Mud or compost?

Whether u call it "mud" or "compost" we all spend lots of money buying it. 

Before we started our company two years ago we used to spend a fortune buying mud - as I call it. Now we make our own. It's really a lot easier than you think and u don't need loads of space either. 

We started with one compost bins - available on our website and now have two bins to ensure we have mud available all the time.

We have a jar in our kitchen which used to be for biscuits but as we are dieting we put it to better use as a kitchen caddy. We fill it with peelings, uncooked egg shells, vegetable bits and a million teabags.

We also add grass cuttings and shredded paper from our office to the compost bins. It starts to look a bit yuck but that means its working and it does get extremely hot sometimes. Which is a good thing. 

Once ready, we sift out the big bits that haven't quite composted yet and we use the rest as our compost.

All our hanging baskets and pots are filled with our own compost and we have also grown the hanging basket and pot plants from seed this year too! 

Our youngest daughter loves to help sieve the compost and do the planting which is great as she loves eating our home grown carrotts to help her see in the dark!

 

Sifting the remains of the compost bin

Being a juggler of life

I find myself "juggling" every day. I am the same as every other mum who strives to do their best all the time. Many people comment on how well behaved, polite and helpful our children are so I hope that has come from all the effort we put in as their parents. We don't always get it right but we learn by our mistakes.

I have always felt guilty for working full time when my eldest daughter was born. She was woken at 7 am every morning to be in nursery by 8am and usually the last one at nursery at 6pm. She even occasionally went to nursery in her pj's - bad mother - but I felt that I had to work to be able to provide her with everything she needed and to keep myself sane.

As a single mother, at the time, I admit I did overcompensate with always taking her abroad on holiday, endless barbie dolls, something from the shop every week when we were shopping. I always spent all our spare time together painting, drawing, playing or reading. I always ensured she was well loved and looked after. Taking the time to spend "quality" time with her has built memories for her which she remembers us doing things together like going to the park - going on holiday - reading every night.  A good example of her memory is the fact that we used to meet family and friends in the local pub in the summer for lunch and for the children to play in the playground but she does like to tell everyone we went to the pub every day for dinner :-) Which I then have to explain.

Now she is nearly 11 and has grown into a well mannered and intelligent young lady which I hope is a reflection on the parenting she has received.

I am now a business owner alongside my husband everyday is a juggling act. We are constantly talking about work and marketing and business plans. I didn't even know how to write about marketing until I started the business. 

With an almost 5 year old daughter as well it is increasingly difficult to try and grow our business and spend quality time with our children. I believe that having the opportunity to run my own business has stretched me and taught me a lot about myself.  I have recently taken a step back and do not work - as a rule - on a Wednesday.  I spend the whole day with my youngest daughter making cakes, painting, playing with sand and going to the park.  

It is definitely not easy juggling your own business and work and sometimes I think it would be easier to work for someone else but then I think about the times when the girls are ill or I am ill and it doesn't matter as I can catch up with my work when the girls are feeling better. As our business is website based we can still sell while we are sleeping! Plus I don't have to worry about making up my hours or taking extra holidays or unpaid leave. 

I do like everything to be in it's place and a place for everything but have learnt that I have to let this go sometimes and I can't do everything. At the end of the day we all have to juggle and I believe that spending time with our children while they are young will help them to be better adults and once they are at the stage where they don't really want you to take them shopping or sit and play with them is the time to tidy the house. Juggling home life and work is an art form and it is hard to get the balance right but as long as you can see your children are happy and healthy that is all that really matters.

To help me juggle I have started writing everything in my diary, the diary on the wall at home and at work and updating them as and when.  Our whole week is a juggling act with dance classes, meetings and tutor lessons. I am also the secretary on the committee for our local school so am constantly thinking of ideas for fundraising too. Our youngest and I also help with friday cake sales every other week which takes up lots of our time but it has helped her get used to the school she will be starting in September.  

I recently joined a fantastic group of mums at Economummy and it really helps to be able to talk to other mums in business and realise you aren't alone in your juggling journey to provide a better life for yourself and your children. 

I feel very lucky to be able to have the opportunity to work for myself and I have my husband to thank for this. We are able to help people take small steps to living a greener lifestyle with our business and am very proud of our new branding. It's been a long and continues to be a long journey but think we are seeing something happen now. 

 

I wish all mums and dads who have set up their own business and are juggling home, work and family luck with their ventures and don't beat yourself up about not getting everything done. 

Cleaning with eco-friendly products

We have been researching and testing more cleaning products here at the home of Get-Eco. 

We found eco2life whilst on twitter and have recently received our boxes of cleaning products. As with everything that we put on our website we do like to test them ourselves. This gives us a better idea of the product and makes it easier for us to sell them. 

After another hectic week the cooker was looking very grubby. Since receiving our box of goodies I keep a bottle of the multi-surface spray by the sink. 

I sprayed the cooker and left it to soak for a few minutes while I finished sorting the dishes.  

As I try not to use too much water when cleaning this product is ideal. By using a damp cloth to clean the cooker and some kitchen towel I dried the cooker - it is now all clean again. Ready for the week ahead!

The multi-surface cleaning pack comes with the solution in a small bottle and you just pour into the trigger bottle and fill with water. Al the packaging is recyclable and costs just £3.00 plus p+p. I have not bought any other cleaning products for 3 weeks since using this and there is still plenty left in the bottle. The multi-surface refill is ideal at just £2.50 there is no need to continue buying yet another trigger bottle. Great value for money and a great eco-friendly cleaning product.

The whole range including glass, floor, bath & shower cleaners are also available from our website.

If you are local to Stroud then you are welcome to collect in person from our office. Please contact me to arrange this by email gogreen@get-eco.co.uk

We can also take payments over the phone via credit/debit card.

Happy green cleaning!

You learn something every day

We started our journey with the Get-Eco concept about two years ago. In recession hit UK our building consultancy had a tough couple of years but we saw some stability and confidence returning to the market.

We knew from experience there was demand for ethical and eco-friendly products, but how to bring that to everyone was a challenge. We decided on e-commerce since it allowed us to develop product ranges, our systems and learn about the mechanics.

This year has been really enlightening, engaging the services of a PR expert and Design Consultancy. With a new brand and clear identity my Jubilee weekend has been spent writing a new business plan. For anyone in business this is a document that forms your corporate bible, setting out how your business is structured and your aims for the future.

In doing this I've learnt a few statistics about e-commerce. Firstly there are two forms of e-commerce; e-Retail where on line browsers use desktop or laptop computers and m-Retail which is the use of web enable phones, tablets and "iPads".

Secondly, the UK e-commerce market is a buoyant place seeing a growth of 20% year on year for the last 3 years. Consumers spent £5.75bn on line in the last 12 months, that's about £90 per person.

Thirdly, m-retail has grown by 350% in the last twelve months spurred on by the popularity of iphones and ipads.

These simple statistics are really encouraging, not only because our business uses e-commerce but also because of the success story technology has brought to the UK economy.