Getting back on top

Getting back on top


Liam Horan

It’s two months since last we heard from The Woman* Who Intends To Stay in the Game.
And, you’ll be glad to hear, she’s still in the game.
Though she doesn’t use football analogies, it does feel like the breeze changed at half-time, and the ref is not exactly to her liking either, and there was a line-ball there, and a penalty decision…but, and this is the important thing, she’s still in the game.
She says the best thing she’s done is to level with people. “I owed a few people money, and I was running beyond the 30 days, but I faced up to it – I told them straight that I would be a few weeks late, and they were fine,” she explains.
“In fact, they appreciated my honesty. One of them said they had it up to here with people promising cheques the very next day, only for nothing to happen.”
Consequently, she doesn’t feel like she’s ducking and diving all the time.
She has cut to the bone, of course. That’s been the hardest part, particularly having to let people go or disappoint companies who provided her with a quality service.
Two months ago, she thought she had made all the cuts she could, but it wasn’t enough, and still she found more places to cut.
Has it meant she’s working harder?
“Funnily enough,” she says, “not really. I began to realise all the non-essential jobs I was doing. I was over-administering. Micro-managing.
“Now I have a very firm grasp of what’s important, and I stick to that
“I know I have only so many hours in the week to devote to my business. If I waste one, it affects the bottom line.
“I actually think I will have a better lifestyle, in terms of time off and less stress, before too long.”
This weather, she’s getting a bit of a buzz out of watching the overdraft come down, albeit slowly. There is no room for complacency, of course: a few cheques running late can cause cash flow chaos at any time.
But she’s fairly sure now she’ll stay in the game. She hasn’t had a proper weekend away in almost a year, but she has told herself she’ll find the money – and the time – to get to London or Paris for three days in September or October.
“That’ll be a sign that I am getting on top of this thing,” she says, “but I’ll still have to keep an eye on the shillings when I’m there.”