Well, that’s it. After one of the more interesting courses I have followed, I finally have confirmation that I am a qualified Green Badge Guide for South East Wales. The only problem now is finding work. 

During the last month of the course I overlapped with a Welsh Government initiative, the 5 to 9 Club. As a retired GP, I have run a business before and am used to managing the accounts and completing tax returns. I had a Practice Manager to manage staff. but still had to make the final decision if there were employment issues. What I had never had to do as a doctor was Sales & Marketing. People came to me with their problems; the NHS was a monopolistic payment agency; and I only had to worry about national negotiations carried out on my behalf when it came to pay and resources. My junior partners all used social media, but I had always avoided these as I felt they were to time consuming and controversial – just another source of unnecessary stress. Now I needed a business name; a company identity and logo; and a way of putting them out there that would persuade potential customers that I had a product worth buying. All this was a foreign language to me. 

Fortunately, I am good at picking up languages. I was reassured that our social media guru agreed with me that Facebook, Instagram, etc. can be a source of angst and waste of time when used in a personal context, going on to explain what they can do in a business environment, particularly when linked to a website. Several people tried to persuade me that creating a company website would be a piece of cake – all that was needed was 3 months hard work learning the IT tools to do this while applying them to my domain. The trouble is, I was not sure I could make the time while finishing both courses, researching product (tours) and finishing off legacy GP work. The alternative to learning a new computer language was to pay someone else to create the website. Even better if they could link it to the “socials”! 

This is where Biz Boutique enters the picture. Menna and Rhian are sisters who have started a business offering exactly these services. I was recommended Menna by a contact in my local pub, where she also drinks. Rhian lives in Crete, but MS Teams means that the world is a small place – e-messages travel at close to light speed! 

Usually! 

So the deal is that I shall produce content, while they provide context in the form of a website with attached e-mail addresses, Facebook, Instagram and Tik-Tok to sell this. Hence this blog – hopefully the first of a series describing my adventures as I commit to this new venture. I am also in the process of creating an online catalogue of potential tours for which I am hoping the girls can supply stock photos. If not, then photography will have to be another new skill I learn. All this on a 11 year old laptop with a dodgy keyboard, an i-Phone 10 that is giving up the ghost and an ancient i-Pad. The art of writing begging letters is also being revived. 

I started writing this blog by referring to the Wales Official Tourist Guides Association (WOTGA) Green Badge course. 3 months on an I am starting to realise what a valuable resource this was and how spoilt we were. Tourist Guides need a vast amount of background information along with detailed knowledge of the places to be visited in order to field any questions that may be asked. If we don’t have the answers we are expected to know where to find them. I have always been impressed by the guides I have had on tour.

Now I am starting to develop Imposter Syndrome as I try to reproduce their level of erudition. Confabulating can either be challenged by a genuine expert in a group or lead to “fake news” online, so facts must be checked. Even something as straightforward as the year of Queen Victoria’s coronation (1837) can be daunting to a science graduate. It is like being a Junior Houseman all over again – the basics are all there, but it will take years of experience to turn them into a polished act. At present only 10 out of 16 tours are past the planning stage. I hope this is enough to start with as I am in France for the next 6 weeks and cannot check the routes or timings. 

That’s enough whinging about the difficulties. Doing the research has been a pleasure – there is always something new to learn. The next few blogs will describe my first few tentative steps at leading tours – one for money, two for friends and two in French for our guests with Caerphilly- Lannion Twinning Association (I did say I was good at languages). Any feedback when these go online will be helpful.