Now I am finding that I am actually working during the day – and not putting the wash on, unloading the dishwasher between phone calls and generally tidying up – I am working when I am supposed to and doing all the domestic chores when I finish.

Last year, it became apparent that I need to do ‘something’ to change the way I was working.
Although we had a dedicated office in the house (it was built as an ‘Executive Home’ so built with its own study), once my husband started from home too, I decamped to the dining room and transformed that into my home office. However, it was right by the stairs and in the central part of the house. Once my children started to be a college and university, they were coming in at all times and I was frequently having to deal with my 16 year old coming home in the day with his girlfriend and hear them giggling in the lounge (which was adjacent to my office) or cooking their lunch in the kitchen, not to mention the constant ringing of the doorbell!

It became even more unbearable in the last school holidays, so we started to actively look at alternatives. However, I realised once we started looking that we would need at least two offices as I just couldn’t work in the same room as my husband (we are both quite loud), so the prices were going up and up.

We then had a builder friend of ours round and he gave us a quote to build an office within our garage. Now I don’t know about you, but our garage was like Steptoe’s Yard. Someone could have even set up home in it. It had a sofa, a fridge and a freezer and even a wardrobe!! So, we got a skip and literally had a glorified clear out and Freecycle came in handy too. It’s amazing what ‘tut’ you think you have and someone else is quite happy with it.

And so, our office started to be built. We did check with the local council to see if we needed to adhere to any regulations and their only stipulations were that if we put a window in (which we did) that the opening was big enough for someone to be able to get in a hurry and we had a smoke alarm.

In all, it took about six weeks and the result is marvellous. I have a window to look of (ok, it does overlook some of our conservatory, but there is the laurel bush as well) and being lined with a specialist insulting board called Celotex, it keeps warm and I just have a small electric radiator.
I now work in peace and quiet and the results are dramatic. No longer do I keep getting interrupted and aware of other noise going on around me (apart from the odd squeak from the guinea pigs outside!) and I achieve so much more that I don’t have to keep working over the weekends to catch up.

It’s certainly been well worth the investment and we worked out that the cost of the work would have paid for 3 – 4 months rent on premises, so if ever we did grow far too big for our garage office, we haven’t lost any money (and I know my son has his eye on it for an art studio!).

We have taller buildings, but shorter tempers
Wider roads, but narrower viewpoints
We spend more, but have less
We buy more, but enjoy less

We have bigger houses and smaller families
More convenience, but less time
We have more degrees, but less sense
More knowledge, but less judgement
More experts, but less solutions
More medicine, but less health

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values
We talk too much, love to seldom and hate too often
We’ve learned how to make a living, not a life
We’ve added years to life, not life to years

We have been all the way to the moon and back
But have trouble crossing the street to meet our neighbour

We’ve conquered outer space, but not inner space
We’ve done larger things, but not better things
We’ve split the atom, but not our prejudice
We have higher incomes, but lower morale
We’ve become long on quantity, but short on quality

There are the times of tall me and short character
Steep profits and shallow relationships
These are the times of word peace and domestic violence
More leisure but less fun
More kinds of foods, but less nutrition

These are the days of two incomes, but more divorces
Of fancier houses, but broken homes
It is a time when there is so much in the showroom
Window and nothing in the stock room

Do you agree with what this vicar has written? How do you think we could improve on this points he is making? Do let me know.

How many times do YOU ring a business and not get through to a person, before deciding to go to the next business on the list, whether it be listed in a magazine, on google or Yellow Pages?

I feel that many small businesses are missing out on vital work because they don’t think through the answering side of their business. They think that by having an answering machine, people are just going to leave messages and wait until the owner rings them back. This could then be early evening by which time an alternative company has been contacted and the original company has missed out.

It’s the same with emailing. I think it’s vital for a company to answer any enquiries immediately, even perhaps phoning the potential client if a number has been given. Again, it’s the personal touch which counts and makes such a difference to how potential customers can feel about using a particular service.

How can an advertiser know which route to take for the best?

Sometimes they can’t and it really is a case of trial and error. However, it has been proven that local A5 magazines really do work for the majority of advertisers.

Our research proves that many people keep them for reference and inevitably near the ‘phone and use as a directory, thereby supporting local businesses!

Due to their size, content, look and feel they are kept by the majority of households until the next issue arrives, thereby giving advertisers ‘immediacy of access’ when their services are required, and again, the ‘use local’ crops up time and again.

