And the beat goes on

April 2012:
You will think the research has ended, but it never....to stay at the edge, you need to research! Research!! Research!!!

What am I researching now...... my competition! I cannot research every child care provider in the UK or even in London. I have to narrow my research down, so I narrowed it down to providers in my area.

Examples of providers to research:
(Inside the box) - Home-based child care providers, Pre-schools and Nurseries, Children's centres, Primary reception classes.
(Outside the box) - Play centres, Local libraries, Drop in centres

Examples of information I need to know:
What are they doing?
What do they offer (activities?)
How much do they charge?
What is their timetable like?
What are their staff’s levels of qualification?
What is their adult child ratio?
What time do they open and close?
What is their relationship with the parents of the kids that attend it?
How close are they from me etc?

Process of Elimination

Who am I: 'I am Entrepreneur and a Business owner' 

It is said that you do not know where you are going until you know where you have been.  You cannot measure success unless you know where you are coming from.  Below I will give you a little of my background - 'where I am coming from', reason why I chose to be self-employed and how I arrived at my business ideas.

Work- I have worked as:
PAST

• An Editorial and Unit manager for an International Medical Publishing Company in London.
• A KS3/KS4 & A'Level Science Teacher for over 3 years
• A Supply Teacher in various Secondary schools within London for 2 years
• A School Governor in a secondary school in London for slightly over a year

PRESENT

• Early Years Provider (New start)
• Independent Aloe Product distributor (New start) www.gracesaloevera.blogspot.co.uk
• Owner GraceXpress (New start) www.gracexpress.blogspot.co.uk
• Owner Graces's Diary (New start) http://www.gracesdiaryz.blogspot.co.uk/ 
• GCA - Gender for Child Advancement board of trustee member (since Jan 2010)

Reasons for wanting to become self-employed
Tired of my hamster-wheel lifestyle and gain a better quality of life
Wanted to work for myself
Establish my own home-based business without any risky investments
Better work life balance
Flexible hours - Work around my family commitments
Financial freedom - security
Stability
Time and freedom to go any direction I choose
Go on holiday with my family when I want
Personal growth, build a future

The journey:
With a mixture of excitement, anticipation, fear and mostly hope, I began this remarkable journey exploring different opportunities before me. I've had one crazy couple of months. To find out more about my crazy couple of months, read the article: All work and No play- Reaching for the sky and hanging on for dear life

How I arrived at my business ideas:

First, 
I mentally removed all the negative voices in my head (this will be people who have told you in the past - you are best suited for this, you cannot do this, this job is beneath you, no member of our family would ever do this job). It is also the voices that keep telling you: what would people think or say if you tell them you are giving up this job to pursue xyz career.

Second,
I wrote down every possible job I could do...stretching myself (thinking outside the box) these included:
1: Publishing my own work
    Publishing other people's work - becoming a publisher
2: Running a day care/ nursery
3: Retail
4: Becoming an event planner
5: Franchising
etc

Third,
I started my process of elimination. I ordered the jobs into most interested in to least interested in.  I didn't want to do what I'd been doing any more; I craved a BIG change so after much thinking, I settled for the third and forth on the list (see the post: Process of elimination for why I settled for 3 and 4 on the list): 

Business 2012 at the O2 Arena, London

The UK's Biggest Business show 'Business 2012' in partnership with Blackberry, Regus, Microsoft and The Telegraph was held over 3 days from the 18th to the 20th of March 2012 at The O2, London. 
Anyone who attended it would tell you how FREEZING COOOOLD it was. It was colder inside than it was outside, despite that hundreds of new business starters, slightly & well established sole traders/companies trooped in to see headline speakers and exhibitors, attend seminars and workshops!

I enjoyed the first day so much I attended all three days. The event was packed with amazing and inspiring keynote speakers like Simon Coulson, Sir Richard Branson, Stedman Graham (Oprah Winfrey's partner), Ritu Sithi, Chris Johnson, Mark Nathwani all giving 'insights into their business experiences and pitfalls, guiding us into the next stage of our business'.


There were expert help and advice from 200 exhibitors running seminars and workshops aimed at start-up businesses (find out how to keep ahead of your competition), businesses running for 2 or more years (help and advice you need to develop your businesses growth, potential and profitability) and bigger businesses (explore new ideas, routes to market and multiple business opportunities).

Being a start-up business, I was not only there to Network, Listen & Learn, I needed to find a way to use my time effectively in order to grasp as much information and any crumbs of knowledge I could get so as to move my business, keep ahead of my competitions and learned new ideas. 

I attended lots of workshops and seminars that were not only informative and educative but only inspirational like:
How social media can power a small business by businesszone.co.uk
How to use social media and digital commerce for online success by Gloople (Warren Knight)
Legal world of setting up and running your own business by Ritu Sithi
What every business needs to know about trade mark by CAMS

I sat in on so much more but the above were among the ones I found extremely helpful, although during a lot of the workshops and seminars, I found my brain working over time. It was like I had planted my brain in an extremely fertile soil of business knowledge....it was simply amazing. I had never experienced such a thing and even up to date, my brain keeps working over time. Simply put, it pays to be around, associated with, network with minds that can take you places.

Warren Knight was amazing, if I had money I would definitely attend his courses, and I plan to when I have some disposable income.
All in all, I am terribly grateful to my mentor at KIS training for informing me of this incredible opportunity. Being at this event has helped spark the electricity that's now showing me how I can grow my business.

Advice that I will carry with me through out this journey:

1.      Keep it simple by Richard Branson

2.      Set up with a group of like minded people, chat on skype, keep each other motivated by Cathy Presland

3.      Revisit your market strategy every 3 months, make adjustments, go where your business takes you  by Sarasparilla

4.      Stay sole trader as long as possible, do what is right for your business by Nikki Hesford of misfitUK

5.      Don't just work hard, work smart; see an opportunity - make decision & take action by Mark Nathwani

6.      Make your website easy to use, easy to navigate, easy to understand by David Miles

If you like this article, click 'like it' share it with friends, join my blog.

Stedman Graham is the CEO of S. Graham & Associates, bestselling author, serial entrepreneurs, consultant and Oprah Winfrey’s significant other

Set up Student magazine when he was 16, founded Virgin as a mail order record retailer in 1970, shortly afterwards opened a record shop in Oxford Street, London, built a recording studio (Virgin Music) in Oxford shire in 1972.  Virgin Group has now expanded into leisure, travel, tourism, mobile, broadband, TV, radio, music festivals, finance and health and through Virgin Green Fund we are investing in renewable energy and resource efficiency.

All work and No play

Reaching for the sky & hanging on for dear life 

I've had one crazy couple of months. I 'll cap it and expand on some. So since January last year (2011), this has been my life....

Back Log:

January 2011:
Came back from holiday, feeling energised and on top of the world, having escaped the freezing cold and unbelievable snow during the Xmas period and enjoyed being around friends, family and sun - glorious SUN! 
But within a couple of days, I was feeling deflated. One morning, I sat in my car for 10 minutes not moving - I wished so hard that I had a genie so I could escape into the sun again.  It was freezing cold, my car was covered in snow and I was too cold to go scrap off the ice from it. I have been working for donkey's years now and I feel like a hamster on a wheel, starting each day from one spot and finishing where I began only to repeat the same thing the next day. 
I had to get off this Hamster-wheel!!!

So, that evening, armed with a couple of papers and pen - first I mentally removed all the negative voices in my head (this will be people who have told you in the past - you are best suited for this, you cannot do this, this job is beneath you, no member of our family would ever do this job). It is also the voices that keep telling you: what would people
think or say if you tell them you are giving up this job to pursue xyz career.