Anyone for (Commercial) Tennis ...?

Evening All,

Keeping all the balls in the air is not easy for anybody, especially us small business folk, at whom the balls often come at at the speed of  one of those automated tennis ball machines I've seen on the telly. 

Hit ! Lob ! Swing ! Miss! Repeat ! Hit ! Lob! Hit !, Hit ! Hit!

I think at last I'm beginning to feel comfortable in this rhythm of my life, it seems like it's all I've ever known.

It's been a funny few weeks. A valued staff member has left to become a taxi driver, we've lost an account that was busy but low margin & another few projects which we were working on have come to an end. With the extra time we've been working on our corporate business, which, whilst it doesn't have the consistency of the daily wholesale deliveries to shops, has double the margin, which means half the work.

Let's face it ...it's a no brainer as to which direction to take.

The other great thing about the corporate market is how the cheques/transfers  roll in. I now spend lots of time in the bank making lodgements, where I now consider the bank tellers my new best friends.With each lodgement that I make we exchange idle banter about our lives. We get to know each others stories & in that moment of exchange we care briefly about each other.

You see, the banks staff & myself have all been on the same journey for the past few years, we've all been fearful, stressed, worried about the future, but at last things feel better, lighter.

So as I end this weeks installment of my life let's raise a glass to the front line staff in banks who had no part in the decisions that were made by their directors that caused the recession, yet who probably got more than their fair share of contempt for a very long time.

Here's to moving up & moving on !

Cheers,

Shirley

I've got a sick note...What will I do with it !

Evening All,

I'm sick.

It doesn't happen very often but after eight days of barking like the sick hound that I am I booked myself in with the doctor for an appointment.She said I was quite bad, but antibiotics wouldn't do

any good.As I spluttered through my appointment, she suggested 15 minutes on a nebuliser might do the trick, so they hooked me up & I did what I was told...big deep breaths, whilst devouring Victoria & David Beckhams glorious life courtesy of Hello magazine. At the end of the session with no improvement the doc suggested steroids to try & move things along..

Steroids..I don't think so, not yet anyway.

She has prescribed an inhaler & a codeine cough bottle, and a few days rest. Oh yes, I am now in possession of my first ever sick note, but what can I do with it. give it to myself or Mr Delicious ?(who incidentally is quite peeved as he too is a bit sick, just not as much as me )

That's the thing about self employment, getting sick is just not an option.

So being the trooper that I am I've been dragging my aching body out of my warm bed, on these wintery mornings, night after night of broken sleep. I've dug deep inside myself, lifted each box of The Delicious Food Co salads & sandwiches, despite the pain it causes in my chest & replenished the shelves of my treasured clients, all the while muffling my asthmatic coughs.and I' have to say I've played a blinder, not a single client has noticed how sick I am ..the sacrifice I am making just being there.

That is until today. When I got to the wonderful Accents Tea & Coffee lounge Daniel  produced a tea with fennel, ginger & honey when I delivered his sandwiches saying "take this ..you've had that cough all week "

To quote the great Spike Milligan

"I told you I was sick "

Shirley x

Oh ..The Irony of Life !.

Evening All,

Today was a lovely day.

Today my eldest daughter turned 18. It seems like only yesterday that I was rolling (on my fat pregnant belly) down a steep sand dune from my friends Crona's summer house in Wexford to the beach, trying to induce a labour which was already 13 days overdue.

When I presented the next morning in Holles St. they suggested I stay & asked if I had brought an overnight bag with me. No, I hadn't, in fact I hadn't even packed one.I remember Mr Delicious double parking on South King St. whilst I nipped into Dunnes Stores to pick up a nightie, baby gros etc.

There is an element of that me that hasn't changed since that day.

