I don’t know about you, but before I actually met Adam, I had never heard of Geocaching, and yet it is one of the fastest growing outdoor pursuits worldwide! In a nutshell, Geocaching is an outdoor Treasure Hunt – and it’s fun! All you need to get started is a sense of fun and a smart phone. Download a Geocaching App and you’re pretty much good to go. The App will show you where you are and the location of the nearest caches to you, there are a number of free caches to get you started, however, if you get the bug, you can become a paid member and there are loads more to find! Once you find the cache it will contain anything from small toys, trinkets, pens, you will find they are hidden away and the container often camouflaged to make sure it is unnoticeable…
Posts by imyourpa
You think business is tough? Try a week in someone else’s shoes!
Many people know I am a registered nurse and still do some nursing as my “hobby”. I was asked by a networking colleague if I could provide some respite care for an elderly man with vascular dementia, sound easy? We sometimes think we have it tough in business, I put it back to you, it’s nothing in comparison to what people go through when caring for a loved one at home. I started on Saturday morning just before 8am, I had my whole week planned, the trips we would make to keep Fred (name changed) occupied and bring back some of his old memories. The first thing I realised was trips had to be planned around toilet stops and clean trousers, whilst Fred was not incontinent, actually going to the toilet without missing was a major problem. Saturday was quite uneventful…
Rosie’s Roamings October 2017
Are You A Failure?
Networking is very much like a support community for business people, the beauty is that often there is someone who has experienced whatever we are going through at any one time. Often people don’t like to ask for help for fear of being perceived as a failure. Business is tough, Brad Burton once said the beauty of working for yourself is you choose which 140 hours a week you work –when we first set up in business, that is nearer to the truth than we realise! I think it is important to note that we all go through struggles, they may be personal impacting on business or business impacting on personal stuff – remember you are never alone, but you do need to reach out. Over the last ten years I am happy to admit that I have faced struggles, sometimes a bit of friend
Sh*t Happens!
In business sh*t happens, we all know the awkward client, the deadlines, cashflow issues and what happens next? We work our way through it, longer hours, more stress, eat on the go often from fast food places, get home pour the large glass of wine ( we all know there are only four glasses in a bottle!) there’s never any time for exercise and sleep seems so elusive. Stress levels go up, so do cholesterol levels and blood pressure – these all contribute to high risk levels for vascular disease. Oh and if you’re a smoker, you probably smoke more too!
Networking – your lifeline!
Networking is very much like a support community for business people, the beauty is that often there is someone who has experienced whatever we are going through at any one time. Often people don’t like to ask for help for fear of being perceived as a failure. Business is tough, Brad Burton once said the beauty of working for yourself is you choose which 140 hours a week you work –when we first set up in business, that is nearer to the truth than we realise! I think it is important to note that we all go through struggles, they may be personal impacting on business or business impacting on personal stuff – remember you are never alone, but you do need to reach out. Over the last ten years I am happy to admit that I have faced struggles, sometimes a bit of friend
Taking Time Out
As busy business owners, it is really important to take time out to chill away from the stresses and strains of work. Many of us also spend far too much time behind a computer screen or attached to a mobile telephone! One of the issues with this lifestyle is the lack of fresh air and sunlight – so our advice is to get yourself out in the open air!
Supporting Your Local Community
Networking is all about supporting each other and this month we are mainly focusing on getting outdoors – so where’s the link? It’s simple really, whilst you are out and about, taking time out for you, walking the dog, geocaching or just out with the family – I want to ask you a favour! There are so many small businesses out there who rely on us to walk through their doors, so do it! Take a look at your local butcher next time you are having a barbeque. I recently bought meat for 36 from our local butcher Garbett Butchers (www.garbettbutchers.co.uk) it is all locally produced and the burgers were steak burgers, the sausages were all gluten free, there were marinated pork steaks and chicken kebabs, plus all the bacon and sausages for breakfast – a fabulous feast! Cost from
Doug D’Aubrey – Executive Training and Consultancy
I’m a massive believer that every business owner needs to have a mentor or coach to work with them. Over the years we have worked with different coaches and each time made some progress. Over the last two years, working with Doug D’Aubrey of Executive Training and Consultancy we have grown the business by 112% and that’s not all!
Outsourcing – The way forward?
With increased costs and red tape with taking on employees, more and more people are turning to outsourcing. These days it seems that you can pretty much outsource anything giving you the large company structure but without the salary bill. Currently, we outsource the following: HR needs to Denise Waite at The HR Dept Our LinkedIn management to Mark Northall at The Dauben Group Bookkeeping, Accounts and Payroll go to Simon Edgington at Direct Business Services (Midlands) Website, Website Support and Marketing to Neil Lawman at Blazing Raisin Solutions Telecoms and Billing Support to Chris Bagnall at Minotaur IT support to Tristan Martin at TL Martin Ltd I don’t just see these people as my suppliers, they are an extension of my business, these people have gro
Can you grow a business by networking? Hell yes!!!
When I started out as a Virtual Assistant back in 2007, I had no idea how I was going to get clients, then someone recommended that I should try business networking – and ten years later, it’s about the only consistent marketing I have done! There are many tricks to making business networking work for the small and micro businesses and I would like to share a few. Firstly I believe you need to work on the assumption that no-one in the room wants to buy from you. Once you start to think like this, you stop selling to the room and appearing desperate! Just help people, get to know them, like them and trust them – they need to do the same with you. It’s all about building relationships. Secondly, I believe you need to make a list of the connections you want to make – at least ten o
A hike in The Grand Canyon – 4 years on
I cannot believe it is four years since Iain and I took on the biggest challenge of our lives, so much has changed since then! I know some people have asked for an update as to what we did after, so with the re release of the blogs, I thought I would share an update. Neither of us have ever really heard from The Welshman since we got back, I guess I was always hacked off at him, the fact that he put himself and us at risk, he hadn’t done nearly enough training to take on such a crazy hike – but it doesn’t matter anymore, he’s safe and well, and Iain and I achieved our goal. Iain and I discussed doing Kilimanjaro, it never happened though! Iain went on to take up cycling in a big way and has done some really tough trips, including the Lands End to John O’ Groats. His children are now gr