Good Morning All !
I realise that it is several weeks since I wrote, and that fact has been languishing on my conscience and featuring daily on my to do list (or facienda) for at least the last week. The trouble is that the longer I left it the more there is to write about and the bigger the task appears. I think I shall just have to write an overview today and then write several more in-depth blogs. The weather forecast for tomorrow is for heavy rain, a perfect day for sitting at a computer.
Firstly the soapy business, the Great Yorkshire Show was very hot and very busy and a little like an endurance test, I was there from 7.30 am to 7.30 pm being pleasant and chatty and basically saying the same thing over and over again 'It's all made from beeswax, an amazing natural moisturiser. I am a beekeeper you know' By the end of the day I was sick of the sound of my own voice and pitied my poor neighbours. Like at Bramham I met an amazing bunch of entrepreneurial women and in quiet periods the marquee was almost like a study group or tutorial. The key topic of discussion was Twitter, some were old hands, some just starting (ie me - @Gilliganwood feel free to add me if you are that way inclined) and some were complete novices. Whilst on the subject of e-marketing my website www.gilliganwood.com is now open for business. I won't say the website is complete, the pages on the benefits of beeswax are looking very bare and the 'What we've been doing' page is also in need of updating (another candidate for a wet Monday) but should anyone have an urgent need for a beeswax based skin balm they can now buy online.
Secondly the poultry, so much has happened here that they will definitely need a post devoted to them. Una the quail has started laying! She now lives in a hutch with Goldie, Tim being separated, in another hutch, both hutches in urgent need of more females. I saved up Una's eggs and made mini scotch eggs for us to take on a beach picnic. They were very cute and had the huge advantage of not having as much egg as a normal scotch egg. Amelia turned broody so I bought in some fertilised eggs and let her sit on them. She (or I) timed the whole thing really badly as they were due to hatch in the middle of the Great Yorkshire Show, which led me to refuse the opportunity of going for a drink with the words 'No, I must rush home, my eggs are about to hatch', the ladies eyed my dubiously and agreed that they mustn't hinder me. Two out of the five eggs hatched, a black Orpington and a Brahma. If that isn't enough poultry excitement, last Sunday I collected three ex battery hens and brought them home to recuperate and provide me with eggs. More about all of them plus photos, tomorrow.
The bees, also have kept me busy, partly this was my fault as being occupied with the business I left them to their own devices, which inevitably led to swarms. One of the swarms decided to settle at the top of the hawthorn tree that I didn't prune last winter. Remembering how I felt when I was pruning in the winter I asked my neighbour, Dave who is a climber for help. He involved his son, Kris and then in the way of our street, my other neighbour, Nicky came out to offer advice and ended up filming it all on her mobile phone. If possible I shall put this too on the blog in days to come. The next step I have to tackle in beekeeping is harvesting the honey. Last year the weather was so bad that there wasn't any honey to harvest but this year I have at least one full super, undoubtedly there would have been more if I hadn't let them swarm. Although there are ways of extracting honey without using an extractor, my plan is to put my name down to borrow one from the Leeds BBKA.
I'm afraid I have neglected the garden a bit this summer, all the hopes I had for growing my own veg didn't really happen. I have a few potatoes and carrots, a handful of tomatoes and one courgette. There are some onions in the plot but I have neglected them so much that I don't know how they are doing. It has been a reasonable year for fruit though, I picked a pound of red currants and added it to a pound of rhubarb I'd stashed in the freezer earlier and two pounds of bought strawberries and made a surprisingly tasty jam. The gooseberries have reached their peak of ripeness this weekend. I have been watching them carefully as I adore gooseberries that are ripe enough to be sweet whilst still keeping their crunch. I think the only way to achieve this gooseberry perfection is to grow them yourself. Promisingly there are berries on the cranberry bush this year that are looking pretty big, although still green. Hopefully there will be enough for home grown cranberry sauce at Christmas.
There has been work done on the house, as I am totally fed up with how bad my internet connection is and I am going to seek a new provider. However, I have suspicions that although the loss of internet for 12 hours at a time, is the fault of the provider, the extreme slowness of the system is probably down to my wiring. If I am going to let a telephone engineer into my bedroom to sort this out, then I would rather that he did not have to pick his way over sewing machines, spare computers, soap ingredients, wool, clothes and everything thing else that has found a home on my bedroom floor. This tied in nicely with the Mortgage Free in Three's challenge to chuck 100 things in 10 days http://mortgagefreeinthree.com/forum/the-100-things-in-10-days-challenge/ After several days work I can now see vast expanses of floor, I reckon by next weekend I should have it all in shape. Rosie is also busy throwing things out as she is moving into a flat for part of the week from September and is in the process of reassessing her belongings in a what to take, what to leave and I wouldn't wear that again if you paid me mode. So far she has managed three bin bags of clothes to charity shops and several bin bags of rubbish. I think I will write more about Rosie's flat in future if she will let me as it is going to be an interesting challenge to take a basement student flat furnished with basic necessities and turn it into something homely and creative on next to nothing. Her eldest sister Maddie has already crocheted a blanket for her. Incidentally since I showed the WIRE ladies, some blue genitalia that Maddie had knitted for a friend, she was ever after referred to as 'your daughter, the obscene knitter'.
Finally on the health front I remember mentioning in January that I needed to drop a size by summer so that I could fit into a wetsuit I'd bought in the sale. Frankly this never happened and by Bramham I had mysteriously gone up a size! I don't know how that happens, I take my eye off things and the weight just rushes on. So I have finally started dieting again and since Bramham have lost a stone. I don't want to say too much about this though, as other people's diets are not interesting. I will just say that having worked in an office where people were always counting points or on red days or green days or having complicated regimes where they couldn't mix carbohydrates and proteins, I am simply cutting back on my food. I do realise however that on a limited intake every calorie has to pull its weight so I am trying to go for healthy foods high in vitamins and minerals.
Phew! I think that is the end of the update. I bet you're glad I went for the brief version with no pictures or involved stories. I will save those for the next few days.
Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts
Sunday, 4 August 2013
Saturday, 22 June 2013
Mellow Treats leading to Handpicked Sundays
So yesterday I went to Harrogate to meet Carole Hallsted of Mellow Treats www.mellowtreats.co.uk. She was very nice and friendly, and her shop in Commercial Street is even newer than my business as it has only been open two weeks. We spent a comfortable hour swapping plans and ideas for each other. Being so new, she does not have the cash or confidence with me to place a big order, but we agreed that when I do the Great Yorkshire Show, I will leave her some stock that she will create a window display around, and we will see what interest there is.
