September has been a bit of a welcome relief if we’re honest, as it meant that the kids went back at school, meaning that we have been able to get back on track.
But we have to say, we’ve thoroughly enjoyed a bit of downtime over the summer holidays. Since we launched in March, working on Life In Orpington has been full on.
Like any small business, it’s hard to fit everything in – writing the magazine, designing it and delivering it. And then there’s the sales calls, community events to attend, accounts to do (and invoices to chase), photos to take, research on local events to cover, social media, emails to respond to, newsletters, blog posts, the website, attending networking events…the list doesn’t end. Not that we’re complaining of course – we love doing it!
New introductions
Since we launched our ‘Write It, Say It, Message It’ page last month, the messages have continued to come in, which has been great. We’re planning on launching of new features as we go along – and keep the most popular ones of course. If you have any suggestions – we’d love to hear them: hello@lifeinmagazines.co.uk
This month we welcome six new advertisers to the magazine – Doves Funeral Directors, Storeys Ltd, The Orpington Band, Coopers School, Harris Academy Orpington and One One Seven.
We also decided to publish a special feature for parents on School Open Days – general information and the type of questions to ask when choosing a new school. It seems to have been popular as we received a few likes and comments on social when we posted about it. We might look to include more special features to tie in with events and areas of interest. Watch this space!
Mixing business with pleasure
They say never mix business with pleasure, but we couldn’t help but enjoy a bit of bleisure time this month when we were invited to VUE Bromley to do a review (showcased in the October issue of Life In Orpington!)
We chose to watch The Informer which was an interesting film – if a little gory – but it was great to enjoy the whole cinema experience – including testing out the concessions!
Talking of business, we managed to get along to a few business networking events this month. In fact, just before the kids went back to school we sampled a BNI event in Orpington.
We both really enjoyed it and we could see that it’s great for local businesses to support one another. The other great thing is that it started at 7am and by 8.30am it was all finished, meaning that we had the rest of the day free to work as usual.
The downside is that with dependent children, we can’t make it while the kids are at school. Still, it’s definitely one for the future when the kids become much more independent.
We also attended the regular monthly PIB meeting – held the first week of every month. We decided to join PIB a couple of months ago (at the moment it’s only £5 a month – very affordable for us as a small start-up business) and haven’t looked back.
It’s a small group but is growing rapidly all the time and we like the fact that it’s a supportive group. We’ve already used a few people from the group ourselves including Indigo Art Club, Eco Domestics and Our Technician and have got a couple more we’re looking at using. For more information see https://www.pib-network.co.uk/
The ‘thank yous’
We’ve got a couple of people to thank this month when it comes to either offering us advice, inspiring us or showing us little acts of kindness. We never realised just how supportive the local community was going to be when we launched Life In Orpington, but it has totally surpassed all our expectations.
A special thanks goes to Suren Suku – who hosted a charity golf day to raise money and awareness of prostate cancer earlier this year. Suren took us out for a lovely meal in Petts Wood to thank us for our support and catch up on what he’s been up to. He’s a very generous man with a kind heart – and plenty of chatter!
Thanks also to Michelle Harvey – another person with a kind heart and clearly someone who is always thinking of others. Michelle has inspired us in many ways since we’ve got to know her – both on a professional level as well as a personal level – thanks Michelle….you’re a star!
That’s about it for what we’ve been up to this month, but we’ll leave you with this little inspirational quote that we think perfectly sums up how we feel about our community:
“Quality of life actually begins at home – it’s in your street, around your community.”
– Charles Kennedy.
To us it suggests that if you invest in your community by supporting local businesses, shopping local, donating to schools and charities and perhaps even offering your skills or time to help promote community events – you’ll reap the rewards. Always look for the good in your community – be part of that ‘good’ and watch your quality of life improve.