Budget Wars - A New Hope (with apologies to George Lucas)

Hi All
A much better day. OH worked from home and did the morning school run which gave me time to do a good clean of the house. I always feel better when things are straight.
A great enquiry came in which is right up my street. So much happier.
Have to get sorted for work shortly.
Bob

My new phone is really rubbish. Takes forever to do anything. Feel very cut off as I never get on my computer these days.

What a week. The following probably wont be of interest to anyone other than me but I feel in need of a brain dump to relieve my brain of all its nonsense. So my diary is a bit like Dumbeldores Pensieve:rotfl:

This Weeks Progress

• This week I have been extremely busy with the business. At the time of writing I have 5 live new prospective bookings. One of which could be worth thousands if it turns into a long term relationship.
• I have met with a local gallery owner for advice, & set up a deal whereby she will pass me business if she can for a percentage (she is booked up for 2 years now)
• I have attended to a long running repair need, that I put up with myself but cant offer a space to others with in place.
• I have been out leafletting & through this had 2 enquries, one of which mentioned above could be an amazing situation but who knows, still it goes to show how you have to take action constantly to move forward. And I did that on the day my phone was stolen because although I felt absolutely gutted, to the point of wandering around in tears, I was determined not to let the b@stards grind me down.
• I have shown three clients around the space.
• I have landed a booking after much back and forth on email.
• I have almost after nearly 18 months of an ongoing relationship taken a booking from a lady I really like and respect who is also trying to set up her own business, whilst working full time and with 2 kids. She just missed out on the time slot she needs to the one above, but I am now trying to get things so I can do 2 on one day.
• I have done battle with the local planning team and almost won....next time I will know what utter planks these people can be and how computer says no they can be.
• My amazing hard working husband who I cannot say enough for, has on top of his day job, spent the whole weekend working at our place, tiling, fixing things, painting, photographing and generally being the most supportive man I could ever meet.
• I have taken deposits in from all confirmed bookings, again a bit of too and fro to get there but we have.

Money

This week I have worked 3 shifts at the pub, 3 nights in a row. 2 of 3 hours and one of 5 hours. All from 5pm/7pm onwards. I have brought in £74.50 which has been spent on, bus fares (£5 per day needed for school run) £30 food shopping, £14 to pay my window cleaner at the business, promotional spends for the business (have spent £8 this week on printing out flyers) a few much needed coffees! :T
Although we have quite a few items on ebay at the moment we havent had a sale in a couple of weeks. Again, if the big ticket item I have on goes that is £350 or near as damn it, and we have comics at £30 and £40 a pop with watchers but just no takers yet.
My husbands mum very kindly sent us £50 to go towards my sons new uniform costs so that has gone into the bank.

Family

After a shaky first day, DS has really blossomed at his new school and it is lovely to have his teacher coming out every day telling me how polite he is, how helpful he is, and that it can hardly be the same boy as the angry, moody boy from day 1. There seems to be a friendship growing between him and another lad who wants him to come and play, so that is nice to see. Having seen how fleeting some young friendships have been so far I will reserve judgement and try to encourage DS to stay broad with his friendship group as I dont think its good for him to just fixate on one friend. We are having some teething issues with the system they have in Year 3, whereas at his old school the teaching assistant would ensure the child came home with the appropriate homework, this is now left to the child. 2 nights DS left his home work there, which although I tried to make sure didnt happen by looking at his homework diary before we left site somehow did anyway. So this weekend has been spent catching up. They get 20 mins per day, so yesterday he did his new home work of researching 10 facts on a historical period, today he had to complete a spelling worksheet & 20 minutes of maths, plus read his reading book in bed tonight (DH is doing that whilst I catch up here) overall I am feeling more relaxed about how he will be at this new school, just a shame our journey is so erratic. One day takes no time, next takes almost an hour. London buses.

Coming up
This week is a scary one. I have my first event happening. And at 4 days long it is a biggie. I wont take shift work this week as I want to be able to jump into action if needed. It is so important that it goes well as a) The people running it are lovely. Really care about the product they offer, & I like them!
b) This will launch us as a place for hire, one way or another.
c) This is the biggest chunk of cash my poor empty business account will have seen in ages, and Im not even talking a lot.

Im meeting 3 different groups this tuesday. One some artists, two a potential booking who just needs to pop in and pay the deposit, and 3 the guys coming in for this week. Before that I have to make sure the place is spick and span. We all spent half a day there today with me cleaning, DH finishing up bits, and child wrangling & both the kids being well, kids:rotfl:

Its proper roller coaster stuff constantly. I swing between feeling excited that things are obviously picking up, averaging a couple of new enquirers per day now which is very cool. And then the complete :eek:of the money situation. My part time work is not hitting the magical £100 per week and to be honest it is so gruelling Im not sure how much longer I will be able to do it anyway. Its basically a kitchen porter role despite being sold as a kitchen assistant. Im glad of the money it does bring but I am so tired by the time I get home and its putting us to bed around midnight each night by the time we have dinner and relax a bit.

With the sort of enquiry I got this week, plus knowing that the guys coming in this week want it to be a regular thing IF it goes well, I could be a month away from balancing the books, and exceeding that into actual wages for me. But I dont know what will happen yet. You cant bank wishes.

So I think that covers it....:D now if I can just find time to make a Mr Fox costume by wednesday (Roald Dahl day) & nag DS to make his darned dreams jar I'll be home and dry...

Bob