So after 14 years of being an employee within the retail sector, I am finally ready to move on and start my career as a self employed Virtual Assistant. This has been a huge decision for me, as being employed by someone else gives people certainty and security. I have never had to deal with my own taxes or legal requirements before, but I am lucky that I have people around me who can help and advise on the best ways of ensuring my business runs smoothly and correctly.

Taking this step into the world of self employment is both incredibly scary and exciting at the same time. Being able to take control of my time and who I choose to work with is a huge plus for me. I will have much better control of the hours that I work now and I can prioritise my time around my family life. More and more people I know seem to be choosing to change their jobs, so that they have more time with their families. This seems to be a very common path now and I can see why so many people choose to work from home. It gives you much better control and the opportunity to really steer things the way that you want them to go.

My hope is that by becoming fully self employed and totally giving over my attention to my own business, I will now be able to expand my client base and in turn be able to help out other small business owners with their plans. I understand the need to be able to have the time both to grow your business and at the same time, the need to spend quality time with your family. My primary reason for starting this business was so that I can have an income, but at the same time, I can also have a better family life. If I can help others to better maintain their work – life balance, then that is my ultimate goal.

Do you have times when you feel like you’re spending more time working on your business than with your family? Do you have backlogged invoices that need clearing, so you have better cash flow? Do you have an email box that is full and needs filtering?

If you need help to make your business flow better, but you just can’t seem to find the time, then I could be the person to help you out. Now is the perfect time for me to start helping out someone new, so get in Contact if this is you.

After a bit of a slow start, there is progress in my business now. I am moving forwards with my clients and the work I am doing is exactly the right thing for me. Giving this business a real chance to work and giving me a chance to finally realise my potential and talent is what I needed. I feel more and more accomplished every time I take on a new task for one of my clients. It is a great feeling when something that you have put your heart and soul into finally seems to be coming together.

I am also making progress within my makeup business. Again, this has taken time, but like all things, you have to put in the time for it to be successful. I have been trying to juggle my time between these two businesses and my day job, along with caring for my daughter, running a household and making sure that I still have some quality time with my husband. That last part is always the hardest part! But with a little more effort and investment of my time in my own businesses, soon enough I should be able to make things work out and finally be my own boss for good.

I think a big part of my progression has to do with my new found confidence. This is a culmination of various factors coming together and giving me a huge boost. It has taken me 35 years to realise that I have valuable skills to offer to others and that these skills are actually things which people will pay me for! The way which I work may seem a bit haphazard to some people, but for me, it is what makes my lifestyle work. I work my admin tasks around Maya’s nursery time and after she goes to bed. My makeup business can easily be worked around the rest of my life as well, I mean, makeup can be done anytime and anywhere! Being able to combine these two businesses into something that provides me with enough income for our lifestyle is what has motivated me to continue along with my journey. The more orders I get from customers for my makeup, the more my confidence builds and I feel good each and every time I get an order. Every time one of my clients asks me to take another admin task off him, that gives me a boost as well. He is comfortable enough with my skills to let that particular task be done by me, so that he can have that time back to concentrate on the more important things. Each of these things has helped hugely with my confidence and made me realise that I can make this work for myself and my family.

Equally, my health and fitness journey has had a huge impact on my confidence. If you had said to me 3 years that I would be going to weekly fitness classes and going out for runs (and enjoying them!) I would have laughed at you. But now, that is exactly what I am doing and I love it! I have made so many amazing new friends through doing it as well and they have all given me so much help and support, that has done wonders for my confidence. It hasn’t been an easy journey, there has been a lot of hard work and I do still like my treats every now and then! But I now have enough knowledge and experience to be able to regulate my intake and know what I should (and shouldn’t!) be eating. I can now go out wearing shorts this summer and not feel conscious of my chunky legs. I am comfortable in my body and, thanks to my new skincare regime, comfortable in my skin to. This feeds back in to my makeup business, which without this I would not have found an amazing new range of skincare products. Products which I wish had been around when I was a teenager.

So really, all these new things which have happened to me within the last three years have been exactly what I needed. The last six years have not been easy for us as a couple, but we have come out the other side and we’re still very happy together and I feel like a completely different person. Sometimes when bad things happen, it can make you look at life differently and this is what I decided to take from that. My progress in work, in life and in my own confidence is down to many different factors. None of it would have been possible without my amazing family and friends though, so a huge thank you to everyone who has supported me on this journey so far. What will the next chapter bring?

After new developments within my personal life and my work life recently, I have found my inspiration again and am back on track with my writing finally. I have ideas in my head not only for new blog pieces, but ideas for promoting both of my businesses and finally becoming fully self employed.

Part of my inspiration has been my sister and my newly arrived niece. Watching my sister going through the early stages of labour was quite an experience, as I have never had the full experience myself. Being able to be part of her experience was very eye opening for me and I felt lucky that she wanted me to be there, at least for the early part.

