Entrepreneur Olivia Lockey is owner of Northumberland's luxury wedding venue and glamping site, Northside Farm in Horsley.
Successfully running a family-run business and juggling being a mother of three girls, she believes that if you don’t love what you do, work hard at changing it until you do. Whether it is changing your job or changing your mind-set about the job you do, it’s important to love it and be happy to do it otherwise what is the point? We spend around one third of our lives at work which is a scary thought so why waste that time doing something you hate? I’m not sure about you but I find it so easy to spot someone who hates what they are doing or loves what they are doing – you can see it on a person’s face, in their actions, attitude and body language.
Have you ever been in a restaurant where you feel like the waiter doesn’t want to be there, you feel slightly on edge as you daren’t ask for mustard as you don’t want to be an inconvenience you can feel the atmosphere a mile off, the body language, the sighs and the way they plonk the dish on the table, they are counting down the seconds until they can leave. This person is really not loving what they are doing and is certainly not happy, the impression you get as a paying customer is that you are not welcome, it is not a pleasant place to be and chances are, you won’t go back.
However, if you had walked into that same restaurant and were greeted with a smile and shown to your table, you feel nothing is a problem. You feel valued as a customer and you more than likely will leave a tip, which in turn will make the waiter who seems to really enjoy their job feel appreciated. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Being realistic you are never really going to love every element of your business and all the things that need to be done. I for one dread the VAT return and I don’t half moan about it! To be fair, who gets excited about dealing with HMRC? For me, it is not about loving every aspect of your business it’s about loving what you do and that it makes you happy because this will reflect in how you do your job to your clients.
I am very grateful for the staff that I have because they love their job too. We get to share our good days and not so good days and if we get a difficult customer then we deal with it professionally and laugh it off afterwards – we never let this trickle down to affect our clients. Not being a ‘morning person’, by the time I have taken the kids to school and done some day to day chores, I get into the office, make myself a cup of tea and look around and honestly feel proud of what we have achieved and lucky that I get to come to work and do a job that I created and honestly love to do, and that for me makes me very happy.