Lifestyle Business (wikipedia definition): Lifestyle Businesses are businesses that are set up and run by their founders primarily with the aim of sustaining a particular level of income and no more; or to provide a foundation from which to enjoy a particular lifestyle.
We love watching the Dragons Den on BBC2. I could never appear on it myself though – I’d be so nervous that I’d never even make it up those stairs! Anyway, the dragons often refer to businesses as a Lifestyle Business – and as Peter Jones would say – Lifestyle Business – can’t see an investment in it – So I’m out’. PuddleDucks is surely one of those businesses so it got me thinking about what a lifestyle business means to me (at this moment in time anyway..).
Sometimes doing the first few orders in my pyjamas (and occasionally getting dressed in a panic when I see an unexpected customer turn up who doesn’t realise we don’t have a shop
Working three times as many hours and earning a fraction of the pay that I used to
Learning how to do everything in a business from buying the stamps to forecasting the future
Answering the phone and taking an order while cooking the dinner
Not being able to take a holiday at the moment despite imaging a life of carefree summers
Being too busy to even think about our Wedding Anniversary tomorrow let alone celebrate it
Worrying when the sun shines too many days in a row (too quiet)
Worrying when it rains too many days in a row (too busy)
Watching Greys Anatomy at the same time as filing away the days orders (back in my pyjamas again!)
And it also means
Being there to pick up J. from school every day
Both of us being there for J. at Sports Days and for Christmas plays
Sharing the parenting as well as taking it in turns to cook the dinner (hurrah!)
And on a rare sunny afternoon being able to seize the moment and just head off to the beach
Suzanne
We’re on the road again this week – attending the National Ploughing Championships in Cuffesgrange, Kilkenny from Tuesday to Thursday. This is our fourth year attending “the Ploughing” and we’ve always loved it. It’s hard work but great craic – meeting and chatting to people especially as we’re mostly stuck behind a computer screen for the remainder of the year. And the PuddleDucks gear is very well suited to country and farming folk. I’m always amazed by the event … If you’ve never seen it – it’s really something to behold – setting up a small city for a few days in a large field in a different location each year.
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