Botanical blunderings on a budget - good life starts here.

starnac

so KK has the tonic, unix has the ice, I can bring glasses as I'm not supposed to drink (although as it's a virtual drink I may have a small one ) cheery have you got the gin??

Cheery_Daff

Yep

(and some chocolate and strawberries too cos we're feeling decadent :rotfl:)

Pippilongstocking

Hey up you lot - busy on here

OK - alot of great points and very well made

Nice bit of card/paper things to go with flowers for the table - check , big tick its in hand thank you for that one Greying, was on the case anyway but its nice to know I'm along the right lines.

Alot of healthy debate on the topic, I like it. Many brilliant ideas there.

MrsM you're right about the balancing of acts/etc with garden guru - angel that you are

What I should have also said (and sometimes it doesn't come through on posts when I'm trying to be uber subtle) is that I currently *can't* accept money for the flowers in their current growing location, I'd either/and lose the ownership of the idea and apart from that the money would ALL go into my ex-work which would be a paperworkcratic nightmare I don't mind them having the money but I don't want to lose ownership of the idea.

Therefore whilst I'm being a bit reticent about money there's a very valid reason for it and at the moment the research is valuable, its also helping to hone the whole idea and I'd rather the flowers got used, than thrown in compost, which is their alternative use. In the meantime, I've got some very quiet public attention for the concept of local flowers for now and I can build on that until and when I 'Can' accept money for said goodies we'll do that one with alot of the suggestions on here.

Plants have cost nothing, mainly seeds from donations mainly from you lovely lot and the rest didn't cost a bean. I'm just putting flowery experimental kindness on the tables rather than in a bin.

Its a very small place here, if I did anything not strictly by the book, within a week someone would put two and two together and be asking a lot of questions, whilst I'm not breaking any rules, I'm squatting to do my own research on this, if money changed hands, that would put things in a whole different light.

The goodwill/barter thing works brilliantly here in our community and is often worth so much more than a token in money in terms of helping/job referrals etc - we'll find a nice way like Red and many of you lovely lot said to balance things out later - even if its a direct line now to being a supplier when my own tunnels up and running. I've indicated that when we're not in the experimental phase, there would be a charge which has been noted. And, she's dealing with me direct, I've told her the whole thing is a work in progress, its my project and she's happy to deal with me, which is better than handing over my idea, if it works, to someone else.

Again thank you all so much for your lovely advice I've noted lots down.

Phew I hope that explains.

Pippilongstocking

Karmacat wrote: »

Morning Pippi and all! Keiss, I *love* the pix you posted of the bag you made, very beautiful - and the little embroideries really make it, even tho you did them to cover up marks! Fantastic.

Just what KC said really keiss it was gorgeous and very inventive and stripey I do love stripey!!

Pippi, okay, a lot of good points have been made about you not charging, which is good (the points, not you not-charging ) and in return you've made a lot of good points yourself about building relationships, but I just want to make a couple more, okay?

Of course me dear

Firstly, Keiss's point about accepting something rather than what they're offering is a *really* good one - its much easier to go from them paying a token £1 to market value, than to go from paying nothing to market value.

I just can't accept anything now, for reasons posted above, sorry I wasn't clearer.............I'm banking goodwill tokens, which aint money but it will turn into money as soon as I can get my own work in my own space, but I really get what you're saying!

The other thing is, I've been self employed for over 20 years now, and every time I see a client, they pay me. And I charge a lot per hour, usually, and people are nearly always in distress when they come to me, so it can be very tough. The way I cope with it is to have rules, boundaries in therapy terms, about the charges, and about time. Once I break those rules, I'm really in trouble, because I don't *like* charging for what I do. Its necessary, completely so, because if I didn't charge, I wouldn't be here for them to see, I'd be stacking shelves in Sainsbo, but I still don't like it. I have 3 reduced rate places (and those reduced rates can go *really* low sometimes - I've charged a tenth of my hourly rate before now, just to ensure that people can continue to see me), but I still charge.

You *have* to learn to charge. The next time someone offers to pay you (!) why don't you say, lets make it a token £1, £2, whatever, because I'm using it as a marketing experiment/learning to value my products, and in a couple of months time we can look at it again.


?????

:j Great points there - and a strategy I will adopt, I'd never thought if it in that way - thank you :j

:A:A:A:A:A:A



ETA - love what Greying wrote about a little card about provenance.

I'm betwixt and between at the moment, guddling along (ok I pretend its research:rotfl:) making do and trying things out in space thats not mine and once I've moved, with the cost of the tunnel etc - I've a rough idea of what I need to charge to be able to play, um I mean work, in my own tunnel.

I promise when finally I'm under my own little steam and in my own little eden I'll get a proper charging strategy worked out - need it for the website anyway which is nearly done:T thank you for taking time to explain how you price yourself (If that doesn't sound rude!)

Once web sorted I'll be making sure that the proper contact details are on those pesky flowers on a cute little card or something like Greying suggested

Greying_Pilgrim

Ay up Pippi - super explanation.

Do you follow Rhonda Jean's blog? She's posted about recycling, nothing that you don't know about, but she also invited her readers to post links to their blogs with ideas etc - good to see what's going on elsewhere in the world and nothing like a bit of positive re-inforcement of good practice if folks already do much of what's listed.

Greying

Pippilongstocking

Greying_Pilgrim wrote: »

Ay up Pippi - super explanation.

Do you follow Rhonda Jean's blog? She's posted about recycling, nothing that you don't know about, but she also invited her readers to post links to their blogs with ideas etc - good to see what's going on elsewhere in the world and nothing like a bit of positive re-inforcement of good practice if folks already do much of what's listed.

Greying

Oh thank goodness I thought maybe I'd gone off on another one of my tangents

I'm very distracted as I'm still, yup, still waiting to hear if my corrections have been signed off - arghghghghghghggh its been 2 1/2 weeks now

Oh now I read that blog last night, how lovely of you to think about ti in the context of me too - I had thought of posting something I've a rather fetching stripey cat toy (or kids toy) made from an old stripey sock, some buttons and embroidery thread, which although a bit random, I'm rather pround of it and the other 25 I ended up making for our charity kid event thing

hope you're good today

Oh and I had another nsd - yay storecupboard eating rocks

Greying_Pilgrim

I'm brill ta. Hope you and the homestead gang are too.

Yes, DO post your stripey creations - why not??? RJ asked for contributions - post away.

Greying

MrsMoo2U

Perfect explanations and kind of exactly what I was attempting to say after reading Duncan's book (he is my new guru). Longer term gains can be worth so much more than short term monetary gain and as long as YOU know what you are doing it doesn't really matter what anybody else thinks. Although we are a right bunch of lovely women jumping in to help.

Way to go on the NSDs. We are still using up storecupboards and things are going well with that at the moment. Can we please have a looksee at your stripey recycled cat. I also think the eggshells being baked would be a good recycling post for Rhonda Jane (I do like her blog).

Pippilongstocking

Cheri you are an angel and well guided

Um, its a fish not a cat- cat toy.........................

I'll see if I can post a pic

Karmacat

Oh! All is clear, Pippi, sorry to make you come out of the metaphorical closet and post about it so clearly

Completely understand, how could I not!

As for how I price myself :D:D I was talking about it today with my business partner, actually - he's *very* hot on keeping up with inflation and gradual increases for our growing expertise .... if it was me, I'd probably be on 20% less by now