How I Work It - July 2021

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Name:  Hayley Rand 
Business name: Hayley Rand
 
1. What services do you offer? 
Birth and postnatal doula support, pregnancy and postnatal massage and baby massage. I’m also proud to be a BirthBliss doula coach. 

2. Where do most of your clients come from?  
Most of my doula clients get in touch after finding my website via Google or directory searches.  My massage clients come mainly through Google searches, word of mouth and free Facebook advertising. 

3. What has worked (been a success) and what has been less successful?  
Getting to know other doulas, especially local ones, has been so valuable.  I’ve made some lovely friends through being a doula and it’s great to have trusted doulas to share work with. From a marketing perspective, I’ve never had any success with strategies involving flyers/leafleting, even when directly targeted at my client base. 

4. Have you had to change the way you run your business because of lockdown/pandemic? 
Like many doulas, I introduced various remote support packages and intend to keep these as part of my offering. 

5. What do you wish you had known when you started out?  
Knowing I’m not fit to drive after births would have saved me a £97 fine and a half day course for going through a red light in 2015 (of which I was completely unaware!).  I took that as a warning and have used taxis/Uber when travelling to and from births ever since! 
Also, to think carefully before committing to a Christmas on call period (or any other time that is special to your family), particularly if you have young children.  People will always be having babies but your children will only be little and believe in the magic for a short time. 

6. What would be your biggest tip for new doulas? 
Be authentically you – don’t try to be anyone else or compare yourself to other doulas.  All the new doulas I speak to and coach are wonderful unique individuals and have so much to give.  Experience matters less than you think, you don’t need to know everything, you don’t need to rush into all the courses and add extra strings to your bow.  You are enough and will be hired because of who you are. 

7. And doula-life hacks? 
If you have an iPhone, make use of the ‘do not disturb’ function overnight when you’re on call.  You can add your clients to your ‘favourites’ and will only be woken up by their calls, rather than jumping every time your phone pings! 

8. What is next for you and your business? 
The youngest of my two children starts school in September, which will be a bittersweet end of an era, but means I’ll have an extra two days a week to dedicate to my business without having to arrange childcare or feeling torn between working and spending time with my son.  I’m looking forward to having more availability for postnatal work, more time to meet up with other birthworkers and I might even do some night doulaing in the knowledge that I’ll be able to sleep after the morning school run!