(3) hairdo urgently required

Just had the invitation to and info about the Entrepreneur's Forum Conference and Black Tie dinner. I used to do black tie dinners all the time as I was a business development manager for the Institution of Electrical Engineers for 3 years, and boy, do they do dinners.... Since then I have had Chloe, my now one year old, and none of my pre-baby dresses fit. So I'm going to have to go shopping. And get my hair cut. And I'll probably need some new shoes. Oh well, I am sure I'll find time somewhere.

I love astonmitchell but it's only one of the businesses I'm involved in. I run Up Market which is a marketing consultancy and I set that up nearly 4 years ago. I have also recently set up Claire Mitchell Consultancy which is aimed at helping businesses with strategic planning and marketing, and is particularly focused on Social Enterprises. Both of those jobs keep me busy and I really enjoy the work and the client contact - astonmitchell is web based so we rarely meet our customers in person. I've also been working with Transmit Consulting as an associate, again focusing on Social Enterprise and Creative Industries business support and marketing and finally, I've just been working with Industrial Strength who have helped me to develop a new website and monthly update/education service called New Media Monthly. This went live this week and I've had good feedback. It's really to help share knowledge among creative agencies about New Media and Digital marketing and stemmed from my own need for knowledge.

I am a bit of a serial entrepreneur and if I see a 'need' without an obvious solution then I like to see if I can do something about it. I work with some fantastic people across all of these businesses and I learn something new every day. I'm currently researching monetised video....

I'm working from mum's today as I fancied spending some time with Chloe but working at the same time, so this is a good compromise. I've just been writing a press release for an up and coming film producer, and also did some work on a business plan for a great business in Darlington. I popped out at lunchtime with mum and Chloe and hit the shops, then came back and am doing some more business plan work for another client.

Bit tired today as hubby Mitch is in Kent all week and Chloe is getting more teeth, so she woke up at midnight just as I was going to bed and didn't settle till gone 2am.... Still, it's all character building. More soon!

ps: EEEK forgot that hubby would read blog - now he knows about the shopping!