My Alarm Goes off… First alarm is 5am which is a combination of my two and five year olds (!), and then my actual alarm to get moving and start the day goes off at 6:30am.

I’m Responsible For… The running of two, private children’s day Nurseries based within Cambridgeshire, with 50 employees and 120 children registered.

I Got The Job… Through my family! My mother founded the first Nursery 28 years ago: I came into the business 13 years ago and took over the whole business at the start of Covid. Prior to joining the family business, I had completed an undergraduate degree in French and Spanish at the University of Leeds (2007), and then my post-graduate certificate with the Mountbatten Institute in New York (2009). After moving home from working for a FTSE100 company in London between 2009 and 2011, at the same time as running the Nurseries, I then in 2016 completed a three-year-long masters in Human Resources and CIPD Level 7 with Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge.

My Typical Day… 8am – 9am: I walk around the building to say hello to everyone, check any urgent emails that have come in overnight, and organise staffing for the day as in a Nursery we have to legally work to a child:staff ratio that can be affected by staff sickness. This is also where I will check in with team members of both sites individually, to see how they are and make sure there is nothing that I can support with in making them the best in their roles that they can possibly be. The strength of our business – and industry as a whole – is based within the care that our team members provide the children and families hands on, and we as an organisation invest heavily and genuinely in the health and well-being of every single person on payroll.

9am – 6pm: Every day is different! Mornings are generally for catching up on any specific events that have happened, tours around the building for prospective parents, meetings to discuss children’s individual developmental needs (we have a particularly high caseload of under fives with various special educational needs at the moment), buying resources, and any other general, light admin that might be needed. Afternoons are normally when I find it easiest to jump into deeper work, and being self-employed, this could include any manner of things that the business requires; from updating our websites, ensuring the statutory training of team members is up to date, and planning/carrying out supervisions/appraisals for employees of all levels, to meeting with our Nursery accountant, setting budgets, liaising with local authority early years teams and annual planning from an operational point of view. I can’t emphasise enough however how every day is different and how fluid I’m needed to be in my role: last week for example, not only in that one week did I have all of the tasks listed above in my diary, but I also found myself repairing a feather board fence with electric drill, going into the lofts to search for paper hot air balloons, and reaching out to our local MP to contest an inappropriate school placement for a five year old with extremely high level Autistic Spectrum Disorder needs. I’ve never had such a varied role, but I genuinely love it!

The Culture Of My Workplace… Supportive, progressive, accepting, focussed. Wholly family-orientated – for clients and employees alike.

My Most Memorable Work Moment… There are SO many! Falling asleep under the desk in a dog bed during the first week of lockdown in amidst being the key decision maker for the business, trying to take on board all issued guidance as it was issued, and work out how to implement it in the Nurseries will always come to mind, however (!).

My Role Models are… 1. Michelle Obama for being an educated, bold bastion of strength, class and femininity. 2. Codie Sanchez for being hands-on, keeping her chats real, and giving serious kudos and recognition to normal, everyday businesses which are the backbone of any country. ‘A community cannot survive on Amazon alone’.

The Most Challenging Part of My Job… Feeling as though you’ve never done enough, that there is always more on your list which should have been done that day and which wasn’t, and balancing all of this with being a working Mum of two children under the age of six (both of whom are allergic to sleep).

The Best Part of My Job… Being able to bring me and what’s important to me to a working environment. I am SO incredibly proud to be able to provide an integral community service to 120 local families, and to provide a challenging, warm, respectful and secure working environment to 50 different team members who rely on their jobs with us for monthly income.

After Work… I spend time with my two boys and husband, stay active and keep my body moving as much as I can, and continue with a never-ending house renovation.

Plan B:  If I wasn’t doing this, I would… Not be the woman I am today. I have easily had 95% of my life’s most challenging lessons while acclimatising to being self-employed over the past 13 years, but without these, I would not be proud to have grown into who I am and what I passionately stand for now.