point of a website for me? Perhaps I should have one anyway, to brand me as a person who does a particular thing? This indecision is annoying.

I’ve found this website – Therapy in Transition – which has a section on business and entrepeneurship that I will read. It might give me some pointers.

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When I got my new job back in August I still managed to hold onto working four days a week but because the office hours were longer I was out slightly longer each day and I had to make up some time on my free Fridays.

I did hire a cleaner but they were either very unreliable or when I got a new cleaner I only got them to come in once a fortnight. It was totally worth it and it’s something I’ve now curtailed until finances start getting better.

Despite not having to do so much cleaning I obviously still had the day-to-day stuff to contend with. With that, and finding time to spend with my fella things could feel very rushed and I would often wonder if it would be like this until the lad left school?

Now that I no longer have to go into work four days, or more, a week I’m loving – absolutely loving – the slower pace of things.

I used to get up at 6.30 to take the dog for a walk in the morning and now I get up at 7.30 to get JJ ready for school and when I’ve dropped him off I take Monty for a walk. It’s much more civilised. I note that I’m still going to bed around the same time so the extra hour or so is obviously agreeing with me!

I try to maintain a routine in my day and I notice that watching The Love Boat has crept into my routine. I sometimes set the Tivo so I can start watching it halfway into the show and fast forward through the ads. It’s a chance to have an early lunch or do something like folding the clothes. Oh, and I love the fashions on the show. It’s quite light hearted and I inevitably feel good afterwards.

One other thing I’ve been able to now fit into my day is helping out with things on at the school. The photo above was taken when I went along to the school garden to help out the teacher with JJ’s class that day. There were quite a few other parents there so I didn’t have to do too much.

The other day, I went on an excursion into the city. The kids were all really well behaved and the show that we went to see about water conservation and use was fairly entertaining for the adults as well as the kids.

Next week they’ve got swimming each day and because some of my freelance work has been delayed I’ll be able to help out there too. Although JJ has an ear infection so I’ll have to be careful that it doesn’t reoccur. I must remember to use Aqua Ear after he’s been swimming.

I’ve also now got the time to setup my own ‘business’ website. Someone asked me to describe what services I’ve got available and it would have been good to direct them straight to my website. It looks as though freelance work is the ticket for me at the moment.

Isn’t it funny – this is something I’ve been thinking about for some time. I even have a category called ‘My business‘ on this blog. If I had stayed in paid employment I’m sure it’s something that would never have kicked off but now I’m out of work, I’ve got the time to concentrate on it.

I’ll keep you posted.

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He’s been a bit better since then and so have I.

Moving on then. It’s his birthday on Friday and he’s having a party on Sunday which I’ve been stressing over. Really it won’t be that stressful and I’m sure it will be fine on the day. We’ve got a list or three of what games to play, what I need to buy, and what we need to do. I tell you, being a mum makes me even more super organised than I used to be. I often think that if I go for a job interview and they ask for examples of my organisation skills, not only can I use work ones, but I can use motherhood ones also.

So, back to the party, we’ve got about five children coming over for two hours and we’ve organised some games for them to play and I’m hoping that we have enough to occupy these little rascals for that time. So any ideas for fillers are very welcome, especially ideas for things to do inside.

Bless my son’s heart, he’s so excited about his party and he’s gonna wet himself when he gets his Nintendo DSi on Friday. I’m gonna have some great leverage when that comes into play.

In addition to the normal parenting, work and home duties I have a three more things that are going to be on my plate, and already are to some extent. They are extra work outside of my paid work.

Firstly I agreed, in a weak moment, to do a website for a friend’s business. I’m going to do a WordPress site for her rather than build from scratch. We met about it in March and it should have been done and dusted by now but it’s not. I’ve told her that I’ve got some other things coming up and I really want to get hers out the way. I’m going to have to lay down the law and say I won’t do it if she doesn’t hurry up. I’m being paid with treatments from her (she does shiatsu).

The other thing is that I do some freelance work through work and they’re doing a big website revamp which will involve a lot of work on my part. I’m being paid handsomely for it but there will be a fair bit of time involved.

And lastly, a business opportunity has come my way. I’ve been approached by a friend to join him and two others for a web-based startup. I can’t say too much about it at the moment but they’ve really done their research and it sounds quite promising. Naturally there’s work involved there too so I’m quietly panicking.

A while back I’d started playing with the idea of starting my own business but was really hesitant because I would have to do it all on my own and I know my own limitations. Working with others can have its pitfalls but also its strengths. I’ll definitely keep you posted on that one.

Anyway, time to go, lots to do.

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I don’t think I could have done this post in any other way than a list.

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If my blog were a roadmap I’d have one major road with some minor roads and lots of little roads off them, some of which would be dead-ends. The main road would be the blog itself, the minor roads would probably be the categories within this blog that I contribute to the most and the dead-ends would be little things I start doing that I stop for various reasons.

I wrote recently about feeling a need for my own business. I keep thinking of things that I could possibly do but all I really want to do is develop this blog. But to do that I can’t keep ambling along dead-end roads.

Then along comes Problogger with a challenge to build your blog in 31 days. Heck, why not I say. I can’t say that I will do my ‘homework’ every day but so long as the tasks don’t take too long I’ll give it a go.

The first challenge is to have a go at writing an elevator pitch. This is very much first draft and if my more regular readers have anything to add, or any other comments, please feel free to do so.

