Going it alone

As you may have gathered from my last post, there was a big question mark over my job and I feel that now might be a good time to update you all.

The title of this post is a huge hint.

I'm no longer employed.

The job which I had such high hopes for, which gave me a new boost of confidence, didn't work out.


It's a long and complicated story. From my point of view it was stressful and unpleasant and despite receiving an apology from my employer, it still left me in a position where they didn't follow process and gave me no choice but to resign.

And it's hard not to feel some resentment, some bitterness, but I am trying to be confident and upbeat about my future.

The situation has highlighted once again the struggles faced by highly skilled and capable Mums who want to continue working after having children. There is so much to take into account - the cost of childcare, the logistics, the attitudes of colleagues and employers and even school processes and procedures.

It's really tricky at the best of times.

And yet, for a while now I've found myself in awe of the Mum's who break the mould. The ones who are running their own successful businesses, doing the things they love, working on their own terms.

I'm a huge fan of Emma (Brummy Mummy of 2), Aby (You Baby Me Mummy) and Molly (The Fmly Store) and countless other amazing women who I've come across thanks to my love of blogging and reading blogs.

It's not easy at all for them and I'm under no illusions that their positions carry a great deal of stress and an (un)fair share of dreaded 'mum-guilt' but now I'm finding myself once again unemployed I've decided that 'going it alone' might possibly offer me a realistic way of building my own future.

I'm not bragging, but I have a huge range of business and administrative skills. I've worked in projects and as an Executive Assistant and in those roles you learn a lot about the different functions of a company - finance, IT, marketing, sales, customer service, and I'm yet to find an area where I haven't learnt something valuable.

It's about time I put use everything I have learnt and experienced to build myself up.

I'm starting by offering my services as a Virtual Assistant. Working remotely but with the same professional attitude and enthusiastic approach that I display in the office. At the moment I'm drafting pitches to send to contacts, frequenting various freelance sites and scouring possible positions.

I'm also going to be putting in a lot more effort into my passions - writing, reading, homemaking, party planning and random geeky hobbies. I'll be sharing all my adventures and disasters here with you, dear Reader.

And, last but not least, I'll be spending an awful lot of time on the school run! Journeying to and from school and nursery 6 times a day is already proving to be an interesting challenge - trying to get two children to walk in the same direction, at the same pace, with everything they need is more difficult than I've ever appreciated but I'm actually enjoying being one of the Mum's at the school gate!

So, if you see me around - virtually on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram or in the flesh with two little angels (haha) please do stop and say hello. I'm really friendly, sometimes a bit crazy and although I may be going it alone, there's no need to be lonely!