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Horace

Wordsmith wrote: »

Horace – I echo what the others have said, get in there and offer your services to the wedding shop. No shame at all in posing as a bride to find out what they are like. How much posing did you do

Uhm a bit too much:o I said that I was getting married for the second time and was looking for a dress - they showed me various ones in the shop but I claimed I wasnt in the mood to try them on. I asked them if they knew anyone that did couture dresses so they pointed me in the direction of one at The Custard Factory in Digbeth so I said I couldnt possibly drive there as my porsche would get pinched:eek: (I drive a 2001 registered Toyota Yaris:rotfl: ) I asked them about their planning services and they showed me a cabinet with suppliers things in it - I even asked if they had samples of cake but they didnt and I did say that I would go back and try dresses on:rolleyes: (basically, I wanted to get out of the shop and that was the only way to do it). So you can see I told a big fat fib:eek: Mind, I do the same at wedding fairs and will say that I am looking for my sister (I don't have one) and if their customer service seems to be good then I come clean and give them a business card.

Now you can see why I am a bit embarrassed because I laid it on with a trowel:eek:

sashanut

Wordsmith wrote: »

Sashanut – it was a brave move leaving your work – well done! What is your self-employment? Is it your dolls, or is that a side-line? Why do you think you are unmotivated to work on the web site? Sorry to be so nosy. If we can help at all, just shout.

I was lucky that the self-employment happened so I was able to leave work - luckily it took off when it did because I couldn't stick the bullying any longer. I should really have made a formal complaint but in the end didn't want to deal with them any more. Actually they came round here to 'help' me get back into work & I had the great satisfaction of seeing them gobsmacked....

My mistake was to assume that our business would always be so lucrative & not forsee that we would also have some lean years :rotfl:

Our self-employment is that OH writes courses for on-line learning; I deal with all the paperwork, invoices, blah blah fishcakes stuff. The dolls I collected when we had a lot of money & at first collected indiscriminately (sp?). Later on with better knowledge I specialised, held a UK festival (!), made a couple of DVDs that I sell, & attended a lot of conferences in the USA ( lots of collectors & interest there, although I sell to Australia & Europe too). Also set up the website (bought one in a box, not a technical genius). At first I set up the site to be informative only, later on I sold a few through it & later still when money was not coming it selling dolls kept us afloat :eek:

Why am I not motivated to update the site - I have crates of dolls upstairs, not all as valuable as the early ones are, I bought lots in the beginning as I said. Perhaps it is because I am collector at heart & not a dealer? I do really need to sell some though, just to get rid of them. Most of the really good/valuable ones are in display cases, but the rest are just stuck upstairs, when I could use the money.


I need someone nagging me to do something - ANYTHING - to update the site at least on a daily basis through the week. Hopefully this is where you guys come in:D PLEASE NAG ME I BEG YOU

Good luck to all who are posting on this board, it takes a lots of guts to go it alone :T

Wordsmith

We'll nag you Sashanut, never fear - it will be a pleasure:D . But not tonight, because it's too late to be updating web sites.

I know it would be a huge amount of work, but would it be lucrative to hold another festival (it must have been very satisfying doing the last one - not something just anyone could turn their hand to)? I know of someone who runs a craft fair every year and does very well out of it. Maybe now you have the experience, you could hold festivals/fairs for other kinds of collectors?

PM me your web site address - I'd love a peek at it.

Have you thought about writing booklets to sell? Or writing for specialist magazines? Or even writing an on-line course for collectors (could relate to other kinds of collecting, too?). Sounds like you have a good means of making money from your hobby. Or is that the problem: that you want to keep it as a hobby?

Sorry if I'm being pushy. I don't even know that you want to be working on things other than helping your OH.

pcfixmanchester

Hiya
What a great thread. Though reading MSE seems to have become my biggest time hog these last few weeks !!
Anyhow, a little about me, am just starting up a new business after 6 years of Illness. Hoping to start at the beginning of April, so currently madly designing leaflets, cards and websites and getting very excited about being in the working world again.
Been very impressed with all the tips and support you all give, and been reading about Horace with great interest as you say you finishing Test Trading. I am just about to start so would love to hear about what support you got and how you found it.
Anyhow, have said Hi now !! thanks for all the tips and motivation on the forum.
Cheers
Andy ;-)

Here is a good free tip, create an extra free email address Gmail is my choice as it has lots of space and no flashy ads, but you can use Yahoo/Hotmail. Give it a name of yourmameDOCS@gmail.com and then whenever you have received an important email, finished an important document, spreadsheet, presentation, Email a copy of that important data to the yournameDOCS address and you have a safe free off site backup !!
This really helped a friend of mine who was burgled at christmas when they took all the IT stuff, luckily she had all her very important stuff on the Gmail account so could recover quite quickly, She even had all her amazon / Dabs reciepts on it to prove to the insurance what she had nicked.
By the way the other reason I choose google is they never close accounts that are not checked, so you can quite happily forward important info into the account and only use it in an emergency.
;-)

starxtrouble

Well I got absolutely nothing done yesterday, apart from send a few CVs off to some agencies who are advertising for more translators in my language pair as after the (very very rude) delivery men left I was shattered and went back to bed for a nap.. when I woke up I realised the cold I was expecting had arrived so spent most of the day in bed as I have to run around 2nite. BF got home and we had a row about housework. He had to put the new bed together and gets a bit tetchy with DIY. Thats all sorted now thou. I also didnt do any ebaying as my housemate with the camera went out and was gone most of the afternoon. HAVE to do that today, as what doesnt sell is being added to the car boot pile, which is planned for a week sun.
Wordsmith:
Starxtrouble – you’ve had a lot of bad experiences, but I hope things start looking up for you now. Do you have to work through agencies, or can you go to prospective clients direct?

