Raw 03 - November 2008 - (Page 39)

WOMEN IN BUSINESS RAW Recently, I’ve spent a lot of time on my own and facing the dark and realised that my life seems to have been a string of dramas, I jump from one to the next and at times, they even overlap! I’m a big believer in not letting your personal life effect your professional life and over the years I have managed to be an advocate of leaving your personal problems at home: From having a wisdom tooth removed in a lunch hour to selling to a partially deaf man by writing my pitch down because I’d lost my voice, from broken relationships to bereavements, from drink to drugs, from self harm to rape to finding myself stood on a balcony ready to jump, all of which I refused to impact my working life and in fact it’s only recently that I’ve even told anyone. Work to me has been yet another addiction. My biggest flaw is my need to be in control. I have forever fought for control and so much of life is unpredictable so it makes sense that all the energy I do have I have put into my career and my working life. I have driven away friends, I have ruined relationships and anybody that has cared for me I have hurt for one simple reason; so that I am able to have control. It is much easier to accept that you are alone if you have a reason, not so easy if you don’t. As any regular reader of the magazine will know, the last few months have again been difficult ones for me; I have faced some serious health problems and one of the most important people in my life has had his own problems so I have felt very alone. Million Impossible has also been coming up to its 1 year anniversary. Now, as anyone in business knows, this is the time when most businesses fail and it takes a whole lot of strength to make it through this period so if you are not at your strongest, it’s even more of a challenge. I unfortunately have not been at my strongest of late. I started with Bradley on 22nd October last year, when we moved into a tiny office in Ongar, I have never seen Brad looking so proud. He had been working ‘nights’ to cover his costs and had put the office together himself, each of the four desks had cute little desk lights to highlight the freshness of the office and there was a sofa in the corner where we would sit to have a meeting every morning. We were all aware that we were taking a risk at the time and we knew that money would be tight for some time, but the excitement of what we could be building was amazing. I remember the day before launching on 15th November last year, when we worked through the night to ensure we were ready to ‘go live’, Brad fell asleep on the sofa at about 6am, then at about 7am, I popped a ‘post it’ note on his head saying ‘going home to shower, be back soon’. We were so tired, yet so fresh, eager and energised. 12 months on, and with the hours still long and money still tight, I guess our energy has faltered and our oomph has wavered slightly. We have had some amazing achievements in such a small space of time but we also have a sales team that have struggled, and despite brief moments of inspiration, have not consistently performed. Add to this the individual personal issues that myself and Brad have faced recently it has been a testing time for the pair of us. Would you believe that, exactly a year to the day that I joined Brad, we would be travelling up to the Business Show 2008 in Bolton to exhibit – this would be our first Trade Show. The long journey meant that there was much talking along the way, much needed talking. Funnily it also meant that I was to take a step back from my usual ‘control freak’ ways; I actually allowed Bradley to drive, which was daunting to say the least! Bradley and myself had got so caught up in our own methods that we probably haven’t talked for some time. On top of the journey, we also all had a good evening out; with Matt and Scott (our two sales directors) Bradley and myself and we actually grew stronger as a team. To top it off, the show was an amazing, although a small show, we all had an element of positivity again. The reaction to Million Impossible was great. Each of us, despite being shattered, could feel a buzz again and our team, that we were worried to leave in the office alone; had all performed to an amazing standard and really rallied together. There are moments when we all need a lift; and trust me, recently we have all needed a lift, especially myself. We were awarded with that lift thanks to the show, its exhibitors, everybody that attended and our team. Fancy the chances of it being exactly a year since the opening of our first office! So, I write this piece today, transformed and comforted in the knowledge that we have something special backed by some very special people. We have a business that has achieved some amazing things in a short space of time, we may still be financially strained but we are still alive and kicking and we have some great plans for the future. Sometimes you need to take a step back to see the way forward. Sometimes you need to lose control in order to gain it. millionimpossible.com 39 http://www.millionimpossible.com http://www.millionimpossible.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Raw 03 - November 2008

Raw 03 - November 2008 Contents Bradley Chapman Rachael Elnaugh Linda Klassen-Brown Heidi Weir Mark Asquith Emma Thompson Chris Wright

Raw 03 - November 2008

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