I woke up at four o'clock this morning muttering 'mustn't go public too soon', sadly this had nothing to do with a more interesting secret life I was living - it was my brain leaking out useless information I had picked up while reading business start-up books. I have read about ten of them now - trust me when I say that these books were written to stop people ever indulging in the notion that one day they could work for themselves. The only one I read that didn't make me want to cry or slap somebody was: The Small Business Start-Up Workbook by Cheryl D. Rickman - it was encouraging, informative and actually written for the U.K market, which is a miracle in itself.
Reading those books did make me sit down and write a business plan though - yes I know that is supposed to be the first thing you do but it's boring and I didn't want to do it! But it's done now and I have learnt some useful things from it:
1. My start-up costs will be at least four-times the amount I thought they would be - interestingly it seems that drawing pretty pictures for my logo, coming up with a name and worrying about how my stuff will smell are no longer my top priorities.
The books have a number of solutions to the start-up costs problem and number one is to ask family and friends. I have two problems with this: 1. I'm no George Bailey and this certainly isn't It's A Wonderful Life (apart from the bit where he's worth more dead than alive - but even that's not true, I'm as worthless dead as alive). 2. All the advice I have read in those same books say not to go into business with family and friends - I get confused enough without mixed messages.
2. I'm supposed to have a percentage of my start-up budget set aside for marketing - it would seem that having a website and then telling people about it is not only not enough, but it is also a retarded notion.
Their answer to this problem is long-winded, scary and way-out of my price range. So I will just have to get creative about that when the time comes - that's right I'm pretending that problem doesn't exist.
3. I need to go into business with someone with some business sense - I get it now, I shouldn't be trying to do this. It seems that having an idea and then putting it into practice is only the beginning, all the boring stuff has to happen after that.
The books seem to suggest having a 'brains behind the business' person - which clearly isn't me. I found myself getting annoyed with my friends for not being that person - it's not fair that nobody I know has any business acumen or alternatively is rich. I do have an idea though, which is to hang out around the business school and make friends with the undergraduates - maybe I can groom one of them to fulfil my business needs.
You might be wondering how my book is coming along amongst all this business blah, blah (although it's highly unlikely) - in case you are, let me tell you, it's not. Where in the hell do you think there is room in my tiny little brain to be creative when I have all this boring business stuff swirling around in it? I have tried to push it aside and write but it's impossible - I have a constant mental tally going on in my head of the costs of essential oils, macerated oils, beeswax, sea algae, etc. etc. etc.
Friday, February 15, 2008
Monday, February 11, 2008
A new week - a new goal
The stock arrived on Friday, which I was extremely excited about - for about twenty seconds. Opening the boxes and getting the stock out lost all it's appeal when I realised I would have to find somewhere to store it all. The cupboard under the stairs filled up with the contents of box one, which left another three boxes to distribute around my tiny little house.
I eventually found space for it all; although my vision of me enchantingly grabbing a bottle of this - to add to a pinch of that - was dashed when I realised that to get the ingredients together to make up a cream is going to have to start with an expedition to gather it together from the four corners of my house and a trek up the garden to the shed.
My other problem is that I now have to buy all new equipment such as: a blender, a large stainless steel saucepan, a ban marie (or water bath to you peasants), and all the steriliser proof utensils. Before when I wanted to make up a cream I did it on my cooker with a couple of bowls and a hand-whisk - turning professional means keeping everything sterile and carefully measuring ingredients - this involves percentages and I am noooooo mathematician - so already it's not as fun as it used to be. But this has always been my problem as soon as things stop being fun I get bored of them (my daughter is lucky I stuck with her through the teenage years). So I am now having to talk myself through this small crisis, with promises that this time next year I will no longer have to work for other people - now that sounds like a goal worth pursuing.
Today I am writing The Book - I have already written most of it in long-hand - it is the part where the reader gets to know the protagonist and her current forest dwelling situation. I have all ready been for a walk and have a flask of tea on tap so there is no reason for me to stop this time......
I eventually found space for it all; although my vision of me enchantingly grabbing a bottle of this - to add to a pinch of that - was dashed when I realised that to get the ingredients together to make up a cream is going to have to start with an expedition to gather it together from the four corners of my house and a trek up the garden to the shed.
My other problem is that I now have to buy all new equipment such as: a blender, a large stainless steel saucepan, a ban marie (or water bath to you peasants), and all the steriliser proof utensils. Before when I wanted to make up a cream I did it on my cooker with a couple of bowls and a hand-whisk - turning professional means keeping everything sterile and carefully measuring ingredients - this involves percentages and I am noooooo mathematician - so already it's not as fun as it used to be. But this has always been my problem as soon as things stop being fun I get bored of them (my daughter is lucky I stuck with her through the teenage years). So I am now having to talk myself through this small crisis, with promises that this time next year I will no longer have to work for other people - now that sounds like a goal worth pursuing.
