James Mills is a web developer in the North East of England and founder of Refresh Teesside »
Mike Hughes is the Head of Business for the Evening Gazette. He will be blogging on all matters of importance to Teesside businesses - and some that are just worth knowing »
Jez Davison, business writer at the Evening Gazette, is a regular blogger on all things business - particularly finance, entrepreneurship and the state of the Teesside economy » 
Karen McLauchlan is the Evening Gazette's deputy business and features editor - with special interest in all things industry, property and arts related » 
Jeremy Middleton is a venture capitalist and the co-founder of FTSE-200 company HomeServe » 
Deloitte, which has 23 offices across the UK including Newcastle, is among the country's leading professional services firms » 
ClimateNE & Climate Change Schools Project support the move to a low-carbon, resilient economy and help businesses avoid risk and realise commercial opportunities. Posts by Jen Atkinson, Krista McKinzey and Harriet Thew » My new temp job has kept me away from the computer and the business a little more than I'd like of late. It's been just under a week since I last checked my emails and less than a month ago that would have been an unthinkable situation for me. Every day I'd be on checking orders, replying to customers, contacting suppliers. Now because I spend so much time at a computer at work I find the keyboard at home feels strange under my fingers. The pressure is just a little off and even the letter names are a slightly different size.
You may have figured by now that I'm a creature of habit and change is something that sticks out uncomfortably and uncomfitting in my routine world. Yet for all that I continue to find myself in new and dare I say it exciting situations that without the business I don't think I'd ever experience. And I'm not just talking about keyboards here people.
We're finally reaching the end of a string of orders that have hung around our necks for the last four weeks like much appreciated but still rather heavy albatrosses. We experienced one of the first major outside influences on our ability to conduct our business effectively last week when the postal strike prevented us from meeting delivery dates on some of our orders.
I'm sure that we were not the only small business who felt the effects of the walkout, several customers who I spoke with were also unable to meet their customers needs, whether that be because they had on-line shops or a mail order business. However in comendation of Royal Mail I must report that one shop we sent goods to by Special Delivery told us that the Post Office Manager no less had come with their order the day after we posted it.
Dribs and drabs of the other orders we sent out are also finally arriving at their destinations and I was V pleasantly surprised today to find out (via trusty email - no striking for you) that our products are out on the shop floor and selling well. It is always the most exciting and the most rewarding part of the creative business journey to hear (or even better see) that your products, that you put together assembly line stylee in your very own home are out there in the real world being bought by real people with (and I can't discount this important part of the experience) real money! It's very very cool and I don't think I'll ever lose that feeling.
And that blog readers is the biggest change of the last two year. We have finally become a selling business, I'm reluctant to say a profit making business because it's early days but we are a business, with in-goings as well as out-goings and that is something I'm really pleased has changed.
Also in other news someone actually asked me for business advice the other day. How crazy is that!? And I actually felt qualified to answer them: the tuteee has become the tutor, or something like that that.
- Post to:
del.icio.us
Digg
Newsvine
Nowpublic
Reddit
« Previous | Home | Next »