I’ve been busy over the past year or so learning more about how to do business and take action on ideas that I have.  This has mostly been through The Software Testing Club, but hopefully, overtime it will be for other things too.

Following are some tools and books I’ve looked into and use to help my thought processes and development ideas.  It’s not meant to be a comprehensive list, merely a good place to start.

Business Model Generation, the book and related tools.

• The Business Model Canvas Blueprint is at the heart of creating a business outline/plan.  A few tools have cropped up in the past year.  Though my favourite one is the Business Model ToolBox for the iPad – ideal for sitting on the train and trying to plan and think ideas through, though I found it very difficult to convince myself to pay for this app
• LeanLaunchLab
• Lean Canvas

Related books to read:

• Business Model Generation
• Eric Ries – LeanStartup
• The Founder’s Dilemmas

I find the whole movement of mum/mom/mother bloggers intriguing.

RWW says that The Best Mother’s Day Gift Is A Six-Figure Blogging Income – and I suspect this is true to some extent. But it would be true for Father’s day too.

I guess many people love the idea of making money from blogging. The reality of this happening is few and far between. And the ones that claim to make money often feel somewhat sleazy – in it to make a quick buck with affiliates, advertorials and advertising.

Of course, I’m generalising here. And I’m not here to offend anyone.

What I would love to see more is the concept of making money from blogging as something of the past. Sure blogging can be a part of it, but I can’t help but think that if people/mums saw themselves as setting up as (micro)businesses then perhaps they would benefit in many more ways – the simple fact that they are ‘in business’ will put people in a different mindset. A mindset to learn. To grow. As an individual and as a business.

The web can be a fantastic place for mums to make a living. Blogging isn’t the only way. And relying on brands to make a pittance, I suspect, is not where most people want to be.

It’s Sunday night (or Monday very early, jetlag!) and I’ve been back from my Workliday a couple of days now.

How did it go?

Mostly good as I didn’t do too much work at all.

Was travelling with the (3) kids exhausting?

Yes. I’m now trying to figure out how to get that relaxing holiday that my husband and I need!  The hardest part was my youngest, 11 months, who was and seems to have grown even more attached to me.  It felt like he was constantly glued to me, probably because he was!

Was I in a different mind set?

Yes. I didn’t think too much about the day to day stuff that needed doing.  I was managing a couple of small testing projects. Ensuring new subscriptions of The Testing Planet were going smoothly. And attending to some @testingclub marketing type activities that we do.  It was all mostly managed via email which was handy and we had constant access via my iPad, so that worked out ok.  The positive thing for me was the ability to think about things a bit more deeply.  It’s a bit of a time of reflection as it is just a short time after our first training event and conference/TestBash via Ministry of Testing.  It’s important to reflect on these things, take a step back and see where we can go next.

I didn’t really have much time to read.  But I did do some writing.  A few blog posts here and some more personal/internal stuff.  Good stuff.

The holiday itself was great, mostly about catching up and meeting family members – it’s all too easy to let the years roll by without seeing important family members.

Did I only work when nothing else was planned?

95% of the time.  There were a couple of occassions where I was responding to important emails whilst I was out and about on excursions, but mostly it was all done in the evenings, spending around 30 minutes catching up on emails or whilst my husband was driving

It was definitely more of a holiday than a work time.  We travelled over 4,500 miles just within the US in a period of just under 4 weeks.  It was a pretty busy time, always something to do or be attending to.  It’s really nice to be back, it still feels a bit weird, but I love being back ‘at work’.  The work I do for @testingclub really motivates me and lifts me up.  Looking after kids full time has always been a challenge for me…I’m constantly trying to find the right balance between work and family life.

Inbox Chaos

One thing became more obvious, my email inbox gets a load of cr*p.  Not checking emails as frequently and being in a different timezone made this even more apparent.  I really need to filter, sort and unsubscribe to lots of stuff!

It’s something I would like to do more of and should get easier as my youngest one grows up a bit!

Those around me know how much I wanted the TestBash to go smoothly.

And it happened, and I’m so chuffed to bits.

Awesome is a good word to use.

A good size gathering, about 65 of us. Not too big, not too small.

I met people! Like Phil Kirkham who has been helping out with STC for over 4 years and he doesn’t live too far away! We met, we met and we have the photos to prove it! And David Evans. And Alan Richardson. And Steve Green. And Markus Gaertner. And Huib Schoots. And many others.

And the talks and discussions were great too.

See photos here!

All great stuff, and a proper and more formal blog post coming soon on STC, but thought it was important to get something informal up.

And the reason it took me so long?  I’m a bit busy taking some holidays with the family in the US.  Or a workiday as I call it.

It’s been a bit manic!

Thanks all!

My work and home life very much overlaps. I do what I need to do to get things done.

Sometimes this means working late. Sometimes it means having a lie in. Sometimes stress is included too – “like argghh, I’m supposed to be looking after the kids, but all this stuff is happening around me!”

When my kids are on school holidays I usually take time off with them, but I usually end up working part of it, mostly the evenings.  So in some sense I’ve been doing worklidays for quite a while.

But now is my first chance at a proper workliday in America, a holiday mixed with a bit of work.  Some make thing I’m crazy to do this, but there are advantages.

