The Ultimate Incentive to get debt free… again. Dinah & NIM go head to head!

Flower08

Hope you have a lovely time tomorrow Birdie!!

zigmeister

Ooh have fun tomorrow Birdie and Cinny! I don't envy the long coach trip though, I've done that and it sucks! So exciting that you will officially be Mr Birdie, and you've still got the wedding to come, ahh! :j

More exciting news about the business Dinah, sounds great! Can't wait to see it develop.

Hope everyone else is ok x

Dinah93

Hope you had a good day Birdie - judging by your facebook status you did - only a few days to go until you fly - nearly in single figures!

Cinny91 wrote: »

Sounds like you're back on the ball for money making Dinah. 20% back for the tickets, like you said, is better than the nothing you would have got for just not going. Are you going to twitpic some of the samples so I can have a nosey? :A

I will do.... once I have some! Spoke to my supplier on Thursday and he's promised I'll have some at the start of this week. Also, how do I do that I've seen people do it but don't know how! Also how do I make links all dinky?!

I've had 4 companies contact me through twitter this week interested in my product, which is beyond exciting and a great uptake considering my only marketting has been about 7 tweets!

Anyone on or joining twitter please add me - I'm @amyfeighery (personal), @projectdietdiva (crazy diet project), and @EBTCake (business).

NIM is out today doing 11 mystery shops (he's a bit fired up on the money making too) today, which means I have all day to work on the business. Long time since I've had time to do a to do list but:

• Set up online banking
• Find that tutorial on how to make a lightbox
• Set up paypal
• Set up ebay
• Tweet on EBTC
• Reply to 3 DMs on twitter about the product
• Swap Etsy account to new bank card/paypal
• Write an email for next 6 designs
• Try to focus in on what the company logo should look like
• Read government document on how they plan to support new business in real terms in the future
• Have a look at female entrepreneur links, see if I can get any grants
• Create a place on my computer for all business stuff, and a place on an external to back this up to.
• Produce a rough template email to send out to anyone who enquires in the future with costs etc in.
• Email supplier to get an idea of how long it would take for a personalised design to be drawn and produced.
• Find course dates and put them in the diary

I don't think that list is any more do-able than my usual ones to be honest! At least I have about 6 hours before NIM gets home.

Oh and in exciting money news on whim I applied to First Direct, who refused us an account 2 years ago, and we were approved! Very pleased as their customer service is supposedly excellent, and HSBC are hacking me off atm. Also means we can basically empty those accounts, and pay off the overdraft gradually while having a fresh start with First Direct. Plus First Direct give us £100 for switching.

I also applied for a 0% Barclaycard. It said I'd get a decision in 60 seconds. I've left my computer on for 3 days and I still have no decision so I've closed the window down again.

2 new blog posts on Project Diet Diva (yep, slightly new name). Having a bit of a dilema - I was really looking forward to starting the juice diet too.

Saw your new photo skills on your blog Tete, I'm really impressed with all the techniques you've mastered in a few weeks. If you want to have a play with the short and long range focus etc on some cupcakes you know who to call

Sorry for the lack of posts this week, everything is just stupidly busy. Mum asked me if we were having her and dad and grandad around this week, I dug out the diary and asked if Wednesday was okay, she thought dad had a meeting, I then managed to produce an evening in a fortnights time, and she decided dad could just be late instead!

Oh, and if this wasn't enough exciting news - do you remember how NIM said if I cleared the credit card by 25th April we could go away for a week? Well he's upped the anti and said I can pick where we go n our cheap and cheerful holiday (lets face it its all the same for packing, 18-21C at that time of year, only difference is the ammount of rain you get which seems to vary wildy between average of 18 days a month, and two days a month). I was going to try to get us to the peloponese region of Greece as NIM is really keen to go there, but it's not really a package holiday place and we'd need to hire a car and a villa, making it not cheap, so I'm back to square one a bit, although lets face it, need to actually clear £3837 first. Mum bought the car though, so that's £1000 that should arrive in the next few weeks once she sells hers.

wendz86

Great news on the business's contating you! Sounds like is all going well.

Wow 11 mystery shops, NIM will be working hard today.

Sounds like you are extremely busy at the moment with everything.

Woo for the holiday, hope you find somewhere you want to go.

