Thanksgiving From This Busy Little Business…and a few big cats!

Thanksgiving isn’t really a thing here in the UK but giving thanks is never a bad thing so I’m going to do just that right now.

The crazy summer wedding season is over but in this supposedly “quiet” period I have given myself a veritable mountain of Admin to attempt to scale.

It’s easy as a solo small business owner to give myself a ridiculous 30 page to do list and work all hours striving to be perfect. *

It’s times like this when I run myself into the ground and lay myself open to any germ that wants to attack me!

Sketchy Muma

*This little image popped up in my Facebook feed this morning and although it was drawn in relation to the struggles of being a perfect parent, I also felt it was particularly relevant to being an occasionally overwhelmed small business owner.

I feel like I’m finally at the tail end of a really rubbish cold and am starting to feel more human again. Yay!

Since leaving my “proper job” I have had the immense pleasure to meet some really amazing fellow business owners. Several of these ladies are responsible for me not loosing my sanity. Kerry Brind from Write to Win Business is, in my humble opinion, an all round business genius! She is insanely knowledgeable about SEO, copywriting,Google and social media. Oh and blogging, Kerry is a blogging expert who was responsible for telling me off about how slack I was at writing blogs. Since my telling off I have written and published loads! (Well it feels like loads compared to the previous 1 a year!)

I couldn’t let a thank you session go by without a big shout out to an amazing group of ladies who I meet up with once a month at East Anglia Women Networking

I could rave about Lucy Kayne Photographer to anyone who will listen, not only for her photography and teaching skills but also for our mutual sharing of business highs and lows.

Gill Bushnell is like a fairy godmother with her ability to bring colour to our lives and teaches how to be the very best version of yourself.

Danielle is an incredible holistic therapist and a gift voucher for The Beauty Room in Norwich is always top of my wish list for birthday, Mother’s Day and Christmas! The only negative is that her facials are so darn relaxing that on more than one occasion I have fallen asleep and feel like I missed out on some of the experience!

One of the strong messages I picked up on recently and was reminded of when I attended a work/life balance talk last week, is to make sure that you build in proper ‘me time’ into your busy schedule.

I got to have an amazing bit of me time the other week courtesy of a birthday gift from my lovely husband when I got to feed the big cats at Banham Zoo. My favourite animal is a snow leopard and I got feed two of them! I also fed cheetahs, tigers and a daddy leopard. Mummy leopard was doing some feeding of her own with her two super cute 8 week old cubs. Most of cost of the experience goes towards funding the research and breeding program for the beautiful big cats.

On the subject of Me Time, it was my enjoyment of a particular pastime that spurred me on to start running cake classes. Years ago, when I first started my business I attended a few day classes with the lovely Suzy Witt at Pretty Witty Cakes and aside from learning skills like how to work with chocolate and how to use an airbrush, my most favourite part of the experience was getting to spend a lovely relaxed day with like minded people, being joyously creative. At the time, there weren’t any courses in Norwich like the PWC classes which I had to drive a 7 hour round trip to get to. I decided to set up local classes myself. In the time it took for me to take the plunge and leave my day job there are now various cake decorating class providers here but I still believe that there’s room for all of us.

If you’d like to spend a day being creative next year, then how about hinting heavily for a Cake Class Gift Voucher?

Despite my laptop appearing to catch the same lurgy as me and having to be sent to IT A&E (my good friend Gary) I have still managed to use my phone to update my website with new class dates.

I’ve included several Christmas classes which are designed to be a really fun relaxed event. It’s a chance to take a break from Christmas shopping and spend a few hours being creative.

As well as treating yourself to a lovely afternoon or evening with mulled wine and festive nibbles, you also come away with a delicious show-stopping cake or cupcakes and cookies. These can be given as gifts or shared at your own table.

Glitzy reindeer Drip Cake Class

Gingerbread Cookies and Cupcakes Class

Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it and Happy Day to everyone else!

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