February may be the shortest month of the year, but with some planning and forethought, we can still make  it a successful time. 
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The start of a new year always brings with it some pressure to plan out your perfect year! Social media is awash with mini-courses to help you organise your life and plan for
                                                                                                                              success.
​Resolutions abound – new year, new you and all that! 

But, research shows that by mid-February 80% of these resolutions will have failed. 

January may also just not be ‘your’ time so don’t feel like you have missed the boat completely if you didn’t work out a 12-month plan, perfectly colour coded. The start of the year can be a challenge after the holiday period, and it can take work life some weeks to get fully back to normal. 

Many businesses also have seasons and January just may not be a good time. 

People have seasons too. And for many, January is a time of ‘hibernating’ and boosting batteries.

If you are thinking of using the second month of the year to kickstart some planning then, here are some ideas we have gathered from around the team which may inspire you: 

• Start of by getting all your ideas down onto a white board, white wall or a big piece of paper. 

• Then see if you can group the various ideas and tasks together. 
• There will also be regular jobs throughout the year which you have to do so make sure these go into the mix. 
• Now start to prioritise. Look at those jobs which you can see need to be done quickly. 
• There will always be some things which you will put off – we all have them! But, getting those done as a priority will get them out of the way and you’ll feel better immediately. (For more on this kind of approach try 'Eat that Frog!'.
• Split the rest of the jobs into batches and you will start to see a plan coming together. 

• If you like nice pens and notebooks as we do, now is the time to indulge yourself! 
• When you have done your first draft, give yourself a pat on the back and have a break. Your plan will evolve and grow but getting this first draft down on paper is a good step to making this a successful month. 

If you do decide to do some planning this month, we wish the best of luck.  

​Enterprise Exchange regularly shares business support and advice via social media too so please do follow us on Twitter and connect on LinkedIn

Over the next few months, we're going to be interview all our team members so that our clients and colleagues get to know us better.

First up is one of our Directors, Benna McCartney.

​Could you give us a quick overview of your role at Enterprise Exchange?

Director - overseeing the back end of the business, managing freelance staff, business development and participant one to one support.

What experience do you have which led you to set up/work with Enterprise Exchange?

I am a qualified life and business coach and met my business partner Phil through different work we were doing with the same client group. We were both invited into Lewes Prison and asked to support the guys to set up their own businesses, since this is very often the only option for offenders and ex-offenders. We were not able to help at the time as we had such high workloads, but were randomly made redundant at the same time, so I had the idea of setting up the business together to initially support the men in prison. We managed to gain funding through Serco and the rest, as they say, is history!

Which aspect of your work do you enjoy most?

All of it! Sometimes I struggle with the admin side when there is too much to do and I feel my time would be much better spent supporting staff, participants and having more time to grow the business effectively, but I have lots of tools in place through my training, that enables me to organise myself effectively.
What do you do when you're not supporting EE?

I don’t seem to have time for much else at the moment, but when I do, I love spending time with family and friends, travelling, exercising, watching films and singing.

Tea or coffee and how do you take it?

Both but I prefer a good coffee – non dairy cappuccino (with one shot) is my ‘signature’ drink and tea with non dairy milk. I am also really into non dairy matcha lattes at the moment, which I am very happy to say seem to be more widely available in the last few weeks.

Thanks so much. How can people best contact you?

You are so welcome and please feel free to email me at benna@enterpriseexchange.org.uk. 

Q: Why did you decide to follow this path/business?
A: Social media came about from my time running a print business. I had opened a print shop in Lewes in 2010 and needed to advertise and took to social media (Twitter in particular) and found it very interesting and successful. I then began to talk to my print customers about it - and they asked my advice on how to 'do it'. I then began to work on some training sessions focussing on business social media. These courses ran in Lewes and then for the last 3 years I have worked with The Swift Project helping women in business alongside my private clients and retained business clients.
 
Q: Has it always been a passion?
A: I was always a natural writer, and so now I write in sound bites rather than essays! Social media hasn't been around for long enough for me to call it a passion but I really love what I do for each of my clients.

