It’s mad to think that Christmas was less than 2 weeks ago.  Trying to cram buying and wrapping presents, food shopping and cooking and meeting up with family and friends into a few weeks seems crazy now.  But that is the yearly whirlwind of Christmas.

I did enjoy Christmas but I am glad that I can get back into a proper routine.  Having 2 extra parkruns on a Thursday is great but it doesn’t help when you’re struggling to decide which day of the week it is.

Anyway, now that most of us are putting in a full week of work this week, we can take stock and start to look ahead.  My looking ahead involves trying to foresee the potential demand for cat sitting, when everyone has recovered financially and starts planning trips away. 

It’s all quite new.  I had a booking over Christmas, which was lovely and I have a further 3 bookings in February.  Following these bookings,  I should have had some Google reviews and then I’m hoping to be busy from Spring through to the Autumn.  The cat sitting service seems far more me these days, than the virtual assistance service, although I am always open to this work too.

It’s just that I’m worried about AI.  With people automating so much now and expecting AI to write their blogs and Social Media content, it feels as though work is scarce for an outsourced virtual assistant like me.  When I go networking, I find it harder to convince business owners of my worth.  Why would they ask me to raise invoices and keep their accounts up to date, when Xero, Quickbooks etc make it so easy for them to just do it themselves?

So back to the cat sitting.  It feels really rewarding and as well as the actual cat sitting, I get to do lots of fun Marketing (my cats are becoming social media stars).  I’m also getting to do more old school Marketing like delivering flyers and putting up posters.  Then there’s my own accounting, recording expenses, raising invoices and reconciling.  It all adds up to a varied working day. 

I hope that you have exciting plans for 2026.  You can make plans at any time of the year of course but I find that January always provides the headspace and feeling of forward momentum that makes goal setting more likely.  So good luck with whatever is your priority for 2026 and if you live in Worcester and require a reliable cat sitter, you know where I am.  Details of services can be found here and prices here.