At the start of the decade, I managed a team of up to ten people. I was responsible for audits, departmental processes, appraisals, recruitment, and dealing with anything a team member needed to raise. 

I was involved in interviewing for the graduate recruitment programme too – I volunteered because I knew I’d find it rewarding (and I did).

The people were my favourite part of the job. Some of them became firm friends over the years – I’m still in touch with them now.

I had a flashback a few weeks ago when I met up with some auditing friends and former colleagues for a meal in the city centre. When I first knew them, we’d go for drinks after work before catching the train home. Now only half of us still work in the city centre, and coming into town on a rush hour train was a trip down memory lane. 

I became pregnant in the summer of 2010, and had a baby girl in 2011. 

She changed everything for me.

I took a year’s maternity leave and there were a lot of milestones. They were mainly to do with my little girl – first steps, first word, first trip to the seaside and so on. They were lovely moments!

However, I had one awful milestone: an organisational transformation at work. I had to reapply for my job while I was on maternity leave.

To the say the least, it was stressful. I was certainly out of practice when it came to preparing for an interview. 

At the time, I was much better at questions about nap times, board books and when was Rhyme Time at the local library.

I successfully kept my job, and I returned to work part-time, three days a week.

We found a new rhythm: my little girl started nursery, my husband dropped her off on his way to work and I picked her up on my way home. 

She was often the last small child waiting to be picked up at the end of the day – though I’m sure that bothered me more than it bothered her.

Over the years, I’d been keen to understand new ways of working, as well as understanding the impact of an office-based job on a body and mind. I’d tended to spend time researching processes to make work more efficient, understanding mindfulness and taking into account the physical impact of spending a day at a desk. 

I’d been using an ergonomic keyboard for years due to trouble with my wrists. Talking to the physio, I think the source of the problem is probably my posture – I keep doing my exercises and double-checking advice on how to set a desk up!

Working part-time gave me a new perspective on the way I worked.

These interests led me to become the Group Finance representative (covering a number of departments including my own) for our flexible working project – hotdesking, remote working, flexible working hours and more.

It was an amazing experience, and I can easily see how that project helped me understand the principles that I’d apply to running my business from home. 

And then, in 2015, there was another organisational transformation at work. 

I’ve talked about what happened next in a previous blog, but, suffice to say, I was looking at the world differently by this time. I made different decisions and I was pleased when redundancy coincided with my little girl starting primary school. 

There followed a lot of contemplation, lightbulb moments, and more decisions. To sum it up, I decided to become a proofreader, and I saw 2017 as the pilot year of my new proofreading business (another blog!).

 

I went into 2018 prepared to build the business in earnest.

I received requests for repeat work and I was so proud to be able to say that I had regular clients. 

Patience was really important when it came to finding new work or hoping for repeat work. For instance, editing and proofreading an annual report is only needed once a year, and academic authors typically spend months on research between papers that need my services.

The emotional rollercoaster I’d been aware of in 2017 continued (and still continues today).

I ran a summer marketing campaign: I did some cold calling and sent out a lot of emails with my CV attached. This was brand new to me, and cold calling was definitely outside my comfort zone – referring to it as a campaign helped me to get into a positive mindset.

I embraced being the coordinator for the Manchester Society for Editors and Proofreaders (SfEP) local group, and I attended my first SfEP conference. I learnt a lot and met people who’ve become friends!

Slowly, but surely, I felt as though I was getting there. And at the end of the year, that summer marketing campaign led to work, and I had the chance to proofread fiction for a publisher. It was such an enjoyable experience!

2019 has been a busy year – it’s been wonderful, and very motivating, to look up at my wall planner and see all the scheduled or completed projects for clients.

Copy-editing the 2018 Annual Report for Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children was one of the highlights of my year. On a completely different note, I’ve proofread a number of fiction books. More fiction proofreading will be in my 2020 annual plan!

We’ve had four Manchester SfEP local group meetings and a Christmas get-together. I always learn from colleagues and friends and I find these meetings a valuable part of my year. I generally consider networking to be outside my comfort zone, but I don’t see these meetings as ‘networking’. They’re get-togethers with a group of people who are really generous when it comes to sharing their time, their experience and their thoughts.

When it comes to marketing and social media, I’ve embraced LinkedIn, learnt a great deal, and met some lovely people. I’ve also accepted that I need to be in this for the long-term!

It was a friend on LinkedIn who pointed me towards an unexpected opportunity: speaking at two events for the Society of Young Publishers about how I became a proofreader. While this was outside my comfort zone, it caused me to think about how my business started. These events became my gateway to blogging.

 

Writing in December 2019, I could never have predicted the way my life would change over the 2010s. As I was thinking about this blog, I’ve looked forward and wondered…

I’ve started working on my business plan for 2020 – the short term is more predictable. 

By the end of the next decade, my little girl won’t be so little any more… And I’m hoping that I’ll feel that my business is established. A prediction that I can make with confidence is that I’ll still be loving it!