Friday 1 March 2013

Mother's Day Guest Blogger - Fran from Perspective

We're still celebrating all the mums in business out there. Mother's Day is rapidly approaching and we have our fabulous Mother's Day Bags available to buy for only £9.99. These colourable bags come with a pack of fabric pens so the kids can make a totally unique present for mum. Just click on the buy now tab above.


Today we're chatting to my good friend Fran from Perspective Business Centres. Have a read about what she has to say about The Joys of Working from Home. 
 

"I'm Fran Williams and, for my sins, I'm MD of 2 local businesses; a wife and a mum to a teenage daughter, 4 dogs, 3 cats and an alpaca! 

Having done the 'career woman' bit, I took stock of my life 10 years ago and, as a newly single mum, decided that something had to change.  I'd spent the first 6 years of my daughter's life working full-time.  Now it was time to redress the balance …

I decided it would be lovely to work from home, and I set up a payroll and bookkeeping business.  It was a perfect scenario.  I got to do the school runs, and to go to sports days and nativity plays and never got that guilt thing that working mums get.  Most of my clients were local, so I simply worked between 9.00 am – 3.00 pm, so I could be a perfect mum to my little girl.  It also meant that I could be there if Jennifer was poorly.

My clients were lovely, and I had a great time working from their premises or homes.  Always well look after by my clients, it was back to a stark reality on those days I was working from my own office (when I say office, I mean the room between the living room and the 'lean-to' kitchen – I think the proper term is dining room, but that's just semantics).  Don't get me wrong, my office was lovely and the view of the back garden was super.  The view into the kitchen of my Cavalier King Charles spaniel fast asleep in the sink was a small distraction.  It wasn't all bad, as the dog didn't always sleep in the sink.  Sometimes he slept on my desk, keeping my papers tidy and performing other office junior type roles.

Bored with only a dim spaniel for company during the day, and needing some intelligent conversation, I decided I needed to get out of the house more and found a part-time job.  Perfect.

Except now I couldn't fit my clients' work into 6 hours a day.  Never mind, there was always the weekends and evenings, and clients could drop their books off at my home.  Fantastic.  But did I really want clients visiting my home, particularly when I had a small child in the house?  Not ideal, but ok. 

Fast-forward 10 years.

Hubby and I have just launched a new business centre in Consett.  One of the main markets we are reaching out to is people who don't want (or can't afford) a full-time office of their own.  They maybe want a hot desk for a day, or an office one day a week.
I wish I'd been able to hot desk 10 years ago!


During Consett's snowmageddon in January 2013, I conducted an experiment and worked from home for a day.

I started work in my office at 7.00 am (ok, dining room) and all was fantastic for at least 2 hours until the dog fell asleep on my work papers.  Said dog then decided to search my briefcase and found some goodies, which he sat on and distracted me by glowering all morning.  Lunchtime came and went.  At 2 pm, I went into the living room to work on some social media – horizontal social media, on the sofa.  At 5 pm, hubby returned home and somehow I was still on a horizontal plane.

Yes, working for yourself is fantastic and working from home can work amazingly well.  What I have learnt is that sometimes it is nice to have some professional space, where your dog can't be a paperweight or a distraction!  For anyone curious enough, Barbilla the alpaca is on livery.  Just as well because she is so adorable, I would never get any work done."

 


The Perspective team in the break-out zone - no spaniels in sight!

                                    (l-r Simon Williams, Joy Williams, Fran Williams)
Fran Williams, Perspective Business Centres Ltd


Tel:    01207 585843

Thanks for your words Fran. I was honoured to get an invite to the launch of the Perspective Business Centre and I can honestly say it is fantastic. The team are so welcoming and have created a lovely environment in which you could work.

Speak to you soon my friends.

Maxine
x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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