Q: When did you decide to follow your passion?
A: I had to make the difficult decision to sell my existing business (The Print Shop) where I had been in a retail environment for 15 years, to follow the social media path. It was very challenging for me to accept that my life had changed (for the better!) and that I was scared of the change from having the security, social interactions and security of my shop; to working on a laptop - just me and my thoughts! Glad to say it was totally the right path, and I may not have been so able to take it without the support of my business mentor.

Q: Were you encouraged at school? Were your talents recognised?
A: My parents did everything to send me to a private school where success was inspired in each person. I was very lucky to have had that experience - but I left at 16 to continue my education in the state system and was completely unprepared for the change. I would say my education came from work - part time work in kitchens through to American Express where I worked in a dream job for many years!

Q: What were the most difficult things to overcome when you decided to try and make money by following your dream rather than getting a job.
A: Chasing invoices, so time consuming! I now have an accountant who is on hand to write heavy handed letters incase people don't pay up - thankfully I have done my time on this and now work with larger companies on retained contracts. You are not alone in worrying that you have made the wrong choice in life - but i try to remember and appreciate the freedom I have to be my own boss and work when I choose. The downside is you have to be very disciplined to do this job - in some ways I could work 24/7 and it still wouldn't be enough in the fast pace world of social media - so I have learnt to try and switch off client accounts at weekends!

Q: Did you think you would never make it happen? Did you feel you weren’t good enough to make it happen?
A: Always! Still do! New clients come through the system and you have to work out how they work so you can do your job - and usually after 6 weeks I mutter to myself - 'Thats it! I cant do this anymore! 'My job sometimes involves going into companies and taking over the social media from other people who will naturally feel resentment towards me - and I try to make them feel OK and support them in their job..

Q: If so how did you move through those thoughts? For many these thoughts can seem so real and limiting.
A: Take the emotion out of the situation. Look at things rationally. Do the best job you can and be brave enough to say to a client - 'I am not right for you - Thank you but no thanks' I have done that on several occasions and the clients appreciated it!

Q: What do you love most about what you do?
A: Creative freedom! To make a real difference to my clients business and back this up with data! Also when I am training a business and they come back to me a few weeks later saying that they actually 'get it' now and see them moving forward.

Q: I am sure many people must benefit from your service - does this give you even more satisfaction?
A: Absolutely - it is gratifying to have so many testimonials and watch businesses utilise the tools that I have taught them - The Swift Project has been particularly gratifying on this level.

Q: Where do you see yourself in five years time?
A: Hard to say with the increase in bots - ask me next year'!

Contact Lucy here

We start to realise there is nothing wrong with self doubt, fear, feeling not good enough - they are all completely normal and we can relax and see they aren't who we are and don't mean anything - and carry on.

​Q: Why did you decide to follow this path/business? 
A: I didn’t plan on going in this direction, I was just doing it for fun really, experimenting, and it turned out people liked what I was up to. 
 
Q: Has it always been a passion? 
A: Colour has always been a big passion. I heard a talk recently where the speaker said if you think back to what you were doing when you were very young - the kinds of activities you naturally loved to do - this speaks volumes about what your adult passions are. I realised this is very true for me; I was always ordering things into colour groups - pencils, toys, books...it was just a fascination I had! Today one of my biggest passions is dyeing our laces and thinking about the colourways in our collections.
 
Q: When did you decide to follow your passion? 
A: I didn’t really make the decision to go for it, in a way it made itself. I thought I was going to end up using my journalism qualification for my work, but my pieces kept selling (I was doing this on the side of my training) and I started to realise I could make this work as a ‘proper’ business.  
 
Q: Were you encouraged at school? Were your talents recognised?
A: Yes, the focus of my school was very creative, I was lucky in that way. Also my parents helped a lot just in role-modelling that this is a viable career path.
 
Q: What were the most difficult things to overcome when you decided to try and make money by following your dream rather than getting a job.
A: It’s taken me a few years to realise that running a business or being an entrepreneur is just like any other career path, it requires a skill set that needs to be learned and honed over time. The business emerged through passion but I had very little concrete business knowledge and this is something I’m definitely still learning today. Thankfully I have some amazing resources and people in my life who help me learn and grow.
 
