Unusual home working jobs – The Shoe Consultant

As soon as I heard of Susannah Davda, The Shoe Consultant, I went immediately to her blog to find out more!

I now follow her on Twitter and am learning fascinating facts about choosing shoes and what to wear them with.

Here she tells us about her home working life:

Shoe consultant! For many women that must be up there as a dream job along with chocolate taster! Tell us how this came about.
I’ve been working with footwear ever since my weekend jobs as a sales assistant in various shoe shops when I was a teenager. I was so taken by the fascinating world of footwear, that I studied Footwear Design at university and forged my career as a graduate entirely in the shoe world.

After working in the footwear industry for 17 years, I set up my own business The Shoe Consultant Ltd, built around my skills and my desire to help women wear footwear that is both comfortable and beautiful.

Describe a typical working day for us.
Every day is different, which keeps things exciting. I always have a list of tasks for the day, which I plan the night before.

I get up early and have a healthy breakfast, while checking my phone for e-mails and social media alerts. I then head up the two flights of stairs to my study, and boot up my laptop. The next hour or so is usually spent on e-mails, and promoting my latest blog posts on social media.

I also check through my Google alerts for the latest news on shoes. I’ll often schedule Tweets based on any features I think my followers would be interested in.

After that, I may spend the rest of the day concentrating on a new blog post, the latest e-book I’m writing [Susannah’s ebook, The Shoe Shopping Kit, is available on Kindle], preparation for a guest speaking event, or a consultancy project. I keep an eye on e-mails and social media alerts, and will sometimes take a break to respond to those.

Was it difficult to adjust to working from home?
I had been running my blog whilst working full-time for several years, so was used to the discipline of working at home in the evenings and at weekends.

One of the great things about this change of lifestyle is leaving my 1hr 20 mins commute behind. I feel so much more productive now.

I do make sure that I leave the house regularly for meetings, networking events, research trips, or just to get some exercise.

What’s the best part of the job?
Apart from the wonderful feeling of freedom that comes from working for yourself, it’s the feeling that I’m helping women to stop wasting money, and start selecting shoes that are going to be comfortable and beautiful.

I also really enjoy helping shoe brands to make footwear that customers will love.

Do you have a favourite brand and a style icon, whose taste you admire?
I tend to be attracted to quite feminine styles, so Miu miu is a favourite brand for me. I find the combination of beautiful leathers, interesting shapes, and pretty details used in their footwear appealing.

I also love the French aesthetic of classic elegance, and Audrey Tautou embodies that look, with just a hint of quirky femininity.

And I just have to ask, because I know our readers are enviously wondering – what are the perks? Are you given beautiful shoes or do you get discounts?
I have had a few nice gifts yes, but I buy most of my own footwear. The main perks for me lie in being able to do a job I love every day.

Susannah Davda is a highly experienced footwear professional, and advocate for comfortable, beautiful shoes. She is the founder and director of The Shoe Consultant Ltd.

Susannah contributed some amazing insider information to this article I wrote for High 50 on finding shoes that are both beautiful and comfortable.