Worrying in Diary

This week at work has been a lot quieter than last week. I’ve only had Roxy to walk each day and no other appointments which is quite worrying.

I do, however, have two promising new enquiries. One of which I’m house sitting for this weekend. They have two dogs and two cats so they’re going to keep me busy. I’ve had a look at the house on Google maps and it looks lovely and big and it’s in the countryside, so that should be lovely, especially if we get nice weather. She says she might be able to throw a lot more work my way so I’d better do a good job!

Looking on the bright side, if I hadn’t been kicked off the medical trial, I wouldn’t have been able to do this house sit and I might have missed out on a good, long term customer.

The second is a lady who has two dogs that need walking. I don’t know how often yet but she seems very keen and has filled in all the forms. It sounds like it might be a challenge, though. One of the dogs is apparently lovely around people but hates other dogs. That’s fine, I’m used to that with Roxy. But the other one is a rescue with an unknown past and has anxiety issues. She says they get on ok most of the time, but, when they’re out, one of them can be quite aggressive and the other one quite nervous. Sometimes the aggressive one can attack the nervous one if he gets jealous. So it’s going to be an interesting one! But I’m hoping it will be regular :o)

Jay has been helping me with my marketing, which is great, but he seems to think I should be overrun with customers already. He’s getting frustrated that I’m not busier and had a bit of a go at me last night, shouting “You don’t know what you’re doing!”

Last night I was filling in application forms for game shows (Catchphrase, The Chase, Tipping Point and Deal Or No Deal) and he says sarcastically “Is this your plan for making money now, game shows?”

Yes it would be nice to win some money on a game show, but he knows that I’ve sporadically applied for them for years now. I even appeared on one of them once (The Weakest Link, 2002) and had autitions for three others over the years. It isn’t a sudden thing and it isn’t my long term plan to be a professional game show contestant. Just a bit of fun. sigh

Every single day I’ve been doing something; either door to door leafleting, leaving leaflets in vets, Post Offices and supermarkets, I have an advert in the local paper today (which I need to go and buy), promoting and updating my Facebook page etc. He seems to think I’m sitting around at home doing nothing when I should be out there acting like Alan Sugar. I’m new to this! The business is new! The customers aren’t going to be flooding through the door in the first couple of weeks! But his attitude is making me worry, making me think that I should be busier than this. I know from speaking to some of you self employed people on here that it does take time, and I wish he would understand this. But every day he asks “What are you doing tomorrow?” and gets annoyed if I can’t explain every single minute of every single day :o(

I understand he’s worried because we have bills to pay, but this is the exact reason I saved up enough money to tide me over for a few months. I wish he wouldn’t worry and nag me, it isn’t helping.

I do have a job interview this afternoon, for the spooky actor job in the safari park. Sure it’s only minimum wage and it’s only a total of 60 hours work, but it’s something and it’s only in the evenings so won’t impact on my dog walking.

He knows me. At least he should do. In the past, he used to get annoyed with me because I “Always have to be doing something!” Surely that’s not a bad thing. Now he’s getting annoyed with me because he doesn’t think I’m doing enough! I always try to make sure I’ve got my fingers in several pies, I don’t know what he’s worrying about.

edit Thanks to the people who have been giving me tips and advice, but I’m already working really hard on the marketing in all sorts of places. As I said, I’m not worried and I have a few new customers and my fingers are in lots of pies at the moment. It’s Jay who seems to be worried, and for no reason. He has already written me an excellent marketing plan and it has all sorts of ideas which I’ve already been working on; his job title is Marketing Coordinator so he’s well qualified.

Last updated September 17, 2014