Virtual Marketeers

(My Journey Part 1)

The purpose of the next few articles will be to provide you a picture of how I came to become a home based business entrepreneur and what it is like to own and run my own business from home, “The day in the life of Rachel Reeves” so to speak.

At the moment my business isn’t run fully from home, but that’s okay, because I am loving the interaction that comes with this.  I currently work for three very unique clients and am enjoying the variety of work that comes with this.  The amount of time I work is okay, but there are some tough times when either myself or my boys become ill, or even when I have something extra on in a week.

The Start of My Career Journey

There are a few things that have shaped my life and my career so far.  I started out as a trainee at a small town primary school.  Actually it was with one of the primary schools I had attended, which was in a small country town.  At first I had heaps of trouble remembering to call my supervisor by her first name instead of Mrs S, which is what we all called her when in primary school.  I loved working there and found that I learned so much, because being that it was such a small school I was provided the opportunity to do a bit of everything.  One day I worked in the library, the next day I would be in the office checking off receipts, the next day I would be helping to organise the school concert and then the day after that I would be setting up computers or assisting some students with a software program.

I really loved the interactions I had with both the staff and students, the learning process that I went through and the variety.  I wasn’t paid very well, which you expect when you are a trainee, but I was living at home still with not really any responsibilities and so it didn’t really matter, I adapted.   I absolutely really wouldn’t trade these first ‘working life’ experiences with anything else – it was an awesome way to be able to learn.

While I was completing the traineeship I went for a number of state government jobs, and in the same week I ended up receiving the phone call for two separate job offers, the catch – both of them were about one hour away from where I lived, but I had expected to move to the city to find a job so that was okay.  The position one I took involved batching up invoices, support to the personal assistant to the director, plus various other admin and finance support tasks.  My direct supervisor, and all my other colleagues for that matter, were wonderful and supported me in this huge learning process.

I was 17 at the time with plenty to learn – a new job, a new home, no parents close by, and not really many of my family or friends were close by either.  The only people I had close by  to me were my Grandma, an Aunty and a sister; but that was okay, I was really happy and I settled quickly.  After I landed myself this job, but before I started I found out that my parents would be moving up to Queensland at the end of that year and I was given the option to move up there with them.  I decided to stay in Adelaide and although I love my parents, was really glad that I did stay and learn the things that I did, both work and personal – including meeting the people that I did along the way (especially my husband Paul!).

So anyway, I blended well into this job and didn’t get bored for a long time because my normal job description provided plenty of variety and I was given lots of opportunities to ‘act’ in other positions along the way, and to perform higher/additional duties when they needed for me to.  I learned how to be a supervisor and sign off on invoice batches, and how to analyse financial information and prepare journals and those higher level type tasks, all thanks to my supervisor who mentored me as I moved through this process.

I was in this position when the GST was bought in, I was sent to numerous training sessions and had the rules of GST drummed into me from day dot.  I was also in this position when the government underwent a major restructure and a new department was formed.  Our division moved over to the new department, and our area became part of ‘Corporate Services’, instead of being a divisional support unit.  As part of the restructure I was given the opportunity to draft forms and some policies for use by this new department.  I thought this to be a great honor and really enjoyed assisting with this.

While I was working in this position, I met my (now) husband, Paul at social badminton close by where I lived – actually he hit me in the head with a shuttlecock on the day that we met… I was love struck *bad joke*!  I had only just moved to Adelaide and started in the position, I was 17 at the time.  I felt that I should add the bit about where Paul and I met to the mix because it is a really important part of my life and it relates back to how I came to own my own home based business eventually…

As time went on I realised that I could go no further in my current position and there were some other things that happened also that made me decide to move on to a new position.  I found out that there was a position available within government as an admin support person in one of the Minister’s (MP’s) Offices.  I went for an interview and was offered the position.  While I was in this position I was given the opportunity to go between three different roles, income correspondence, outgoing correspondence and reception and so I was provided a good understanding of how a Ministers Office works through the administrative processes.

At times things were quiet so I would ask around the office to find out whether there was anything that I could help with and amongst other things I was given the opportunity to prepare some basic correspondence to be signed off by the Minister.  When the liaison officer checked my work he was impressed by the quality of it.

On a personal note – during the time that I was at the Minister’s Office, three years after we met, when I was 20 Paul and I married and went on our honeymoon.  And from even before Paul and I were married I had spoken with him about how much I would love to set up and own my own business.

Next came  a fairly big shakeup in my life and in my career…

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