One of the suggestions Carole had for me, was to take a look at Handpicked Hall. This was not the first time this had been suggested, Carolyn at Bramham had told me about Handpicked Hall in Ripon which is a retail space renting tables or spaces to craftspeople and independent retailers but I had dismissed it as I thought I would have to go to Ripon 5 days a week, now Carole told me that there is one just opened in Leeds so I thought I'd take a look.
Handpicked Hall in Leeds, has opened in the Grand Arcade in a building that used to be a jazz club (Coconut Grove maybe?). The Grand Arcade is a beautiful Victorian arcade next to the Grand Theatre but truthfully it has come down in the world a bit, since the seventies when I used to walk up it from my bus stop near the ABC Cinema to go to Lewis's on Briggate, stopping maybe at Scene and Heard record shop to buy the ex jukebox singles with the holes cut out of the centres. Now it looks quite off the beaten track and I hope the opening of Handpicked Halls www.handpicked.co.uk/Leeds/will help bring people back, both for its sake and mine as I have now signed up to take a table there for the next two Sundays at £12 a day. After that I am seriously considering signing up for the three days, Friday to Sunday for £65. From the amount of people I saw around yesterday, I am under no illusions that it will make my fortune but I would like to have a regular outlet where people can find me and I would just have to take my laptop there and work in between customers.
One of the suggestions Carole had for me, was to take a look at Handpicked Hall. This was not the first time this had been suggested, Carolyn at Bramham had told me about Handpicked Hall in Ripon which is a retail space renting tables or spaces to craftspeople and independent retailers but I had dismissed it as I thought I would have to go to Ripon 5 days a week, now Carole told me that there is one just opened in Leeds so I thought I'd take a look.
Handpicked Hall in Leeds, has opened in the Grand Arcade in a building that used to be a jazz club (Coconut Grove maybe?). The Grand Arcade is a beautiful Victorian arcade next to the Grand Theatre but truthfully it has come down in the world a bit, since the seventies when I used to walk up it from my bus stop near the ABC Cinema to go to Lewis's on Briggate, stopping maybe at Scene and Heard record shop to buy the ex jukebox singles with the holes cut out of the centres. Now it looks quite off the beaten track and I hope the opening of Handpicked Halls www.handpicked.co.uk/Leeds/will help bring people back, both for its sake and mine as I have now signed up to take a table there for the next two Sundays at £12 a day. After that I am seriously considering signing up for the three days, Friday to Sunday for £65. From the amount of people I saw around yesterday, I am under no illusions that it will make my fortune but I would like to have a regular outlet where people can find me and I would just have to take my laptop there and work in between customers.
Friday, 21 June 2013
An exciting prospect!
Stress and excitement in equal parts here this morning. A few days ago I got a call on my business mobile, asking if I did wholesale? Obviously the answer was yes, or rather I would do. The couple concerned run a small shop in Harrogate and I agreed to go over this morning, to show them my stuff and have a chat. Although a big order would be nice, small regular orders would be better, so I only want them to buy what they think they can sell. Which may be none of it, although they said they were looking at stocking Burt's Bees products, but preferred mine as being local and more individual.
The stress is down to the car failing its MOT yesterday, nothing major but it will be in the garage until Saturday at the latest so the trip to Harrogate will be on public transport. My car mechanic is Tony who operates from a large yard behind his semi in the village of Swillington, about twenty minutes drive from here. He is a lovely man who always tries to find the cheapest way of doing things, once he improvised using high pressure rubber tubing to save me £100 on the new part. If I could bring him fame and fortune I would, but I suspect that he is happy as he is, with a steady flow of satisfied customers brought in by word of mouth. There are now three families in my street alone, prepared to trek out to him. And yesterday it was literally a trek as I turned out of his house in time to see the hourly bus disappearing round the corner and had to do the half hour walk to the main road where I could wait for another bus. The walk did give me the chance to walk past Smeaton House Farm home of my Gt X 7 Grandfather William Lumb who lived there in the last half of the eighteenth century. The farm is up a long drive, so I didn't see much, but there were free ranging hens wandering across the farm yard so the current occupants must be okay sorts.
Other news is that I have decided to do the Great Yorkshire Show, and posted off the application yesterday. The application included a risk assessment form so I had to rack my brains and think of what is dangerous about about soap. Of course, Cora in Downton Abbey did suffer a nasty accident involving soap but that soap was wet on a slippery floor, my soap is dry and piled in a basket on a table. The worst I could think of was that the table would collapse with all the stock on it, at the same time as a small child was passing who would get crushed to death. I began to get rather alarmed and feel that I was actually quite dangerous. I put down on the form about the possibility of the table collapsing but left out the small child. I didn't want them to think I was too dangerous to exhibit.
The stress is down to the car failing its MOT yesterday, nothing major but it will be in the garage until Saturday at the latest so the trip to Harrogate will be on public transport. My car mechanic is Tony who operates from a large yard behind his semi in the village of Swillington, about twenty minutes drive from here. He is a lovely man who always tries to find the cheapest way of doing things, once he improvised using high pressure rubber tubing to save me £100 on the new part. If I could bring him fame and fortune I would, but I suspect that he is happy as he is, with a steady flow of satisfied customers brought in by word of mouth. There are now three families in my street alone, prepared to trek out to him. And yesterday it was literally a trek as I turned out of his house in time to see the hourly bus disappearing round the corner and had to do the half hour walk to the main road where I could wait for another bus. The walk did give me the chance to walk past Smeaton House Farm home of my Gt X 7 Grandfather William Lumb who lived there in the last half of the eighteenth century. The farm is up a long drive, so I didn't see much, but there were free ranging hens wandering across the farm yard so the current occupants must be okay sorts.
Other news is that I have decided to do the Great Yorkshire Show, and posted off the application yesterday. The application included a risk assessment form so I had to rack my brains and think of what is dangerous about about soap. Of course, Cora in Downton Abbey did suffer a nasty accident involving soap but that soap was wet on a slippery floor, my soap is dry and piled in a basket on a table. The worst I could think of was that the table would collapse with all the stock on it, at the same time as a small child was passing who would get crushed to death. I began to get rather alarmed and feel that I was actually quite dangerous. I put down on the form about the possibility of the table collapsing but left out the small child. I didn't want them to think I was too dangerous to exhibit.
Monday, 17 June 2013
Bramham
With all the efforts last week to finish Rosie's book for the exhibition I never got a chance to talk about Bramham ie the stand I took in the Rural Craft Association Marquee at Bramham International Horse Trials last weekend.
Fortunately we were blessed with beautiful weather, there were no fears of having to be towed out of a muddy car park here.
I had my stall set out:
The balms and body butters were set out on the old wooden stand we used to use for displaying chutneys, the soaps laid out in the baskets I bought off ebay which are more commonly used in bakery windows. There were testers out with descriptions in front of them.
