reef - Where will you work today?

Reef App connects remote & hybrid individuals & teams, with laptop-friendly places, where they can book in & work from, to escape the WFH burnout & isolation. 


What’s included for the £5 a month/£50 a year membership?


📍 A map of all laptop friendly spaces (2,500 locations and counting)

💻 Check the WiFi speeds and amenities in advance

📱 Unlimited bookings per month

☕️ Exclusive offers - free drinks & discounted food in the spaces with every booking 

🚀 A perks section - discounts off lots of well-being products and resources

For more info, visit:

https://reef.rocks/

Brand Ambassador

Andrew Sheppard Consulting

With over 10 years sales and business development experience, in several industries including recruitment & tech start-ups, I'm a freelance consultant who helps founders and start-ups with business growth.

Send me a DM to introduce and to have a conversation to explore if I may be able to help you.


Freelance sales, business development & customer success support.

Business Owner 

I help founders & start-ups with business growth | Freelance sales & business development consultant | flexible working advocate

With over 10 years sales and business development experience, in several industries including recruitment & tech start-ups, I'm a freelance sales & business development consultant who helps founders and start-ups with business growth. 

If you're a founder, tech start-up or small business needing freelance support with all things sales & business development, feel free to send me a DM to introduce.



Other stuff I do… 


- Brand ambassador for reef - where will you work today? 

- Volunteer at Working Families supporting the parents & carers advisory panel

It only takes one day or one moment to change everything for the better. 

My partner Joanne and me met on a dating app 🐝 

She sent me a voice note introducing herself. 

We have been best mates since. 

Joanne lives with a disability, rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. 

Due to the medicines Joanne is on, she was told she wouldn’t have any more children. 

Turned out the doctors were wrong. 

We were together for one month when we found out baby Ronan was on his way. 

Joanne started to lose her ability to walk as she came off her medicines to protect the baby. 

Joanne was told by doctors she may not walk again with being off her medicines for such a long time. 

A month after finding out about the pregnancy, I was “let go” from my job after requesting flexible working options. 

I knew I’d be approaching work differently whilst caring for Joanne until she was back healthy and on her feet. 

Over the last three years Joanne and me have been told a lot by others of what our life will look like for us. 

Being told we may not be able to do this and that we can’t do that. 

But one day at a time, Joanne is walking again (Joanne keeps proving these doctors wrong). 

And two and half years later, we have a healthy baby boy (and six other healthy & happy children) 

I also started my own business and I’m learning it all as I go. 

We have honestly been to hell and back at times. 

But we keep finding ways to win. 

And we will keep believing in ourselves and finding more ways to win together.

If we believe something is possible, we are making it possible.

Life can change very quickly for the better. 

We are proof of that. 

❤️

Andrew Sheppard

Would companies crumble if they provided flexibility to working parents to do the school runs?

No, most likely not.

They'd just have to adapt their approach and manage performance based on results produced, not the time spent working.

I once had to choose between my career and my family due to a lack of flexibility.

I haven’t looked back.

Nowadays, I can finish up a little earlier to do the school pick-ups.

Having flexibility to do the school runs for my children makes a world of difference for many reasons.

I will never glamourise running a business because I’m seeing firsthand how challenging it can be.

But working as a freelancer is worth it so I can be present to pick up the kids from school.

It’s especially important on a Friday as schools here finish a little earlier.

My business doesn’t suffer by stepping away from the laptop to do school runs.

It probably does the opposite. It gives me a break from work to reflect and think about how I’m doing things.

If I were in full-time employment, I’d be missing out on so much with my children.

And spending the weekends trying to catch up with them all.

Flexibility is key for working parents.

You shouldn’t have to pick between your career and your family to balance things. 

Being successful at home and at work is possible.

That’s my message for the day.

Happy Friday 🙌🏻

Today I needed to work from somewhere in Belfast. 

Joanne had a hospital appointment and I wanted to stay close by, but I also needed to get some work done. 

I checked the reef app to see where was available near me. 

I booked into Revolución de Cuba, Belfast. 

A few simple clicks of a button and I was able to avail of a quiet area to work and a free hot drink.  

If you want to support hybrid working and increase footfall at your hospitality business, send me a DM to find out how to become a reef venue. 


reef - Where will you work today?

Always celebrate the wins, big and small.

Want to hear about a recent win?

Joanne and I went on a date night recently to play mini-golf. 

A new indoor spot opened in Glengormley, a small town in North Belfast where I grew up, so we thought we would give it a go.

Yes, this is a win. Here’s why…

Joanne lives with a disability, rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia.

Joanne has learned to walk several times in the last three years.

