Boilers and business don't mix

Posted by Katie Pringle on June 30, 2008 7:36 PM

In opinion polls for the most stressful times in your life - moving house, getting divorced and death (of a loved one not your own) all feature regularly but over the last few weeks I have been experiencing a little discussed but arguably equally as misery-inducing event: the fitting of a new boiler.

Having a boiler changed doesn't sound like that much of a faff - but therin lies part of it's insipid
torture. Because you see it isn't just the boiler that's getting replaced, it's every single radiator in the house, all the pipe work, wherever that may currently be, must be taken out and brand new, shiny, copper piping gets slapped up all over the shop. The key factor in this disturbing event is that every single room gets affected - no where is safe from the claggy dust that clings to every surface and the mind boggling array of tools that appear in neatly lined trays all. over. the. house.

Condusive to running a business like a slick-well oiled machine? What do you think?

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Back to business

Posted by Katie Pringle on June 9, 2008 7:10 PM

What with all the sunny weather we've finally been experiencing (one week into June!) myself and the business partner have been struggling to keep up our work ethic of late. We come in from our 'other jobs' and somehow the allure of a night in front of the computer, answering emails and preparing invoices just doesn't compete with a nice cold white wine spritzer out on the patio (yes it's retro and possibly unfashionable but it is tres refreshing!).

I don't think it's possible to breathe down your own neck, but as my own boss I really need to take myself into a quiet room and ask me why I've let my performance slip over the last few weeks. And yes I know it's only been sunny for like two days but maybe I'm using the weather as an excuse for my general laziness towards our little fledgling business of recent weeks.

The thing is though although I love the time away, the freedom of not feeling like I always have to be doing something, it does come at a price.

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Return to sender

Posted by Katie Pringle on May 12, 2008 7:28 PM

This evening I got in from work to find a parcel at the front door.

As my eyes scanned across the address an unwanted recognition crept over me. Just under a week ago this very same parcel had been taken by me, from my house, to my local Post Office. In the time honoured tradition I had written on the front where I wanted the parcel to be sent to. Sometimes this gets referred to as the address. The place we wish the parcel to go to. This address was not and is not, my address. And yet here it was, back again...in my house!

Like some kind of Lassie-esque parcel, this package had come home. ARGHH!

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Qualified opinions

Posted by Katie Pringle on May 7, 2008 8:24 PM

Tommorow myself and my business partner are off to a meeting with a buyer at a large museum who may hopefully, possibly, maybe, want us to create a product specifically for them. This would be our first commission and we are pretty nervous about the meeting.

We don't have any experience in this area and so we have absolutely nothing on which to base our expectations. So what do you do when you don't know what to do? Well, if you're anything like me, you go ask someone, anyone what they might do in that situation.

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Meeting expectations

Posted by Katie Pringle on April 20, 2008 10:25 AM

Two weeks ago myself and the business partner attended the British Craft Trade Fair in Harrogate. Since that time it's been a bit crazy at RPS towers. You see for us, orders are like buses, you wait for ages for one to come along and then three turn up at once.

No complaints on that front, I love "buses", but it has meant a slight re-evaluation of our production methods. Telling stockists that they will have to wait 4-5 weeks to receive their products is not something we think is acceptable, but at the moment, to tell them them anything else would mean dissapointing them come delivery day.

So we find ourselves having to do something we have as yet managed to avoid as a small business.

Forward plan.

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This is jam hot

Posted by Katie Pringle on March 10, 2008 7:33 PM

If there was a job interview for starting your own business, effective self promotion would be high on the list of 'essential' criteria.

You are a one man band and as such you have to get out there and bang your own drum.

Your best intrument is yourself (stick with me here), you know the most about your products, you believe in your business the most (well you should do or you're off to a bit of a non starter) and you've got to get out there and get other people, your potential customers, to believe in your products aswell.

There is no budget for marketing or PR. Let's face it guys, there isn't even a budget. What you can do you have to do for free, and sometimes the success of your business will live and die on how good you are at self-promotion. You can have the best idea, the best products, the best of everything but if you can't get out there and tell people about it then you haven't got the best business. In fact I'd be suprised if you've got a business at all.

Now I don't tell you this as someone who excels at self-promotion. Far from it, in fact when this lecture is being delivered I'm probably somewhere at the back of the class, middling through and finding every opportunity to self-promote a tortuous task to be endured rather than embraced. I'm way too British about it. The mistake I make is feeling like I am trying to sell myself instead of the product. And we all know British people are the very model of modesty. C minus - must try harder.

