dottyanne's debt diary

dottyanne

Hiya Pobby - yep shops still doing good - it's a good job really ;-) with all these bills to catch up on ??

Pobby

I know that you are doing e-bay.Are you thinking of putting some of your stock on there?E.g graphics,mother board cards,hard drives?Just wondering?

dottyanne

Hi Pobby - yes im going to try and list as much stuff as possible - for the moment i will prob try to list a low medium and high end spec on each item - see how they go and take it from there?? BTW sorry if im just being lazy - but are you still in debt or debt free??

Pobby

Hi Dotty----glad to say that I`m now debt free.Wish you the best with the e-bay venture.You strike me as someone with a lot of energy.

dottyanne

Ooooo, so wish i was debt free but at least i'm working on it - have u ever been in debt and if so have u any good tips for me?? Need lots of energy but never seem to have enough!! Feel like im losing a battle some day's - even to the extent that i wish i'd never had a lightbulb moment as i then would be in ignorant bliss!!

Pobby

Yes.I was very in debt when I had the shop.In the main it was to the bank and suppliers.The type of business was very stock intensive.All was well whilst I had very good cash flow but as soon as it started to slow up it became more difficult to pay people.If you have a shop similar to a friends I guess that you need keep no more in stock than a few thousand pounds.Indeed,I guess it prudent not to keep too much stock as in your field products change so very rapidly.

I had approx. £120k of stock at the time

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took a bit of funding as I was borrowing at 6% above base rate.It was in the 90`s when the bank rate was around 10% plus!

As for tips,well I think my position was pretty different as most debt{except my then expensive mortgage} was for the business.

Seems to me though,you have a pretty good handle on your situatiion and I guess it is a matter of just keep on doing what you are at the moment.

Business wise looks as though you are doing the right stuff.Are you doing any contract--schools,local business--computer maintainance?Seems to me that one of the best money spinners is sorting out peoples spy ware/virus probs.My friend charges £35 for reinstalling windows

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nice earner.

dottyanne

Hi Pobby.thanks for that....yes the most income we get is from reinstalling windows and virus removals etc as there is little if any outlay to us as a business apart from the time etc... We are lucky in that we never took out any loans or indeed have a business overdraft for the shop at all - we are in arrears on some things but now im facing up to it im slowly clearing these off......our problems have been caused by the fact that before we both went into business for ourselves we were both on good wages and i suppose you live to your means a lot - never planned for us to go on our own and basically if we had it we spent it.........now were in a position where we dont have half the disposable income things are tight but i think we may have caught it in time (well am hoping), our mortgage is very big as its a new house we bought when we were both in the good jobs and i love my house so theres no way im losing that........already we have about £70k equity in it but i dont think with the way our current finances are being handled anyone would entertain us for a remortgage?

All i can do is keep plodding on i guess?? Thanks for your help Pobby....dottyanne....xx

Pobby

I know what you mean by living up to your income.I`ve done that in the past but not now.Mind you,I am a darn sight older than you so I should know better!Being nosey{like I am},why a computer shop?Not that there is anything wrong with that,but just curious.I must say however,it seems to do pretty well.I have a hankering to run a shop like that but I have done my retail bit----lol.I found that punching a customer in the gob often offends!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

dottyanne

Hiya Pobby..........Oh has always 'been into' computers and it was his choice really and to be honest it was a good choice for him as he really knows what he's doing and is great at his job. If im honest i find the accounting and money side of it really hard - i know a lot if it's common sense but i dont really feel qualified to do it?? scared of making huge errors all the time, plus i regularly feel like punching a lot of customer in the gob!!!! :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Pobby

Lol----these blooming customers!It`s the same setup we had.My wife did all the book keeping/cheque paying.When we used to take about £5k a week she said that she never saw it as money only as tokens to pay all the bills with.We were lucky with our accountant as he became a friend and would advise us.Did you have a good trading day today?