Doctors told her she may not walk again and that she may need to rely on a wheelchair going forward.

Things weren’t looking good. 

Over the last three years, Joanne has had times when she’s been unable to leave the house, as well as being bed bound.

We were just getting through the days and working towards a recovery. 

During the challenging times, a date night seemed unimaginable for us. 

Joanne has since got back on her feet, rebuilt her confidence day by day and proved all the doctors wrong. 

So seeing Joanne play an 18-hole round of mini-golf, walking up and down stairs, as well as going down a small slide, this was a MASSIVE win for her! 

We had such a good night out. 

I know I often about share stories about Joanne and our life, but this is why. 

She’s a real inspiration that keeps on winning. 

We are grateful for all the wins that come our way. 

Always find time to celebrate the wins. 

They all add up. 


I don’t work from home because I can’t be bothered leaving the house.

I work from home because it enables me to work in a way that works for me.

I’m a parent and a caregiver. 

My day job isn’t my only responsibility in life.

“what do you want to be when you’re older?”

This is Devon. 

Devon is my 14 year old stepson. 

We have a very good relationship with each other.

So much so he recently asked me to go with him to his school to help decide his GCSE topics.

He was asked this past week by teachers what he wants to be when he was older. 

What a difficult question to answer. 

The only topic he was sure of studying was sports studies because it’s what he enjoys.

Outside of this, he hasn’t a clue what he wants to do or be when he’s older.

And rightly so, he’s still very young with lots of time to decide.

I feel there’s so much unnecessary pressure on kids this early on in life to decide on a career. 

Nobody knows what way jobs and life will look in the next 5, 10, 15 years.

But I’d say having the skillset to build relationships and help people will never go out of fashion. 

Whatever he ends up doing in life, he’s a confident young man so he will do well in what he decides. 

But is it just me or is there a lot of unnecessary pressure on children to decide what they want to be when they’re older? 

I’m 33 years old and I’m still figuring life out at times. 


How do I spend my lunch times as a freelance business owner? 


I spend most of them with my youngest son.

- sometimes we go for walks 
- we eat lunch together
- we play with his toys 
- we often watch Blippy and Mr Tumble


He’s only two years old so whilst he may not remember these moments, I will. 

I used to always eat lunch whilst working at my laptop. 

I thought I’d be rewarded for working during my lunch break. 

Truth is, taking time away from the laptop helps me with productivity and my mindset. 

Building a new business is hard and it’s taking a lot from me. 

So being able to spend more time with family throughout the working week makes all the efforts worthwhile. 

Happy Monday 🙌🏻

This is how I’m spending my Sunday evening. 

Out for walks with some of my kids, getting our steps in. 

In the hope that it’ll tire them out and they’ll fall asleep early 😂

No better way to spend Sunday evening. 

Whatever you’re getting up to… 

Have a great Sunday 🙌🏻

I’m valuing my time more now than I ever have. 

I’m a working parent, so I have to be good when it comes to time management. 

Since building my personal brand on LinkedIn I’ve opened myself to a lot of new working opportunities. 

Initially, I was accepting too many opportunities that didn’t align with me, which was the wrong thing to do and was taking up a lot of my time. 

Now, I’m using my experience to make better decisions.

If you follow my posts you’ll see that I’m a real advocate for all things flexible working. 

I am now working with businesses and freelancers who value and understand the importance of flexible working. 

Recently I teamed up with reef - Where will you work today? who are doing some awesome work for all things flexible & hybrid working. 

I’m also working with other freelancers, some of who are working parents, as they have taken the leap into starting their own business so they can have improved work-life balance. 

Posting on LinkedIn as also presented me with opportunities to volunteer. I’m now involved with the parents & carer advisory panel at Working Families. 

I’m slowly but surely attracting the right people and opportunities my way, putting my skills into worthwhile work that excites me, as well as managing my time much better. 


But something I will always have time for…

Going out for walks at lunch time with my little boy. 

We are now in the phase of saying good bye to everything we walk past. 

“Bye bye house” 

“Bye bye bus” 

“Bye bye car” 

“Bye bye trees”

😂👋


If you’re newly connected with me, here’s a a quick introduction to who I am… 


- I’m Andrew 👋 

- I’m located in Belfast 

- My partner Joanne and I have seven children (ages range from 2 - 18 years old) 

- I’m a massive advocate for all things flexible & remote working 💻  if a job can be done flexibility or remotely, it should be, right? 

