I'm 4 weeks old now!

My gorgeous Henry at 4 weeks...can't wait until he's home!!

Work life balance - what is that??

Yes, I am back on about the work/life thing! I am not sure how many of you strive to be successful at work/life balance but I know I generally fail dismally. Somehow work creeps into every area of life and even when I have time off, I'm still aware of twitter, instant messenger, email, cell phone, etc. I can't remember when last I simply sat and watched a full hour of tv. Usually I have one ear and eye on the telly and the other on my computer or cell phone. No wonder we are the most stressed generation ever! Life is just too instant and time is maximised by filling it with as much as possible. With stress being the number one killer, I've started to really stress (!) about what I am doing to myself.

Last week, therefore, I decided to take time out and go sailing with some friends who have a fabulous boat called Aero. What joy! Of course you want to know you are in safe hands and I couldnt have felt safer than with our skipper and the owner of the yacht, Bruce Stirk from Boat Brokers. If anyone knows his sailing stuff, its Bruce. This meant all I had to do was sit back and enjoy the view, the yacht and the champers! I didn't think about work nor did I miss my computer (despite announcing on arrival that I should have brought my laptop). Those few hours energised me more than anything I have enjoyed in the past 6 months and the amount of work I accomplished afterwards was the equivalent of a couple of days hard graft. The lesson is an obvious one and certainly something us career people all know - take time out, enjoy a completely different environment sometimes and remember that very often not responding to every form of communication the minute you get it, does not mean the world will collapse. That I should be so important!

You do have a retirement plan, don't you?

I had an interesting conversation with a client of mine recently that has been on my mind ever since. Turning the tables on me, he asked me what retirement plan I have in place (and no, he isn’t a broker but rather an entrepreneur like me). As someone who works for myself and who still has the dream of making a fortune doing what I love, I did a double take and have since given it much thought. I dread the idea of struggling through retirement with a pension plan that barely keeps up with inflation and I’ve always believed that there are other options to pension/retirement plans that will bring you much greater reward. Being an entrepreuneur means wanting to live a life that is often out of the norm – generally, the thought of working for the same company, earning a regular salary that (hopefully!) increases annually and enjoying the usual benefits of corporate life do not attract us. Instead we enjoy the challenge of the unknown (which is often your next pay cheque!) and the potential we feel we have at our fingertips. There is no ceiling for us, no limitations and we are truly responsible for our entire future.

However, offering a service, as I do, means you have the potential to do well and live a highly satisfactory life but will often not find untold financial gain. I am my company, I represent it and I am responsible for it – clients want to meet with me, have my input and not be fobbed off (even if that’s not the intention) to others in my firm so, in a nutshell, I’m it. And while I lay claim to being a workaholic, there are still only so many hours in the day which means I do, in fact, have a ceiling. And this is why it has continued to play on my mind. Luckily being an entrepreneur means I constantly seek opportunities and am open to more…and this means, re-thinking my retirement plan.

So, what is your retirement plan?

Where do the days go?

Can you believe it is August? Where does time go to? Day's and month's just seem to fly by. Life has become so instant, on demand, in real time etc. and with all that comes the lack of interest in anything that doesn’t bring us instant gratification. If we can’t get instant answers, help or information, we move elsewhere…quickly…to wherever it is that offers us an instant solution. For example, I’m sure many of you will relate to me saying that if I go to a website and it takes too long to open, i.e. more than 10 seconds (too long??!), I’m gone. So, to catch potential clients and customers means delivering your message as quickly as possible.

I yearn sometimes for a slower life, a time when we relied on letters and phone calls on a landline that simply weren’t answered if you weren’t available. Children of this generation and in the future will never know the relaxed life we enjoyed as kids, playing in the street, no cell phones and for some, no television. Time passed more slowly and life was truly savoured.

With this constant need to deliver and keep up, taking time off is something I rarely do. Even during the day if I stop for a cup of coffee I am still constantly aware of my cell, office phone and inbox. To truly switch off has almost become an impossibility. I have even tried leaving the office for a cup of coffee and my (self-inflicted!) guilt means I am soon scurrying back. However, last week I decided to truly take an hour out (lunchtime I justified!) and meet my best friend and her daughter for some retail therapy. What fun I had! We shopped, we drank coffee and ate treats that do not appear on anyone’s diet list and well, for that short time life was simply uncomplicated and joyful. I returned to my office feeling happy, fulfilled and amazingly more energised than I would have been if I’d carried on without a break. The lesson? No matter how fast life is and how much we need to keep up, there is still room to take time out and, while instant gratification is not a bad thing and in fact makes our working lives easier in many ways, there is something called ‘balance’ – something so many of us struggle to find.

My challenge for the month ahead is to find the balance I need that will help me lead a more energised life. This will mean taking (more) time out that will hopefully result in an even greater effort at work. Coffee anyone?

Call centres a help or hindrance?

It is interesting that over the past few days I have had 3 people comment to me on their frustration of call centres. Phoning your insurance or telephone company is something so many of us avoid because of their call centres...press 1, then 5, then 2, then hold and listen to funeral music, then 5 again...you get the idea? Firstly, if you are going to have clients hold on (and on and on) surely you could play some uplifting, fabulous music? Secondly, why with the unemployment rate at such a high could we not train more people to answer calls and therefore cut back on those irritating pre-recorded voices that seem to drone on and on? There is no doubt that it is more reassuring for callers to hear a 'live' person speak to them, even if it is only to ask them to hold. My favourite is my telephone company (otherwise known as Hellkom) who make you hold on forever, and then when you finally get through to one person they help you for part of your question and then ask you to dial another number to get the final help you need - yes, I've just signed up for a new ADSL account.

I recently signed up for a (minor) investment with one of our leading financial services companies and was blown away at the efficiency. One would think with the way they treated me with such respect and promptness that I was investing millions (sadly not). Nothing was too much trouble, they called me when they promised to, they emailed back when they needed to (all hardly rocket science and yet extremely difficult for many corporates to do)...in other words they truly helped! And when you call their call centre, bliss...someone answers...and quickly! Isn't that all we're asking for from our service providers? Basic efficiency and help?

Today my blog is a moan about my pet peeve – people who are late! It is bad enough (I think) on a social level but when it affects business, it is beyond me how being on time is not an absolute given. I had a 10am appointment with someone today, me being the client, and at 10am he calls to say he’s running late and might only get there at 10.30 – do you not know way before the appointment time that you’re going to be late? Besides the sloppy image it gives off (this is our first meeting), it also shows a great disprespect for the other person’s time – as if they have nothing better to do than wait for the person that's late?

Service in our wonderful country is often criticised and this is just one small yet important way of improving things! It is such a frequent problem that we have almost become accepting of it. Is it just me that it drives crazy or how do you feel?

Welcome!

One would think running a marketing & media agency that I would have attacked blogging for Create-A-Stir a long time ago but well, I’ve been busy (no excuse!!) & like the ‘plumber’s pipes are always blocked’, I’m great at helping clients & tend to neglect my own marketing! So here is my first blog…a work in progress. I welcome all comments, opinions, interesting ideas, questions or just a general chat! Oh and please vote on my lightheared poll! Keep warm everyone & thank you for visiting!