Foundation Sensation

The definition of dilemma is...

...a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two or more alternatives, especially ones that are equally desirable/ undesirable...

I find myself in quite a dilemma but I am taking this time to explain how I have managed to turn it into a positive. I am writing this blog, indeed for self preservation and to have something to look back on in ten years time when I am a successful business woman and third most richest human on the planet...or just when I need a reminder of how far I have come...that should do the trick! HOWEVER I also promised when I started this blog, that it would be an 'epic journey' of discovery for others who kindly read it. It discusses me, myself, a young mother of two making hard decisions in which time becomes split, priorities and responsibilities get mish mashed so bad you have days walking in small circles within your kitchen and you become not entirely sure whether your name is Holly or Bob Geldof...

Bob?...Bob is that you???

Then of course, this is also supposed to be about how I am starting a small business and what that entails. A whole well of tasks to do, admin to get through and research to be done. Don't even get me started on the HMRC... IT FREAKS ME OUT!!! I'm petrified that I might forget to fill out a form and will end up in prison in a years time for tax evasion or something that I didn't even know I was doing. Oh yeah, classic Holly...I can hear my mother talking now... "SHE DOESNT EVEN KNOW HOW TO SPELL TAX...PLEASE SET HER FREE!"...Classic Holly. I've seen Orange is the New Black and I don't wanna go there...sista! 

And finally, this was supposed to be a sophisticated blog about Digital Marketing something of which I have barely spoken about yet! I haven't written an academic or sensible word about Google Adwords, SEO, PPC, Online Advertising, Content Marketing...Nothing, nadda... I've merely tapped the head of good old Mr Social Media. #hastaghashtag

Time...it's all about time...One thing I didn't even stop to think about when I started eHive was the amount of time & headspace it actually takes to set up a business. Not just a Digital Marketing business, albeit how small it is. But any business. I am not trying to scare anyone, if you are reading this and have thought that you might like to one day set up a business of your own then please stay with me here...There are just some things to consider that I didn't consider which I wish I had considered because if I had considered them then I might have been more prepared...buzzzz buzzzzz...

Give yourself time, start slowly, don't expect to be up and running in a week. It's impossible. Get everything ready first and enjoy it! I got back from holiday having left my job a few days before and had a customer 2 days after registering the business name...and that was all I had done. So with two kids, husband offshore, a customer and pretty much just a name...It's been more intense than it needed to be. DO NOT GET ME WRONG...DO NOT!!! I am loving every single minute of this here experience and I am learning so much...I am proud that day by day I am getting through it but by jove I am looking forward to having the carpet laid so I can start putting the furniture in...are you with me? 

This is a list of some of the things you will need to consider if you are starting from scratch (most of which will cost money)...

• Registration
• HMRC 
• Bank Account
• Book Keeping - Invoicing, logging all ingoings and outgoings (KEEP YOUR RECEIPTS)
• USP
• Branding
• Advertising
• Website/Social Media Presence
• Office Space & equipment
• Fees (what to charge)
• Writing up a contract template for customers
• How you will pitch yourself to potential customers
• How much money do you have to spend/live on before you start to earn?
• How do you get paid?
  

And that my friends, has been my life for the last four weeks! My average bedtime has become 1am (an easy sacrifice if working in the evenings means still getting to be with my children 4 full days a week)...and I have indeed eaten my body wait in strawberry laces!

You know childbirth? Thousands and thousands of women do it every day and quite often go back for seconds or thirds despite how much sweat, pain and tears it takes. That's a bit what this is like, it is lots of hard work, clammy hands I have to keep pushing myself...but I know that deep breath after deep breath after deep breath it will all fall suddenly into place and become something really quite wonderful, my work baby! 

So going back to where we started...my DILEMMA is that as part of this journey I have to choose to hold off on the fun nitty gritty stuff like advertising and exploring all sorts of cool digital mediums just for a short while. For now, I invest my time in building this business and making sure the foundations are laid out properly. More time consuming than one had originally thought...indeed...but all part of the process. My dad once told me, and I shall never forget it...