The problem was, that too often the marquee looked like this:
There were just not enough people coming inside. Maybe the weather was too good, we had reports on the Saturday that people were just lying on the grass eating ice creams and watching the cross country that they had paid £30 to see. Maybe there was too much for them to spend their money on, as the site was full of tents and marquees of all sizes selling all sorts of country clothing and equipment. Maybe the recession means that people are keeping a tighter watch on what they spent. The depressing upshot of this was that I barely made the rent.
There were positives to be taken from it, the people I did sell to, were very enthusiastic and it was very heartening to talk people into trying it, who had sensitive skin only for them to come back to buy, several hours later. I sold to one woman on the Saturday who took it home for her daughter who has contact dermatitis and then she came back for a second jar on the Sunday after daughter amazedly reported that it did not sting. Rather oddly, I sold a jar of Insect Away, the insect repelling skin balm, to a woman who wanted to use it on her horse. Each to their own of course, although if that is any good it might be a whole new market for me.
The other positives that I took from the show were from the other stallholders, who were a great bunch of mainly middle aged women, who all supported each other. In particular Carolyn Collis from www.crystalis3D.com was very kind and when her husband joined her on the Saturday offered to take over my stall for half and hour so I could have a break and a look round outside. But all the other women I met, Caroline, Lucy, Kathryn, Ruth, Cousin Alison, Claire and others who I never got their names, were friendly and supportive and if they could not quite turn the dead hours when the show jumping was on, into a pleasure they certainly helped enliven them.
They also left me with some ideas for the future. One was to join Women in Rural Enterprises (WiRE) www.wireuk.org which is pretty much what it says, an organisation to help and support women in rural enterprises. Fired up with enthusiasm, I went to a meeting last Monday in Stillingfleet hoping to find the same atmosphere of help and support I had enjoyed over the weekend at Bramham. Unfortunately I felt that they spent most of the evening discussing the problem of finding and keeping good staff in the same way as women talked about the servant problem in the 1920's. However if I do join WiRE, then I have the option of doing the Great Yorkshire Show with them. Clearly something to think about pretty fast, as it is in July (9-11), and costs in the region of £500. I don't want to be spending this much on a show unless I can guarantee its return, and it would be three long hard days work. On the other hand I have a lot of stock left over from Bramham and it would be a chance to promote the website to a lot of people.
The second idea to come out of Bramham was that I get myself on the list of speakers for Women's Institute meetings. I used to do presentations at work so an used to talking to groups of people and would be happy to talk about bee-keeping or how to make the products or setting up a small business. The WI pay a small fee and allow you to offer your products for sale with the WI keeping 10% of any sales. At this stage in the business it seems a no lose arrangement, I promote the business, possible make some sales and get paid for doing it.
My absolute priority now though, is to get the website up and running properly. I bought a ready made website which I have to convert to my needs so currently it is a mish mash of my business and a farmer's market which was the template I bought. It has mainly my words with beautiful pictures of apples and potatoes. Severely confusing for anyone who visits.
This will have to be fitted in amongst family things this week, as first born is down for a visit. She wants to find decorative things for her new flat so we went to a car boot sale yesterday and will be going to an auction tomorrow.
I had my stall set out:
The balms and body butters were set out on the old wooden stand we used to use for displaying chutneys, the soaps laid out in the baskets I bought off ebay which are more commonly used in bakery windows. There were testers out with descriptions in front of them.
The problem was, that too often the marquee looked like this:
There were positives to be taken from it, the people I did sell to, were very enthusiastic and it was very heartening to talk people into trying it, who had sensitive skin only for them to come back to buy, several hours later. I sold to one woman on the Saturday who took it home for her daughter who has contact dermatitis and then she came back for a second jar on the Sunday after daughter amazedly reported that it did not sting. Rather oddly, I sold a jar of Insect Away, the insect repelling skin balm, to a woman who wanted to use it on her horse. Each to their own of course, although if that is any good it might be a whole new market for me.
The other positives that I took from the show were from the other stallholders, who were a great bunch of mainly middle aged women, who all supported each other. In particular Carolyn Collis from www.crystalis3D.com was very kind and when her husband joined her on the Saturday offered to take over my stall for half and hour so I could have a break and a look round outside. But all the other women I met, Caroline, Lucy, Kathryn, Ruth, Cousin Alison, Claire and others who I never got their names, were friendly and supportive and if they could not quite turn the dead hours when the show jumping was on, into a pleasure they certainly helped enliven them.
They also left me with some ideas for the future. One was to join Women in Rural Enterprises (WiRE) www.wireuk.org which is pretty much what it says, an organisation to help and support women in rural enterprises. Fired up with enthusiasm, I went to a meeting last Monday in Stillingfleet hoping to find the same atmosphere of help and support I had enjoyed over the weekend at Bramham. Unfortunately I felt that they spent most of the evening discussing the problem of finding and keeping good staff in the same way as women talked about the servant problem in the 1920's. However if I do join WiRE, then I have the option of doing the Great Yorkshire Show with them. Clearly something to think about pretty fast, as it is in July (9-11), and costs in the region of £500. I don't want to be spending this much on a show unless I can guarantee its return, and it would be three long hard days work. On the other hand I have a lot of stock left over from Bramham and it would be a chance to promote the website to a lot of people.
The second idea to come out of Bramham was that I get myself on the list of speakers for Women's Institute meetings. I used to do presentations at work so an used to talking to groups of people and would be happy to talk about bee-keeping or how to make the products or setting up a small business. The WI pay a small fee and allow you to offer your products for sale with the WI keeping 10% of any sales. At this stage in the business it seems a no lose arrangement, I promote the business, possible make some sales and get paid for doing it.
My absolute priority now though, is to get the website up and running properly. I bought a ready made website which I have to convert to my needs so currently it is a mish mash of my business and a farmer's market which was the template I bought. It has mainly my words with beautiful pictures of apples and potatoes. Severely confusing for anyone who visits.
This will have to be fitted in amongst family things this week, as first born is down for a visit. She wants to find decorative things for her new flat so we went to a car boot sale yesterday and will be going to an auction tomorrow.
Wednesday, 22 May 2013
And relax.....
Well it's been a tough few days.
Friday was a 19 hour day and then as I still wasn’t ready, I was up at 4.30 on Saturday. After all the hard work and stress the show itself was a crashing disappointment as I took only £63 and the rent was £80. It was awful weather and everyone was suffering, but I have to accept that it didn’t fly off the stall when people were there.
This dismal photo is just before the steady drenching rain.
