I thought I would metaphorically put pen to paper about some of the highs and lows of going it alone. I set up the scheme at the end of March this year and I do it in between working three days a week and looking after my little boy. When he’s asleep or engrossed in Fireman Sam I snatch time to send emails, tweet (am still figuring this out) and generally try to spread the word. I’ve been lucky to recently receive emails from various organisations who want to know more or see how we can work together, this is fantastic and makes me feel that word is spreading and that people are taking notice.
Last week an organization emailed asking to meet up, obviously I was keen and really pleased to, so I booked in a meeting for one of my days off (today) and booked my boy into nursery for two hours. At this stage I was experiencing a high. After fifteen minutes it became clear they weren’t coming; it was now a low.
They apologized and its absolutely fine, the only reason I am writing this is because it occurred to me that if that had been a meeting for my job then I would have been mildly irritated but nothing more however because it was for this thing I have set up, it hit me hard.
I left feeling deflated and a bit like I had been stood up on a date.
The people I was due to meet weren’t to know that I had paid to put my boy in nursery, that I was sacrificing time with him for the meeting, that to me, that meeting was exciting and I suppose that got me thinking about the highs and lows of a start-up. Yes you take things more personally than you should (note to self – toughen up!) but its all part of the journey and makes it more exciting.
The day ended on a high when a local café sent me some brilliant pictures of their Chatter & Natter table and after a bit of reflection it wasn’t that bad being stood up, I got to enjoy a nice cup of tea in peace and don’t all successful entrepreneurs have the lows before the highs!
