Picking myself up and dusting myself down!

Puddleglum

Hello Dear Diary,

I have resisted starting writing you for a long time as I have been busy racking up the debt and knowing that I had to continue racking it up for a while. Now though it has to stop.

A bit of background.

I had paid off all my debts and cleared the mortgage, retrained as a health coach. I left my job and decided not to do supply teaching to keep me going but to concentrate on starting up my new business for as long as possible before going back to paid employment.

Well it has taken a bit longer to get going than I hoped although I suppose that 6 months is not a particularly long time. My Grandfather always reckoned that it took 3 years to start a business. I have enough money to see me through April (just) if I put a bit more on the credit card but I am staring at an empty cupboard for May unable to meet any bills unless I get some money in.

So - hi, ho, hi, ho! It's back to supply teaching I go. I am in the process of getting a DBS sorted out and when it is I will also offer tutoring. The exam marking season is coming up and there are some temporary jobs available with NCS which I will get on and apply for. I've resisted all this because I was afraid that working would dilute my focus on the business and indeed the last 2 weeks I have not been very productive. More staring at the ceiling in the middle of the night thinking "HELP!!!!!" than actually getting out there.

You dear diary are going to help me stay accountable. To do both. Get myself back on track financially and get the business off of the ground.

Pull yourself together Puddleglum - let's go!

pidge04

You can do it!

PositiveBalance

*Cheers with pompoms*

Yay! A puddleglum diary! :j

Glad to finally hear everything that is going on with you.

You can do this!


*Shskes pompoms again*

Puddleglum

Thanks Pidge and PB. I wasn't expecting my diary to talk back to me! ��

Pulling myself together to get into the new week one step at a time. I really need a haircut but this will have to go on the credit card and I'm reluctant. It hasn't been cut since November and it is heavy on top and out of control. Will people take me seriously if I look like I've been dragged through a hedge backwards?

Anyway. After breakfast I'm going to make a list of all the major companies on the local trading estate and then find an HR contact for each one and send initial emails. Said it, now I've got to do it.

I have someone coming over this afternoon for a skills exchange so that should be fun. 2FB posts to put together. LinkedIn to work and I need to start advertising myself as a maths and science tutor. Telling myself that if I don't push forward on this one I am being really selfish as I have lots of skills here which will help others.

Dear diary - will update this evening.

Puddleglum

Ok, update on today. Things got worse very quickly this morning when I discovered that I had even less money than I thought that I had. After a bit of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth I decided to do something a bit more constructive and made a decision to give it my all this week and if nothing gives I will pay my landlady one week's rent in lieu of notice (long story and I will probably talk about it eventually) and head back home to Somerset.

I posted on a FB group about tutoring and have received 4 enquiries about that today. I made my list of local businesses and have sent out emails to appropriate people. Have beaten my target on this one. Have started another list of private health care practices in the area and will start building relationships with them.

Then someone who works in a similar field to me came over for a skills exchange session and I hope that we both got a lot out of it. Well I certainly did!

Next a bit of financial whoopee doop! I needed to buy eggs for the morning and the small Mr S up the road was selling a dozen for £2.50. I visited the small Mr T instead and they were waaaay cheaper so I bought 1/2 dozen for £1.05 instead.

This evening I am going to share my tutoring post across as many local FB groups as I can. Just waiting for admins to assess my suitability and let me join. Then - tomorrow is another day.

jwil

Good luck

Puddleglum

Thank you Jwil.

There was a lot of night in the last 24 hours but I feel strangely calm about the prospect of packing all my belongings into the car and driving back to Somerset on Sunday. If it happens I know that I have absolutely given this my best shot. Reducing my outgoings and starting again seems like the only logical step.

Today - I have moved the rest of my savings into the main account to last over April. I am going to advertise the tutoring in another FB group that accepted me over night. I reckon that if I take on any students this week but don't get enough, well if I haven't taken any money from them and haven't actually done any tutoring then I won't have let them down too badly.

I will continue to find contacts at local private health care practices. It has to be private because NHS can't work with people who are making money from their work. It seems that they can recommend people to take up jogging in a park run but not suggest the yoga studio down the road for example.

I have a meeting booked with someone who is working in the same area of expertise as me this afternoon but she wants me to spend money with her and I can't see that that is going to be possible!

Otherwise. I have to go shopping and this is going to have to go on the credit card so it will have to be a yellow sticker hunt later on. I have an extra points voucher if I spend over £20 so careful planning will have to be done to get through the week and into next.