Still there are several positives to take from it 1) having a deadline spurred me on to get everything ready 2) I have an idea what is going to sell (Gardener’s skin balm 3) I have several ideas of what I can do to improve presentation 4) I may have to readjust my ideas of how long it will take to make it profitable.
Yesterday was meant to be a day of recuperation, pottering around, slowly getting organised again but after separating the quail and getting the two male quail into a cage (much needed- Goldie has been chasing Una round the brooder box with sex in mind and she is not ready for that sort of thing), I took a stroll round the garden and noticed I had a swarm.
Same tree as last year conveniently, about 8- 10 feet off the ground.
I called beekeeping friend who came round with her two boys and her friend and Rosie and Oliver came out to watch too, Oliver looking very cute in his beekeeping suit.
Confidently I climbed the ladder ready to brush them into a cardboard box. Unfortunately they had clustered in an awkward place where two branches crossed, still as long as I got the queen it would be alright as the others would follow. I didn't get her and it wasn't alright. I got 80% of the bees down and inverted the box over a sheet, which they slowly left and returned to the tree. Meanwhile friend’s son got stung on the arm and went screaming out of the garden, friend’s friend got a bee entangled in her hair and in the general stress and panic she got stung on the scalp (ouch!). We administered antihistamine cream, and took a deep breath and started again – this time without spectators.
Second time around, the bees were quite irritable. I was up the ladder again, holding the box in one hand and trying to brush them in with the other, when they started stinging me on the arm that was holding the box. I tried to ignore it but it got too much and I had to retire again.
Friend decided to take her entourage home and I called Steve who is Oliver’s father’s father.
Steve started keeping bees at the same time as me, but his died over the winter. I said if he helped me take the swarm he could have it. By the time he arrived, I had had the idea of balancing the box above them and trying to drive them into it. This did seem to work although it took a long time.
When it was full, Steve went up the ladder and tried to close the flaps of the box. Disturbed, at least half the bees plummeted straight down to earth. We brought down what we had and again inverted the box over a large piece of netting. This time we must have had the queen as slowly all the other bees went in the box. Then all that was needed was to tie the netting round the box, put it in the back of the car (!) and drive 3 miles to Steve’s hives and then shake them into a hive box. Job done. By that time it was 9 o’clock and I was seriously ready for bed.
Monday I was shattered and battered, my arm which had been the site of multiple stings had a red swollen area about 5 inches by 6, nevertheless I thought I had better go in the hive that had swarmed and see how many queen cells they had made as I didn't want the risk of them throwing a secondary swarm. Without the queen the bees were cross. To my absolute horror I spotted one crawling INSIDE MY VEIL. I squashed it with my glove and took off down the garden to where I could undo my suit, take out the dead bee and get properly zipped up again.
Second time around I discovered many queen cells, I removed some and I took one on a frame of brood plus two other frames and put them in a nucleus box to try to rear a fourth colony. Bending down to look at the hive, I thought I had been stung on the back but I moved quickly and the sting didn't fully go in. Shortly after though I definitely got stung on the ankle (foolishly I was only wearing trainers). As it was in such an awkward place I wanted to get antihistamine cream on it as soon as possible so I put the hive back together and hobbled down the garden at full speed.
I'm sure I have left more than one queen cell in the hive and should really go back in again to check, but the weather forecast for the next few days is not good. We may well get a second swarm from that hive.
Wednesday, 15 May 2013
Where did the time go?
Somehow life has got frantically busy.
I have my first show on Saturday which is the Otley Show. It is so I hear a good show, about 40 minutes away, busy and popular without being scary like the Great Yorkshire Show. Preparations were going okay. Well to be truthful I had a mental block in my head that said 'I can't do anything until I get the labels sorted out'. Then last week someone asked for samples saying they would call round the following night, I said that would be fine and then spent the next day sweating over the label design and totally forgot about what prices to quote her. I then spent the next morning writing up a price list in a three fold little brochure. This is good as it will be going out on the stall at Otley.
Having finished the label design all I had to do now was order the rest of the labels and buy a laser printer which I did on Monday. My internet was down again so I had to do this from the library. The printer is due to arrive today, the labels, I don't know when, sincerely hope it is before Friday.
So my list of things to do for the show was to finish fiddling with the labels to make sure they print out aligned properly, to cut and label the soap, to make and label the balms and body butters and to check the set up for the stall, tablecloth, lighting, display etc. It seemed a full programme but manageable but then this happened:
That is a sealed queen cell and means that unless I do something quickly, a swarm is imminent. I took advantage of a small burst of sunny weather to do a quick inspection yesterday and found that in hive 2. You should be impressed that I managed to take a picture as punching a security code into a touch screen phone whilst wearing leather gloves is not easy. Nor is holding the frame in one hand, the phone in another and somehow managing to press the shutter button again in leather gloves. I didn't want to take the gloves off as the bees weren't happy and there were a lot buzzing round and crawling on me.
Now I have to do something fairly quickly here, I have two options (three if you include doing nothing and then possibly watching a swarm flying away), making up an artificial swarm in a separate box to the side of the hive or following the Demaree method and separating the queen cells and most of the brood from the queen by putting them in separate boxes within the same hive.
I like the Demaree method, it has the advantage of not splitting the colony and letting the flying bees work away as usual whilst the new queen hatches and is mated and starts laying. Also if I have read things wrong and these are not swarm cells but supersedure cells where the colony has decided to replace a poor queen then I haven't lost anything as the colony is still basically intact. I have two problems, the Demaree method calls for a brood box with the old queen in it topped by a queen excluder, then a super, then a Demaree board and then another brood box with the queen cells in. I don't have a Demaree board, which is like a queen excluder but with a hole cut out of the side to allow the new queen to leave the hive and mate. I could probably get by with using a spare queen excluder for the next few days but I haven't got one of them either although I can buy one tonight at the LBKA meeting. My other problem is that I have not yet seen the queen in this hive.
I don't have much time to decide what to do, if they haven't swarmed already the bees will swarm between 10 and 4 on the next fine day. Fortunately it is due to rain until 3 today so I can probably risk leaving it until tomorrow morning when Oliver is at nursery.
Meanwhile the the two male quails are practically fully grown now and need to be out of the brooder box. I have been bidding on ebay for the last two weeks for an old rabbit hutch which could be converted for quail. I was finally successful on Monday getting one for £19 which I picked up yesterday. I could do with getting it out of the back of the car, cleaned out and put inside somewhere to let the quail acclimatise to life without the heat lamp before transferring it to the hen coop. This may not happen before Sunday as I have to prioritise the Otley Show and the swarm.
Finally Mary laid her second egg yesterday (I think). She still doesn't know what a nestbox is for and laid it in a heap of dust.
