Inspiration comes in many forms

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I've always been one of those people who has hot something out if every day, every seminar, every meeting. I think if I have spent the time doing something then I should be able to take something practical away with me from it, even when an employer is paying me to be there. I am a practical learner, and I need there to be pragmatic outcomes to anything I attempt in order for it to engage me and for me to get the most out of it.

Whenever I come across a problem at work, I always analyse the situation and how I'm handling it to ensure that I can approach it in the most efficient way next time it crops up.

I am a determined individual and I ensure that I've I come across something that I can't solve immediately, that I get it solved and pass this solution on to my customers and colleagues.

When working in a lettings agency before, I constantly came up against the same problem - landlords renting unfurnished properties and tenants wanting furnished properties. So I came up with the solution of providing a furnishings list that can be provided by a 3rd party (our company) upon request. These items would belong to the tenant got the duration of the tenancy and we would usually buy them back from the tenants at the end of the tenancy, of they were reusable.

It's providing these services that make the difference in standard operations and those that go the extra mile for the customers.

And going the extra mile usually earns the extra money!

This is how I will approach every day when I open my business.

245 days to go returns from holiday

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I've just come back from 5 days away and it's a time of change and restart in the journey I've been on to set up my own estate agency.

I visited Cambridge, London and Essex during my five days away from work and home. There were huge opportunities to take many photos and I'll upload a selection in a later blog with commentary relating to my learnings and how I intend to use them in my business. I met up with many old friends and family members and has a great opportunity to discuss some of my plans, listen to their ideas and experiences and get a fix on how I want to go forward.

I start my new role in a new company site tomorrow and the change in direction here will, I hope, give me fresh impetus. I've grown stale working for my current manager and in my current role into current store. A change of scene, slight change of role, change of location and different working hours I believe will all contribute to me being able to be much happier in my life in general and this having a knock-on effect on the effort and enthusiasm I can dedicate to my new business.

So we move onwards from here - a great few data away with the family, a new role with working hours I prefer and more energy to start the new business.

Win, win, win!

Some of my inspirations

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You can be inspired in all sorts of ways by all sorts of people.  Some of my inspirations are as follows-

Music
I love the music of Hootie and the Blowfish, and their lead singer Darius Rucker.  They can be found all over You Tube, but they also have a jukebox on their website-

http://www.hootie.com/internal.asp?catID=21218#content

I also love the music of Foo Fighters, Red Hot Chili Peppers and David Gray.

Art
I love all types of art and have been to many art museums in cities all over the World.  My favourite artist is Mark Rothko.  I don't get into the whole modern art debate, I just like his paintings-

Television

I think that TV is starting to take over from the movies as the premium entertainment vehicle of it's genre. Recent programmes that have caught my attention include True Detective, Hannibal and the recent Dr Who

series have been excellent.  My favourite show has just finished airing in the UK, it's the US version of The Office.  The characters had more depth and more time to develop than the UK predecessor, and the programme was witty, funny and hugely entertaining every single week.




I think that originality and creativity runs through the likes I have for all of these things, and I hope that shows in my work. How about you?

Keeping up the spirits takes things to look forward to

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When the weather is awful, as it is today, it can be difficult to raise your spirits and raise your mood. Especially as today feels to me like the first day of what's going to be a long Winter.

So, what do I do to get in the mood to work, develop and get my blood going.

I've already mentioned in previous editions of my bold that I have taken up brain training and have goneback to   running. Both make me feel alone and ready to go for the day, but on a non-run day, and with brain training over and done with for the day, what keeps me going?

The light at the end if the tunnel seems far away, and most of what I'm getting into for the business are slow burners or things that are still at the planning stage. There is the burning desire to do this properly, the countdown that you are at the top of every blog page (now only 231 days to go) but I need smaller steps along the way to keep spirits up and focus on the task at hand-

I went to the Sunderland v Stoke march on Saturday with my family

It's my eldest's birthday on Saturday, so we're going out for the day.

We're going to see the family and meet up with some friends in Essex for 5 days in late October.

There's a midweek evening kickoff Sunderland match in early November that I'll take myself along to.

We always do something really Christmassy in early December to start off the season. It was the Polar Express train ride last year.

Christmas and New Year will be celebrated heartily in our house, with children of only 7 and 6.

In January I'm looking to go to Spain with  the lads for a few days of drinking and relaxing in the sun.

My birthday in February.

We're planning on a family trip to Disney/Florida in March, or to Disneyland Paris and a trip around France (depending on finance.)

All these small steps build up to give me the next focus and keep me on an even keel whilst working full-time and trying to prepare a new business at the same time.