Pollyanne Hooley
If you're down to earth, sporty and sociable and want to network, come and try out Hooley Time. Members come from completely mixed industries - from the City, to charity workers, doctors and vets, and lots of members run their own businesses.We're also looking for energetic people to run areas in other parts of London and across the UK. You can either get involved in recruiting in your area, or take an area as your own business, organsing at least 1 local event per month and joining with HT larger events, weekends away and holidays. This would suit someone who has the time to spend approximately 1 day a week developing their area.In terms of character – you need to love socializing and meeting all types of people. You will understand that being an ideal HT member requires a positive attitude to life and enthusiasm to have fun and make the most of what life brings. Not only will you immediately generate an income, but you will also enjoy free holidays, weekends away and nights out; organising the activities you want to do! You will be supported by the HT website infrastructure, marketing and general support. If you’re interested in this or know of anyone you think might be perfect for this, please email pa@hooleytime.com or call on +44 783 4364174.
Project manager to community founder
"I worked as a Project Manager (and on occasions still do!) and my last client was Towers Watson, where I worked for nearly 3 years. Although I love project management, I’ve always wanted to run my own business and have complete ownership for the work I do and have more flexibility in my life."
How I can help Esc members
If you're down to earth, sporty and sociable and want to network, come and try out Hooley Time. Members come from completely mixed industries - from the City, to charity workers, doctors and vets, and lots of members run their own businesses.
We're also looking for energetic people to run areas in other parts of London and across the UK. You can either get involved in recruiting in your area, or take an area as your own business, organsing at least 1 local event per month and joining with HT larger events, weekends away and holidays. This would suit someone who has the time to spend approximately 1 day a week developing their area.
In terms of character – you need to love socializing and meeting all types of people. You will understand that being an ideal HT member requires a positive attitude to life and enthusiasm to have fun and make the most of what life brings. Not only will you immediately generate an income, but you will also enjoy free holidays, weekends away and nights out; organising the activities you want to do! You will be supported by the HT website infrastructure, marketing and general support. If you’re interested in this or know of anyone you think might be perfect for this, please email pa@hooleytime.com or call on +44 783 4364174.
Currently...
I run an events members club called http://www.hooleytimesocialevents.com/" rel="nofollow">Hooley Time, organsing events, weekends away and holidays. I recruited members through extended friends' networks, and 2 years later we have nearly 200 members with over 4 events per month, weekends away and holidays.
Some of the HT Events over the next 12 months include a charity adventure challenge, skiing in Verbier, sailing around the Greek Isles, Tuscany chill out holiday, tennis & rounders tournaments, cricket and hockey games, water skiing, ‘call my bluff’ wine tastings, walking, surfing and cycling weekends, safari dinner parties and poker.
Currently I do absolutely everything, apart from getting in freelancers for the technical website and for help with the larger events.
A typical day involves: trawling through all emails for new members & event sign ups, networking & business development, general chat & admin, researching and negotiating with suppliers for new events, book keeping (my worst job!), trying to get glamorous in 5 minutes for the evening event, getting to the event on time, making sure everyone is happy and comfortable and mixing, and trying not to drink too much so that the event runs according to plan!
Before I escaped...
I worked as a Project Manager (and on occasions still do!) and my last client was Towers Watson, where I worked for nearly 3 years. Although I love project management, I’ve always wanted to run my own business and have complete ownership for the work I do and have more flexibility in my life.
I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy the jobs that I’ve done over the last 10 years and feel that I've made the most of opportunities. But with arrival of my 30s came the realization that if I was going to spend long hours working my butt off, then I wanted to do this for myself and doing something that I was passionate about. I also wanted to do more charity work, so thought that if it was my company then it was up to me how I shared any profits.
My moment of truth...
I took some time off work and did a charity walk for the Smile Train across Ireland with Flora the dog for company. Here I had time to think of business concepts and come up with a real and workable business proposition. A friend of mine came out to walk some of the way with me – he was in a similar place and we brainstormed our way across Ireland! I came back with a focused idea of what I needed to do to launch the business.
Planning for it...
I didn’t want to borrow money or receive funding for any share of the business. I had seen this go badly wrong and I didn’t feel that I needed a huge amount of capital to get going - I had deliberately chosen a business with low start up costs.
Fortunately I was able to go down to 4 days a week and then to 3 days with my consultancy PM contract, which meant that I had the time to launch Hooley Time and also to fund the business start up costs with my other income - somewhat softening the blow to start up life!
The worst and best bits...
I found juggling two jobs stressful and the priority was to keep my client happy, as well as launching Hooley Time. Sometimes it was exhausting leaving the office after a stressful week to run a full-on weekend away and make sure that everyone had a great time.
You work out pretty quickly who really supports you in your quest to get a business up and running. The support of your friends and family network is so important when you’re doing it on your own and you need encouragement when you have a black day.
The main positive is that I love running http://www.hooleytimesocialevents.com/" rel="nofollow">Hooley Time and you’re organising events that you want to do with a great group of people and you meet some lovely new people.
Best advice...
The best advice I’ve received is from a HT member who is also a brilliant business coach. He gave me a session over lunch and talked me through the future of Hooley Time and the growth potential of the business if I was brave enough to take the plunge and work on Hooley Time full-time.
His advice was to plan in detail my business development plan. It seems obvious advice but it was something which has really helped me focus my time and which is difficult to do when your business is already running and you can get very distracted by the day-to-day running of the business.
Working from home can also be terribly distracting at times but if you are focused and committed it also provides massive flexibility. I am now the proud owner of a 6 month old Labrador who, although has severely impacted my productivity, is a brilliant addition to the team!
Useful resources and information...
I have been lucky enough to have incredibly supportive friends and 2 great coaches:
- David Bennett: david.bennett@cognitis.ltd.uk
- Graham Eisner: grahameisner@gmail.com