- When I became a parent and an unpaid carer to my partner who has a disability, traditional employment was too rigid for me to balance all, so I had to find a different way to work 

- I share photos of myself and of my family life when I post because I want you all to see who I am 

- I’m a huge football fan, and a Manchester United supporter, so I’m always open to chats about football 

- I grew up playing and studying sports so this has hugely shaped the type of person that I am

- I once ran a marathon with my Dad. He is running his 60th marathon this weekend in Belfast 🏃‍♂️ 

- And lastly, I’m a volunteer at Working Families. I’m on the parent & carer advisory panel helping them to help other working parents & caregivers in the UK


Do you want to introduce yourself? 

Feel free to share an introduction in the comment section about who you are and what you do. 

I might be connected with someone who might want to connect with you…


Have a great Monday 🙌🏻

Here is a challenge of mine when working from home…

Trying to find somewhere quiet to work when the kids are off school during the holidays. 

We have seven children at home. So when school is off, this is home for them to play and be children. 

I’m planning ahead to make sure I’ve got some cool spots to work this summer when needed. 

I’ve teamed up with reef - Where will you work today? to create more work spaces in Ireland, north & south. 

If you’re a hospitality venue, you can support hybrid working by providing a unique place for people to work, away from their usual office or home location. 

Here’s a few good reasons you might want to become a Reef venue:

- it’s free for venues 
- increased brand awareness 
- increased revenue & footfall 


Send me a DM to introduce if you want to find out more. 


A few ways employers can better support their employees who are caregivers… 


- provide flexible working options when the employee needs it (don’t make them wait weeks or months) 

- manage employees on performance & results, not the time spent working 

- trust your employees to work in a way that works best for them



Many people care for their elderly parents, partners and children.

Caregiving is a seven day per week responsibility for many. 

By not providing flexible working options and trusting employees, it leaves them having to choose between work (an income) and their family.

That is a choice nobody should ever have to make.

There’s clear ways to better support caregivers. 

I’m a caregiver to a loved one. 

I speak from experience.

“If you don’t like it, please find alternative employment” 

This is the reported words from the new Manchester United owner, Jim Ratcliffe, as he banned staff from working from home. 

I’m a Manchester United supporter so it’s disappointing to read this article today. 

The reasoning for the ban? 

A drop in emails being sent amongst staff. 

The new owner feels being present in the office will boost productivity. 

It’s clear to see the club is in a bad place, but does removing work from home policies fix things? 

I’m confident when I say this… 

Being present in person doesn’t equal productivity and success. 

I’ve got my own experiences that backs this up. 

But also, you only have to look at the current football displays from the male first team. 

They’re all present each day and aren’t doing their job to a high level. 

They’re about to finish the league season in their worst premier league position (8th place) and it’s set to be another potential trophy-less season. 

So punishing the non-playing staff by removing work from home options is an unfair move in my opinion. 

This stuff happens because it’s an easy quick thing to do, but all it demonstrates is how many “leaders” are out of touch with how beneficial and needed flexible working is to many people. 

There will be working parents, carers and more affected by this decision. 

If this news is 100% true, I’m disappointed to read this.

It’s a massive step backwards from the club. 

Manchester United should be leading the way and demonstrating inclusion in the workplace. 

What’s your views on this?

Building my personal brand over recent months has changed the way I do things.

I wish I started to build my personal brand earlier in my career. 

I've worked in sales and business development for over 10 years.

When I first started in sales as an employee, I would have been told "go make calls" and this would have been the main way to get new business meetings. 

But I've grew my small business so far without any cold calling. 

When I chat with people in DMs now, they often mention that they know who I am. They've seen my posts. 

It has made connecting with people much warmer and easier. 

There is a real power in showing up consistently on LinkedIn.

I wish I started earlier with building my personal brand. 

Are you thinking about starting yours?


Here's a few ways that I engage with people on LinkedIn.

On my post yesterday I mentioned that I have grew my small business without any cold calling.

For me, it isn't something that I have ever enjoyed doing when I was an employee, because I don't agree with it. I know there's smarter ways to work. 

If you cold call me, I personally won't take the call (I won't be rude, I'll just say no thank you and goodbye), so I don't do it to others. 

But here's some of what I do instead:

- I post regular content on LinkedIn
- Those who often engage with my content, I'll share a DM with them 
- I often use voice notes and video in the DMs to help get my personality into the conversation
- I engage with other peoples posts which often leads to conversations in DMs


What's your thoughts on cold calling?

And do you use voice notes & video in the DMs?

__________

I’m a freelance sales & business development consultant who helps founders & start-ups with business growth. With 10+ years sales & business experience, I help you save time with business development, as well as transform your sales struggles into success. Send me a DM to introduce. 

I’m also a working parent who works remotely, so I occasionally post about the importance of flexible working 💻 


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