Life and work with Victoria Davies

We continue our conversations this month with Victoria Davies. Victoria and her husband have their own catering repairs business in Glasgow, serving many businesses throughout the central belt of Scotland.

Victoria talks to us about finding the balance with family life and how she makes it work.

Victoria brings her easy-breezy charm to everything she does, and this lovely chat was no exception.

Tell us about your work

Myself and my husband have a catering repairs company. My husband is out on the tools and I’m based in the office and we’ve been doing this for about three years together. It runs really well.

The good thing about it is I have lots of flexibility. My son Alfie is 6, so in the mornings we drop Alfie off at school and I have Georgie, who is 19 months all day. Usually, I go for a walk in the morning, home for lunch and to put Georgie for a sleep which is when I get a couple of hours work done. I then log back in in the evening to do some more. With current restrictions, we’ve not been as busy, but usually in the summer it can be pretty manic with refrigeration and freezer breakdowns.

A typical week

My priority is the children. So whatever work I can get done in the day is a bonus. When William comes home at night, he can take over with the kids and this is when I can get a bit more work done. William takes the calls during the day as well as being out on the road. With me being office-based, it’s mainly emails, invoices, quotations. I was previously a service desk executive at a coffee company and so I had some experience in all of that, as well as being able to make a good coffee!

In between that job and setting up the business, I had studied hairdressing and did this for 5 years, so have a bit of a varied background. I loved the hairdressing, but I wanted to get into something that could work around family-life. Also with the business growing, the office-work was increasing, so that’s where I came in.

The best part of my week

Is not having to work a 9-5pm job. Flexibility and not having to get up in the morning and make myself presentable to go into an office is great!

Also, getting to spend so much time with the kids while they are this young is the best part.

I so look forward to the weekends now as well. It’s funny because normally William would be working a lot at the weekend and so weekends weren’t such a big thing. At the moment, we can have a lot more family time which is lovely. I really look forward to that.

My proudest moment is…

Definitely having my kids.

But also, getting really involved in the business. I feel very proud of how far it’s come on in the last three years. Taking it from zero to being a thriving business.

Skills I could offer

I love shopping and I seem to have knack for shopping for others too! At Christmas time, I have a list as long as my arm of presents to buy for family members to give out. When I was younger, I used to go shopping on a Saturday and buy outfits for myself and my friend to wear that night while she was at work. She was always delighted and I don’t think a single one was returned.

Also, between myself and my husband we have been able to get an office set-up and running. If someone is starting out, I could help get started with basic accounting, invoicing, system set-up.

Skills that would help me

I would love to be more organised. In the evening I get everything ready. Clothes out, lunches packed, but I am still late!

Self-care for me is…

You know, if you asked me this a few weeks ago, I probably would have said a bath, or giving myself a facial would have made me feel good, but at the moment it’s my walks. Every day. I love walking and I just feel so good after it. I can see and feel a difference, physically and mentally. So self care for me right now is my walks. I think it’s important for the kids to have exercise as part of their life. We take them both to the park every day and William takes Alfie out on his scooter when he is going for a run. Georgie is out for a walk with me every day which is now part of her routine. I really hope that helps them in life as well.

WD Catering Solutions are a commercial catering equipment engineering company based in Glasgow.