Dinah93

• Set up online banking My activation pin has expired, I have called and a new one is being sent
• [STRIKE]Find that tutorial on how to make a lightbox[/STRIKE]
• Set up paypal
• Set up ebay
• [STRIKE]Tweet on EBTC[/STRIKE]
• [STRIKE]Reply to 3 DMs on twitter about the product[/STRIKE]
• Swap Etsy account to new bank card/paypal
• Write an email for next 6 designs and leaflet design
• [STRIKE]Try to focus in on what the company logo should look like[/STRIKE]
• Read government document on how they plan to support new business in real terms in the future
• Have a look at female entrepreneur links, see if I can get any grants
• Create a place on my computer for all business stuff, and a place on an external to back this up to.
• Produce a rough template email to send out to anyone who enquires in the future with costs etc in.
• Email supplier to get an idea of how long it would take for a personalised design to be drawn and produced.
• Find course dates and put them in the diary
• [STRIKE]Ask webby friend about choosing a web designer[/STRIKE]
• Find business link document on approved web designers and have a look at some sites
• [STRIKE]Gather enough images for logo mood board[/STRIKE]
• Gather enough images for website mood board
• Gather images for next printed designs mood board
• [STRIKE]Gather images for personalisation mood board[/STRIKE]

A lot of mood boards! But the guy I work with is the most visual person I know, for him 1000 words do not paint a picture, it's a picture or nothing! If I can show him exactly what I want then he'll run with it.

Being contacted by a few wedding vnues has made me realise this can't be as slow a start as I planned. I need to find funding from somewhere to get the website going, a run of leaflets produced, and some company stationary. 4 numbers on the lotto would be nice about now! Or 5 on my work lotto shared between 23 of us, just something to make a grand appear basically.

As expected the list was far too long for me. But NIM is out again tomorrow as he didn't get all the mystery shops done today, so I'll get a bit more done tomorrow. I've been at it about 10 hours today so I've definately hit my limit. Bed time I think.

Tete_en_l'Air

Dinah93 wrote: »

Being contacted by a few wedding vnues has made me realise this can't be as slow a start as I planned. I need to find funding from somewhere to get the website going, a run of leaflets produced, and some company stationary. 4 numbers on the lotto would be nice about now! Or 5 on my work lotto shared between 23 of us, just something to make a grand appear basically.

Have you sold the car yet? Could that money be ringfenced for the business? Sounds all very pacy at the minute, hurrah but yikes! Haha!

How was your day on Friday MRS Birdie?!

wendz86

You make me feel really lazy Dinah, I spent most of yesterday lying around watching TV! Then again can't really do that much at the moment!

Sounds like business will be expensive but worth it in the end.

I have another day of not much planned. Hopefully OH will get up soon and we can go food shopping before he starts work.

Dinah93

Hmmm, I hadn't thought about using the car money as my start up money. Thats a really good idea thank you! Might be a few weeks before I get my hands on it like, need mum to sell her car first.

tinkerbel

wow its all go for you at the mo Dinah sounds great! I hope NIM manages to get all his shops done! He sounds really on board with your debt busting he's brill! I've got right into dooyoo again recently, its a bit bad because they changed how it works but I have enough for some amazon vouchers on there now and I think I might try and save them up for christmas (did this with amazon vouchers from bingoport and it was brill!)
Has everyone seen the santander account on Quidco at all recently? £100 for switching and £50 cashback... and a 5% in credit interest rate up to £2500!
Dinah I've seen some printed cases and they really make cupcakes pop! I've seen them sold too in packs with toppers (like football themed cases with little card football shapes on sticks which you can use to decorate the cakes) so that might be an idea or if you're going down the personalised woute you could have a wedding cake case and then printed monograms (I've seen lots or couples use their initials as a sort of logo) to stick on top of the cake?

Tete_en_l'Air

Have I missed something? Is your mum buying your car now? Well you might have to wait but at least it's a guaranteed sale.

Ugh, I've had the dullest Sunday in the history of dull Sundays, borrowed the shredder from work over the weekend and have been getting rid of masses of old paperwork - bank statements dating back to 2003, job contracts for companies long since gone bust, about a million blood donation reminder letters... the list goes on and on. Just the two big storage boxes on top of the wardrobe to go, but I think they're going to take all night *sigh* I HAD hoped to get my stitch on this afternoon....

Off to make a sausage and barley stew now though