During the days of running my first business, a small clinic out of a dental surgery.  I was struggling, I had left my  husband, I had two children, no child maintenance or monies from a divorce settlement.  I was ALONE with two young children.

I had a bucket of water that sat in the gap where the fridge should have been.  I couldn’t afford a cooker, so I had a rusty old microwave that I was given to try to cook meals for myself and my two children.

I had a new business that I had set up but is was so hard to get any clients and to make enough money to cover the basics like my rent and bills let alone the things the kids needed.  I felt desperate and ALONE.

I was using the “SIT, WAIT AND HOPE” marketing technique which in truth is not a real technique at all. Here is a sit, wait and hope scenario you may recognise:

You arrive at work at 9.30 am for a client.  You spend time with them getting the job done, they leave, you finish the job and then tidy around.  Then you SIT and read for a while, text a friend, spend time on YouTube watching cat videos, waiting for the phone to ring, waiting for another client to appear needing your services. But the phone does not ring.  You WISH you were busier like other business owners you know.  You wish you could be more like them.  You HOPE that your day will change.  Surely the phone will ring? Surely someone walking past will know to come in?  Perhaps they will find your website amongst all the noise on the internet? You end your day with a small amount of money earnt for a full day and walk away trying to reassure yourself that tomorrow will be different.  You feel alone, isolated and desperate to work out what you should do.  You worry your business will have to close before you even got it off the ground.  Your confidence is at an all time low and you start to doubt your own ability.

I was using the SIT, WAIT and HOPE method and it wasn’t working.  Add to that I was lacking sleep due to no bed but instead sleeping on a borrowed sofa, so that my kids could have the bedroom.  What really sticks in my head about that time is my kids sleeping on blow up beds….I felt like the worst Mum in the world.  Maybe I was and I felt totally ALONE trying to make it work.

Today I am sitting in a house we are just about to finish paying off the mortgage, with a new car on the drive and my proudest accomplishment two awesome grown up kids who have worked hard to get themselves great jobs, buy their own properties and living lives they love.   I am about to get re married 15 years after meeting my awesome fiancé and best friend Ed.  I no longer feel alone but I want you to understand I used to, and I get it that you may be in that place right now.

My message to you is:

YOU CAN ACHIEVE ANYTHING YOU WANT.

COMMIT TO IT

and

TAKE ACTION.