Join in if you are self-employed and work from home

naijapower

Just located this thread, would be contributing cos i am self employed and working from home.
Lets keep it coming

Mudbath

Mills - :wave: everyone is more than welcome on this thread. Do you have a website so we can be nosy!

Star - hope you sort out your translation in time.

This afternoon's new client was lovely. She's booking again so that's great too. I had an email from someone who'd ordered a voucher last week - it's not arrived! So annoying! I've put another package together and will post it first class in the morning. It's also made me decide to put voucher numbers on each voucher so if things go missing in the future I can make sure I void the one that disapeared.

Early night for me I think...i've a quiet week ahead now but lots of assignments I need to finish so must work on those.

Speak soon xx

ETA - posted at the same time so missed your post but welcome to you too Naijapower.

moneymabel

Well done on your client Mudbath- good idea about the voucher numbers.
Welcome Naijapower- what is it you are self employed at? ( if that makes sense!!)

Horace

Welcome Naijapower and Mills.

I can remember being into beaded jewellery and I used to get all my beads from Janet Coles until she went bust (got too big too quick). Now I dont make anything:rolleyes: Hobbycraft is really expensive so I don't mooch in there very often.

I actually picked up a free copy of Retail Jeweller magazine at the NEC and there are some fab things in there including something about Troll Beads.

I usually use Webbs for ideas and go and buy things elsewhere although I am rather partial to the cakes in their food shop:eek:

Put your home page on your profile and we can all have a nose.

Muddy - there has been a postal strike on which is probably why the voucher hasnt been received. Good planning though to put numbers on them.

Mabel well done on the reciprocal links and catching up with all your prize draw folks.

mills2009

Thanks again for the welcomes. I don't have a "live" website at the moment, but IT bod OH is meant to be rectifying that!

Horace- who was Janet Cole? - not sure I'd heard of her. I don't tend to buy much from Hobbycraft either, but it is ok for odd bits when I need them. I tend to buy most of mine on line now and from the odd bead fair and sometimes pop into the shop at Earleswood Lakes.

I find it impossible to resist the cakes at Webbs- though I normally seem to arrive at the cafe at the same time as a couple of aformentioned bus-loads of people. grr

Mudbath

Horace - I hadn't realised there had been postal strikes. Hopefully she'll end up getting the first one today but at least i'm sending a back up. I always make a record of who I sell vouchers to so there's no danger of them both being used!!

Right, Hospice this morning and then I am studying this afternoon. If I say it often enough it might just happen! xx

nappentass

Just popped in quickly to say hi to other newbies.
Star I do hope you get something sorted out with your work, and you're getting help with depression - big hugs
Mudbath - thanks for the voucher numbering idea, I'm still trying to get myself sorted to a system that works for me for keeping track of business.
Enjoying hearing about what you've all been up to.
I got 2 new clients this week for Bowen, but 1 had to cancel because of a family emergency - keep asking the Universe to send more in my direction
The extra IT work for the Salon seems to be growing to overwhelming scale, but I have (finally) got BB to commit to making a simple client contact database to help them get more organised and take on the idea of using a system. And I've got to get ready for my demo day on Thursday in the Health Food Shop :eek:
Anyways better stop being distracted and get on
TTFN

Horace

Naijapower - I know nothing about chinese trading as its not something I am into so can't advise on that score I am afraid.

Mills - Janet Coles was a woman from St Johns (I think) in Worcester who set up her own beadshop from home and would sell mail order, she would buy beads from all over the world and her jewellery was featured in magazines - I used to copy some of it and add my own tweaks, she also sold jewellery kits. She then opened a huge warehouse in Worcester and then for some stupid reason decided to have a warehouse and a shop in London which really was her downfall as one minute she was selling beads, findings etc, the next she had vanished. This was back in the 1980's - around about 1985/86.

Well I have managed to get a free place at a seminar to hear Brad Sugars speak (he set up the business franchise Action Coach) so I have saved myself £57.44:cool: Now I used the free code on the businessisbooming webpage but he did send me a free code to use as I am a facebook friend:D I rang Action Coach this morning to say that I had used the wrong code but have assured me that I can still get in for free:j

I have started to feel a little cheesed off - not with my work but with a fellow student on the event planning diploma course. One of the tutors suggested I be friends with her but boy it is becoming rather tedious and I don't normally say things like that. This girl has never organised an event or worked in an office before so she hasnt got a clue - her whole left has been spent as a carer for old people and as a children's nanny but only dealing with babies. She recently spent an age asking me what she should write for the first assignment, the first assignment is about your own self and what you aim to get out of the course and touching on any previous experience that you may have had. I don't know anything about her so cannot possibly write the thing for her well, last night she spent 2 hours on facebook chat wittering on about assignment 2. She was hung up on the word Report - basically the assignment is to write a report based on your experience of when things have gone right and when things have gone wrong and how you learnt from your mistakes. She had looked up on the internet was a report was and asked me if she needed to do a cover sheet, an index page, some paragraphs and an appendices because that is what she had seen. I explained that the information she had read referred to a formal report to be presented at a meeting and that all that was required for this exercise was to write come paragraphs about the various headings that we had been given and how it related to us. She couldnt get her head around it at all and gradually I found myself losing the will to live. I am not a tutor and I am not prepared to write the thing for her, I don't know what to do - do I say something to one of the tutors or keep my mouth shut? For someone who didnt know what she was on about she certainly had opinions about my assignment and how I was wrong so I pointed out that I couldnt be wrong because my tutor had given me an A+ ..sorry for whinging but this girl is becoming like a leech and it is so draining:rolleyes: Any advice on how to deal with her and her persistent calls for help on two of the simplest assignments has already driven me to dispair and I am dreading when she starts the others as I know my life is going to be made hell.

TCM_3

you see Horace its because you are such a good soul that this child has attached herself onto you - can you refer her back to the tutor if she's not sure about something? Or would she maybe not take the hint? Why has she joined the course in the first place? She sounds as if she doesn't want to do the assignment and wants someone to do it for her - a great work ethic! A bit like my statue!

Horace, being a good soul that you are (now I am crawling!) what do I need to include in a business plan? I have a meeting to see about possible funding to get the web site going but I have to bring a business plan and my mind has gone blank about what to include. Do include previous figures, turnover, growth as well as where I would aim to be in 6 months and 3 years time? Help!

Horace

TCM wrote: »

you see Horace its because you are such a good soul that this child has attached herself onto you - can you refer her back to the tutor if she's not sure about something? Or would she maybe not take the hint? Why has she joined the course in the first place? She sounds as if she doesn't want to do the assignment and wants someone to do it for her - a great work ethic! A bit like my statue!

Horace, being a good soul that you are (now I am crawling!) what do I need to include in a business plan? I have a meeting to see about possible funding to get the web site going but I have to bring a business plan and my mind has gone blank about what to include. Do include previous figures, turnover, growth as well as where I would aim to be in 6 months and 3 years time? Help!

I tried referring her to her tutor but she hasnt taken the hint. She joined the course because she fancied a career change and thought that event planning looked easy - if she is finding the first two assignments hard when they are the easiest then god help her for the rest of the course. I have decided that I shall say something to my tutor friend (she's not my tutor although I may mention it to my tutor).

Check your emails I have sent you something to demonstrate what you need in a business plan (it is my plan and the cashflow spreadsheet thingy that the chamber did for me) just change everthing and use it as a template for your own business plan - you can also do projections for the next 3 years. Don't laugh at my pie in the sky figures either:rotfl:

Good luck and thanks for your advise about the leech.