Travelling to and from meetings especially away from home has always been a trial for me.  What to wear, what to take – I like to have as many home comforts around me as possible but then cannot bear travelling with tons of luggage.

Recently on a visit to a clients’ new offices in Darlington, I broke my journey in York to spend the night with one of my very favourite cousins.  Great fun, supper and a catch up, but she’s a hard working lady off to work early and my meeting wasn’t until late morning.

So I had a leisurely morning and planned to get the bus to the station for the train to Darlington.  Not being overly familiar with the bus route I left 15 mins to get to the stop, locked the house put the key back through the letter box.  No sooner than me getting to the end of the drive, the heavens opened.  No umbrella.  Bus stop turned out to be a 30 second walk from her house, 15 mins spent standing in monsoonal rain.

Bus even went past me but apparently goes past then comes back again and is not permitted to stop twice.  Drowned rat was a total understatement.  Why did I bother styling my hair that morning or applying makeup?

Finally I got to York station, headed straight for the ladies and then spend the next 20 minutes trying to style my hair with a hand dryer mounted on the wall.  Has anyone ever tried to do that?

Needless to say my meetings went well and no one guessed I had been drowned earlier that morning – I will never be going without an umbrella again!

Recently a number of friends have asked me about going Freelance.  They are working for both large and small companies, who are finding things tough in the current climate.  Some are facing redundancy, others have an over whelming desire to set up their own business whilst others are just tired of lining the pockets of those in the big office.

I went freelance over ten years ago, really quite by accident which I suppose is the best way to do it as there was no deliberation and tough decisions to make.   Having worked behind a bar for a year – customers started asking me what I did prior to pulling pints (I obviously didn’t do this very well as they all thought I must have had another career).  This actually proved to be the making of my business – I told them I used to be in PR and Marketing – having given up work to have my daughter.  Within a couple of months I found myself with three clients – campaigns to work on for local businesses.  It all went from there.

It has been a great journey with lots of highs and lows but one that is very much my own.  This is what I say to those asking me – if they can build their contacts, have a few bits of work lined up and then take the plunge.  More and more people are looking for the hidden talent that is the freelancer.  No high overheads – flexibility and a strong will to work.  I have recently introduced two freelancers to one of my clients to work on projects with them.  Everyone is very happy with the arrangement.

I now have two children who I like to see in their school plays, take to the dentist when required and spend some time with during the summer holidays apart from our family holiday and being freelance is the only way to do it.  You become the master of your own destiny.  Since becoming freelance I think I have had about 8 days off sick in over ten years and five of those were spent in hospital having my son!

I have recently been “rebranded”.  This is a process that I guess we all have to go through once in a while and some more than others.  It is something I recommend to clients when their image needs updating, or they bring out new products or are generally tired of their look.

I created my previous look many years ago from the corner of the dining room table where my business was set up.  My logo was a drawing of a stick girl dancing that I felt was very appropriate to me and have been asked many times over the years if it was me.  To which I always said it was.  Aware that she was now over 10, apparently a ripe old age for a logo, I knew I needed a change but had no idea where to start.

Enter Harry and Tom into my life – Messrs WebFunk. (www.web-funk.com)

Harry and Tom assured (told) me that I needed a change and that “the girl had to go”!  Gutted but I knew it was the truth.  But where to start, I wanted a symbol, something fun (PR is fun!) and lively, lots of colour and that said something about me.  Tom told me to stop fretting and that he would deal with it – two days later a very colour flamingo arrived in my inbox – he said it reminded him of me.  I loved it but then felt I need to know why, should anyone ask me (which lots of people have since!) did I choose the Flamingo.

Enter Caroline and Cath – two of my greatest girlfriends – and some wine!  Left to our own devices in the kitchen on a Friday night we cracked it!  Simple –  if you look up the definition of a flamingo it tells you about a bird that is very colourful, gregarious, bold, resourceful, organised – by standing on one leg for much of the time they are resting half of their bodies – and can be counted upon.  So, it was agreed that was a fairly apt description of me.

Enter my Father.

Who on being asked to give me his thoughts on my website (aged 72, ex army) just sent me an email “Why the effing flamingo?”

So I told him and have put a “Why the flamingo?” button on my website to explain myself !

As for the rest of the images, Tom and I having a late night chat on Skype solved that problem, amazing images of ink in water seemed very appropriate for someone who writes for a living.  So my advice to anyone thinking of a re-brand – go for it, and be strong in what you want and above all, have a reason why you chose the end result!

I discovered Twitter about 18 months ago.  A couple of friends had mentioned it to me, business contacts started to ask me if I was on there so with a little fear and trepidation, I entered the world of Twitter.

I discovered fascinating articles, the ability to hear what people from all walks of life had to say about any given topic.  I could follow celebrities, politicians and excitingly for my line of work – journalists.

But when it comes to actually putting anything out there yourself it is fairly scary.  The thought that people are going to be reading your 140 characters, possibly commenting on them and then judging them, does make you think about what you write.  So many people have said to me “But why would anyone want to know about me?”  “I don’t have anything interesting to say!”

But you do.  There are people from every walk of life on Twitter which means that they will have a potential audience. Take for example a client of mine who develops mobile phone tracking software – his audience would like to know the latest developments in his products.  Twitter is a great way of not only communicating but opening up channels of communication on any given subject.

Twitter is a mine of information – those that follow you will be able to answer all sorts of questions.  I have asked technical questions, cooking queries (famously bad cook), travel details and even had weather queries – every time someone there can give me an answer.

So I’d say go on, give it a go, see who is out there and broaden your mind.

P.S.  let me know how you get on!