Hope everyone who reads this has an awesome day!:beer:

Puddleglum

The end of another day. Things have moved forwards a little bit. I have two meetings set up tomorrow evening to discuss tutoring. I have a paying client and my DBS has been completed to prove that I am save to be left alone with young adults. Hopefully it will turn up in the post tomorrow and I can scan it in to the pooter before sending it off to all the people who need to see it.

I have also submitted a preliminary application to NCS. They will review it and decide whether or not to ask me to apply formally. I may well be too old for them though although the bit on the form where you have to put in your date of birth started at 1955 and I had to scroll up to get to my year which I thought was really sweet of them!

In other news, I had a 1 to 1 conversation with the person who wants me to join her business idea. I really don't know about this one as there are definite pro's and con's and one big con is that it will take more of my money. Anyway, I have agreed to try her product. "Speculate to accumulate Rodney, speculate to accumulate."

I'm feeling a bit flat but shouldn't be because things are shifting. They may not be shifting very quickly but they are shifting a bit.

NEVER GIVE UP.

I was on a course at the weekend and we played a game of musical chairs as part of it. First of all it was played normally with the chairs all in a circle facing inwards. Everyone walked round inside the circle of chairs and when the music stopped sat down. Chairs turned round couldn't be sat on and the people sat on chairs jeered at the losers in the middle.

For the second game we were told that we had to tie a rope around our necks and the other end around our ankles so that we could only shuffle, bent over. Lots of people decided not to participate. Only about 6 of us did the second game. The music played, we shuffled round. The only things I could see were the chair seats, the floor and the back of the legs in front of me. After being jeered at in the previous game, the anxiety levels were sky high. The music stopped and we all sat down. THERE WERE MORE THAN ENOUGH CHAIRS FOR ALL OF US BUT WE HAD NOT BEEN ABLE TO SEE THAT AT THE TIME.

Lesson, there are more than enough chairs for everyone and it is our limiting beliefs which stop us seeing the possibilities out there. If we take off the rope and stand up we can see better and move faster.

Just have to put the learnings into practice now.

Puddleglum

Plan for today.

Make my way around the foot of the bed - I seem to have got out the wrong side!

Get dressed, make a bit of an effort with the hair as it has not been cut and probably won't be for a couple more weeks. I used to cut it myself and thought that it looked ok (pretty darn good actually) until a hairdresser got her hands on it an wasn't impressed at all. I guess it's like all things though - " what cowboy put this ______ in for you?".

I have a monthly networking meeting this morning. An opportunity to meet some regulars and some new people. Then I've got a phone call booked with a company I paid to send referrals to me but have discovered that there was no way that I was ever going to get work from them. Hopefully we will be able to sort something out.

I have signed up to a free month scheme with an app which should help me run my business so will work on promoting that. Then this evening I have two sessions booked with prospective tutees.

Aim to keep on with the other little bits and put out a newsletter to my email list today as well.

If I end up packing up the car and heading back to Somerset at the weekend I won't have given up without a fight.

Puddleglum

I'm a bit late with writing this update. Things are moving on though.

By yesterday evening I was feeling quite positive. The networking had gone well and I had signed up three students for tuition. My DBS had come back saying that I was safe to be left alone with students and I had got started with the new system I am going to use to run group challenges as part of my business. All good...

...until! I woke up in the middle of the night going :eek::eek::eek:

It wasn't until I finally got up and compared where I am at the moment with where I want to be next week that the critter brain finally calmed down. It was not as bad as it seemed to be in the unsociable hours of the morning.

Then networking again this morning - I met quite a lot of new and old acquaintances and made some good contacts. Then I had a lengthy conversation with my business coach who seemed a lot more mellow than the last time I spoke to him (the first time). He was pleased with progress but suggested that I should create a FB page for the tutoring and put some money behind it over the next few days to promote it. That has been done. £5 per day over the next 4 days. If it works then it might mean that I can wave bye bye to the agencies and possibly even supply.

Other instructions include stopping being reticent about putting myself out there. Include a firm call to action in my posts. Invite people to connect with me. Join groups as my professional persona and be more forward on Twitter.

You know what - it has just struck me that this diary could form the basis of a book in the future!

I have my client this evening and then I'm off to a social event as part of one of the networking groups I associate with. Was on the verge of cancelling even though it has been paid for to save on petrol and spending money. Will go lightly on the accelerator and drink eau de tap.

jwil

All sounds like good progress