Q: Did you think you would never make it happen? Did you feel you weren’t good enough to make it happen?
 A: Oh yes, I doubt that ‘imposter’ feeling ever goes away, but I ask myself how many nice reviews will it take for me to realise we do actually make something beautiful that people love?!
 
Q: If so how did you move through those thoughts? For many these thoughts can seem so real and limiting.
A: I relax with those thoughts, I don’t let them get in the way of doing what I love. I also think about all the other people who run small businesses and I realise we all have the same worries and doubts and still we continue on making beautiful things that people cherish. 
 
Q: What do you love most about what you do? 
A: Working with dye, shopping for fabric, going to markets and meeting wonderful customers. I also love the network of makers around me, some of my dearest friends also run small design businesses and I’m so grateful to know them and work alongside them.
 
Q: I am sure many people must benefit from your music/service - does this give you even more satisfaction?
A: Yes absolutely. Even now I do a little happy dance when a customer messages us to say thank you, or a lovely review comes in! I also love that it creates work for other talented women in the Brighton community. That is something I feel very proud of - being able to employ the skills of other talented women in the city.
 
Q: Where do you see yourself in five years time?
A: Running a Brighton Lace studio that customers can visit, with a few more team members, making lovely lingerie of course, but also producing a small fashion collection, and perhaps a swimwear line too…so many ideas!  

​Contact Lou here

In our new series of blog posts we asked some of our clients how it was for them to take the step to self-employment and stick at it when the going gets tough. It's interesting to see we all face the same internal challenges no matter our backgrounds . . .  

Q: Why did you decide to follow this path/business?
A: It was always something I wanted to do and never felt happy working in a 9 to 5 situation. 

Q: Has it always been a passion?
A: Yes more so in my 20's.

Q: When did you decide to follow your passion?
A: Age 16 I was in bands before that too. 

Q: Were you encouraged at school? Were your talents recognised?
A: Not really it was outside of school with friends there was music but it was very limited, my mum got me piano lessons at a very young age, so mainly outside of school.

Q: What were the most difficult things to overcome when you decided to try and make money by following your dream rather than getting a job.
A: I'm not business oriented so I had to learn to be better at it and to accept other jobs (DIY, decorating etc) too to subsidise my passion and when its tough, to not focus on lack and remember the creativity is at the core.

Q: Did you think you would never make it happen? Did you feel you weren’t good enough to make it happen?
A: Regularly! It goes in waves it can really be on and then just feel like it's a million miles away. 

Q: If so how did you move through those thoughts? For many these thoughts can seem so real and limiting.
A: Probably gratitude and to reflect on previous work I know has kicked ass, so to remember I'm not useless and that it is possible again. 

Q: What do you love most about what you do?
A: When the song/tune has written me and it's really sonic soup feeling the spirit at the core of it, there's nothing like that, it stays with me for days and writes me! And to feel I've created real art and have moved consciousness through my art. 

Q: I am sure many people must benefit from your music/service - does this give you even more satisfaction?
A: Definitely when we've created great work that touches and moves people and being rewarded spiritually and financially too!

Q: Where do you see yourself in five years time?
A: I'd love to be touring and playing to much larger audiences bringing my sonic soup to more people. Like to be selling many more albums, being played on mainstream radio, have a hit record. I'd also like to have my music in a major consciousness lifting mainstream movie! 

Contact Max here

Being unemployed in our society can happen for any number of reasons – stopping work to have a child, being made redundant, not able to find a job after school or university, ill health, anxiety …and countless other reasons.
 
Judged by our ability to earn money

The well-being of society in the UK and in much of the Westernised world is judged by the prosperity of its economy. Unfortunately this has led to the underlying belief that people aren’t good enough unless they are earning money and contributing to the system, it has also lead to the belief that the more money you have the more successful you are and oddly, that ultimate satisfaction and contentment is found in having enough money to do nothing. It creates fear and tension in society and hopelessness and depression as people worry about earning enough to keep a roof their heads and support their families and the shame of not being able to do so. In many cases it leads to depression, anxiety and sometimes suicide.
 
