Ever wondered what everyone else’s day is like in business? What time they get up, go to bed, craziness they have to deal with and if their day is anything like yours?
Over the next few months we’ve created our “A Day in the Life” series with an array of female entrepreneurs from different industries and backgrounds taking us through what one day can be like in their business.
First up is Erin Madeley from Perth Makers Market…
6:15am – wake up to hear my kids arguing over the iPad (this is the one time of day we let them have technology – so veeeeeeeery important to them!). I sort out the fight and crawl back into bed (I am not a morning person).
6:40am – get up for the day. Turn off the technology for the kids and start getting everyone ready for the day.
7:10am – make kids lunches and ensure they are ready for school.
7:20am – let the plasterer into the house to continue work on renovations (we started converting our car port into a master bedroom with ensuite in June and are nearing the tail end – cannot wait!).
7:30am – hustle kids to finish getting ready for school with the promise of tv time when they are 100% ready to go so that I can talk to the plasterer uninterrupted.
7:50am – put tv on for kids and pull out laptop to do some work before we leave for school. Cue me remembering that the keyboard and trackpad mysteriously stopped working so start trying to troubleshoot why.
8:15am – give up on fixing laptop myself. None of the obvious solutions are working – book an appointment to take my laptop in and get sorted.
8:30am – bundle kids into car and head to school.
8:50am – school run done, head into CBD to sort out my laptop.
9:10am – arrive in the city for my appointment and walk in. Am told that there will be a 3 day wait before someone can even look at my laptop. Not ok!!! My laptop is my only way of working so can’t wait that long to sort out the problem (which I suspect is a really simple issue to fix). Decide to walk into the Apple store even though their appointment times were fully booked and hope for the best.
9:30am – park in the city at hubby’s office and walk to Apple.
10:00am – have managed to see an Apple employee and my laptop is magically working again! Seriously – magic…Bump into my work wife (everyone needs one of these…) at the Apple shop so wait until she is done to say hi.
10:20am – buy coffee for hubby to say thanks for interrupting his work day a couple of times so I could park under his building.
10:45am – finally home (working from home due to renovations instead of my office) and can reboot my laptop and start work!
10:50am – 11:20am – clear some e-mails (starting the day with over 200 – the horror!!!)
11:20am – check in on social media and post in the Perth Makers Market stallholder group
11:30am – builder drops by to check progress. Have a brief chat re: all things renovation and where things are at – super excited to find out we should mostly be done by the end of the week!!!
11:35am – create a new survey on Survey Monkey to collect post market feedback from stallholders and write a debrief e-mail
11:50am – send out debrief e-mail to stallholders from the most recent Perth Makers Market
11:55am – 12:34pm – call my assistant to run through the last week of work and previous to do lists. Strategize for upcoming week.
12:35pm – lunch break!!! (aka walk away from the computer before going bug-eyed). Lunch ends up being cheese and crackers as it turns out that we’re out of most things in the house!
12:45pm – back to work! Start reconciling payments received for upcoming markets. Back to work clearing the back log of e-mails and work through reconciling invoices.
2:30pm – take a quick break to stretch and refill my water jug as I’ve drained it (remember to stay hydrated at work everyone!)
2:52pm – feel grateful that I’ve managed to reduce my inbox from over 200 unread e-mails to only 65!!! Head to school to get kids – spend 10 minutes looking for bloody gymnastics uniforms and end up getting to school a little late.
3:05pm – pick up kids. Let them play on playground until 3:30pm.
3:30pm – head to car to take kids to gymnastics. Feed them muesli bars for afternoon tea
3:45pm – arrive at gymnastics. Get Matthey (my 5 year old) to go toilet and change into uniform.
4:00pm – Matthew starts gymnastics. Jeffrey begs to play with a friend there. I try and explain to Jeffrey that we have to go grocery shopping – the coach overhears and says Jeffrey is ok to stay while I go. Yay!!! Everyone is happy and I head off to go to the grocery store.
4:30pm – arrive home after a successful trip to the grocery store. Unload car, put everything away etc.
4:45pm – make the selfish decision to ignore work and the house in favour of chilling in front of Netflix & eating real food for the first time all day!
5:15pm – clean the kitchen and start cooking dinner.
5:50pm – dinner is ready – head to pick up the kids from gymnastics
6:20pm – arrive home from getting the boys, eat dinner (cue fighting over who gets to sit next to mum at dinner… note that apparently kitty corner at the table is not next to someone).
6:40pm – discover that Matthew has continued to back slide with toilet training and there is a “situation” that needs to be taken care of.
6:45pm – throw kids in the shower and get them cleaned up.
7:10pm – story time! Also, daddy arrives home and throws story time out the window so it will be a slightly later night tonight.
7:30pm – kids start getting ready for bed
8:00pm – kids are finally in bed with songs sung and parents finally leave their bedroom.
8:05pm – play catch up with hubby and find out how his day went. Talk about long term business strategy for Perth Makers Market and how hubby’s career is going.
8:30pm – contemplate working some more and then remember that over the course of the last week I have had 3 nights with less than 4 hours sleep so elect to watch tv with my husband and go to bed early.
10:00pm – head to bed to read for a bit before going to sleep.
10:30pm – take the 5 year old to the toilet to prevent night time bed wetting.
11:00pm – lights out and go to sleep!