Today I am writing The Book - I have already written most of it in long-hand - it is the part where the reader gets to know the protagonist and her current forest dwelling situation. I have all ready been for a walk and have a flask of tea on tap so there is no reason for me to stop this time......
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Another day stolen...
The stock has finally been ordered - although I have to admit to feeling a bit bereft now that I can now longer idle away an entire morning researching potential stock.
The order will take at least three days to dispatch which means that I have three days to finally get on with some serious writing - so the first thing I did was to go for a walk. Walking is a great way of thinking about what to write without actually having to do it. Eventually I came home and sat at the computer so that I could record all the new stuff i had come up with while out walking - but first I had to make a sandwich (I always think better while masticating) and then I had to make a cup of tea - if I hadn't given up now would have been a perfect time to have a cigarette, which would have put a nice full stop on the end of my lunchtime dawdling, but instead I started on a packet of crisp......
Let me cut this pathetic tale of time-wasting and procrastination short - my day ended up something like this: woke, walked, ate, drank tea, ate, dusted, drank coffee, went to the loo, cleaned the bathroom, drank tea with half a packet of biscuits I hate, cleaned keyboard with cotton buds, stared at neighbour cleaning his car while waiting for kettle to boil, drank tea, googled stretching exercises - did stretching exercises, let mind wander to what I could make for dinner, started making dinner - it just seemed too late to start anything new at this point so I gave up writing for the day. Tomorrow I will definitely get up early and make a fresh start with the writing.....
The order will take at least three days to dispatch which means that I have three days to finally get on with some serious writing - so the first thing I did was to go for a walk. Walking is a great way of thinking about what to write without actually having to do it. Eventually I came home and sat at the computer so that I could record all the new stuff i had come up with while out walking - but first I had to make a sandwich (I always think better while masticating) and then I had to make a cup of tea - if I hadn't given up now would have been a perfect time to have a cigarette, which would have put a nice full stop on the end of my lunchtime dawdling, but instead I started on a packet of crisp......
Let me cut this pathetic tale of time-wasting and procrastination short - my day ended up something like this: woke, walked, ate, drank tea, ate, dusted, drank coffee, went to the loo, cleaned the bathroom, drank tea with half a packet of biscuits I hate, cleaned keyboard with cotton buds, stared at neighbour cleaning his car while waiting for kettle to boil, drank tea, googled stretching exercises - did stretching exercises, let mind wander to what I could make for dinner, started making dinner - it just seemed too late to start anything new at this point so I gave up writing for the day. Tomorrow I will definitely get up early and make a fresh start with the writing.....
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Getting started
Obviously there are a few things I need to do to accomplish my goals, which are:
1. Stop procrastinating - for godsake just write the bloody book and stop making notes about it.
Also under this heading I need to stop imagining the business I want as a fully developed set-up and actually order the stock I need to start. To be fair to myself the reason I have waffled about this for weeks now is that when your as skint as I am making a fairly huge financial investment in stock is a bit scary - also I don't want to mess up and order a load of stuff I'll never use just because it looks pretty or sounds fun to use (been there and done that).
2. Stop fretting about what people will say if I don't make a success of either career - let's face it after 30 years of talking about my unique talents (I stopped about 6 years ago), 10 years of study and a stupefying amount of student debts, if i don't pull an Anita Roddick or J.K. Rowling type sucess out of my arse nobody I know or I'm related to is going to be impressed
3. Stop googling other companies that are doing a similar thing to me - it's depressing, disheartening and a rubbish way to plan a website.
So I am all set: I have made a comprehensive list of the stock I will need - I have index carded my recipes, sorted out my testers, written up a questionnaire for them to fill in and I have cleared the cupboard under the stairs as a stock room.
So on Monday I am definitely calling that order in (I just need one more weekend in case there's something I have forgotten).
I have also brought new note books and opened a new folder on my computer marked BOOK! - So there's definitely no going back now.
1. Stop procrastinating - for godsake just write the bloody book and stop making notes about it.
Also under this heading I need to stop imagining the business I want as a fully developed set-up and actually order the stock I need to start. To be fair to myself the reason I have waffled about this for weeks now is that when your as skint as I am making a fairly huge financial investment in stock is a bit scary - also I don't want to mess up and order a load of stuff I'll never use just because it looks pretty or sounds fun to use (been there and done that).