A new arrival has meant that there will be some inevitable changes within our family dynamic, especially for my daughter. Up until now, she has been the only grandchild, so that is all going to be a new experience for her, not being the centre of attention. I can see there being a bit of a period of adjustment, for everyone, but hopefully she will settle fairly quickly and accept her new cousin well.

Accepting changes can be a daunting prospect for anyone, let alone a 3 year old. Obviously some changes are for the better, especially in this case. We have gained a new family member and more happiness has been added into all of our lives. Having that new life come into our family has made me remember how much change we went through when we had Maya. There were so many aspects of our lives that changed then. As she has grown, we have had to change things as well.

Looking forward to a new beginning for my sister and brother in law with their beautiful new daughter, this draws parallels with my plans for a new beginning with my businesses.  Nurturing a new business can be likened to nurturing a baby in a lot of ways. It takes up a lot of your time and attention. You have to put in a lot of effort to keep it going. All the care and attention you put in ends up being worth it when you see the end result though. My hope is that my new beginning with my businesses is as enjoyable and as happy, as my sister and brother in laws new beginning with their daughter.

Fear can be a powerful motivator if you don’t let it take you over. People are often reluctant to try new things or to do something a different way, because they are afraid. Facing your fears can sometimes be a good thing and open you up a world of possibilities.

Being afraid of something isn’t necessarily a weakness. Some people have things they are scared of that just don’t make sense to others. Everyone has different fears and different ways of dealing with those fears. Seemingly insignificant fears, like a fear of spiders, may not make sense to some people. For myself, my fear of spiders stems from the time which I spent in Australia with my parents & baby sister. I was only 3 at the time and the spiders out there can be very dangerous. So my parents were very careful to warn me about staying away from the spiders, because they might hurt me. At such a young age, taking on board information like that can sink in and it is something which I’ve held on to for years now. The likelihood of me getting hurt by any domestic spider species in the UK, is incredibly small. But because of the way I was taught not to go near those dangerous spiders, I still have that ingrained within my mindset.

I have another fear that I need to face at the moment, my fear about Maya doing more hours at nursery! Now I’m not afraid of her being there, because I know she will absolutely love it and she will get to spend more time with her friends. The fear comes from me letting go of her being with me as much. I think a lot of mum’s suffer from the same fear of ‘losing’ their baby as they grow older and start to become more independent. I know that it will be good for her development, both educationally and socially. There is still that niggling fear at the back of my mind about her being away from me though. I have to face it head on, as it is for my benefit to. It means that I can better prioritize my time and have more structured hours of when I complete work for clients.

Fear of the unknown, or of changing situations plays a big part in my mindset. Taking the leap into being solely self-employed is a huge step for me and something that I really need to be 100% certain about. Thankfully I have people around me who can advise me on what are the best steps for my personal circumstances. So hopefully that fear will begin to dissipate soon and everything will fall into place. My job, Maya’s nursery and our family life will all slot into a better pattern and ultimately we will all benefit from me facing those fears.

Is there something new that you’ve been meaning to try, but haven’t because you’re afraid? Maybe now is the time to face that fear and take that leap. It could be the big change that you need that makes your life turn around, so that you can live life to the fullest and really be happy. I know that is my hope for my not too distant future!

I was asked over the weekend by one of my up line presenters from my makeup business to share my why with our team. The why am I doing this, why have I decided to start another business. This is what I shared with my team.

My why is quite complex really. I started this journey because I saw how much fun Kelly (my sponsor) was having. I thought it would be nice to have something that was purely for me. Now, I see it as an extra bit of income to bump up my money alongside my admin business. That is really picking up and I’m hoping to quit my day job within the next 3 months. If doing Younique alongside my admin business can keep me going, then that would be amazing! It has done wonders for my confidence as well. I wasn’t in a good place after losing my baby and being able to do something for myself has really helped me to get back my confidence. Plus I’ve been able to make some really amazing new friends and the support is fantastic.

So you can see that my reasons for beginning my new venture have developed over the last few months. I do see it as a nice extra bit of income, which enables me to have that bit of money which can be used for nice treats. Taking Maya out for a sweet treat, buying that new dress for myself, getting my nails done once in a while. Having that extra something which means that I can have a little bit of me time, it makes all the difference to my sense of self. In a lot of ways, starting my makeup venture has been about me getting back to being Kylie, instead of just being mum all the time. It has given me back the part of me which I had lost for a while after losing Theo.

My why for starting this business, my own Virtual Assistant business, this was about me taking back control of my career path. I started out my career in retail as a stop-gap whilst I was hunting for a job within the animal care industry.  That obviously did not work out as planned. Nearly 14 years later and I am finally changing my path to reflect what I now want to be doing. It may have taken me a while to realise what it is that I actually want to do with my career, but now that I have found something which I really am good at, something that I enjoy doing, I finally have my reason why.