BUT, I do know how very very important it is. And I also recognise it in other people with envious eyes. They make it look so easy.

Tips for self-promotion?

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Talking with the tax man

Posted by Katie Pringle on March 4, 2008 9:24 PM

Well actually she was a lady tax man but that didn't make her any less scary when she rang last week to 'question' our partnership tax return.

'There's no way this one will go through as it is' she states in cool business like tones.

'Oh really' I say, feeling the prickling of sweat on my upper lip. 'Why not?' I ask, knowing I'm going to need to write down the answer and the chances of there being a pen that works within reach of the phone looking as slim as me getting through this conversation without looking like I haven't got a clue.

'Because the figures in 3.24 and 3.25 should give you the figure in 3.26'.

'...yes' I answer, not having the foggiest clue what 3.2whatsits is and feeling too much of an inept pretender to ask for clarification. (I'm stood in my pajamas at this point and even though I know she can't see me, I feel like my just having got up is becoming clearer to her with every word that comes out of my mouth - and she does not approve. 'Tut tut' I hear her thinking, 'still in bed at 9.05 on a work day, no wonder the accounts aren't in order'.)

She continues '..and they don't.'

'They don't?'

'They don't.'

'Oh.' Balls.

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Computer says no...

Posted by Katie Pringle on January 29, 2008 8:15 PM

Though it disturbed me to read in the Daily Telegraph over the weekend that certain special people were being advised not to fill out their tax returns online amid fears over security I had left it too late to fill out my form long hand and so was left with little choice but to do it on the internet.

Happily though it seems I have nothing to fear from the Inland Revenue's security systems. As I am not a politician, a member of the Royal family, a celebrity or indeed any other variety of 'important' person I do not need to have upgraded security when I complete my tax return. The bog standard security is quite appropriate enough for a woman of my position.

Apparently.

Bouyed by the evident confidence the Inland Revenue holds in it's on-line systems, I ploughed through the labyrinthine self assessment form beginning on Saturday morning and emerging late Sunday afternoon an older, quieter, greasier version of my former self.

If, as is planned no-one will be able to complete their tax returns on paper next year without facing stiff penalties then I can only hope that some work will go into improving the usability of the IRs website.

It was like a magic trick gone wrong, all misdirection and false bottomed hats.

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The doutbful guest

Posted by Katie Pringle on January 21, 2008 7:23 PM

The list of 'things to do' is slowly turning into a tome of almost biblical proportions. Task 136: Thou must order more ribbon - probably two wilt be cheaper than one.' The business partner and I recite from it at length and use it to flag ourselves at intervals.

I find myself mentally rebelling against the neccessary rigidity of my day job and the depressing monotony of North-east weather. I will not make this just another thing that needs to be done. I want my business to be firstly creative and secondly a business. And the trade off might be less sales.

Like alot of people trying to get a business off the ground I cannot afford not to work as well as run the business. The upside of this is it takes the pressure of having to make money every month. On the downside it can leave you feeling less entused to deal with the day to day administration of a business. I'm starting to cling to the creativity it offers and resent the rest.

Today especially a memory from last summer kept popping up in my conscious and I know exactly what it's trying to tell me. I want to be more like Edward Gorey.

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The Aurora Project

Posted by Katie Pringle on January 16, 2008 9:15 PM

The business I run is a creative business, which basically means that myself and my business partner create our products, from initial design through to manufacturing and packaging. Like alot of businesses we love our products and we assumed that everyone else would love them too but it was a cold slap of reality when we realised that we had no idea how to give other people the opportunity to love our products (and, fingers crossed, part with their hard earned cash to buy them).

When you've expended so much time and money producing the thing you want to sell it can be very difficult to accept that people aren't just going to knock on your door asking to buy it. You may laugh at my naievity but I don't think we're the only business making that mistake if the failure rates for new enterprises are anything to go by.

Besides the lack of skills in marketing and sales that many new businesses suffer from it can also be incredibly expensive getting the exposure you need in order to make your venture a real business, which means money coming in as well as going out. So how do you do this?