I dont have to work through agencies, but it is very difficult to target companies that need my particular language skills, and the biggest companies always use agencies. However I am a member of a few translation freelancer sites where agencies and direct clients post jobs and you can quote on them. Was a bit miffed the other week as an agency wanted lots of ppl for a vvv large legal translation, would have been 6 weeks solid work and earnt me about 2k!! But they decided my sample translation I did for them wasnt good enough... and when I got the supposedly 'correct' version back I cant even see much of a difference!! Oh well... they were an Italian agency anyway, and they tend to pay 90 days!! after reciept of invoice, unlike English and German ones, which are 30 days (that reminds me, must chase the money im owed)

So today, not going to plan for much as will probably end up crashing this afternoon, only up now as cant sleep for cold and BF goes to work at 7am..

Must Ebay,
and chase agency..

I'm sure you can all manage a lot more than me, but I'm ill!!

icelandic_queen

Hi, this is my 1st post and I'm thinking of becoming self-employed as a Virtual Assistant. I am doing a course to update my skills and as soon as that is finished I will take the plunge. I hate the job I'm in now. No-one has bullied me, the pay is quite good and the conditions are fine, but no-one speaks to me!! I transferred there from another location within the Company and they are really unfriendly so I might as well sit here on my own all day and work for myself!!! I am working as a VA ad-hoc at the moment but I just need the courage to go for it!!!

Wordsmith

Hello, pcfixmanchester. Thanks for the useful email tip. Gmail (and Hotmail/Live) also has a storage area for documents, which you get automatically when you get an email address - you can upload documents directly, without having to email. Forwarding emails for safekeeping is an excellent idea. Good luck with your business - keep posting so we can follow progress.

Hope you feel better later starxtrouble. Report back with progress on your ebaying.

Hello, icelandic queen. It's good to hear of someone else thinking of joining the self-employed world. Have you got a plan in place for your VA-ing? If you can stick out work for a bit longer (miserable lot; what are they like when you try to talk to them - perhaps they are waiting for you to make the first move, although that's not the way it should be if you are going into an established environment) and VA outside your work hours, you will be able to build up a client list and so the shock of moving from a salary to fee-paying clients won't hit so hard; or perhaps get a part-time job at the same time as going freelance. Do you belong to the VA associations?

I'm just running out again - off to do my restaurant bookkeeping work. Cheffie didn't appear yesterday until late, so had a quiet time catching up on the paperwork. When he did arrive it was to see who the burglar was because he had forgotten I was going in an extra day. He stayed about 2 mins, during which time he told me off for letting a delivery man in. Apparently the wine that the delivery man was bringing was for the company's other restaurant, even though the delivery note and invoice had at the top the address of the one I was working in. And normally they are grateful if I let the deliveries in. Ho, hum - best get and book that mind-reading course I obviously need. Couldn't get a word in edgeways and probably would have bottled it anyway, but haven't yet told him about flight faux pas - I can think about that on the journey in.

Have a productive day, all.

Seaxwyn

Morning Wordsmith. A big grrrr to the chef - how were you meant to know?!

I've got a huge amount of work to finish this week - 8 articles (yes still 8 of the 9 I mentioned earlier in the week...) plus the deadline for a magazine I'm editing tomorrow and still 7 articles haven't arrived for that. So I need to WORK today and not sit here reading MSE, Facebook, the BBC website and everything else... If anyone's up for an anti-procrastination challenge we can cheer each other on. It's 9.15 now and I want to have mapped up the next 2 articles by 11, when I have a phone interview.

sashanut

Hi there

OK DH has gone to a meeting, I may have to take DD to college (it's raining & she planned to walk :mad: ) but I will go for the challenge. If you map your 2 articles by 11 I will:

- list at least one item + description on webpage

- sort out 5 more items to put on there & prep for photos


go for it!!! I got paid £108 this morning for one doll + clothes so I need to replace them on the site for more eager customers - everything on there is sold, its so long since I updated people don't check it out any more!!

downshifter

Wordsmith wrote: »

Downshifter – it’s already been said, but I agree that if you are getting so much aggro from the charity it’s worth finding something to take its place. You’ve got to a point where you seem happy with your life, so I am sure you can do without this kind of grief. I don’t think I could go back to work for someone else because of all the office politics etc, and no matter how much you tell yourself you won’t get involved, it is difficult to stay out of it entirely. It’s their loss if you go, and someone else's gain as I'm sure you'll find something to replace it.

Thanks. Yesterday I had to work away from the normal site and the drive gave me some thinking time. Am fired up and ready towrite my own exit strategy. It's not quite as simple as dropping this contract, for one thing I don't want to leave them in the lurch. The other is that I need to build up a bank of people who will give me references so will develop the voluntary work I do a bit more, as well as chase some work I was accepted for but which so far hasn't been forthcoming. So far have done a job description for what I do, I think they might want to employ someone on PAYE to do it in future. If the plan in my head works out, I'll be able to drop it by August. Need to commit it to paper now.

One way of motivating myself is that I haven't brought any lunch in with me today, so I have to have done by 1sh so I can go home, otherwise I will have a very rumbly tum.

Hope everyone has a productive day too and thanks for all the support and good ideas.