Another wet day. Love the way flora's ears go crimpy in the rain!

Not feeling very happy today. It feels like I'm starting again with my business. People are coming back but very few committing to what they had before. I've gone from having mostly regulars with 4-5 days a week and offering odd spaces to ad hoc dogs to now having mostly ad hoc dogs or people only booking 1 or 2 days a week. And it's so hard to organise that. And do I leave spaces open for the more regular dogs that have said they will return in September (but how do I know they will?!) Or do we take what we can get now and potentially risk not being able to fit in the regular dogs come September. Because to employ other people I need a certain number of dogs otherwise I have all the stress and hassle of it all for no return. I've had one member of staff resign and I am not going to replace her so we will have less capacity and flexibility than before.

It's all just swirling round in my head and without a crystal ball I don't know what are the best decisions to make. All I know that the last few months working alone have been lovely. I'm only responsible for myself. I do one walk with well behaved dogs and it's steady and stable. I don't have to worry about someone not turning up for work, vans breaking down, lost keys, keys breaking in doors, the constant list of dogs that don't seem to get along etc etc. But once the kids are back at school and Mike is back at work it will be difficult having to go out to work every day. And how do I manage school holidays? All the solo dog walkers I know only ever take a week or so off a year. That's not going to work for us.

But good news I went back to the chiropractor and he said I was much straighter. He said I only need to go back again if I'm struggling. So that's good as I was a bit worried how I was going to afford weekly appointments!