Networking Now

This is a normal week day:

06:00 Daughter comes into the room at around and climbs into bed.

06:20 Alarm on the BB goes off

06:30 Out of bed. Wife and daughter (3yr) trudge downstairs for breakfast, waking my son (6yr) up on the way. I spend the next 30 minutes getting ready for work (5 minutes getting ready, 25 minutes walking between rooms trying to find where the kids have put everything and reading emails on the BB.

07:00 sit at table, open business laptop and read emails, look at ‘new posts’ on forums, check the weather for the day AND now open Twitter to see what I missed from the night before. All this whilst talking to the kids about the day ahead, what they are doing at school/kindergarten, looking at the latest puzzle being worked on or watching a bit of Ben 10 of Tom & Jerry on the TV.

07:30 walk my son to the end of the road to meet all the other kids going off to school.

07:45 Bus, Bus, Train to work (“the day job”), whilst listening to the iPod and reading (just finished “Managing Online Forums by Patrick O’Keefe” – interesting book).

08:45 Do the “day job”, read through emails, talk to my team & work on some projects etc.

10:00 Time for a break, grab a drink open up the web and take a look around the forums, maybe do something on my own site, make some calls and do some of my own business work.

10:30 – 17:00 “the day job” and “my business” mixed – I work on two monitors and whilst waiting for emails or calls or reports to be completed I can work on my own projects. My job is completely results driven and as long as the results are being achieved (thankfully the team I have are the most successful in the companies history and have achieved the collection & bad debt goals for the past 8 quarters) I can manage my time as I see fit.

18:15 arrive home, sit down and eat some dinner. Wife and kids have already eaten, but the kids will always come over and sit with me so the wife can have a quick break, it does mean that they end up eating half my dinner though!

19:00 Put kids to bed, sit on the sofa with the good lady wife, she is at one end (usually falling asleep) and I am at the other with her feet and my laptop on my lap. Go through my mails, plan anything needed to be done for the next day, go to the forums and have a read through and generally network where I can. Depending on issues occurring at work this time can include conference calls with the US, which I normally take from the kitchen so I can snack whilst listening. :)

23:00-00:00 Bed, depending on what is on TV or what I reading on the web. Usually have to wake the wife up so she can go to bed!

Life:

Hectic at the current time; the day job can take a lot out of me depending on the situation. Two years ago it meant I was away from my family for 3 months over the year & I managed to cut that down to around 6 weeks this year. I moved to Germany 5 years ago to set up a shared service center for the company’s credit & collections department and have lived here ever since. We are finally moving back to the UK next summer so are currently planning where, when & how. I love my job and have been lucky enough to have been given the time and funds to travel to increase my profile in the industry which in turn has given me the confidence to start my own company earlier than I ever thought I would.

My family is very supportive and my wife is a big part of why I can do what I do as it can be a very stressful and frustrating job and when you take verbal abuse it can hit you hard

No that is a real human side to your industry, it has such a thug image to it, 2-3 stocky men turning up to take your phones and office equipment, nice to see that it isn't like the television portrays it.

I feel I know you a little better too Sean, even if only virtually!

Kip FX Design wrote:No that is a real human side to your industry, it has such a thug image to it, 2-3 stocky men turning up to take your phones and office equipment, nice to see that it isn't like the television portrays it.

Like most things the attention goes to the small % of bad eggs out in the world. Most debt collectors are good people doing a difficult job. They are humans and don't enjoy taking anything out of someones home and really try to make it a last resort. I'm not the biggest guy in the world so have to adjust the way I work to fit that fact. My motto is "kill them with kindness" and I believe there are more people / companies out there that want to pay but cant than dont want to pay. My aim is become a trusted partner with my clients so that I know exactly how their company works so that I can tailor my services towards their services and customers.

When I was new to the industry I had to go on a couple of debt collection calls with a regional debt manager. Now he WAS a big guy, ex-forces and you knew it. On one call we took back a washing machine, I was only 19 at the time so it was tough to see someone not able to pay a monthly fee of about £15. On another call I had to take back a TV from a old lady and I had to carry it 2 miles through the high street back to the shop.. not a good feeling I can tell you.

There is currently a petition on the downing street website and if it gets enough support it will force the government to come out in support of the UK collection industry.