Finally I have a website I can be proud of.

I plead guilty.

But to what? Having had a rubbish website 🙁

Oh the shame of it. The embarrassment when I handed someone my business card and knew they’d probably go and look at it.

Sometimes I’d tell them not to. But, of course, like telling someone not to think of the elephant, that would only make them want to do so.

Then the shame of knowing they’d seen it.

The whole situation was made worse by the fact it’s been like that for so long. Since I started my company in 2012, in fact.

My plan was to replace it once I ‘had time’ and more examples of client work to put on it. But it never happened.

Why? The answer is simple – I’m guilty on a second count: putting my clients first. Always.

So every time I’ve had a choice between getting work done for them and working on my own marketing, I’ve always put them first. Yes, I’m a repeat offender.

Sometimes I would resolve to make time to work ‘on my business’ instead of in it. But when it came to the hard choice between spending time on a client or myself, the client always won.

Truth be told, I know they always will. That’s just the way I am – duty first.

But there’s hope.

Late last year, after a Spring and Summer crammed with client deadlines chased and met, an opportunity to finally seek help with resolving my website shame appeared. And I grabbed it with both hands as if it was a Royal Pardon.

Since then, in between meeting more client deadlines – they have and always will come first, I’ve been working with Ben Laing of Online Marketing Consultant on my first professional website to showcase what I can achieve for clients.

And the good news is it’s finally live here. At last I need not be ashamed any longer.

It’s not big or fancy, but it finally lets everyone see what I can do.

THE TAKEAWAY – Isn’t it funny how you’re sometimes the last person to take your own advice? Or just keep ignoring what you know you should do.

It was on Part 1 of UPN Leadership Development Programme I started in 1993 as a young first-time line manager that I learned one of those classic management truisms, in this case about time management.

Time for important jobs does not present itself to you – you have to make time for them.

The excuse of the poor time manager is “I don’t have time.” What they don’t do is prioritise the most important things first and plan time for them.

I learned that then and implemented it in my subsequent jobs in journalism. But when it came to doing it for my own company I fell down because I didn’t ensure I made time for it after dealing first with client deadlines.

Of course, now I’ve identified the problem and dealt with it I feel a lot better. No more guilt or shame. Finally something I can be proud of which reflects me and my company better.

If you have a similar guilty secret you know you need to address, the key to doing so is facing up to it and setting aside time to deal with it when you know you won’t be interrupted by the things which normally stop you addressing it. And sticking to it.