Sometimes in life you have to travel the long way around...

in order to learn things on the way. 

Jim Bob

In other news...my two year old took himself off to the potty and did a poop all by himself tonight! So proud! (Cue picture...but I won't!)

Social Media Dependency...#hashtaghashtag

On Saturday night I dropped my phone in my old office, the bathtub. As it slid under my tired mass I admit retrieval was not as swift or as graceful as it should have been. Alas, by the time I airlifted it from the depths of epsom salts and frantic ripples...it was too late. The words of Monty Python legend John Cleese seeped into my frustrated head "It's passed on...It is no more...It has ceased to be...". Never mind, It was going to happen at some stage. Since then I have rekindled a relationship with my old phone which is absolutely useless so I am spending a lot less time on social media than I normally do. I'll admit it's been tough but i'm coping OK. I'm definitely doing better than I was at the end of last week...

I love my Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, Whatsapp etc etc...With a husband away a lot and family and friends across the globe, it makes staying in touch easy and fun! I realise that I have become a bit of a social media "whore" for want of a better word. Staying connected is a part of my life and actually fills my evenings with company, albeit digitally. This week, practically phoneless, I have realised how my life involves a lot of storytelling. I love to tell stories and to engage people in them, making people smile and ultimately making them laugh. AND yeah...OK, i'll put it out there, it makes me feel good when I get a healthy response from something I've posted! I feel like a numpty admitting that, but I do! I am not one of those that uses social media to offload how I am feeling, I don't seek attention through people feeling sorry for me. If i've had a crappy day or if someone has upset me I wont turn to Facebook to be a shoulder to cry on. That's not how I tick... There are people who treat social media as a means to express their Eastender'esque life dramas by revealing fairly personal content about themselves and situations that are occuring, in their lives. That's fine, knock yourself out! Personally I tend to back away from that...However, I do like to entertain. Or at least try to entertain and create small, positive and when possible, meaningful narratives...

This is Social Media GOLD...It's a baby...on a Skateboard! People go mad for this kind of material! Ultimate 'like' magnet!

Over the past few weeks I have been talking to a lot of people about how my new company eHive is about helping businesses to tell stories online about their product or service which will engage with the public. Stories which entice, interact and ultimately sell! That's business! But it's about me helping people to build their work into online communities that stand out within a much larger online community being the t'internet! It's no easy thing. There is no avoiding the fact that life, for so many of us,  is jam packed, it's against the clock and it's online. Whether on our phones, our smart TV's, iPads or computers...The world has become, and continues to become even more so...DIGITAL! We have become a culture in which we can't go to the loo without glancing at our phones to see if we have missed anything despite the fact that we checked it 30 seconds before. Sitting down and watching a film from start to finish without glancing at our mobile devices 100 times is a thing of the past! Because we have forgotten the fact that it is OK to not 'like' or reply immediately! Our attention spans are becoming shorter and shorter and short...INSTANT INSTANT INSTANT...EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DONE INSTANTLY AND SPEED IS GOOD!!!FASTER INTERNET, FASTER DOWNLOADS, FASTER BATTERY CHARGING...I wonder if to save time we will evolve to start talking in hashtags. #goodtoseeyou #mustdash #PMme...But seriously, what are we afraid might happen if we turn our phones off for a couple of hours... DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUN... Will we miss the latest trend? Will we become social outcasts!!! #OMG #itsnotevenworththinkingabout!!!...I digress...my sincere apologies...

SO, for business, engaging with people with short, snappy posts using lots of imagery is a really effective way to interact and advertise your product or service. The fact that we are using the digital world to advertise our lives as well...a social fusion of likes, shares, hashtags, selfies, dating... BLOGGING and all the rest of it is something which, when you think about it is really quite odd but ever so addictive. I would even go as far as saying that we are becoming dependent on it. The irony of it being called 'Social Media' when actually it is probably taking us further and further away from being social. I choose whatsapp/snapchat to communicate with my friends and family over picking up the phone to call them 90% of the time. I actually hate speaking on the phone...is that because I have evolved this way? I was 14 years old when I got my first mobile phone...16 years of text communication must have impacted on me somehow. I wonder what is next...transportation from one device to another...how cool would that be...