We have known of a case whereby a local upholsterer was called via Yellow Pages and when they went to the client’s house, the upholsterer was asked why there weren’t advertising in the local magazine as that is exactly where the client had gone to look for one first!

Holbrook Pages was launched six years ago and there are still advertisers who have been with us since the start. Horsham Pages was launched only last summer and already is proving a bit hit with its readers and advertisers alike.

So next time you are pondering where to advertise your services, think A5 magazines!  And if you are Horsham based, think Horsham Publications, publishers of Holbrook Pages and Horsham Pages…..

Sometimes it does make me wonder how we ever survived before technology and was life less stressful?  Does all this wonderful technology actually encourage stress as we expect everything to happen so fast these days.

I was actually forced to slow down. I couldn’t send or receive emails or go on-line, then when it came back, I had to just sit and more or less wait for the emails to go through and do you know what, it did make me feel less stressed as I wasn’t rushing through everything like I usually do.

I am old enough to remember working in offices whereby we used carbon paper to copy letters; we had a ‘roller type’ fax machine; typewriters were manual and computers were things of the future. In one office I worked in, it was only top secretary who actually had an electric typewriter and that was a privilege!

Life would certainly be different without this 24/7 culture and would we be less stressed? What do you think? I will publish replies in the next issue of Horsham Pages……

For over five years Horsham businesses have had another choice – an effective choice, advertising in local community magazines – and this year that choice was expanded, to reach over 15,000 people.

• Holbrook Pages is distributed to over 7,000 homes and businesses door to door in North Horsham and Roffey – and Holbrook Pages has been published in the area for over five years.

• Horsham Pages was launched in 2010 and reaches 8,000 door to door residents in Central and West Horsham and a pick up service from Sainsbury’s

Advertising in local community magazines is a cost effective way to reach a precisely targeted audience. The magazines are delivered door to door, so you know where your adverts are delivered.

Small business and the self-employed who have small advertising budgets and want to sell to people in their local area will find advertising in local magazines to be good value for money and effective.

To talk about how advertising in Horsham Pages and Holbrook Pages could help grow your business, call Julie today 01403 258584.

So, with over two months to prepare, I decided to go for it and I have to say, I am so pleased that I have tackled what for me was a big challenge. I am very confident walking into a room, even on my own, and not knowing anybody. It’s something I have had to do in my career over the years, so I am not really daunted by it.  Nor to have a meeting with a high flying business person whom I have never met.  Yet, it was public speaking that I just didn’t feel I could tackle. But sometimes you just have to step out of your comfort zone and that is exactly what I did and boy, does it give you a good feeling. I may not have delivered exactly how I would ideally have liked, but its a start.

So, when or if I am asked again to speak in public, my answer will most definitely be YES! Step outside your comfort zone sometimes, its amazing how you will feel…..

The latest is attending a high profile event in London on 24 September with none other than our own Horsham Pages business writer, Dee Blick.

Dee is to be interviewed by Jenny Agutter at an event held by a London networking group called 1230. Jenny is Patron of a cancer charity called Ovacome and this charity is partnered with 12.30 and they wanted to interview at inspiring business woman.  As we all know, Dee’s achievements over the last few years have been tremendous including becoming a best-selling author with her book, ‘Powerful Marketing On A Shoestring Budget For Small Businesses’.

I will get chance to meet some London journalists which will be interesting too and have a great evening to boot!

Then in October, Dee and I have been invited to attend a book launch from an author called Paula Wynne who is publishing a book called ‘Create A Successful Website’. This is being held in Mayfair and we’ve been told there will be also be a celeb or two!

So the days when I am pouring over the proofs; anxiously waiting for copy to come in from advertisers on copy deadline day or having massives of piles of paper to wade through, I’ve got to remind myself that his job does have its compensations when you get these glitzy invitations!

http://bit.ly/anJniu

Now I know a lot of folk have Blackberries and Iphones and at one stage, I did wonder if they become addictive and you never switch off. But I’d rather be sitting and replying to emails and messages while on the move, than coming back home to my office and then having to deal with them all.

So, we shall see, it will be interesting to see if it does change my life!

Local groups include the Business Builder Club www.businessbuilderclub.co.uk ; Women in Business www.wib-sussex.co.uk ; several BNI groups www.bni.eu/uk and 4 Networking www.4networking.biz

So next time you feel you need to get out and about to promote your business and meet new people, do consider networking – you never know who you may meet!