My name is Ann Marie Lovejoy Bruce Kerr and I own the Lovejoy Centre which is an organisation that flourishes in providing recreational activities for the elderly. I am a freelancer and it is an area that more and more people are getting involved with. In my humble opinion there can never be enough of us in the care sector to meet the demand that will continue to grow with us all living longer.
I will share in brief my story- I started out in the care sector 11 years ago as a support worker whilst I did my degree and once I got my degree I was able to go into a managerial role which I did for a number of years managing various homes from PMLD (Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities) to Elderly and EMI (Elderly Mentally Infirm) homes. I found that I enjoyed working with the elderly more, so after managing my last home, which was a dementia home, I discovered the importance of activities and then had my light bulb moment and decided this is what I wanted to do. I was so impassioned by the response of reminiscence therapy with my residents and how it so positively impacted their lives I decided there was niche I could fulfil and so Lovejoy Centre started and that was 7 years ago now.
Here are my top tips if you wish to freelance -
Use common Sense and Plan
- Don't just jack your job in, make sure you sit down and plan a plan to formulate how you can build your business and still make sure you have enough income coming in as you build your business.
I got my first few bookings, and did three nights week and weekend care work for the first 18 months whilst I built up my business until I had established enough income to sustain me.
You need to make sure you do this, maybe just start up working weekend's first and other days you are off and then as it grows you change accordingly to your work schedule to suit you.
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