I have to confess, this has not been the easiest post to write! I literally have no two days the same, so a typical day for me can be anything from meeting with Hallmark, developing concepts for new brands or packing up orders on our online shop – and everything in between!
It all starts pretty early, I drop my Daughter Miya off at breakfast club at 7.45 – with me usually eating breakfast in the car as she’s taken forever to get dressed for school with some sort of outfit / hair / shoes drama by then!
I car share with one of the girls from the office so we always have a nice journey in, even if we get stuck in messy traffic. I usually answer emails and reply to our twitter and facebook notifications on the days that Emma drives. Last night we all went to see Miles Kane in Manchester and ended up in a dressing room party backstage so this morning’s journey was overtaken with lots of gossiping!
My working day is, as I said, really varied – we actually have over 20 different global beauty brands so I spend the day hovering hummingbird-like around the office, some days I’m developing new brands and doing loads of research on current products on the market – other days I’ll spend a few hours reading blogs and contacting people who I think would be great for reviews. At this time of year our Christmas gift products are just being finished and getting ready to ship so I spend a lot of time with the Buying Team reviewing samples and making sure everything is perfect before production. I look after Marketing and PR and right now we’re redesigning our corporate website, I’ve been doing a lot of copywriting and trying to get my head around SEO – not an easy task for me! I’m twitter and facebook voice of the brands so keep an eye on and update eight social media pages daily, replying to fans, posting our big news and finding new fans every day.
This afternoon I’ve also been planning our stand for The Baby Show – it’s our first ever retail show so I want to make sure we make a great impression and have to liaise at with Hallmark, who own the Forever Friends brand to arrange prizes and support for social media marketing for the event. Fortunately they are a dream to work with and they help as much as they can. I can’t wait to see our stand finished and see everyone’s reactions to the products, it really makes all the hard work worth it when you can see something go from the first tiny idea to finished products. All the positive comments since we launched the brand in March have been phenomenal!
I’ve entered our products into The Licensing Awards, for marketing and innovation today. We won an award last year for one of our Mens gift ranges so it would be fantastic to win again this year.
I’ve packed up some orders for our online store, I started this last year to support international customers who were having trouble finding our products. It takes a lot of work but we get some amazing emails from fans which are always very welcome! I always send their emails around the office to show everyone how well we’re doing.
I leave the office at 5pm and make a mad dash back to after school club where I usually find Miya looking more than a little bedraggled, more often than not shoes caked in mud, paint all down her summer dress but most importantly, happy.
We have tea together, read stories and sometimes do a bit of crafting before she goes to bed at 7pm then I start on my blog. My alter ego is neverplainjane and I’ve been creating something new every day for my blog since new year. It varies between photography, scrapbooking, sewing, baking – anything that takes my fancy really! I’m actually a finalist in the craft category of the MAD Awards, much to my amazement, which is fantastic – so and take a peek and if you like what you see, vote for me here!
Then I try and relax for a little while before I go to bed, I pretty much try and squeeze 36 hours in to every day and if I’m not careful I get migraines from overdoing it, so I have to really remind myself to take things easy every now and then. Oh, and you’ve probably guessed, I don’t do too much ironing and my car always needs hovering, but then life is a bit too short to worry about toast crumbs.
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