I've committed sin number one by drawing attention to something that maybe you didn't even notice: I was offline, out of office, for a month. If you didn't notice, that's either because we don't work together (but you read my blog posts), or because we work together and I perfectly organised my time off to leave you without any gaps in service. Well done me!
The instigation for the time off was that I moved from London to Brighton. After the initial annoying parts of packing, moving, unpacking, and flat-pack building, now I'm all settled in. My 'office' window faces the sea, so at any time I can look to my right and see the beautiful blue hues of the English Channel. I'm doing it right now!
In this time off, I had thought that I would take some of the time to sit and reflect on the business that SEO Bitch has morphed into over the last four years in business, however in stead of this I sat and read my books, watched far too many YouTube shorts, and did a whole lot of resting.
So, I'm back and have delved through the email inbox, deleting spam, replying to potential new clients, and making task lists to crack into. But before I do that, I guess I wanted to come in with at least a little reflection.
The time off was truly necessary. I'm sure it will come as absolutely no surprise to you, as probably another small business owner, that I haven't truly taken an actual break really since starting the business. Sure, I've gone on some weekend trips, and even spent some longer trips away from home - but I've always been accessible via email.
Not this time. I only checked my emails once, for end of month reporting that I send to my retainer clients every month. Even then, I only replied to one or two, mostly saying that I was on holidays and would be back later, because, for fun, I accidentally didn't put my back to office date in my vacation responder bounce email. Classic!
All that to say, I still need time to reflect. The years in business has certainly changed SEO Bitch from what it was when it began, and mostly for the better. If you know anything about me, you might know that I get itchy feet, not just for moving or travelling but for huge career changes.
I'm not going anywhere, not for now, but the business may evolve even more over the coming months as I do some more introspection and belief work to identify whether I'm spending my time doing things that I actually enjoy, or if it doesn't matter if the work of doing SEO for small businesses doesn't bring me joy but the concept does.
Thanks for coming along with me as I figure it out.
Love you.
