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Mum's Guide To St Albans Blog

The Side Hustle

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Back in the day (three years ago), before I had two kids, I used to work in advertising.  It was my life.  It defined who I was.  It was bloody hard work, but it was exhilarating, challenging and, above all, brilliant fun. 

My hours were endless.  16, 18 hour days were common and all nighters were more frequent that you'd think.  Even when I wasn't in the office, in evenings, at weekends, I was always "on", ready to respond to clients, creatives, producers at the drop of a hat.  A 24 hour job. 

When I fell pregnant with my first, Isabella, in May 2015, a switch flipped in my head.  It wasn't that I stopped loving what I did, but that it wasn't the most important thing in my world any more.  And I couldn't work out how I would be able to keep on doing it, the long hours, the divided attention, once she arrived. 

And so, I started to think.  What had I wanted to do when I was younger?  How had I pictured my life being?  What set up would work with a teeny tiny little person hanging around, needing all my love, attention, and feeding skills.  

The solution, I decided, was to start my own business, sharing my love of books and reading with people.  The Beautiful Book Company was born - a book subscription and gifting company which introduces new books to people in all sorts of ways.  

Brilliant, I thought, job done.  I'll just run this in the background whilst I have my baby.  Think of all the spare time I'll have.  And I won't have to pay for nursery, fab. 

The reality, however, was not so simple.  It became my second baby, born before Isabella arrived.  I'd expected my unyielding love for my children, but not that I would have similar emotions for a business I was building.  It took months of blood, sweat and tears, whilst pregnant, and still working my advertising job, to get it up and running.  Christmas hit (as I was 7 months pregnant) and orders flooded in.  And my baby decided to arrive 4 weeks early, way before I had put into place my maternity plans.  

Unexpected adoration aside, three years in, I feel very lucky.  I am my own boss, I make my own hours.  I choose how much work I do, and my pay packet is reflected by this.  I can nearly always say "yes" to coffee with a friend, to my toddler’s shouts to go to the swings, to the chance to sit and rock my new baby to sleep.  The reasons I started all of this.  But, it has its own pains.  You really can't ever stop working.  My business is still in it's fledgling years, so every order, every customer email has to be responded to, and quickly.  I was back in my office three days after giving birth to my second child, who had arrived five weeks early, as once again I hadn’t finished everything in time. It's exhilarating - which can be good and bad.  The good is the endless ideas, the plans, the excitement of launching a new product or finding a new author.  The bad is the anxiety - I worry about leads, areas of growth, and where to take it next.  I am busier, more exhausted than I ever was working 18 hour days.  Every nap time is work time, every bed time is the start of a 4 hour shift.  Switching off is impossible.

But, as with all working mothers and any job, you find your balance.  Child care is still necessary and is my saviour, allowing me to get the job done without feeling like I am compromising my children's needs.  The flexibility is better than I ever imagined - no longer having to slog into London and work 8-8 is a joy.  Ultimately, the huge sense of satisfaction for having created this little business makes every second of it worthwhile.  

When I speak to other mums who are considering setting up a business, I'm often asked what are the pieces of advice I'd give.  I have three:

1) Choose something you feel passionate about.  If you're going to have to motivate yourself to work for yourself, on your own, really hard, you need to care about what it is that you're doing.

2) Be organised.  When you're at the start of setting up a company, there's usually no one else to sort out the admin.  Keep on top of your emails, your finances, your orders.  Hire a good accountant to help out.  Have a schedule, a routine, to make sure things get done. 

3) Be brave. There's always a reason not to start a business. Someone else is doing it already, or better, or cheaper.  You don't know where to start, or how to get a website running. Just take the plunge.  Once you've started the ball rolling it's incredible how quickly things come together. If you want to do it, do it.

So what are you waiting for? 

www.thebeautifulbookcompany.com
facebook.com/thebeautifulbookcompany

@beautifulbookco

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