Since starting DaisychainBaby, which sells organic and ethically sourced clothing and gifts for children aged 0-5, a couple of years ago, I’ve grown quite accustomed to juggling two jobs as I still work full time Monday to Friday in what I affectionately refer to as the “Day Job”. I don’t have to start my day too early as I live just 20 minutes away from the office, so I try to be up by 7-7.30 which gives me a chance to check my business emails and our website for orders, and wrap anything that needs to be sent out before work.
Once I’m at work, I can get a wireless connection for my netbook which holds my business outlook account on it, allowing me to reply to emails and anything urgent that comes in during the day. This is really handy, and I’m very fortunate that my workplace is flexible enough to enable me to try and keep somewhat up to date with DaisychainBaby during the day. I also like to try and keep our Facebook fan page regularly updated if I can – we have over 1,000 fans now so I always think I should be giving them something new J I use my lunchbreak to run errands and get to the post office if necessary, and then carry on working in the afternoon. I really enjoy my job which I’ve been at for nearly 8 years now, and my colleagues are some of my closest friends. I know that I’d never be able to leave it for something else, unless that “something else” belonged to me, so I’m happy to continue to stay there and gradually build my business until I can move to it full time – it’s definitely heading in the right direction!
I get home normally between 5.30 and 6 unless I’m going out after work or there’s a lot at the office in which case it’s more like 7-
7.30, and try and get some housework and dinner done – although there’s only me and the hubby he in particular works very long hours and is normally gone between 6.30am and 7.30-8pm. I enjoy cooking and tend to find that if you’re juggling two jobs, it’s really important to not come straight home and start straight on the business but rather to try and take a break. After dinner, I normally carry on with DaisychainBaby work, whether it’s adding new stock to the website, networking or getting ready for markets and other events that we travel off to most weekends. At the moment I’m really busy trying to organise a big charity fundraiser for The Children’s Trust which will coincide with our 2nd birthday celebrations in November, so we’re working on a venue, catering and raffle prizes.
It can be very tough to juggle both jobs sometimes, especially when my Day Job is very busy and as we very rarely have a weekend off which is when most people get the chores and the shopping done and hopefully some relaxing. We have to cram a lot into the evenings after work and are both nightowls, normally heading to bed around midnight. That said, I wouldn’t swap it for anything and feel immensely proud of what’s been achieved in two years, which is really 8-10 months if I calculate it on a full-time basis. I truly do think that anyone can achieve whatever they want, so long as they believe in it.
Find out more about Lins Drabwell and DaisychainBaby through the powers of social media!
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DaisychainBaby.co.uk
Twitter: http://twitter.com/daisychainbaby
