Remembering where you came from…

Monday – Meetings

Tuesday – Fly to the Gold Coast and presentation to small business owners

Wednesday – Meetings all day

Thursday – Fly to Townsville and meetings all day

Friday – Meetings all day and drive to 20 Year High School Reunion

Saturday – Fly to Melbourne and drive to Port Lonsdale

Sunday – Drive to Melbourne and relax watching SATC 2

Yes, it has been busy!

Running a small business is often hard work at the best of times, but having to travel as well, can sometimes be very taxing. Owning a small business is at times the most exhilarating part of my life and at other times, the most tiresome. You see, running a small business, you have to be on the ball 24/7, and ready tackle anything in front of you with the same enthusiasm and commitment day-in, day-out.

This week has been enormous, yet strangely one of the most fulfilling. Each day I meet with small business owners who are passionate and eager to see their businesses grow and prosper. Some have reached the heights of their fields and are ready to get to the next level and others have a great idea, but just don’t know how to market it.

If I had my time over again, I would write a daily diary of my business activities because I am sure most business owners go through the same experiences – just at different times.

My journey in business has been fun, adventurous, enlightening and challenging. Whilst I have had some tough days, I have also had some of the most exciting days of my life being a business owner and seeing the business grow.

This week, I returned home to Charters Towers, a small township west of Townsville with approximately 11,000 residents. It’s known for Country Music hosting the second largest festival in Australia each year and for mining.

I spent a good percentage of my childhood there, living on a property with my parents and younger brother Luke.

Unlike many people who I went to school with, I actually really like Charters Towers and think that it has played a huge role in who I have become.

Yes, like any country town there are people that are small minded and many of whom have colourful language that they like sharing with anyone in hearing distance, but it also is home to a good, wholesome country lifestyle.

As I drove into town with my best friend from high school Kylie, I remembered all the little things that made this town so special in my life, the people that I met and who inspired me and the lifelong friendships I formed.

After attending my ‘meet and greet’ drinks for my 20 Year School Reunion, I realised that although my life now has changed considerably since living in Charters Towers, in some ways it hasn’t changed at all. And… the people that I went to school with reminded me of that, whilst drinking a few glasses of wine and reminscing over old times.

I am still the country girl with the same values that I grew up with – integrity, trust, respect and friendship. They are all words that mean alot to me and are values that I hold very close to who I am. A man once asked me, “are you happy with your lot” and after much thought, I realised that I am.

I have a business that I am immensely proud of, friends that I have had my whole life and some new ones over the past 20 years that are equally as special, and above all of that, I have respect for the people around me.

I may have grown up on a property where my Commodore 64 computer played games and provided a typing platform and not much else – but I also had the opportunity of seeing animals be born, plants grow, different cultures and a very free lifestyle.  There were no drugs and none of my friends drank alcohol under age. We grew up more concerned with getting good marks at school and playing sport, then finding excitement in some of the ways our city counterparts did.

My parents travelled alot and showed us Australia so that we could take those experiences into the rest of our lives.They were incredibly charitable and often had children on Christmas Day from underprivileged environments sitting at our dinner table, where my mother provided a feast that could feed an army, all home made with ingredients from our back yard.

The things you learn in life are so imperative to how you handle things in business. If you write down the top 5 things that you learned as a child and relayed that back to your business, you may find out your secret and perhaps share it with the people around you.

After 24 hours in Charters Towers, I have renewed revigoration of where I am heading with my business and how important it is to ensure that every single person you work with has the same values and sense of decency as you do. If everyone respects each other, and doesn’t try to get one up on anyone, the business world would be a better place – that’s for sure.

P.S. If you like this marketing blog, then please feel free to share it on whatever social network medium you see fit. We love facebook, twitter and linkedin!