Well, today (1st April 2021) – Eldnar Ltd (Eldnar Consultancy) turns two and I couldn’t even tell you where the last two years have gone. I think, in the current climate, it is so easy for us to keep taking each day as if we are on some form of life treadmill and forget how far we have come.
In the last week or so I took some time to go back over my files on OneDrive and just look at how much I managed to do on my own in the last two years. I am guilty a lot of the time of feeling like I’m not doing enough (which, anyone who knows me with tell you is laughable as I literally never stop). I would whole heartedly recommend having a look back at how far you have come from time to time.
So – two years! In those two years I’ve tackled a six month non-competition clause within a twenty mile radius of my old firm and, of course, lockdowns within a global pandemic. When I went through everything I was therefore surprised at quite how much I’ve still managed to get through.
As you will likely know my main areas of work are Planning, Valuation and Rural Consultancy. Since going solo I have:
- Dealt with, in varying capacity, over two hundred planning jobs;
- Applications have included, but not limited to, condition discharges, listed building consent, householder consents, changes of use, prior approvals and appeals across urban and rural sites. When I say from permitted development to full planning – I’m deadly serious!;
- On those planning jobs I have worked across fifty-five different local planning authorities (Councils);
- Undertaken twenty-seven formal, Red Book, valuations for a variety of purposes including help to buy, accountancy and estate administration;
- The above does not include the informal valuations, general advice, agricultural appraisals, planning objections and estate management/tenancy work which I have also done.
Aside from the main work above I won the RICS Matrics Young Surveyor of the Year (Land) 2019 award and have, in the last two years,:
- Moved into my new office;
- Completed four days an assessor for the RICS Assessment of Professional Competence (the final interview for candidates wishing to become Chartered Surveyors);
- Delivered two training/update events (one in person pre-covid, one online);
- Provided general APC support for a small number of candidates as an RICS Mentor as well as having had a work experience lady;
- Spoken to student groups regarding the importance of professional qualifications on your CV including one talk for women in construction;
- Evolved general consultancy work for other companies which can be anything from assisting them by talking through how to approach an application to proof reading and/or providing supporting documents;
- Undertaken 89 hours of continuous professional development (CPD);
- Had one Linkedin in rant (regarding the lack of support for graduates) hit over 10,000 views… (the notifications certainly kept me awake for 24 hours!);
- Still not managed to teach the dog to type or make coffee.
Who knows where we will all be in the next two years but I for one, having looked back, have realised that the last two years have been pretty good (albeit very hard work at times!) but I honestly would not change it for the world if I could go back.
A massive thank you to absolutely everyone, including my clients, for your support so far!
Eleni and #officedog Moose x