25 years of Smart Prospects
I have passed a major milestone!
Well, two actually…
I’ve been self-employed for 25 years!
25 years. That’s a quarter of a whole century... I guess the older we get, the ways to measure the unbelievably swift passage of time proliferate at an alarming rate.
Messages from the perspective of me standing here at this point in time:
- time passes quickly
- being self-employed can be hard
- being self-employed can be incredibly rewarding
- being self-employed is a viable option
- most people in life have good intentions and mean well
If 25 years is a long time, has the type of work I do changed much? Well yes, and also, no. There are threads and themes that have persisted over time.
In the beginning, I was supporting small, not-for-profit community and voluntary organisations. Purpose matters to me, as does making a difference for others. I have supported community leaders with events and training, helping them to set up new groups, or keep their village groups going. I’ve coached them in their roles, helped them untangle messy village conflicts, even helped an early school leaving, young Mum apply (and get) a job she didn’t think she was good enough for. I’ve helped secure £millions in grant funding over the years (but retired from bid writing a while back). I even designed, wrote and delivered an accredited training course ‘Managing Voluntary and Community Organisations’.
I’m a lifelong learner so alongside my work, I studied development management formally, which is where the MSc after my name comes from. I was focusing on institutional development and systems thinking, as well as learning social science research techniques. Understanding why that curious thing is happening (or not) is important to me, especially if it is a bit peculiar. Later I studied various coaching techniques, eventually certifying in Embodiment Coaching. I have acquired many helpful tools along the way.
Part of my work still involves the organisational development work. No, scratch that, all of my work is still about organisational development and systems thinking in support of purpose inspired people bringing their dreams and ideas to fruition, but the type of organisation the people I work with are in has shifted.
Nowadays, a lot of my work is about supporting other self-employed and business owning business people.
Of all the people I have worked with over the years, as a group these are the most purpose inspired, because relying on yourself for income is not the easiest option. Often these people used to have a ‘proper’ job, but a traditional office environment, complete with a boss, hierarchy and associated politics is not an environment that suits everyone. But despite the burnout and mental health injuries, these are talented people with skills, ideas and a difference for others to make, so they set up a business to make that happen.
These are the people I love supporting.
And I have skills, ideas and a difference to make…
I too used to work in the corporate sector, financial services (sales and later training and data analysis). I previously worked in the public sector (microbiology, teaching and research). I’ve run small not-for-profit organisations in the voluntary and community sector. And also my own business.
Being a woman who has been self employed for 25 years has meant running that business whilst also raising kids, navigating divorce, house moves, the transition through perimenopause and the late realisation of neurodiversity in my neurology.
For me, fulfilment is seeing others thrive
...and I still have a difference to make for people running businesses who need more clarity and/or action so they do their thing, and make their difference, with less pfaffing and greater certainty.
When the realisation dawns, faces light up and people don’t need to be chivvied to take action – when they know what to do, and how, they get stuck in straight away. With gusto.
What people struggle with is temporary uncertainty. The cause of this could be anything: overthinking; lack of access to a tool; comparisonitis; self-sabotage; low level dehydration; being indoors for too long; a clunk of trauma because of the way a previous boss undermined them in a similar situation.
We all have many ways of stuttering, tripping ourselves up, or failing to prioritise ourselves within our work.
In response, I set up a community for the home-based self-employed. It’s called “DO to BE”. And that’s the other milestone I can’t quite believe: it’s been open for over three years now. Already. Time does indeed pass quickly.
What have I learned from “DO to BE”?
I’ve been turning up every Tuesday (except Christmas and holidays) for over three years now, facilitating distraction-free space for people to just get on with their work. The work that people have been doing so far is varied. I had grand aspirations in the beginning about attracting authors, and the work that was going to happen being rare and special, and it feeling like one of those spaces you see on Instagram…
The reality has not been that! It hasn’t felt rarified, or exclusive...
Don’t get me wrong, the work that has happened here has resulted in some high profile output, but mainly it has been the mundane. Invoices have been written. Sales calls have been made. Income has been generated. Dull, foundational admin has occurred. None of the high profile, glory stuff is possible without that.
Also, people don’t necessarily talk about what they are doing. That’s a feature of the group – you get to focus on your work, without being distracted by other people’s concerns. It’s quite a lot like a really good yoga session, where the leader gives you the time and space to really inhabit each pose. The quietness allows a deepening that is impossible to engineer. And so it is with my sessions.
There are three work cycles, punctuated with no screen, no desk breaks. Nobody is speaking. Stepping away from the desk supports a progression of the work. Virginia Wolff used to describe the importance of time away from the desk too. So I’m often not aware of the books and book proposals being written, the products being developed or the workshops being designed.
The reward, by the way, for getting people to shut up for three hours is the option to stay on and chat afterwards. Working for ourselves can be a lonely business, so these Tuesday mornings are an important way to connect. They also give us a sense of working together, even though we aren’t in the same building (or even the same country), and we certainly don’t need to navigate any office politics. No fridge dramas here!
An unprompted comment from a recent session "For the first time I really feel like I have a business that will work, and work alongside my other commitments in my life, without having to give up my main income. I am making real, tangible progress and I am very excited! I am loving it."
This is not an uncommon comment.
Another one "It is costly for me not to be here – there are consequences if I don’t, because it is so effective".
It is hard to convey just how amazing it is to hear people say what a difference it makes for them. Some people come for a couple of months, others have been here for years. I keep it deliberately low key. We are already overrun with obligations – the vibe here is no guilt, shame or judgement. No need to submit apologies for absence, or even to stay for the entire session – people can drop in and out as other commitments permit.
Likewise over time. If someone has a specific project to work on, they can come and go as they please. I make the group deliberately easy to leave. If you join and then realise that the format doesn’t work for you, then a no drama refund will be on its way.
But mainly the end of the session sees a collective sense of relief
"Phew! I am so glad I got *that* done, I thought it was going to take all week, but now it is out of the way and I can get on with that other thing I have been looking forward to."
Overall it’s a calm space where people turn up and make tangible progress on tangible work. They can think clearly, feel steady again and rediscover their confidence and a strong sense of direction once more. We all get so frazzled from all the busyness, and the answer is rarely more enforced structure, or a better spreadsheet than all the others that haven't worked... These things have their place, but breathing space is so important when running a business - spaciousness is not a luxury item.
On a daily basis, I am amazed by what "Do to BE" and my business is supporting
Which brings me back to the fulfilment of seeing others thrive. I absolutely love it.
That’s why I will be continuing to work with purpose inspired self employed people to support them to prioritise themselves, within their valuable work of helping others.
Would you like a slice of this sort of thing?
If you are curious… have a squint at the "DO to BE" community and see if getting it booked in to your calendar every Tuesday morning would be helpful for you. If you have questions, please do message me.
People report how they use it to help reduce the mental load during the rest of the week, because it gives them a handy time and space to defer tasks to.
Understanding how much time and energy a task requires is a skill that I help people to build - it’s a deep working knowledge that creates self trust.
It's magical.
