Living with a teenage business

The late nights

It seems that it was only yesterday that a newborn Headlines was keeping me up until all hours as I struggled to meet her new clients' needs.

Now that she has a wide circle of established contacts, she still keeps me busy until the early hours as I meet deadlines, catch up with clients, stay up-to-date with trends and manage her staff.

The company she keeps

Some of her oldest friends - clients, providers and staff members - have been with her for years. They form her past and present team that has shaped her into the teenager she is today.

I am eternally grateful to this mixed bag - even though they sometimes keep me up at night and make outrageous demands on my time.

The demands for my time

You would think that, with adulthood on the horizon, my teenager's growing independence would give me a little more time to myself. Tsha! Hardly!

The more she grows up, the more she needs from me. She and her growing network of acquaintances need a lot of supervision, or they could end up saying the darndest things - in public!

The need for higher education

You can't just bring a business into this world and expect her to get on with it. You need to pour money into her education and growth.

The worlds of business, social media, marketing and PR change so rapidly that it's necessary to keep educating her, and everyone who works with her, so that we can all continue providing professional, quality services to her clients.

• The IT she demands

  Teenagers love technology. They want new computers and new phones... they want on-going, uninterrupted, high-speed access to the Internet.

  She tells me she can't live without this, that it will affect her performance. As a proud and performance-driven mother, who am I to argue?

• She wants her own space

  She was brought into this world as a mewling infant, happy to share a room with her mother, and demanding very little of me in terms of real estate.

  Since she's grown up and extended her network of connections, she now demands a room of her own - including an en-suite bathroom and boardroom! And all that Internet connectivity I spoke about? Delivered straight to her door.

While all of this places a burden on my time and pocket, living with a teenager is a delight in so many ways. It is with an overwhelming sense of pride that I have watched Headlines grow into the fine young business she is today and I am rewarded by the knowledge that her team continues to deliver outstanding PR strategy services to clients whose business we care about.