Low self esteem and lack of motivation

If you find yourself in the circumstance where you have no job and although you are looking nothing seems to work out and you are feeling low, depressed, no motivation, tired and hopeless then that is completely normal and there is nothing wrong with feeling like this. Most of us tend to focus on these feelings and describe them as negative and wrong and then we can easily become lost in a whole world of stories and get into a downward spiral.
 
One self-empowering technique for these so called ‘negative’ feelings such as low self-esteem, pointlessness, shame and lack of motivation is to make friends with them and see that they are not your enemies. A negative feeling is just the same as a positive feeling of happiness or confidence - they all simply come and go and we can’t control them. We have just been told that negative feelings are ‘bad’ and there is something wrong if we feel them. We are conditioned to focus on and analyse the negative and try to hang on to the positive. We have been told that we need to feel ‘happy’ in order to be okay. But if you start to get to know your negative feelings you will see you are still okay even when feeling depressed or anxious. They are all part of what it is to be human. We all feel both the negative and the positive. That is wholeness.

Get to know yourself and master your thoughts and feelings
 
Being unemployed and then facing the ‘negative’ feelings as they arise is very empowering and freeing. We see that when we are no longer afraid of the feelings we can do anything. This isn’t a quick fix or a be-positive attitude, this is a getting real and getting to know yourself and how all human beings work. Being unemployed could be seen as a great opportunity to really get to know yourself and finally love yourself fully instead of believing there is something wrong with you because you have ‘negative’ feelings. Many people don’t get to experience this as they are caught up being busy and successful in order to avoid these ‘negative’ feelings.
 
Being able to be okay with everything you are feeling means you can carry on, regardless of your circumstances. Even if you get a thousand rejections there will be a solution. Maybe this is the time to start up your own service, something you are passionate about but immediately tell yourself you could never do because of a list of reasons you believe are real. These ‘reasons’ are also just thoughts. They are not real, just a thought that you have given belief too. You can step by step look into following your ideas and dreams and with the support of a mentor and advisor you will be able to move forward through all of your limitations.

Restart is a new Prison Programme developed to help reduce the cycle of reoffending by supporting ex offenders to develop the skills they need to start their own small business or find work on their release. We are working with two other innovative organisations, Enterprise Inspiration and Beating Time to run this programme.
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About 80,000 people come out of UK prisons each year – most of them do not find work. Around half re-offend. Restart is about reducing reoffending. We work weekly with serving prisoners to help them:

• Develop mental resilience, self-esteem and confidence;
• Develop Business Plans for self- employment post release;
• Develop relationships and contacts with potential employers.

Visit the website to find out more here
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​Work to offer self-employment workshops has received a funding boost in Eastbourne.

£5,000 of ‘Safer in Sussex’ funding from the county’s Police & Crime Commissioner, Katy Bourne, has been awarded to Enterprise Exchange.
 
Commenting on the grant award, Benna McCartney said: “This is vital funding for us and means we can offer people with additional barriers in Eastbourne, the opportunity to become self-employed or start their own business, through our self-employment course”.
 
Commending Enterprise Exchange on its successful bid, Mrs Bourne said: “This fund is about helping local community projects make Sussex safer and that’s exactly what this self-employment course is doing”.
 
“Since launching the Safer in Sussex funding scheme in December 2013, I have made over £1m available to more than 220 local crime reduction and community safety initiatives.”
 
“The scheme is making a real difference to communities across Sussex. The high numbers applying shows that local organisations and community groups care about, and are committed to, helping keep Sussex a safe place in which to live.”
 
“I will be following the progress of Enterprise Exchange closely over the coming months.”
 
ENDS
 
Notes to Editors
 
For further information about the Safer in Sussex funding scheme and how to apply visit:
 http://www.sussex-pcc.gov.uk/apply-for-funding/
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You can watch a selection of videos about Safer in Sussex funding on our YouTube channel here.