Well unfortunately it isn't the same answer for every business but for us we needed to be seen by retailers in an environment where they were looking for new and exciting products, things that were made in Britain, by hand and that were a bit different from what you'd get on the high street. What we needed was a trade fair, the The British Craft Trade Fair to be exact.

But with prices for stands costing upwards of £400 pounds for 3 days that's a big outlay for a new business to expend. And that, ladies and gentleman is where the Aurora Project came in.

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New year... old taxes

Posted by Katie Pringle on January 3, 2008 7:30 PM

'tis the season afterall, the tax season that is and what more timely reminder of my need to get serious about proactivity in 2008 can I have than the looming deadline for tax returns. It has been interesting reflecting back on the financial year of April 2006 to 2007. With the distance of time I can look back quite proudly on what we achieved (obviously not financially - I'm talking to you Mr Hart Davis) but still we really did lay alot of the groundwork for what became a fairly successful 2007. It would most probably be prudent at this stage to look ahead and plan for what we would like 2008 to hold for us as a business but to be honest when you're wading through all your old accounts and bank statements it just leaves me feeling very nostalgic.

Anyway if you're like me and you run a small business and you haven't been terribly organised with your tax return and you're making regular trips from the inland revenue website to youtube for distraction enjoy this little celebration - of a new year and of creative ways to waste time - surely youtubes raison d'etre!

New years dominos

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Santos. L. Helper

Posted by Katie Pringle on November 5, 2007 7:48 PM

Myself and my business partner have on numerous occassions (usually when something is going wrong) felt as though we are chained to our business. However this has taken on a more literal meaning in the last few weeks as we struggle to fulfil our order obligations in the busy run up to Christmas.

I arrive back from 'my other job' and I feel the work room calling to me with a slippery tongue. It tells me I cannot, must not sit down. I walk zombie like to confront the mountain of products that need completing. Pick up, put in bag, attach label, punch hole for display, pick up, put in bag, attach label, punch hole for display, pick up, put in bag, attach label, punch hole for display so on and so on ad infinitum until mind and body are comfortably numb.

At this point I slap myself around a bit and enjoy the simple but satisfying pleasure of knowing that for the last few weeks and for a few more to come I have The Best Job In The World

'Why?' you ask...

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It's the most wonderful time of the year...

Posted by Katie Pringle on October 29, 2007 6:35 PM

I visited our beautiful town centre this Saturday. I entered the car park bright eyed and full of hope and four hours later I emerged a shadow of my former self, my eyes tired from all the artifical lighting, my elbows raw from all the jostling and my hope, well I lost that around about lunchtime when I saw the huge queues wrapped around my favourite department store eatery. Woe, woe was me.

And yet, despite all of this, and believe me I'm as disappointed with myself as you are, I actually felt pretty Christmassy. I'm not saying I enjoyed my shopping experience, far from it, it was awful, but there's no denying that it felt like Christmas.

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Ch Ch Ch Ch Changes ...

Posted by Katie Pringle on October 19, 2007 1:50 PM

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.

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Honk if you're Hectic

Posted by Katie Pringle on October 1, 2007 8:17 PM

The last few weeks have been hectic. The weekend of the 15th of September saw us head down to Londinium with our products in tow and a few rather shabby presentation boxes for Design Edge a southern version of the British Craft Trade Show which we attended earlier in the year.

The idea of the show is that a wide variety of British designed and British made products are brought together in one location and then hoards of lovely buyers come from near and far to place their Christmas orders for shops, galleries and museums.

Armed with an eight disc audio book and a brand new satellite navigation system we made the long journey down to Sandown Race course in pretty good spirits and made good time. Saturday afternoon was spent arranging our hastily printed promotional materials and gawping at other much more professionally dressed stands before a frantic late night search for a calculator* and a disturbed night at the local Holiday Inn.**

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Like a well oiled machine

Posted by Katie Pringle on September 10, 2007 11:34 AM

Got in. Got on the phone. Rang stationers to order more card. Stationers mocked me but ordered card. Logged on to the computer. Checked emails. Received 60 messages.

Deleted 40 containing porn. Read remaining messages and replied where necessary. Received call from stationers to say that some card not available the rest to be picked up tommorow. Searched youtube for current favourite song. Received call from another card supplier to confirm my order. Confirmed order.

Began internet search for inkjet printer cartridges for A1 printer. Received call from card supplier to pay for ordered goods and to confirm delivery time. Continued search for inkjet printer cartridges.

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