I have my first show on Saturday which is the Otley Show. It is so I hear a good show, about 40 minutes away, busy and popular without being scary like the Great Yorkshire Show. Preparations were going okay. Well to be truthful I had a mental block in my head that said 'I can't do anything until I get the labels sorted out'. Then last week someone asked for samples saying they would call round the following night, I said that would be fine and then spent the next day sweating over the label design and totally forgot about what prices to quote her. I then spent the next morning writing up a price list in a three fold little brochure. This is good as it will be going out on the stall at Otley.
Having finished the label design all I had to do now was order the rest of the labels and buy a laser printer which I did on Monday. My internet was down again so I had to do this from the library. The printer is due to arrive today, the labels, I don't know when, sincerely hope it is before Friday.
So my list of things to do for the show was to finish fiddling with the labels to make sure they print out aligned properly, to cut and label the soap, to make and label the balms and body butters and to check the set up for the stall, tablecloth, lighting, display etc. It seemed a full programme but manageable but then this happened:
Now I have to do something fairly quickly here, I have two options (three if you include doing nothing and then possibly watching a swarm flying away), making up an artificial swarm in a separate box to the side of the hive or following the Demaree method and separating the queen cells and most of the brood from the queen by putting them in separate boxes within the same hive.
I like the Demaree method, it has the advantage of not splitting the colony and letting the flying bees work away as usual whilst the new queen hatches and is mated and starts laying. Also if I have read things wrong and these are not swarm cells but supersedure cells where the colony has decided to replace a poor queen then I haven't lost anything as the colony is still basically intact. I have two problems, the Demaree method calls for a brood box with the old queen in it topped by a queen excluder, then a super, then a Demaree board and then another brood box with the queen cells in. I don't have a Demaree board, which is like a queen excluder but with a hole cut out of the side to allow the new queen to leave the hive and mate. I could probably get by with using a spare queen excluder for the next few days but I haven't got one of them either although I can buy one tonight at the LBKA meeting. My other problem is that I have not yet seen the queen in this hive.
I don't have much time to decide what to do, if they haven't swarmed already the bees will swarm between 10 and 4 on the next fine day. Fortunately it is due to rain until 3 today so I can probably risk leaving it until tomorrow morning when Oliver is at nursery.
Meanwhile the the two male quails are practically fully grown now and need to be out of the brooder box. I have been bidding on ebay for the last two weeks for an old rabbit hutch which could be converted for quail. I was finally successful on Monday getting one for £19 which I picked up yesterday. I could do with getting it out of the back of the car, cleaned out and put inside somewhere to let the quail acclimatise to life without the heat lamp before transferring it to the hen coop. This may not happen before Sunday as I have to prioritise the Otley Show and the swarm.
Finally Mary laid her second egg yesterday (I think). She still doesn't know what a nestbox is for and laid it in a heap of dust.
Tuesday, 9 April 2013
Today's the Day!
Apologies for the recent lack of communication, our internet has been distinctly patchy recently. Frustration with the lack of service has driven me to the local library to use their internet. Whilst very grateful for the free access, I am being driven to distraction by the loud chatting indulged in by librarians. Whatever happened to silence in libraries? The seven people using the computers and the two or three browsing for books are by contrast totally quiet.
I felt I had to post today as it is the first official day of the Gilligan Wood soap business. I did the official sign over at the Job Centre yesterday where I found out that my business plan had actually been approved on 1st March so God knows why they then kept me waiting for 5 weeks. My first task when I got online this afternoon was to register with HMRC to pay self employed National Insurance contributions and taxes by self assessment.
More to say regarding bees (good) and quail (bad) and whether to go ahead with the Otley Show but I think this will really have to wait until I have the peace of my own computer.
Hope to fill you in tomorrow.
I felt I had to post today as it is the first official day of the Gilligan Wood soap business. I did the official sign over at the Job Centre yesterday where I found out that my business plan had actually been approved on 1st March so God knows why they then kept me waiting for 5 weeks. My first task when I got online this afternoon was to register with HMRC to pay self employed National Insurance contributions and taxes by self assessment.
More to say regarding bees (good) and quail (bad) and whether to go ahead with the Otley Show but I think this will really have to wait until I have the peace of my own computer.
Hope to fill you in tomorrow.
Friday, 1 March 2013
Frugal February Looking Forward to March Madness
White Rabbits once more! I know February is the shortest month, but it seems to have gone by very quickly despite a cold grey period in the middle, when I just wanted to stay in bed until it was warm again.
Now it is warm again, well, 8 degrees compared to 2, does feel warm, it's surprising how small a rise in temperature is needed to make the change from shivering under the bedclothes to being up and about doing things. Better still, it now gets light at a reasonable time in the mornings and the dawn chorus is singing away before six, encouraging me to get outside as there is stuff going on. This morning they encouraged me to hang my washing out at 6.15 am. It was still dark then, but it is a task out of the way and the washing should dry now, during the day, at no cost to myself or the environment.
February, was all about the February Frugal Challenge, which was very much about battening down the hatches and getting through the dark days of winter, spending as little as possible. On food spending I did pretty well, the total spend for the month was £72.83 nicely under our £80 budget, but overall I am £50 over budget. This is pretty well accounted for by £26 on a new tyre for the car, £12 on buying an extra pack of computer ink to gain a £4 discount and £10 more than budget on new pyjamas for Oliver. None of it is exactly frivolous stuff but I am still annoyed by the day I was late for my business course and was charged £13.50 for 4 1/2 hours parking by parking where I knew. The following week, a bit of time taken to research parking, found me in a nearer car park for £4.50. A total waste of £9.
I am not too concerned about the overspend though, as my overall spending was still pretty low, including mortgage, insurances, energy costs etc, the spend for February was about £800. Adding £200 as a security net for contingencies, I now know, that I need to generate about £1,000 a month to cover costs, which does not seem too unreasonable. My previous salary was £35,000 but I will be much happier on £12,000, having to watch the spending and make all the economies, is more than made up for by the freedom to spend my time as I please.
Looking forward to March, the emphasis will be on how I am going to generate that money, and hopefully will be a whirl of activity on the soapy business, ready to launch ourselves on the unsuspecting world in April.
As cold process soaps take 4 weeks before they are safe to use, (time for the caustic soda to become fully neutralised), this means I have to make all the soap I want for the launch, this week. Yesterday, I made a soap for the gardener. It has ground pumice stone in it to help clean off the engrained dirt after a gardening session and tea tree oil, which is a natural antiseptic for scratches and prickles. I wanted to colour it a subtle green using spirulina, a sort of dried algae, but I don't think I used enough and given the base colour from the beeswax, it is now an odd sort of dirty grey yellow. I'm hoping it will mute nicely over the four weeks as the lavender soap did. Today's Soap of the Day I think, will be lemon and lime, a nice zesty soap for early morning showers.