“Semantically driven is a largely personal blog written in an engaging and honest style, where you will read about what life is like as a working, sole parent to one child, and you’ll also go on a photographic journey as I take photos to feed my artistic habit. Recently I started reviewing products that my readers might like because I believe in word of mouth marketing more than businesses marketing fluff.”

I’d like to revisit this pitch at the end of the 31 days to see if it’s changed at all. I’m sure it will – first drafts are just that.

I do have an idea that I hope to ‘launch’ as part of this blogging challenge. If anyone puts their hand up to be guinea pigs I’d love to test it on a few people.

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I downloaded and read the Teaching Sells report and decided it wasn’t for me. It involves deciding on a niche and setting up a website and forum etc to sell something that you can teach people and make them pay for.  I’ve never wanted to be a teacher in a really explicit way like that so while it was interesting reading, it’s not for me. Plus it was going to cost nearly $1000 which for something I’m not sure about made it definitely not for me.

Other research has hit a stumbling block too. I tried to get the book I mentioned in my earlier post called ‘What’s next’ but none of my libraries (yes I have more than one) had it. I have to go to the library this weekend to return some books so I’ll look in the career/small business section.

As for websites that talk about starting up your own business I haven’t really found any, nor really been looking that hard to be honest.

So it’s going really well isn’t it?

However, I did meet with my friend to talk about creating her website and she left with a list of tasks, ie getting content to me. So that’s on hold until she writes the content.

I’ve also been busy reviewing a fantastic product, the first post I’ll add over the weekend. It’s been loads of fun to do, and has involved some great quality time with my son which for me comes first anyway.

But I continue to write about this hypothetical business of mine in the hope that something might come of it.

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The other morning when I took the photo of the morning sun reflected off the gum tree I also took some other photos to try and capture a word – Action. This is for my go at the Shutter Sisters One Word Project.

The subject of this photo – my son – is nearly always active. Even if he stands still his mouth is still very active. I’ve learned to switch off sometimes otherwise my head will explode.

I drag him out on my morning walks and he starts off with great reluctance but it’s the only time that I can walk my dog, or that I will walk my dog. And in this hot weather it’s the best time of day to do so.

I chose the word action, not to take photos of my son in action, but to remind myself that I need to take action with my life too.

I did this in part today when a friend came over to discuss me doing her website. She left with a list of tasks and now the ball’s really in her court. The action I’ll have to take will happen once she gets her content together but we gave her a deadline. We looked at similar websites (where we could find them) of her field and they were mostly shite and/or had hardly any information on them. She’s a health practitioner and obviously these people rely more heavily on other forms of advertising themself. So it will be interesting once her site is up and running to make sure her search engine optimisation is up to scratch and to see how many new clients she gets from her website. That will be a good tick for me anyway.

I know when I’m looking for a service, the first place I go to is the web. What about you?

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For instance, you want to buy a car, you start researching and you narrow it down to a particular model. You’d never really noticed this type of car before but now you see it everywhere. You’d never realised there were so many of these cars around.

For me at the moment it’s not cars. Mine is ten years old this year but doing perfectly fine at the moment (hope I’m not jinxing things by saying that). For me at the moment it’s having my own business. I mentioned this a while ago on this blog and it was really only a thought then. It’s still pretty much a thought but if I don’t start doing something about it, all I’ll ever do is sit here and think about it and not much else.

So with this hypothetical (at the moment) business of mine I’ve kind of got an idea that that’s what I want to do. The thought of going to work at the same office every day for the next 20 years or so frightens me silly. Having said that I’ve been at my current workplace for 15 years and I’ve accrued a great amount of long service leave. As a friend in a similar position has said to me she doesn’t know whether it’s a blessing or a ball and chain. The ball and chain being the safety net of having this leave and not wanting to give it up. This is part of what’s been holding me back.

But, I figure, I work four days a week and I theoretically have one more business day each week to concentrate on something else. I also have other time I’m sure I could make if I put my mind to it.

So, back to this business idea. I haven’t got an exact plan so I thought I’d start researching things on the internet and I’ve found all sorts of things to read. Of course, I haven’t read them all yet. This heatwave is taking it’s toll – see – already I’ve got excuses.

This hypothetical (at the moment) business idea is of course internet/web based and that’s as far as I’ve got. My initial thought was that I could build websites for people but that’s not really want I want to do. My experience with people wanting websites thus far is that they usually want it for practically nothing and the value of building a good website is really undervalued, especially when it comes to the content.

So I’m conducting my research to see if I can come up with any other bright ideas. I’ve already got my business name decided and while I won’t say it yet because I haven’t registered it, it was so obvious in the end that I wonder why I didn’t think of it before.

There is a wealth of information freely available out there that I’m starting to delve into. Yaro Stark’s blog – Entrepeneur’s Journey is a good starting place. As he writes, being an entrepeneur is hard work but it’s doable if you really want to. Am I an entrepeneur? Don’t know really but I’d like to try.

Via Problogger, I’ve also downloaded the Teaching Sells report on how to grow your online business. I realise I haven’t even started an online business yet, but thought it might have something useful for me.

Last, but not least, I read a book review by Shai Coggins about a book called What Next – The Complete Guide to Taking Control of your Working Life.

My task for this week – because as I told someone recently, I work better with deadlines – is to read more of Yaro Stark’s website, read the Teaching Sells report and see if I can get hold of ‘What Next’. I’ll report back next week.

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