She works hard for the money

What a couple of days I've had! Mega-networking, kids' activities, Shoe Do, typesetting, charity shop - all in the last 36 hours!

Yesterday was my fortnightly 4Networking fix in Stevenage (Knebworth, actually). If you've never heard of it and you are in business in the UK, then you are missing out on fantastic opportunities to forge relationships and grow your business. The breakfast meetings are fun and friendly and yesterday it looks like I found an interesting new corporate client for Shoes Galore, and a telemarketing project!

Afterwards I went to a business exhibition in Welwyn Garden City. Partly I was helping run the 4Networking stand, and partly I was looking for business. Nothing definite, but lots of useful contacts to follow up. I came away from my morning buzzing!

But let me share a lesson in business networking with you: I approached two women who were running a stand for a pretty decent hotel. They were chatting to each other, and I said "Hello." They said "hello" to me and then just continued their conversation! It is bad enough when a shop assistant does that, but when the whole point of the exhibition was for them to get more business, it was shocking. I waited for about a minute and then just walked away. They'll never know how much business they have missed out on. If you run a hotel in Hertfordshire and want to know if it was your staff, get in touch.

After some hectic ferrying of children between different activities, I re-energised myself with a bit of Take That and drove 30 miles for a Shoe Do. This one was great, I really enjoyed it. There were only 4 ladies there, and the hostess was worried it wouldn't work, but often the intimate parties are the nicest. I did I nice amount of business, and I think they all had fun. I had a scary moment when I thought I'd lost my car key, but all was well in the end!


Back home by 10.30pm, I then had a choice: should I go to bed, or should I typset the Fun Under Five publication? Given that I am right on deadline, I decided to get the typesetting done. It was pretty straightforward, and hey! I was finished by 1am. By that stage I had been up for 19 hours, so I was a little weary.


Today I was due at the charity shop, and how I got through the day, I'll never know. Tired doesn't come into it! Anyway, it's over now. Tonight I just have to come up with a costume for the 7 year old's "20th century fashion" dressing up day at school tomorrow. But I aim to go to bed by...what do you think? 9pm is attractive - midnight seems more likely!

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