MMW Spotlight: Donna Bateman, Business Partner
My position at Manage My Website is:
I’m Allie’s Business Partner and day to day I oversee the running of the business and manage some of our bigger projects.
The best thing about working at Manage My Website is:
The people - I work with an amazingly creative and talented team, and we are lucky to have fabulous clients.
The best job I’ve ever had is:
Apart from this one? It’s got to be working in a wine bar/nightclub in Dudley [town near Birmingham] when I was 18. It never felt like work. Ooh the stories I could tell…
The worst job I’ve ever had is:
Working in a factory canteen. Do you remember Victoria Wood’s sitcom 'Dinner Ladies'? Well it was nothing like that! I spent the first part of each morning making sandwiches and burning my fingers on the “iron” used to seal the packets, and the lunchtime service cooking chips and washing dirty pans that were not dishwasher-proof. Nobody spoke to me either. I lasted a week.
My personal mantra is:
Never look back!
I’m happiest when:
I’m surrounded by the people I love, eating good food, drinking gorgeous wine and putting the world to rights. That or letting myself loose in a shoe shop.
I’m proudest of:
My decision to take my life on a different path.
In my spare time I like to:
Either do nothing or get very active – I’ve just downloaded the Aaptive fitness App and I highly recommend it. There’s something there for everyone.
The top 3 highlights of my life are:
The summer I spent travelling around Europe when I was 17; moving to Egypt when I was 20 for what was one year and turned into two (little did I know how it would shape the rest of my life); my enormously supportive family and friends who’ve been there through it all – they know who they are! I couldn’t have done any of it without them.
People would be surprised to know:
I used to go to Judo classes and was actually quite good.
If I could do it all over again, I would:
Not change a thing
Favourite memory:
Baking in my grandmother’s kitchen and whipping up another bowlful of Dream Topping. Who knows what was in it but I couldn’t get enough of it.
Pet peeves:
Indecision and prevarication in others, and being ignored.
Favourite song, film, book and actor:
Song: Gosh there are so many and it depends on my mood blah blah blah but okay if I have to choose one - and this will do nothing for my street cred, my ringtone on my phone is Sugar Sugar by The Archies.
Movie: Hardly earth shattering I know, but the two films I can watch over and over without getting bored are Godfather 2 and Dirty Dancing.
Book: I need two again – One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
Actor: Denzel Washington – no explanation necessary.
Best holiday I’ve ever had:
My first trip to the Neopolitan Riviera in Italy – I fell totally in love with it, I cried when it was time to come home and I still can’t get enough of it.
Before I die, I would like to:
Know that I did my best.