The drive: What challenges have you overcome?
I’ve found that I’m spending a lot of time doing paperwork – home visit assessments, reports and feeding plans. But I have just discovered dictation! This sounds so obvious, simple and easy and maybe I should’ve figured this out ages ago! But dictation has been a game changer for me! It has probably more than halved my time spent completing paperwork which allows me to spend more time with my family.
Also, probably the biggest challenge I’ve had to overcome is impostor syndrome! Even though I have years and years of experience and even though I am a fully qualified lactation consultant, I still sometimes have a crisis of confidence. I look at other lactation consultants online, the things that they’re posting – the beautiful graphics, the daily posts, the tens of thousands of followers – and it can make you feel like you’re not doing enough and there have definitely been times where I’ve felt inferior. But I know that I support women really really well. I know that I give them my all. I know that I bring not just my lactation consultant background but my nursing background with decades of clinical experience, and I know that I’m really really good at what I do. Some of the feedback I’ve had and the results I’ve helped women to achieve have been so overwhelmingly positive and lovely and it’s really encouraged me to overcome that feeling. I love this job, I’m really good at this job and I deserve to be here.
For better or worse: What are the pros and cons of running your own business?
The pros of running your own business are undoubtedly the flexibility that you have throughout your working day and week. I can take my children to school, pick them up, take them to their swimming lessons and help them with their homework. I’m not stuck in that gridlocked commute traffic every day and I’m my own boss for much of the week where I make the rules! I decide how much I take on, so being there for my family has been the greatest gift and the absolute number one pro of running this business. One of the cons is also….being your own boss! I sometimes take on too much and that can then impact that family/home balance, but it’s early days and I’m still working on setting boundaries around that. Another downside is the irregularity that you may get bookings so your income is not going to be the same every week. Some weeks will be a boom; some weeks will not – you just don’t know what’s going to come through the door and that can be a little bit disconcerting because you don’t have that guaranteed monthly income.
Hopes and dreams: What next?
I have a very small business with one employee (me!), so my business is not going to massively expand or scale up, but I would ideally like to have a more regular and predictable income. I am getting closer to being fully booked every week, which is a wonderful feeling. But there is more work to do to make that a reality! I feel like I am establishing a trustworthy brand that is starting to gain recognition, which is encouraging and so important for a small business. I really enjoy my NHS work and continuing to work part time in the NHS and part time private practice is ultimately the dream, giving me more financial freedom and a better family/home/work balance.
Visit www.thelactationnurse.co.uk to find out more, and connect with Deirdre on Facebook and Instagram.
