The Sugar & Spice of A Plan by Victoria Strange I The Victoria Box

When I was a teenager, like many I had different qualities, I was a loyal friend, kind, vibrant, extremely ambitious and some would say I was very talented, (this is something at age 42, I am now able to feel comfortable admitting) I appeared to many as an extrovert, I was always told “you have a bubbly personality” I didn’t! I am an introvert; however, I did have a roaring fire inside me, I had an unguided passion to succeed…so maybe, that is why people thought this…

The 17-year-old me was the type of person who would glide from one idea to the next, not interested in any of them, I just thought this is what I should be doing, at the same time I was not one to follow the crowd, I was surrounded by people who seemed to have it all together, they had their plan, but for me, it was very different, I felt different, I knew my thought process was very different to that of my friends, back in the late ’90s being different wasn’t particularly celebrated, especially when you were at school.

At 17 what did I want to do with my life?
Well, I wanted to be FAMOUS! Writing that word now makes me cringe, why? Well, I entwined being famous and performing and treated them as one, all I wanted to do was sing, be recognised for my talent, and of course, get that record deal!
By the age of 18, I had toured Italy, France & Germany with some other musicians, I had also recorded many demos in the music studio that my dad had built into our home, I loved the music studio, it was fully equipped with a vocal booth, soundproofed too, which was very important as I was quite loud! I would spend a lot of my time in there recording all types of music, I catapulted myself into the world of “show business” but getting to where I needed and longed to be, proved very difficult, people around me were having success, they were on Top of the Pops, they had record deals, so you see, reaching that goal, felt very possible, I managed to get into the record companies, but had no luck!

I HAD NO PLAN

My life was starting to feel like a whirlwind, one minute I was Blue Coat, then I was auditioning for Eastenders, Prime Suspect & Casualty, then I was in Manchester working on Blue Peter, (I never got that job) Oh and there was the time I lead 20 of us into a secret green door in Earls Court for a Big Breakfast Gig, at one point I landed up at Planet Hollywood interviewing for a part-time job, I spent so much time in the London’s West End attending numerous auditions….
I remember one day, auditioning for a very popular London West End Musical, there were thousands at the audition, I performed on the Palladium stage and got through to the last 40, after the audition, around 30 of us when out for dinner & drinks, we found this amazing county pub, down a side street in the heart of Leicester Square, we did not know each other, it was the most amazing afternoon, the best company and conversation, I was 19 and have never seen those people since…it is one of the most treasured memories that I will never forget!

I STILL HAD NO PLAN

At the age of 20, I went to Australia for 3 months, one morning when I was staying in Surfers Paradise, I caught the bus to town, only it wasn’t a bus and I landed up in the sea where the bus transformed into a hovercraft, seriously I felt like was on the set of a transformer’s movie…I felt this emulated my life…

I STILL HAD NO PLAN

At the age of 24, I found myself as a single mum on benefits WHOOPS!

TIME FOR A PLAN

Even though I still had no plan, being a single mum was certainly not the plan and brought me back down to earth with an almighty thud! I now had this little human that only had me to rely on, my gorgeous son Harry who is now 18, I was the sole parent and now I needed to get my act together, and quick! I pulled on every resource I had, and I effectively sang for our supper, I got myself an agent and I started to get booked out as a soul singer, I positively changed my circumstances so that I didn’t need to claim benefits and started to provide for my son, my plan was very lose, but however lose it was, it was working!
I did this for several years until it became too difficult, I had reached a point where I was missing important parts of my son’s life….

I NEEDED TO CHANGE DIRECTION & TO DO THIS I NEEDED A PLAN

I decided I was going to start my own business, I loved everything beauty, so I did a few courses, put a page up on Facebook and launched a business called Candy Floss, truthfully, I had no clue what I was doing but I had a weapon and that was my zest to succeed, my son was my absolute inspiration and so he became the roaring fire inside me, within 5 years my business became one of the most recommended children’s events businesses in Herts, Beds, Bucks and parts of London, I learnt as I went along, I put every fibre of my being into my business, I continued to learn everything I needed and eventually I diverted into event planning for all types of events, looking back now I had a plan but my plan was not particularly extensive, it wasn’t a strategy, it was breakable.
Fast forward to 2020 and Covid Hit! I practically lost my business overnight!
I would love to say that I pivoted straight away into an idea that I had but I didn’t, I was a bit broken, so I spent 18 months working on myself and working on my mindset, I continue to do this every day.

I WAS NOW READY TO PUT MY PLAN TOGETHER, AND THIS IS WHAT HAPPENED WHEN I DID

I knew that I didn’t just need a plan, I needed a strategy, there needed to be a reason behind what I was doing and that included what I was putting out on social media, this needed to be extensive, so I worked backwards from what I wanted my business to look like in 10 years, 3 years and what I needed to do in the 1st year, this really helped me to get in tune with exactly what I needed to do, it took me three months to put my plan together, that I started to execute on January 3rd 2022, as I sit here and write this, I cannot begin to tell you how much I have achieved this year 2022 including the launch of my business “The Victoria Box” & Launch of my new podcast My Entrepreneur Diary.

The Victoria Box is a luxury filled box business, my business provides filled boxes for most occasions, whether it be a special birthday, themed decoration box, children’s event box, Christmas, Halloween, Easter, Baby Shower, Weddings, Corporate Boxes, Gift Boxes – International Women’s Box, Special Occasions etc – we have you covered, our boxes make event organizing & gifting easy and stress-free for everyone, we all live in a very busy world, our box service makes it easier, it’s a win-win! We can deliver you a luxury box for as many people as you require free to your door, I am so excited about what we have in-store.

I am also launching a subscription box for Female Entrepreneurs in February 2023; this is something that I am so excited about! “My Entrepreneur Box” is a tax detectable discovery box with 5/6 items for female entrepreneurs delivered monthly to the customer's door, included in the price is a monthly goal-setting workshop that will be held on zoom every 1st Monday of the month.
Putting a plan together really was a game changer for me, it changed everything, I knew where I was going, where I needed to be and by what date, being able to set goals and being accountable was invaluable and I know that I would not have achieved half of what I have if I hadn’t taken the time to do this, it has become something of a passion, so next year I will be offering something where I can work with people on their plans too, it really does go to show, that if you have a plan in place it makes achieving your goals so much easier, you are giving your self-permission to drill down and get intentional with everything you want to achieve and you start to see amazing results just like me!

Links to Victoria's website and social media links are here:

Website
Facebook
Instagram
My Entrepreneur Box

Podcast - My Entrepreneur Diary