• Travelling with kids is exhausting – we’ve opted to take a longer holiday to get over the long travel hours.  This is particularly tiring with Codie, long flights or car rides are hardest on him.  Lots to accomodate.
• We feel we can stay away that bit longer – instead of going for a couple of weeks, we’ll be away for a month.  Most people can’t afford to do that.
• I’m in a different mindset – I’ll be aiming to do more writing over these weeks, rather than day to day tasks that often consume me entirely.
• It’s empowering – I love the fact that I can work from anywhere.  I hope this will continue.
• I will only work when nothing else is planned, when there is downtime and I am not sure what to do with myself! Like right now. My boys are out exploring in the woods.  They just found a small snake, have caught it and are now trying to find food for it.  And unfortunately Codie has been unwell and my husband has taken him to get checked over, just to be on the safe side of things.  All seems ok.

And me? I’m catching up on a few emails. Writing this blog post. And feeling very happy about how our TestBash went on Friday.  More on that soon!

I recently started a private blog, writing about things involved with running Software Testing Club and working towards my personal aims of running a flexible and sustainable business.  The highs, the lows, nitty gritty details that I normally wouldn’t write about online.  Perhaps an odd bit of Rosie humour in there too!

It’s not something I will publish immediately, but hopefully within the next year or two there will be enough information there to make it somewhat interesting.

Keep me motivated by registering your interest over on LeanPub - http://leanpub.com/rosiesherry

For Software Testing Club stuff I use MailChimp.  And the Chimp is so lovely, almost makes my heart melt.  I wish I had one of my own!

But seriously, in a non-serious kind of way it’s like I have been building up this relationship with a non existing chimp.  Everytime I login into MailChimp (sometimes daily), I get a greeting like one of these:

I mean, how could you not develop a bond with something like this?  I am always interested in what Mr MailChimp has to say, even when it is a really pointless and funny link to a YouTube video.

All of this messaging continues throughout their brand.  For example, when I send an email campaign they tell me how awesome I am and give me a ‘high five’. Or when new people sign up to our mailing list they say ‘Nice’.

Every time I use their software I end up smiling at one point or another.

I raised my first support question to them the other day (I had a problem with getting a form to appear on my website which is run on WordPress), and it’s probably not surprising because I am writing this blog post, but their response made me smile as well.

Here it is:

Their language made me happy. Their simple response made me happy. And of course a direct simple solution was there too.

But most of all, and I don’t know why it pleased me so much, but their customer support matches their online branding/ethos/thing-a-ma-jig.

I think this is cool.

Nope, this is not a new years resolution.  Just my ideas at this stage which are likely to adapt and evolve.

Blog more on Rosie Land

I’ve been a bit slack here for the past couple of years.  Part of it has been personal reasons. Other parts has been the ‘confusion in my head’ of who I am, what I do and therefore what should I write about.

I’ll probably blog on topics and challenges that I will be facing in the year to come – (lean) startups, business growth, community building and the social web.

Perhaps even software testing stuff too (!), but even this I’ve started to shift over to The Testing Planet website.  I am interested in lean startups and testing.  So hopefully will have some juicyness for that this coming year.

Software Testing Club

Blog more regularly on @testingclub blog – with a plan to update frequently and openly on progress we are making.  I’d really like to become more transparent and open with things we are doing.

I am also increasingly having more intimate conversations with people within @testingclub.  I plan to reach out more.  I have started this and am loving the feedback I am getting.  It is really helping develop our thoughts for moving Software Testing Club, Testing Planet and Minsitry of Testing forward.  Lots of this is via one to one email or a private Google Group we have set up.  If you are interested then drop me an email.

Twitter is cool, but…

I’ve had issues with Twitter for a while.  I find it too hard to keep up with all the good stuff and then even harder searching for stuff.  I will still be there, trying to keep up, but just feel like I can’t give it justice, haven’t done so really for the past year and a half.

I mentioned this in my last post.  This year my focus will be on blogging and on Google+.  Add me to your circle(s)!

Mama Sherry

In case you are interested in my personal life, you can follow me on Mama Sherry. Having a new addition to the family has really given me the incentive to start something more personal to help me remember and to help pass on to the kids.  I keep kidding myself that I’ll remember all these things that happen in life, but the reality is I don’t.

I’ve also started using Path for those things that I just can’t share online!

We use DropBox for producing The Testing Planet. Being a virtual team it is very handy!

One thing about working virtually is that it can be quite hard to know if someone has started on something or what stage they are on a certain project. With The Testing Planet it is a case of managing, editing and creating lots of images and files – very well suited for DropBox.

The handy thing is I get automatic updates of things that are happening. If a new file has been added, edited or removed. It’s quite handy because I can then know:

• who else is involved in the reviewing, editing and designing of The Testing Planet
• if articles are being submitted (or not!)
• articles are being edited
• when new images have been created
• the progress of the publication as a whole

And all of this without actually sending emails or chatting with anyone. I can just see it all happening.

Thomas Harvey called it Drop Box Stalking. I like that term

• The Software Testing Club didn’t just grow on it’s own.
• The Software Testing Club Meetups don’t just happen.
• The Testing Planet isn’t a 5 minute job.
• The Brighton Girl Geek Dinners I once organised, didn’t just happen on their own.
• People don’t flock to coworking spaces just because they exist.
• Events don’t just happen.
• Blogs don’t just become popular overnight.
• Successful business are not founded on just good ideas.
• You don’t become good at what you do in a day.

All of these take time. Consistent hard work. Sometimes talent.  Sometimes innovation.  But most definitely a commitment to make something happen.  It’s all too easy to just give up.  To do that ‘important job’ another day.

You will find this across many things in life. A business. A career. A hobby….And it doesn’t mean you won’t fail, your chances are just that bit higher!