Barbara's word perfect Content Writing

LIVING in a small town in the west of Ireland has its benefits and challenges. The lifestyle is leisurely, it is a great place to bring up a family and the cost of living is lower than in urban centres. Finding a job that is not seasonal, pays well, fits in with family life and is something that you love doing can often be one of the main challenges.

As a response to this challenge of finding suitable employment in a remote area, one Louisburgh resident decided to set up her own business in August 2017.

Barbara Daly offers copywriting, editing and proofreading services to businesses and individuals both in Ireland and the UK.

She started her business (bd Content Writing) just six months after the arrival of her first child. Her motivation was to find a way to work from home with flexible hours allowing her to also look after her son Callum.

Working from an office in her own home she says that she can be found at her laptop at 6 a.m. or 10 p.m. depending on the requirements of the business and of Callum!

Starting a new business in the same year as having a child probably sounds like bad timing but Barbara now believes it was perfect timing.

With a background in marketing, specialising in content writing, Barbara increasingly felt that her skills and experience were leading her in one direction. She believed that the upturn in the economy meant that more businesses were likely to spend money on content services and that their value in an increasingly online world would be more widely recognised.

Having spent over 10 years writing content and editing and proofreading other people’s content, both as part of her work and as a favour to friends and colleagues, she felt it was time to make it her own.

A push was needed to take the first step and cross the line from being securely employed to being self-employed. Like for many others, the life-changing event of having a baby meant that priorities changed and another way of living and working had to be found. As an older mother who wanted to mind her son and with no family support nearby Barbara realised that returning to full-time employment outside the home was going to prove very difficult.

Over the years she had been taking steps to improve her skills and education, not necessarily knowing where they might lead but believing that eventually they might prove valuable and open a door for her. She completed a proofreading course with the Publishing Training Institute, a diploma in digital marketing with Irish Times Training and achieved a first-class honours degree in literature and history through Oscail, DCU’s distance learning programme. She got a sense that everything was beginning to come together and once the baby-shaped motivation arrived, the decision to launch her own business seemed like the only one to take.

Initially Barbara found it difficult to tell people that she was now self-employed and what it was she was doing. It was as though saying it out loud made it real but also sounded false at the same time. There was a feeling akin to embarrassment and ‘talking yourself up’ that she found hard to overcome. There was also the pressure to succeed once she told others what she was doing.

This turned out to be a positive force, preventing any U-turns in the early days. Ten months on and she is finding that all of this is getting easier as her self-belief is strengthened by increased clients and the sense of reward she gets from her work.

There are challenges, particularly in time management and being ‘always on’, as there would be for anyone who is self-employed, but she finds that the motivation that comes from knowing that every minute spent working is for your own benefit is enormous. Best of all is the quality of life she feels she has achieved. Having work that she enjoys and finds rewarding while still being able to spend time with her son and live in a beautiful place feels like the best of all worlds!

Barbara can be contacted for further information on how her services can benefit your business or for a quote at bdcontentwriting@gmail.com or on (087) 6525530. See www.bdcontentwriting.com.