Now it is warm again, well, 8 degrees compared to 2, does feel warm, it's surprising how small a rise in temperature is needed to make the change from shivering under the bedclothes to being up and about doing things. Better still, it now gets light at a reasonable time in the mornings and the dawn chorus is singing away before six, encouraging me to get outside as there is stuff going on. This morning they encouraged me to hang my washing out at 6.15 am. It was still dark then, but it is a task out of the way and the washing should dry now, during the day, at no cost to myself or the environment.
February, was all about the February Frugal Challenge, which was very much about battening down the hatches and getting through the dark days of winter, spending as little as possible. On food spending I did pretty well, the total spend for the month was £72.83 nicely under our £80 budget, but overall I am £50 over budget. This is pretty well accounted for by £26 on a new tyre for the car, £12 on buying an extra pack of computer ink to gain a £4 discount and £10 more than budget on new pyjamas for Oliver. None of it is exactly frivolous stuff but I am still annoyed by the day I was late for my business course and was charged £13.50 for 4 1/2 hours parking by parking where I knew. The following week, a bit of time taken to research parking, found me in a nearer car park for £4.50. A total waste of £9.
I am not too concerned about the overspend though, as my overall spending was still pretty low, including mortgage, insurances, energy costs etc, the spend for February was about £800. Adding £200 as a security net for contingencies, I now know, that I need to generate about £1,000 a month to cover costs, which does not seem too unreasonable. My previous salary was £35,000 but I will be much happier on £12,000, having to watch the spending and make all the economies, is more than made up for by the freedom to spend my time as I please.
Looking forward to March, the emphasis will be on how I am going to generate that money, and hopefully will be a whirl of activity on the soapy business, ready to launch ourselves on the unsuspecting world in April.
As cold process soaps take 4 weeks before they are safe to use, (time for the caustic soda to become fully neutralised), this means I have to make all the soap I want for the launch, this week. Yesterday, I made a soap for the gardener. It has ground pumice stone in it to help clean off the engrained dirt after a gardening session and tea tree oil, which is a natural antiseptic for scratches and prickles. I wanted to colour it a subtle green using spirulina, a sort of dried algae, but I don't think I used enough and given the base colour from the beeswax, it is now an odd sort of dirty grey yellow. I'm hoping it will mute nicely over the four weeks as the lavender soap did. Today's Soap of the Day I think, will be lemon and lime, a nice zesty soap for early morning showers.
Sunday, 24 February 2013
The Balanced Scorecard- 2013 to date
It is cold and grey and I have been feeling more than a little lethargic recently so I thought it was a good time to review the year to date and see what progress I'd made in the main headings.
The balanced scorecard is a concept from accountancy which means setting targets in areas of the business rather than just financial ie no good congratulating yourselves on record sales if your safety record is dire and customer service appalling. When I worked for a clinical waste company that tried to implement this, the drivers had to record if they had missed any collections and why (normally accidents or traffic holdups), it then amused me to discover that they were allowed to input a code meaning tactical miss as if it could every be a part of a company's tactics not to service its customers. In practice these were occasions where to stop at a clinic to pick up one bin of waste would make the driver too late to pick up 20 from a hospital. Still no tactical misses allowed here.
So the headings on my scorecard in no particular order are:
Poultry
Bees
Garden
Frugal Living & Food
Soap Business
House & Garage
Personal Development
Crafts
Wildlife
Possibly I should have one for health and wellbeing but I think the list is quite long enough so I will roll that in with personal development
Poultry
This has been going well, there was the sad loss of Amelia (or was it Edna they looked very much alike) but to offset that Edna is laying well and I managed to partially roof the run and also get their wings clipped. In the incubator upstairs are the 11 little quail eggs, committing me, should they hatch to sorting out first a brooder box and then a cage for them. The brooder box would also be able to be used by chickens in due time.
Bees
I'm also satisfied with the bees. Truthfully there is little I can do in winter apart from ensure they have enough food and the hives are protected from mice and woodpeckers but to see all three hives were alive and active mid February was encouraging. I have also booked to attend the British Bee Keeping Association Spring Convention in April which I'm sure will fire my enthusiasm to learn more and there is my name down on the swarm collection list for summer.
Garden
Progress has been made, seeds have been sown, currant bushes pruned, larger trees cut back at risk to life and limb. As always there is much more to do, more seeds need sowing, the greenhouse needs cleaning, the prunings need chopping up and disposing of, the vegetable plot needs digging and preparing but I can take satisfaction from the fact that I haven't been ignoring the garden throughout the cold weather.
Frugal Living and Food
Here I think I may have been concentrating too much. I have done terrifically well on my frugal food challenge but possibly at the expense of other items on the scorecard. I have already posted that I seem to be baking everyday and as I write I do have a carrotcake in the oven (made with dried cranberries instead of raisins for a change and because I had them in the cupboard). Going forward the challenge will be to try and turn the efforts I have made since Christmas into normal routine but to keep them in their place. I want to keep on making my own bread and cakes and biscuits but to make the freezer take the place of the convenience store. As Rosie has decided that she does like Chicken Korma, the Curry in a Hurry curry base will become a regular in it as will other dishes that allow me to concentrate on other things some days.
Soap Business
The other things will mainly be the soap business which I am ashamed to say has not made huge progress since Christmas despite being my hope for an income this year. I have attended a course at the Chamber of Commerce (run on a Wednesday which is why postings can be scarce on that day) and I have had regular meetings with a business mentor who has been helping me with my business plan and cashflow forecast to be submitted to a board who should approve me receiving Enterprise Allowance. I feel that all this guestimating future sales and doing market research on the natural cosmetic industry has distracted my attention from the important parts of the business namely making a good product with attractive packaging. Must try harder.
House and Garage
I haven't been doing too much in this category either, I have done some mild decluttering, bought a new freezer which will reduce my energy bills and we now have a working shower once more. There is much decluttering left to do and a list of DIY projects as long as my arm but I am relaxed over this, I am sure I will do more in the warmer weather.
Personal Development
Well this is quite a wide category, I include it, as it is part of the balanced life that I should keep learning and keep trying new things. Writing the blog has been very pleasurable and I would like to do more writing in future. Joining the reading group will also be good for me as it will make me read books I would not have chosen myself. I have also agreed to go on a dry stone wall building day, I can't see any immediate use for that knowledge but it will be interesting. I suspect that I am falling back on the health and exercise front since Jess left. The compulsory twice daily walks were getting me fitter and keeping the calories at bay. I shall have to do more about this before summer as I need to drop a dress size having bought a wet suit in a sale that was a size too small. Ho hum. I've also learned that I am not a dog person, although Jess left us because she was not getting on with Oliver, I didn't find enough compensation in having a dog for all the work and time involved. I may have liked the image of me strolling through the countryside with a dog at my heels but not the reality. Jess is now living with someone who finds having a dog all over you every time you sit down, enjoyable.
