What I Love About My Business!

Today's business owner sharing what she loves about her business is our own journalist Fiona Scott who runs Scott Media. Fiona and her freelance team help ambitious owners raise their profile through the intelligent use of stories in the media, through blogging, social media, animation and videography.

What do you love about running your own business?

It never feels like work - I do something I love and people pay me to do that. 

I can run my own diary more or less - I can flex around my family and if someone needs to talk to me out of hours, I can do that easily.

People - my life is filled with interesting, fascinating and inspirational people. As an inherently nosey journalist this is central to every day. 

What do you love about your business community? 

The wonderful people who run their own businesses - or are directors of bigger companies - in Swindon and Wiltshire and across the South West. The variety of talent in our region staggers me and thrills me. I'm very proud to have a very small role to play in letting people know about that talent. 

What do you love socially/geographically about your community? 

I've always loved Swindon. It has every facility you could need if you had a family or are planning to have a family. You can walk to lovely places and green spaces at the drop of a hat. It's not a big faceless city and the town itself is so diverse. Although I've lived and worked here since 1991, I still find out something new every week. 

While we are locked down name any business you have ‘loved’ and bought from in your community over the last few months? 

We have some favourites when we can visit - or through delivery during lockdown - Sunday Lunches from The Runner on Wootton Bassett Road; wonderful ice cream combos from Rays Ice Cream and when we can, I adore, wandering around the McArthur Glen Designer Outlet Village.

February 17 is Random Acts of Kindness Day – have you carried out any  random acts of kindness (business or otherwise) over the last few months? 

I hope so! Generally it will be around getting a story out there for a charitable cause - such as Swindon Night Shelter and associated charities. I also supported a family one to one by supplying their children's Christmas gifts otherwise, due to Covid19 hardship, they would have had to cancel Christmas. 

Has anyone shown kindness to you? 

Oh yes, many times. From telephone calls to see if I was okay, to the massive candle which arrived in the post only this week to say thank you to me for some support last year, to the person who just put some money into my business bank account to say thank you for a small job I did for them during lockdown 2.  

In the yearly cycle of your business – what do you expect during February?

During February when I started in business it was always quiet - however now it's busy. This is because I try to plan with every client what the next story will be so we have our goals already scheduled in. It's quite literally business as usual. 

What would your advice be to a business owner who is feeling ‘flat’ in February? 

Do things which bring you joy. Break up your days doing that and set yourself daily to do lists which are not too long. Four or five tasks maximum with breaks in between. Focus on tasks not time at your desk. With so much working from home currently it's far more productive. 

And finally:

The world of business is changing forever - and some change that was happening slowly has accelerated. In business, you have to move with the times. As I was once advised by a former editor of the Swindon Adver - don't stick your head in the sand and hope it will all be okay. Be part of the change and flex to move forward positively. 

Find out more by visiting https://scottmedia.uk