Sharing Happy Days ...

Hi everyone, just thought I should share this idea with you ...

A couple of months ago, my sister-in-law came up with a plan that we should do ugly chores together. Hmm now to be honest, I wasn't too keen on the idea. I thought a day out might be a better option. Or even being forced to the gym. Actually, I don't mind ugly chores - clearing the garage / emptying the loft / weeding / clearing cupboards / sorting things for car boots or charity shops / car boots ... especially sorting - I do enjoy the therapeutic benefits of sorting - but I didn't want to prolong the process[es] by including another person which could extend the experience[s]. So I sort of murmured, looked away, shuffled some paper and didn't really answer her.

Last week, my sister-in-law, still clearly determined, suggested the same idea again. She wanted to spend two days per month doing ugly chores. Each of us could choose an ugly chore per month and the other person would join in the task, donating their time freely for a whole day. Hmm - how could I get out of it this time? Besides, my garage, loft and cupboards were all tidy [not in an OCD way, just tidy enough to not want re-tidying] and all my spare items had been delivered to a local charity shop. So I had nothing to trade. My Happy Days project had taken over much of my life and was a permanent priority so I'd learned to keep household operations to a minimum - on  a temporary basis of course.

Starting up a new business can be a lonely place. You are the person who has the idea; in whose head a seed has been planted. You are the person whose head becomes so full with the seeds and sprouting seedlings that you have to research new ways to cultivate them. Being solely responsible for nurturing these seedlings through adolescence can become a 24/7 operation. You are now the person who has to decide how to promote and manage these mature seedlings; who to share them with, how to share them and tell the World about the benefits of your seedlings; your idea; your product. By this stage, places, events and even people begin to pale into insignificance ... You are alone. Just you and your shiny new all-grown-up seedlings on display - and waiting for new owners.

Exhibitions have proved to be one of the ways to present Happy Days creative resources, activities and products to schools, volunteers, carers, families, people with dementia, residential care home groups and care services. Setting up at exhibitions - alone - can be a difficult task - unloading the vehicle and displaying at the stand simultaneously is an operation no-one can achieve - alone. Nipping off for a coffee or lipstick replenishment leaves the stand unmanned [or un-womnned] and looks unprofessional. Besides, it always feels like the person most interested in your fully grown seedlings has called by when you're missing. Dismantling and loading the vehicle at the end of the exhibition, obviously the reverse process of arrival - creates that final layer of stress - trying to be in two places at one time.

Being a start up business brings many challenges, one of them being keeping costs to a strict minimum. Recruiting and employing members of staff is not only costly but has now become a complex administrative process.

Then I had another idea. I rang my sister-in-law - and offered to do ugly chores with her. And that's all turning out fine because the chore I have chosen for her in return, is a really pleasant one ... keeping me company at exhibitions.

So, if you are visiting a Care Service exhibition, Schools exhibition Vintage or Craft Fair, you'll most probably see me ... unless I've nipped off for a coffee or lipstick renewal ... then you'll meet my sister-in-law.

Gillian

For more Happy Days information or products for school support, carers or dementia - go to :
www.happydayspublishing.co.uk
www.dementiaworkshop.co.uk
www.happydayspublishing.blogspot.com