Crafts
I am a craft person, I enjoy almost everything that involves making things with your hands. Sadly I am not artistic, I can't paint or draw but I can sew and knit and embroider and hook rugs and generally have a go at anything which involves reading a set of instructions and visualising what they mean. In the last few years I have been extending this to try to tackle DIY projects ie plastering, fence building. Last summer shocked by the price of a new one, I attempted to build a bee hive which is basically a series of wooden boxes. I managed it but also discovered that I can't cut straight. As I need two more bee hives (or at least brood boxes) and a quail house and a broody house then I think I will be learning a lot more about woodworking this coming year. I was going to go on a course but had to cancel as I couldn't leave Jess alone in the house for two days. Likewise I couldn't do any knitting whilst she was with us, as she kept pouncing on the wool, but I have wool and the pattern for knitting Oliver a sweater.
Wildlife
The part of having a dog that I did really enjoy was being forced out for a walk and seeing wildlife. I really enjoyed seeing the small changes that happened almost daily. I can't do anything about this as the twice daily walks were taking up too much time and leading to other things being neglected, but I am going to make the effort to get out once a week at least. I have my tree spotting to continue and I am of course missing the kingfisher.
Apologies for the very long post but I have found it helpful, it has reassured me that really I have made progress since the start of the year and it has pointed out areas where I need to spend less time (food planning) and areas where I need to spend more (soap business).
The balanced scorecard is a concept from accountancy which means setting targets in areas of the business rather than just financial ie no good congratulating yourselves on record sales if your safety record is dire and customer service appalling. When I worked for a clinical waste company that tried to implement this, the drivers had to record if they had missed any collections and why (normally accidents or traffic holdups), it then amused me to discover that they were allowed to input a code meaning tactical miss as if it could every be a part of a company's tactics not to service its customers. In practice these were occasions where to stop at a clinic to pick up one bin of waste would make the driver too late to pick up 20 from a hospital. Still no tactical misses allowed here.
So the headings on my scorecard in no particular order are:
Poultry
Bees
Garden
Frugal Living & Food
Soap Business
House & Garage
Personal Development
Crafts
Wildlife
Possibly I should have one for health and wellbeing but I think the list is quite long enough so I will roll that in with personal development
Poultry
This has been going well, there was the sad loss of Amelia (or was it Edna they looked very much alike) but to offset that Edna is laying well and I managed to partially roof the run and also get their wings clipped. In the incubator upstairs are the 11 little quail eggs, committing me, should they hatch to sorting out first a brooder box and then a cage for them. The brooder box would also be able to be used by chickens in due time.
Bees
I'm also satisfied with the bees. Truthfully there is little I can do in winter apart from ensure they have enough food and the hives are protected from mice and woodpeckers but to see all three hives were alive and active mid February was encouraging. I have also booked to attend the British Bee Keeping Association Spring Convention in April which I'm sure will fire my enthusiasm to learn more and there is my name down on the swarm collection list for summer.
Garden
Progress has been made, seeds have been sown, currant bushes pruned, larger trees cut back at risk to life and limb. As always there is much more to do, more seeds need sowing, the greenhouse needs cleaning, the prunings need chopping up and disposing of, the vegetable plot needs digging and preparing but I can take satisfaction from the fact that I haven't been ignoring the garden throughout the cold weather.
Frugal Living and Food
Here I think I may have been concentrating too much. I have done terrifically well on my frugal food challenge but possibly at the expense of other items on the scorecard. I have already posted that I seem to be baking everyday and as I write I do have a carrotcake in the oven (made with dried cranberries instead of raisins for a change and because I had them in the cupboard). Going forward the challenge will be to try and turn the efforts I have made since Christmas into normal routine but to keep them in their place. I want to keep on making my own bread and cakes and biscuits but to make the freezer take the place of the convenience store. As Rosie has decided that she does like Chicken Korma, the Curry in a Hurry curry base will become a regular in it as will other dishes that allow me to concentrate on other things some days.
Soap Business
The other things will mainly be the soap business which I am ashamed to say has not made huge progress since Christmas despite being my hope for an income this year. I have attended a course at the Chamber of Commerce (run on a Wednesday which is why postings can be scarce on that day) and I have had regular meetings with a business mentor who has been helping me with my business plan and cashflow forecast to be submitted to a board who should approve me receiving Enterprise Allowance. I feel that all this guestimating future sales and doing market research on the natural cosmetic industry has distracted my attention from the important parts of the business namely making a good product with attractive packaging. Must try harder.
House and Garage
I haven't been doing too much in this category either, I have done some mild decluttering, bought a new freezer which will reduce my energy bills and we now have a working shower once more. There is much decluttering left to do and a list of DIY projects as long as my arm but I am relaxed over this, I am sure I will do more in the warmer weather.
Personal Development
Well this is quite a wide category, I include it, as it is part of the balanced life that I should keep learning and keep trying new things. Writing the blog has been very pleasurable and I would like to do more writing in future. Joining the reading group will also be good for me as it will make me read books I would not have chosen myself. I have also agreed to go on a dry stone wall building day, I can't see any immediate use for that knowledge but it will be interesting. I suspect that I am falling back on the health and exercise front since Jess left. The compulsory twice daily walks were getting me fitter and keeping the calories at bay. I shall have to do more about this before summer as I need to drop a dress size having bought a wet suit in a sale that was a size too small. Ho hum. I've also learned that I am not a dog person, although Jess left us because she was not getting on with Oliver, I didn't find enough compensation in having a dog for all the work and time involved. I may have liked the image of me strolling through the countryside with a dog at my heels but not the reality. Jess is now living with someone who finds having a dog all over you every time you sit down, enjoyable.
Crafts
I am a craft person, I enjoy almost everything that involves making things with your hands. Sadly I am not artistic, I can't paint or draw but I can sew and knit and embroider and hook rugs and generally have a go at anything which involves reading a set of instructions and visualising what they mean. In the last few years I have been extending this to try to tackle DIY projects ie plastering, fence building. Last summer shocked by the price of a new one, I attempted to build a bee hive which is basically a series of wooden boxes. I managed it but also discovered that I can't cut straight. As I need two more bee hives (or at least brood boxes) and a quail house and a broody house then I think I will be learning a lot more about woodworking this coming year. I was going to go on a course but had to cancel as I couldn't leave Jess alone in the house for two days. Likewise I couldn't do any knitting whilst she was with us, as she kept pouncing on the wool, but I have wool and the pattern for knitting Oliver a sweater.