JIMINY CRICKET!!! I am not saying that any of this is bad. Heck! I am in the midst of setting up a digital marketing business! This post is more of a self observation, I am in the web of social media in a very BIG way just as millions and millions of others are. Social Media is life as we know it and there is a very fine line between online advertising (business) and social media. No wait, let me rephrase that, Social Media is business!...To some of you, you will find that comment quite depressing, to others you will probably just think..."Yeah? And?".

An example of the classic Selfie! I was sat in the car waiting for my husband and for some reason felt it was a good opportunity to take a photo of myself...waiting for my husband...in the car...??? 

HAPPY DAZE...

It's September, I am not sure how, but it is. My phone, computer, television and radio have repeatedly informed me that today is Friday! Not that it makes much difference to me what day of the week it actually is and not that I keep a track these days. To be completely honest, I thought it was Sunday...moving on...

It has just gone 9pm and I am in my new, temporary office, the one which I told you about last time. The one which has become my little personal cove of research, creativty and concentation. I am pleased, our relationship is working well. Having my set up makes me feel a bit more responsible for what it is that I am attempting to do with eHive. I keep catching a glance of my tee-shirt in the window reflection which states quite boldly 'Happy Daze'. It's one of my favorite tee-shirt brands sold at Topshop called 'Tee & Cake', this is not an advertising plug, I simple love their tees...but each time I notice it, it reminds me that in my ever wavering mind of nervousness and self doubt that life is good. Life is OK. Everything will be OK...I CAN DO THIS!!! In the wise words of my pal earlier on today, "Set yourself small tasks"...this I can do for sure!

After a visit from my brother and 2 year old nephew last weekend and my dear friend this week I have had little time to get to business. It has been a beautiful week of woodland walks and beach visits. However,  it left me feeling a bit daunted this morning as one of those self imposed rain clouds hovered above my head until at least 5pm this afternoon as I tried to get back into my work! What am I doing? I've lost my trail of perspective! How am I going to reach people?

Sure, at this stage of eHive (which is the mere beginning) most of what I am doing is research and trying to find ground in which to grow on. There is such a VAST amount of information online and the digital marketing/social media community is one which spreads so far and so deep it can be quite overwhelming! However, what a joy to discover on opening my business Twitter account last week that the majority of digital bees are in fact very welcoming and generous when it comes to sharing information and inviting others to get involved with online communities, unless I am being naive! But still, from the generosity of online sharing that I have experienced so far. I couldn't be more reassured that help is at hand when I need it and information is available by the bucket load. I am actually excited to spend the next few days giving every spare moment of my time to research! REASEARCH!  I love the empowering, self satisfying feeling of declaring that I am RESEARCHING! It sounds so important! To immerse oneself in RESEARCH is like swimming in a sea of knowledge and self tuition! #LOLZ...and all to discover how best to tell and present online stories which will capture the attention and emotions of the public across the digital world. On behalf of myself narrating my own stories, and on behalf of other businesses who need a bit of support...OOOoooooo I am excited.

A BIG shout out to masterful-marketing.com. Finding your website has been a great source of information to me this week. Very clear and easy to follow. Really a great foundation to getting a strategy template put together and what is important to include. And just as importantly what not to include. The perfect stepping stone for me. Thank you.

And thank you to a friend. A beautiful friend who I love very much. Your parcel arrived today when I needed it most! A card telling me to believe in myself and a piece of wall art which states... "You are the Bee's Knees'. You have no idea what that meant to me. Not only from a confidence point of view, but also because I have never really appreciated my knees as much as I should. Peace and love to you my friend. xxx