This week MyDay talks to Joan Bree, inventor of the cush'n'shade sun screen
THE FIRST thing I do each day is check my e-mails. Only when I've sorted out anything that needs doing and know what's important for the day do I have breakfast, get ready and head out for the office.
I'm normally there by about 9.30am or 10am. I spend the first while catching up with my son Jamie, who is director of operations.
He's my middle child of three and was always very entrepreneurial. We have great fun working together - there's nothing like celebrating a big deal with someone that close to you.
Most of the morning is spent catching up with sales inquiries or dealing with customers or media queries. After we appeared on the BBC investment programme Dragon's Den interest in us took off. We were already on the cusp of something big, and it proved the tipping point.
If small orders come in online, I look after them all myself; large orders are handled by our distribution centres in Ireland and the US.
The product goes all around the world now, which is terrific for something I dreamed up on a beach with my girlfriends. I was lying with a T-shirt on my face to stop it burning and wishing I could read at the same time.
We recently discovered an entirely new sales channel almost by accident, so I'm dealing with that at the moment. Turns out cruise ships don't have sun umbrellas and their captive audience has no shade, so Cush'n Shades are ideal.
Lunchtime brings out the mammy in me. I go up to my local deli, on Camden Street in Dublin, and normally get something for Jamie and me. We're both total foodies. We eat at our desks and work through - it's what happens when you work for yourself, I guess. Jamie's off in the UK organising ads for the QVC shopping channel at the moment, so it's just me today.
In the afternoon I'm very disciplined about setting aside a couple of hours to concentrate on product design. We recently revamped the product so that it fits in handbags, and I'm working on a promotional version of it. I'm also trying to get point-of-sale display units sorted for retail outlets.
I was a pub designer until I set up this business, so design has always been important to me - it's just hard to find the time to do it when you're running a business, too. Even organising to take a stand at a trade show takes so much more time than you'd think.
I'm working on new product ideas right now. This week I'm off to Greece - Skiathos, with the best beaches in the world - in the company of the same girls I was with when I thought up Cush'n Shade. I'm hoping to be inspired again.
Normally I finish at 6pm or 6.30pm. Jamie stays on much later, so that he can make calls to the US. He has more energy than anyone I know.
A downside of running a small business is that you never really tune out. So even though I bring my laptop home to use it for personal stuff, I tend to keep checking work e-mails and sorting out anything that comes up.
Sometimes it's good not to be able to tune out, though. Often I'll be mulling away at something all evening, go to bed still thinking about it and wake up with a solution. It's great when that happens.
In conversation with Sandra O'Connell