Just Another Day in the Office...

7.30 am: I was up and dressed early today as the kitchen still isn't finished and I really don't want the builders to catch me in my dressing gown. Pointing out wonky skirting in the fluffy pink slippers the children bought me last Christmas just isn't conducive to being taken seriously.

8.00 am: Having set them to work, I round the children up and take them to school. Breakfast Club is a life-saver; I get an extra hour's work in the office and the children get to choose pancakes with jam most mornings. Carbs with sugar on top...not exactly a healthy trade-off but Mother's Guilt is played off against the thought that they're learning chess at Breakfast Club. That's good for brain development, right?

8.15 am: Back home to chivvy the builders. I'm hopeless at being authoritative and they know it but they at least afford me the courtesy of pretending they're impressed by my blustering. I make my way across the farm to our new offices, making a mental note to clear away the boxes that are yet to be unpacked from last month's show at Earls Court. It's not for want of trying. I'm just good at finding things to do that don't involve finding homes for the two hundred miscellaneous items I insist on taking to each show and never use. It'll be fine - the next show isn't until February...

My PA, Sonya, is away today, which means it's going to be mad in the office. It's probably not the best day for our marketing guru, Vicki, to be asking me to write this blog but at least it'll get me out of making the tea...

10.00 am: Time to tackle the inbox. In stark comparison to my kitchen my email folders are ruthlessly organised. Then I take a call from our IT guy - he's adding our new gift sets and funky animal hoppers to our web site. Despite telling him countless times that I operate on a need-to-know basis, he gives me a blow-by-blow account of the latest techno-gizmo he's going to use to make the additions. When I put the phone down my head hurts and I need to lie down. Is it too early for chocolate?

10.45 am: The school calls. Florence is unwell and I need to bring her home. Nothing serious, a case of "Iwannabewithmummyitis". This is what working for yourself is all about - I can be there when the kids need me. I tuck Florence into bed with hot chocolate and her favourite book, then dash back to the office.

11.15 am: I've a meeting with the designer of our new packaging - it's really cool and I can't wait to get it into production! I notice new emails have foolishly strayed into my inbox - they get the same merciless attention as the last ones as I file them or forward them. I'm really not an obsessive person...it's only emails.

12.40 pm: I stop for a chat with the girls over lunch. We wonder if it's too early to put up Christmas decorations in the office... I really think it is. Am I a Scroogey humbug? Is it only me that objects to Christmas puddings in Morrisons in September?

1.30 pm: Bad news: Kerrie from credit control brings me up to date on a bad debt - unfortunately another independent shop has gone into voluntary liquidation and we're going to have to write the debt off. I cheer myself up with some design work - Fabric Number 4 for our 2012/13 range needs finishing and it's just the sort of work that takes my mind off bad news.

2.25 pm: Another phone call: Billy's football practice has changed times! This throws all my carefully laid after-school plans into total frenzy! It also reminds me that I haven't yet cleaned off his football boots from last week. I run back to the house, one ear glued to the mobile making hurried rearrangements whilst I forcefully shove two muddy objects that could be football boots under a tap.

3.00pm: The Euro's looking particularly good against the pound today, which is good as I have a few Euro invoices to go out at the moment. I'll forward buy for when they're ready to be paid. I feel like an international financial entrepreneur for ten minutes whilst I make the transaction, and then realise I'm going to be late for the school run. I flap about in a distinctly non-entrepreneur way as I hunt for the car keys.

3.15pm: I bundle Florence into the car then dash off to collect my moody teenager - I wonder what today's problem will be? My resolve to be cheery super-mum crumbles when a fight breaks out on the back seat.

5.00 pm: We go to friends for tea and then we take Billy to football practice. I chat to other mums and try not to assess every cute toddler on the basis of whether they'd be ideal for the next Skibz photo shoot. Occupational hazard!

6.30 pm: I finally catch up with my husband, Andrew, and we chat about the day. The children do their homework with less argument than usual but Billy's left his spellings at school. I'm wise to that old chestnut and ring a friend whose son is in the same class.

7.45 pm: Andrew offers to put the children to bed and I go for a drink with a friend at the local pub. Even this isn't a work-free zone as my friend also runs a well known company in the nursery sector and neither of us can talk about anything else for very long.

10.00 pm: I'm back home. I pop into the office one last time. There's really only one thing I need to do, then I can go to bed a happy woman. I advance on my computer like a sniper stalking his prey. It whirrs into life and I stand with a murderous finger poised over the delete button as the server fills the doomed inbox...