My Life Sorted - Why I am starting up my own business….
I thought I would share with you all my reasons for setting up my own business and what I aim to achieve in my life. Whilst everyone’s journey is different. I hope that this story will resonate with someat their stage in life.
Most of my working life I have worked 9-5 in an office, although in very different businesses from charities to high tech industry .com’s. i mainly joined a business to tackle problems, then move on, once they were back on the straight and narrow. I found i was very good a rolling up my sleeves and tackling the mountains of issues that were waiting for me, and was willing to spread my wings over vast areas that needed support.
When I hit 30, I took myself off abroad to become a chalet host and have the gap-year that I missed before college. This stretched out for nearly two years, before i returned to the UK. From then on, I started to plan out my life in 4 year cycles. Where did I see myslelf, how do I get there. I (mostly) achieved what I set out each time, although with some bumps in the road.
When I was made redundant in 2016, I thought would go freelance - I was an IT Project Manager at that time and had seen the opportunities out there. However, after my first contract I decided that it was not for me. The daily grind and drama was more than I wanted at that stage in my life (I was heading for 50 for goodness sake!).
So, I took a few months out, and a diploma in Interior Design, to plan how I wanted to last third of my working life to go. I wanted less stress and drama, I wanted to have more flexibiliy to do the volunteering I had started (post-Olympics) and I found I didn’t want or need so much income when I reviewed my budget. Luckily I had some small regular income from property that would let me survive day-to-day (just) so I was able to look for a career that would make me happy and make use of all the skills I had absorbed over my working life - accountancy, office management, HR, Company Secretary, reading legal documents and understanding them!. Interior Design had always been a passion since young, so what to do….
I thought then about becoming an Interior Designer so I started a degree in Interior Design, thinking of going down that route full time to eventually set up my own business.
I found a job in a well known tile/paint/bathroom shop two days a week to see how I iked the Interior Design area, and also worked part time at a company as an office manager/administrator/girl friday. Again I had filled up my time but at least I was not part of the daily grind and had more time free.
After a while, I reviewed my life again, and decided to change it up once more. Although I enjoyed my work, I was back at full time - not what I had planned at al!!
I gave the office manager role and started planning to set up my own business. I had heard of Virtual PA work and had binge watched Marie Kondo and other organising programs and tackled my house from top to bottom. Suddenly a thought popped into my head. I am great at sorting things out! I can tackle most work tasks (not selling- hopeless at selling), I have an eye for design and colour and can sort out and stage the heck out of small spaces.
Thus the My Life Sorted concept. Three strands that people may need help with - design of lovely homely spaces, sorting out administrative tasks for peoples, business or home life and then decluttering and staging a home to renew their love of their home or to sell it. I hope to take the burden off people to enjoy their life more, and allow them to have more time for fun (as I do).
It has take almost 30 years of working and planning to come to this point, but I feel liberated and joyful and full of hope. Tears, and frustration are to come I know, but I now feel I am heading in the right direction for my life and learning new things all the time (Blogging for one).
I hope you have enjoyed this stream of consciousness of how i came to this point in my life and that you may find a small element to take, review and think about for your life. In the mean-time, I am here to help you with your life, be it home, work or life.