Wildlife
The part of having a dog that I did really enjoy was being forced out for a walk and seeing wildlife. I really enjoyed seeing the small changes that happened almost daily. I can't do anything about this as the twice daily walks were taking up too much time and leading to other things being neglected, but I am going to make the effort to get out once a week at least. I have my tree spotting to continue and I am of course missing the kingfisher.
Apologies for the very long post but I have found it helpful, it has reassured me that really I have made progress since the start of the year and it has pointed out areas where I need to spend less time (food planning) and areas where I need to spend more (soap business).
Wednesday, 6 February 2013
Progress Report
This search of mine for the good life does not always move forward smoothly, recently I seem to have been plagued by a series of annoyances although I suppose one of them could be called a tragedy.
On Friday, when I went to give the chickens their afternoon corn, there were only two birds waiting by the gate. This was unusual, the birds do often wander, particularly to join the other chickens in the next door garden but they are nearly always back for tea and if one is laggardly, the sound of the other two enjoying their nosh, normally brings her running. I was concerned but hoped she'd return in time and took Jess onto the valley for her late afternoon walk. We had not gone far, before I came across a sorry pile of familiar feathers, so I presume that Edna had gone wandering too far from the safety of the garden and met a grisly end at the hands of a fox.
The other annoyances were much more mundane and mainly seem to feature Dog ie Dog ate half a bowl of bread dough left to rise on the kitchen table,with the inevitable follow up: Dog suffered diarrhoea on the kitchen floor. Then there was Dog upset at being left in the kitchen whilst I put Oliver to bed managing to hurl herself at the kitchen door and dislodge the screws from the bottom hinge leaving the door hanging on by a whisker.
Monday's annoyance was to get halfway up the street before realising I had a puncture. Kind neighbours dropped Oliver and I at his nursery, leaving me to walk the two miles home. It could have been quite a nice walk had it not been for the cold, cold wind and my being in such a hurry when I set out, not to keep kind neighbours waiting that I forgot my scarf and gloves.
Today I was expecting to be able to make a much more upbeat report as I went on the first of three courses on setting up your own business but a lot of it was stuff that I was familiar with already, from when I had my chutney business. The first half of the session seemed to be trying to prepare people for long hours and risks and stresses of running a business. There were some interesting points though, including the pros and cons of being a sole trader compared with a limited company and on choosing a business name. I'm expecting next week's talk to be much more practical as there is someone coming in from HMRC to give us the lowdown on what is tax deductible and what we must do if we want to employ somone.
On Friday, when I went to give the chickens their afternoon corn, there were only two birds waiting by the gate. This was unusual, the birds do often wander, particularly to join the other chickens in the next door garden but they are nearly always back for tea and if one is laggardly, the sound of the other two enjoying their nosh, normally brings her running. I was concerned but hoped she'd return in time and took Jess onto the valley for her late afternoon walk. We had not gone far, before I came across a sorry pile of familiar feathers, so I presume that Edna had gone wandering too far from the safety of the garden and met a grisly end at the hands of a fox.
The other annoyances were much more mundane and mainly seem to feature Dog ie Dog ate half a bowl of bread dough left to rise on the kitchen table,with the inevitable follow up: Dog suffered diarrhoea on the kitchen floor. Then there was Dog upset at being left in the kitchen whilst I put Oliver to bed managing to hurl herself at the kitchen door and dislodge the screws from the bottom hinge leaving the door hanging on by a whisker.
Monday's annoyance was to get halfway up the street before realising I had a puncture. Kind neighbours dropped Oliver and I at his nursery, leaving me to walk the two miles home. It could have been quite a nice walk had it not been for the cold, cold wind and my being in such a hurry when I set out, not to keep kind neighbours waiting that I forgot my scarf and gloves.
Today I was expecting to be able to make a much more upbeat report as I went on the first of three courses on setting up your own business but a lot of it was stuff that I was familiar with already, from when I had my chutney business. The first half of the session seemed to be trying to prepare people for long hours and risks and stresses of running a business. There were some interesting points though, including the pros and cons of being a sole trader compared with a limited company and on choosing a business name. I'm expecting next week's talk to be much more practical as there is someone coming in from HMRC to give us the lowdown on what is tax deductible and what we must do if we want to employ somone.
Friday, 11 January 2013
Oh the Business, Things are Beginning to Hum!
The title is taken from a song my mother used to sing, probably some Victorian music hall song learnt from her father. My sisters and I have all been imprinted with the songs and sayings of my grandfather to the extent that we find it impossible to leave the house in weather such as today's, without declaiming theatrically 'Cold, cold, it blows across the moor!' which isn't too bad for me in Yorkshire, but a little inappropriate for the heart of London.
To return to the matter in hand, I thought I would post an update on my plans to start a business. I have now had my official meeting to apply for the Enterprise Allowance which will give me £65 a week for 13 weeks followed by £33 a week for the next 13 weeks. Not a lot of money but every little helps. I also get a business mentor from the Chamber of Commerce although in actual fact I have been working with Donna for a few weeks now.
I am currently struggling to produce a cashflow. As my mood swings between huge optimism that everyone will love the product and complete depression over the number of soapmakers already out there and what makes me think people will want to buy mine instead, estimating sales is proving a little difficult. My first cashflow was on the ultra cautious side, Donna looked at it and said 'Don't show them that when you apply for Enterprise Allowance, they'll think you are running it as a hobby'. So now I have gone to the other extreme and am planning on selling at events (Great Yorkshire Show, Country Living Fair, Countryside Live) which would probably mean making soap non stop to keep up with demand. A balance will be struck.
To return to the matter in hand, I thought I would post an update on my plans to start a business. I have now had my official meeting to apply for the Enterprise Allowance which will give me £65 a week for 13 weeks followed by £33 a week for the next 13 weeks. Not a lot of money but every little helps. I also get a business mentor from the Chamber of Commerce although in actual fact I have been working with Donna for a few weeks now.
I am currently struggling to produce a cashflow. As my mood swings between huge optimism that everyone will love the product and complete depression over the number of soapmakers already out there and what makes me think people will want to buy mine instead, estimating sales is proving a little difficult. My first cashflow was on the ultra cautious side, Donna looked at it and said 'Don't show them that when you apply for Enterprise Allowance, they'll think you are running it as a hobby'. So now I have gone to the other extreme and am planning on selling at events (Great Yorkshire Show, Country Living Fair, Countryside Live) which would probably mean making soap non stop to keep up with demand. A balance will be struck.
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