I'm still a "seat of her pants" kind of entrepreneur. Despite the highs & lows of our business life, the absence of cash at key moments, things always seem to work out. So today  I had the amazing good fortune, to be able to take my daughter (window) shopping in Tiffany in Brown Thomas

As we purveyed the beautiful jewellery, the impeccable John, suggested a glass of champers for both of us to celebrate her 18th.

So, it was with much joy & amusement & irony that this hippie foodie,whilst wearing her own

treasured tiny Tiffany lock & key, celebrated her daughters first (legal) drink with a glass of champagne in Tiffany @ Brown Thomas, whilst purchasing a beautiful simple Tiffany bracelet.

Today life is good !

Shirley

Casting my net at a networking event

Evening all,

One of the nice things about my new role as catering queen (in waiting) of the corporate sector is that it will require a change of image. I will need a new wardrobe, or at the very least a few "key pieces" for the season,...no more Converses, jeans or comfy Tee's,

I may even have to brush my hair..

..

On Thursday evening as one of Dublin Chamber newest members, I'll be attending an afterworks networking event in Mason Hayes Curran in Barrow St & I will need to look sharp, competent, a girl ready to do business. Already I'm wondering what to wear.

There are so many options to consider,

I could opt for

...the killer networker look.. pencil skirt, crisp white shirt, seriously high shoes...

or

I could pull that back & go casual smart, "I'm a nice girl, you'd be in a safe pair of hands with me"

or

I could just dress like me but smarter?

That's it,sorted, I'll wear a smart pair of jeans/ black legging, a designer Tee, a tailored jacket & my secret weapon, my new 5 inch chunky platform boots & nobody will even realise, as I smile & sparkle that this nice sweet girl from The Delicious Food Co, is in fact a killer networker at work.

Your business card please!

Shirley

Corporate World ....here I come again !

Evening All,

So here I am on a Saturday evening pouring over the Google machine, (as Mr Delicious refers to it) researching images of sandwiches & sandwich platters, wondering not for the first time,

"how did I get here"

In a previous life I was featured in a glossy magazine as a fashion stylist to watch, with page after glorious shiny page of gorgeous images of Irish fashion designers

all chosen & styled by
 MOI

Those who knew me back then still giggle at the irony that the generous expense account lunches, the flash company cars & designer suits have been replaced with a white van & me packing shelves of shops with my wonderful salads & sandwiches. In truth,  the biggest irony of all is that underneath those designer suits lay a dormant hippie never truly destined for the constraints of corporate life.

Two weeks ago we made the decision to merge the two  assets of our business our great food & my sales/people skills. So that is where we will be focussing our attention in the next few months.I will no longer be found stacking shelves with our gorgeous Delicious Food Co produce, although we will still be on sale in shops, I'll be back in my designer gear, targeting the corporate market.

We had a great start to our corporate campaign this week with, two small catering gigs and  a posh do in The Royal Irish Academy, yesterday for over eighty people, where several people asked for my business card & the client was incredibly complimentary. It felt good to be dressed to impress, to put on a delicious spread & to get such immediate positive feedback.

And of course the icing on the cake was when the client pulled out his cheque book, clicked his pen ready to write & uttered those wonderful words,
"Now, how much do I owe so I can settle with you now"

delicious !


Shirley

x

Smoking Guns...Everywhere

Evening all,

Last week was one of those cash flow weeks that was really trying. The good cop/bad cop routine of one particular accounts dept was especially stressful. Good cop promised that I'd have my money on time this month. When it didn't come, day after promised day, he blamed bad cop....the one who makes the payments....

he, being the good guy would call them sort it out.

A week later still no money & I discover bad cop was on holidays all the while, and good cop hadn't authorized payment , so it was never on it's way to me as promised at the beginning of the month, but guess who ended up in trouble  feeling like they'd been shot.

 ME !

I was trying to explain the intricacies of cash flow  to my 13 year old daughter, when she was the one who pulled the trigger....

."Mom, I have no idea what you are talking about...

"I am NOT your  therapist "

Ouch !

Shirley