2. Stop fretting about what people will say if I don't make a success of either career - let's face it after 30 years of talking about my unique talents (I stopped about 6 years ago), 10 years of study and a stupefying amount of student debts, if i don't pull an Anita Roddick or J.K. Rowling type sucess out of my arse nobody I know or I'm related to is going to be impressed
3. Stop googling other companies that are doing a similar thing to me - it's depressing, disheartening and a rubbish way to plan a website.
So I am all set: I have made a comprehensive list of the stock I will need - I have index carded my recipes, sorted out my testers, written up a questionnaire for them to fill in and I have cleared the cupboard under the stairs as a stock room.
So on Monday I am definitely calling that order in (I just need one more weekend in case there's something I have forgotten).
I have also brought new note books and opened a new folder on my computer marked BOOK! - So there's definitely no going back now.
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Where Is The Life I was Born To Live
When I was five I knew I was special.
Put aside for the moment that I wore pink national health glasses, had eyes set scarily far apart, sported a semi-permenant scab on my chin and was always injuring myself through clumsiness or utter stupidity; in my head I was simply biding my time until I grew up and took over the world.
At the time i didn't have any firm plans as to how I would achieve this, but there was always an obscure understanding that when the time was right the knowledge would come. Therefore I was able to smile and ignore the crushingly unoriginal names I was called at primary school (e.g. four eyes and frog face), because in my head I was already planning the eventually annihilation of the name-caller and possibly his favourite family members.
By the time I was a teenager, I began to realise that actually physically taking over the world would require a massive effort on my part - at this point I found all my energies were used up stalking which ever boy I happened to fancy that week (including keeping a detailed timetable of all his movements) - therefore I had at this time a vague idea of writing a book that would change the world. My diary entries for around this time include title ideas such as: The Sky As A Metaphor For Life, The Girl Who Loved A Boy and Why Do My Parents Hate Me?
I was confident right up until I was in my thirties that I was special and that I would change the world. I always knew I had a vivid imagination, I always knew that I wanted my life to be an adventure and I always knew that I wouldn't settle for the mundane. What I didn't realise was that all these things, rather than enhance my life and make me special, would end with me at the age of thirty-nine having completed two degrees, started writing numerous novels and still be no nearer to knowing what I want to do with my life.
So here I am just nine-months away from turning forty and it really is now or never. So I have two plans for this year: the first is to actually finish the book I started writing two-years ago and the second is to start up my own herbal products company (my second degree was a BSc in herbal medicine) and launch it online. The plan is that by keeping this blog, I will have to make some progress on both projects every week, otherwise I will: 1. have nothing to write about 2. look like a complete fool and 3. have waste another year fannying around trying to decide what to do.
Put aside for the moment that I wore pink national health glasses, had eyes set scarily far apart, sported a semi-permenant scab on my chin and was always injuring myself through clumsiness or utter stupidity; in my head I was simply biding my time until I grew up and took over the world.
At the time i didn't have any firm plans as to how I would achieve this, but there was always an obscure understanding that when the time was right the knowledge would come. Therefore I was able to smile and ignore the crushingly unoriginal names I was called at primary school (e.g. four eyes and frog face), because in my head I was already planning the eventually annihilation of the name-caller and possibly his favourite family members.
By the time I was a teenager, I began to realise that actually physically taking over the world would require a massive effort on my part - at this point I found all my energies were used up stalking which ever boy I happened to fancy that week (including keeping a detailed timetable of all his movements) - therefore I had at this time a vague idea of writing a book that would change the world. My diary entries for around this time include title ideas such as: The Sky As A Metaphor For Life, The Girl Who Loved A Boy and Why Do My Parents Hate Me?
I was confident right up until I was in my thirties that I was special and that I would change the world. I always knew I had a vivid imagination, I always knew that I wanted my life to be an adventure and I always knew that I wouldn't settle for the mundane. What I didn't realise was that all these things, rather than enhance my life and make me special, would end with me at the age of thirty-nine having completed two degrees, started writing numerous novels and still be no nearer to knowing what I want to do with my life.
So here I am just nine-months away from turning forty and it really is now or never. So I have two plans for this year: the first is to actually finish the book I started writing two-years ago and the second is to start up my own herbal products company (my second degree was a BSc in herbal medicine) and launch it online. The plan is that by keeping this blog, I will have to make some progress on both projects every week, otherwise I will: 1. have nothing to write about 2. look like a complete fool and 3. have waste another year fannying around trying to decide what to do.
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