Angela's Ramblings.

Oh yeah, I have a blog. Oops.

It has been years since I last updated this blog in any way at all.

It has been an eventful few years, almost a decade really. But I don’t want to focus on any of that now.

Some things haven’t changed.

I am still self employed selling Avon products and recruiting and training other people who would like to set up an independent Avon business of their own.

I am still happily married to my wonderful husband.

I still have pet bearded dragons, currently 3 males called Nuri, Puff and Ash.

And it would seem I am still terrible at keeping a blog up to date.

I haven’t forgotten my Blog…….honest…..

I have been remembering that I have a blog and planning to pop over and post stuff.

Seriously, there are blog titles written in my planner for most weeks.

I have even taken photo’s to use in relation to some topics I had chosen to blog about.

But as appears to be the norm this year nothing has quite gone to plan and I have never managed to make it over here to post anything. Being without a working laptop for a few months didn’t help.

So instead of waiting till I have time to do a ‘proper’ blog post, I decided that as I had a few minutes tonight, I would at least post something.

It may not be perfect, planned out or particularly interesting.

But at least it is a post and stops the length of time I’ve gone between posts from getting any longer or more daunting to think about.

This weekend I will be celebrating my 6th wedding anniversary with my fabulous husband, next month we will have been together for a decade!!

Photo taken by the fabulous Simon Grosset of Q-Photography

He still makes me smile. 😀

If you are reading this I wish you well and hope you have something or someone to smile about.

Gradually getting back on top of my life.

In an ideal world my week would consist of daily yoga and walks outside enjoying the local area.
Harvesting and eating fresh produce from our garden, spending quality time with family and friends, enjoying working with my fabulous team of AVON reps and recruiting then training new team members.
As well as helping my customers find the best offers for them, local voluntary work and curling up with a good book.
For an assortment of reasons I’ve not had an ‘ideal week’ yet this year, gradually getting there though and lots to smile about.

For instance

I managed to get a 5k walk in on Saturday, wasn’t at a particularly fast speed but 5k is 5k.

relaxing with a smoothie and a book — Started a good book and enjoying making green smoothies with home grown spinach

My husband bought me the boxed set of the Game of Thrones book at Christmas and I have actually started reading them now.

El Edwards made me smile by surprising me with lovely postcards and a card.

El regularly makes me smile and giggle, you can find her hanging out on Twitter usually @MsElEdwards or at http://heavenandel.com/

fresh from the garden — Yummy fresh strawberries from the garden

We’ve been harvesting this quantity three times a week for over a month, we now have a bag of them in the freezer for making smoothies.

Lovely sunny days — More lovely local walks in the outdoors

Loving how close we are to green areas, we are surrounded by fields, woods, hills and rivers. makes for lovely local walks.

We haven’t had to buy any salad leaves for over a month, we have been able to harvest as and when required from our garden.

Oh and the new Doctor Who trailer was aired last night as well. So lots to smile about.

Now just need to put plans in place to make the rest of 2014 amazing.

I’m using the last of my original format Delightful Days planners now, luckily the new ones are about to be launched at http://perfectplanners.co.uk/ I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on one of the new ones, just need to decide on what colour scheme I’d like, before they launch.

I’m managing to get back on top of my health and weight loss, thanks to Nichole Kellerman and her advice and support, she is amazing. You can find her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/nicholekellerman You should go check her out, you wont regret it. I’d recommend finding her on Pinterest as well.

Feeling much more like myself now thanks to El for making me smile, Nichole Kellerman for reminding me to do something #WildlyAlive everyday and Siân Harris for her fantastic planners and reminding me to keep a #TaDa list.

You ladies are wonderful, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

Candles, gemstones and cleaning!

Well I made lots of plans for all of the cleaning, tidying and organisation I was going to accomplish today.
Guess how much of it got done!

You guessed it, not a lot.

I did get lots of other things done instead though. Which gives me more time to work on what was the plan for today over the next few days, so not a complete disaster.

However my brain got more than a little distracted. Whilst dusting I always complain about the amount of hassle it is to dust my gemstone collection, having to move loads of small items to dust under them and wipe them down takes time.
My husband’s stock answer is to get rid of them or stick them in a box somewhere.
What would be the point of having things that are interesting to look at if I was just going to hide them away though?
My other complaint is the fact that my candles seem to attract dust.
I know silly things to complain about.

So when I was at a candle party the week before my birthday and saw these candle holders I fell in love with them.
Luckily my husband agreed that I should order them as part of my birthday gift from him.
Candle holders that double up as gemstone displays. Woohoo!!!
I received them today, which distracted me a little, as I had to sort them out and put them out on display with my gemstones inside them.

So although I didn’t get all of the cleaning finished today, I am counting this as a resounding win.
Gemstones are now not sitting on a shelf gathering dust, they are inside my fab new candle holders. (yes I know I will still have to dust them, but going to be a lot easier.)

Win, win. I get to have my gemstones on show and hubby gets to have them put in a container, OK containers, instead of sitting out on the shelves.

Candles and gemstones are on the list of my favourite things to look at, so I am a very happy me right now.

Better go get at least a little more cleaning done though.

Rubbish at Blogging, Sorry.

Yet again, I have to admit that I am terrible at blogging.
It’s not that I forget to blog, it’s more that when I remember, I can’t think of anything sensible to say.

Which explains why a lot of my previous posts make little or no sense.

I have so much that I want to blog about just now, that the problem is deciding what to blog first!!!!
Instead of suddenly having lots of blogs all at once I am going to make myself a list of the topics I want to blog about and gradually work my way through them.
Birthdays, Weddings, Fabulous NEW products, life in general…………. the list is endless.
Which bodes well for me managing to blog more often for the next few weeks at least.

There are a few things I do want to share just now though.
Siân (the other half of Siangela) got married.
I’ve lost 17lb so far this year.
AVON are about to launch fantastic new products, as well as their Christmas gift ideas starting to appear.
More on all of those topics to follow in future posts.

Oh almost forgot!!!!!!
I am now completely in love with AVON’s New Nail Art Design Strips, the photo above is of my nails with the Bedazzled design for Siân’s wedding.

Female with a beard. :D :P

Well my gorgeous pet bearded dragon Scorch has lived with us since she was 2 months old.
She is now 2 years old.

We have always referred to Scorch as ‘he/him’ when bearded dragons are very young it can be difficult to be certain of their sex.

Yesterday Scorch decided it was time to let us know for sure that SHE is a GIRL.

Firstly she decided that she urgently needed to move all of the substrate from one corner of her vivarium into her food bowl out of her way.

Later in the day when she was having a swim in the bath she laid her first clutch of eggs.

So SHE is 100% female.

Males can’t make these.

part time work = part time wage / hobby like hours = hobby like earnings

Do you have your own self employed business? If so;

How many hours do you invest into your self employed business?

How much of that valuable time is being used for actual leg work?

How much time do you spend reading and posting online stuff?

Are you getting a proportionate amount of your earnings from the stuff you are spending the most time on?

The reason I ask these questions isn’t that I want to know the answers, feel free to drop me a comment if you feel like answering them though. I just want you all to consider how you spend your time and what would be the most efficient and profitable use of your valuable time.

In my experience nothing grows my business more efficiently than being physically seen out and about working. But that is the nature of my business, I also work online and gain customers through that but most of my regular custom has been gained through face to face contact.

I have gained new customers just by having my bags in my hand as I walk down the street and smiling and chatting to anyone and everyone, about anything at all, the conversation will eventually come to an end and I get to say ‘sorry got to go I have deliveries to drop of for customers, have you seen a brochure recently? I have one with me you can have, what is your address? I’ll pop round to collect the brochure in a few days.’ I have picked up numerous customers this way.

I have customers who now show my brochures to their whole family for me and get me extra orders that way, because I have given consistent and friendly customer service they think of me as a friend who they are helping rather than a business woman asking them to do some of my work for me free of charge.

One of the many things I love about my self employed business is that it fits around whatever I need it to fit around.

Or want it to fit around.

This week I actually spent a whole afternoon sitting in my back garden reading a book a friend had bought me. I made a point of posting my main brochure and special offers online and by email before I went out. I was relaxing in the sun but my brochures and online sales tools were working for me at the same time.

I gained a new customer and an extra order from one of my regular customers that afternoon, as well as getting 5 texts from different customers asking if I had any suncream available as they had forgotten to order any!

Now that doesn’t mean that I sit around doing nothing all of the time, that wouldn’t bring me in much profit.

I am fully self employed so I need to keep my income at a high enough level to cover the daily expenses to stay afloat financially, as well as earning enough to treat my hubby and I every now and again.

I LOVE my own business, I LOVE the flexibility and freedom being my own boss gives me.

To get to this level of earnings I have to consistently put in the hours and the leg work. Not just in the past, right now and in the future. Consistent customer service providing good word of mouth referrals will grow your business much more efficiently than trying to find new customers all of the time ignoring your regular customer base.

I fit my business around my life but I also make a point of fitting it into my life.

Facebook and other Social media platforms are great for attracting attention but in some businesses face to face contact, chatting in a friendly manner and being helpful to your customers is the best possible sales tool available to you.

I have customers who have been referred to me by my other customers, they are worth their weight in gold.

If you want to bring in earnings as if it’s just a hobby of yours, continue to put in hobby like hours. Having fun but not taking it seriously.

If you want to build your business to a part time wage level or above you need to consistently put in part time hours every campaign. Taking it seriously as a business.

If like me you want to earn a full time wage you need to either put in consistent quality part time work, working smart and get yourself out there actually doing the ground work and building fantastic foundations for your business to grow from and it will gradually build to that level.

Or you have to put in full time hours from day one and ask for help and advice, follow the advice given to you by people who have already been successful and know what they are talking about.

You wouldn’t expect an employer to pay you a full time salary for only an hours actual work a week, would you?

I blame Pinterest!!!!!

Well my plan to get back to blogging a week after my last post obviously didn’t work out. Ooops. Sorry.

I haven’t been quiet everywhere online, just never quite made it as far as my blog.

I blame Pinterest!!!!!!

Facebook profiles, pages and groups – I can pop in get stuff done then move onto the next thing on my list.

Twitter – I can check stuff and post Tweets then log out.

Hootsuite – I can schedule posts for Facebook and Twitter for future dates and times then log out.

MyFitnessPal – I log in update my info and log out.

Pinterest – Is like a black hole that as soon as I log in and can never escape!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There are so many fabulous pins to look at and decide if I want to share them or not, time literally flies past without me realising!!!! AAaaaagh!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So we will try again, I am back and will get into the habit of blogging more regularly.

(Well that is the plan anyway. )

Do today what others won’t, so that you can live tomorrow like others can’t.

I have no idea who it was that originally said

‘Do today what others won’t, so that you can live tomorrow like others can’t’

but it sums up how a lot of my friends are choosing to currently live their life.

Many people are finding themselves out of work through no fault of their own, companies are closing down, downsizing and having to make many staff redundant.

People who have always had a healthy bank balance are finding themselves struggling to make ends meet and having to make difficult decisions about what expenses matter most to them.

Many of those people are making the decision to become self employed business owners, this is the decision I made myself with the support of my husband.

For some reason there seems to be a large group of people that think this means that I sit around doing nothing and expect my husband’s salary to pay for everything.

This is far from the case, I currently work every day and choose to be constantly available to assist anyone linked to my business in any way necessary. We as a couple made the choice to focus on building and growing my business and our income from it, as a couple we made the choice to get rid of all avoidable expenses until we have built the business up to a set level. Our long term plan is for my business to grow to a level where my husband can leave his current full time job and choose whatever he’d like to do for a job or studies at that time.

We aim to become 100% debt free including having paid off our mortgage and be in a position to take holidays if and when we please, support whatever charities we choose without having to check we can afford to at the time, fully upgrade our current home and also buy or arrange to build another property.

As Princess Tiana from Disney’s Princess and the Frog says/sings

♫ There ain’t nothing gonna stop me now, ‘cause I’m almost there. ♫

What I do and why I do it.

How many of you can honestly say that you LOVE what you do?

Not like, accept, enjoy but actually love what you do every day?

I can.

I spent many years working for many wonderful employers and one or two not so wonderful ones.

Every job I have had has had aspects that I have thoroughly enjoyed and missed when leaving that employment, but they have all also had those little niggles that I didn’t enjoy.

The bits that made me not look forward to going in some days, in fact some bits that I actually dreaded having to do.

But it’s part of the job, has to be done, no choice………………..

Well when fate stepped in and made me really stop and think about what I wanted to do, what I felt I was supposed to be doing and what I could really enjoy doing, I made a choice.

I took the opportunity to really look at my life, my aims and ambitions.

What I felt was important and what I really wasn’t bothered about anymore but did out of habit.

I realised a few things.

My voluntary work meant more to me than my employed work.
I enjoy helping, inspiring and empowering people.
I valued being able to spend time with my family above doing extra shifts at work
I wanted to put my health and emotional well being first
That I was ready to make some changes

I have been a leader in a Christian Youth Organisation meeting locally for over a decade and can’t imagine ever not participating.

I get so much enjoyment out of working with the group that I have always turned down jobs that couldn’t fit round the commitment I made to be there every week.

Obviously I have bills to pay so need to have an income.

As I considered all of my options for potential employment I made the decision to take control of my own income.

I had decided I wanted to put everything I had realised about myself, into action.

So instead of finding another employer, where I’d have things I enjoyed and things I didn’t enjoy as much.

I employed myself.

I started my own business.

As a teenager I had sold AVON as an independent representative and really enjoyed serving my own customer list, the same people every few weeks.

Getting to know my customers as individuals, instead of being in a shop serving strangers every day.

When I thought about it I realised that I actually missed that interaction.

So I restarted my AVON business.

Most of my old customers hadn’t found a new rep so I already had an established customer base to build on and I was instantly enjoying it again.

But I didn’t feel that I was fulfilling my ambition to help others.

That was when I decided that I was going to become an independent sales leader with AVON.

Helping others start and grow their own AVON businesses, providing training, encouragement and support to my team and helping them reach whatever goals they choose to set for their own business.

The first of my team to also become a Sales Leader was Siân, at which point Team Siangela was born.

We both have similar aims to help people as much as we can, to feel like we are giving something back in some way.

We both have complete faith that if this is what we are supposed to be doing God will be supporting us every step of the way.

Team Siangela has been a fantastic success, gradually growing

and spreading across the UK.

We now have team members in Scotland, England and Wales.

With Sales Leaders able to sign up and train new team members throughout the UK.

If you are over 18 and living in the UK you can apply to join our team

by visiting http://bit.ly/repstart and completing the application.

Or you can email me at angela@siangela.co.uk for more information.