Cazmanian_minx's MFi3 diary

setmefree2

it's great to hear that things are going so well

gingababe

Caz where are you??? I am missing your updates..

cazmanian_minx

gingababe wrote: »

Caz where are you??? I am missing your updates..

I'm touched and flattered

Busy, busy, busy is the answer! I've been tackling the stock backlog - just finishing off the last bits of imported stuff and starting to work through the pile of odds and ends, which are going on sale in auction format with a start price of 99p just to clear the space. It's working quite well actually - I'm scheduling one to finish every weekday at 1pm, sending out a fortnightly email to my mailing list subscribers telling them what's going to be coming up for auction, and sending a Tweet on my business Twitter account each morning to promote the one ending that day. Anything that doesn't get a bid gets put in a new pile and I'll make up job lots when there's enough there. Normal sales are going well - the item I mentioned a few posts ago that sold 700 units in a month, shifted 500 units in a DAY this week!! I was forecasting turnover of £6,500 this month, but that was factoring in a big overseas order arriving which has been delayed until next month, so I'm pretty chuffed that I'm on just under £6,000 at the moment.

On top of that, I have 117 (that's not a typo!) transcription files to work through :eek: Most of them are less than 5 minutes thankfully, but 16 of them are 30-60 minutes, so I'm trying to get through them as quickly as possible.

Mortgage-wise, I've not got that much to update about. I've changed the way I pay myself, so I've no longer got a weekly amount going into the offset (which is why I've stopped updating so often, the figures aren't changing so quickly any more). Putting 10% of turnover into the offset and only taking £500 a month drawings was a great idea in principle, but over the past few weeks I'd been dipping in and out of my overdraft and not wanting to touch the offset money, which was silly. So I'm now paying myself a flat £1400 a month and once I've got £1000 saved up in my current account, anything left above that the day before payday will get transferred to the offset and then the waterfall savings system will continue as usual. As long as I'm disciplined, I'll still have more than enough set aside to pay the tax bill twice a year and it's going to make budgeting much easier for me.

Smokey continues to be wonderful and I'm very proud to report that a photograph I took of him (see entry on this thread for 24th April - that one) is the main February picture for NESSR (Northern English Springer Spaniel Rescue)'s 2010 calendar He hasn't let it go to his head, but he will be sending everyone he knows a copy for Christmas this year!!

Caz

setmefree2

Well done on all that progress with your business and to you both on the calendar work.

abouttimetoo

gingababe wrote: »

Caz where are you??? I am missing your updates..

Me too I love reading Caz's updates - you're doing great Caz!

gingababe

Oh Caz. I love your updates you are an inspiration......;)

cazmanian_minx

Yay, mortgage payment day and another £567.23 knocked off the outstanding total

The stock clearance is going well, though I need to schedule some more listings this week as I've only done up until this Friday. The big overseas order turned up as well - bit disappointed with the cord, as it's been shipped on tatty cardboard reels (my fault for not specifying plastic) so I can't really sell it in 100m lengths, but it should fly out at 10m for 99p I think. The suede and leather thonging though is even better than I hoped - I've got the suede processed and on sale already and will do the leather this week. I can see myself reordering from them fairly soon, because I only got 10 reels of each colour of the leather because I've never stocked it before.

Another CD of transcription work has turned up and I've had to turn a new client away - she had about six hours of work, but she wanted someone to start it on Tuesday and I reckon my next availability for new work is the middle of August sometime!

Anyway, MSE-ers, I have a confession to make. This weekend I spent nearly £300 (though more than half of that was travelling costs) on something totally frivolous when I could have stuck it in the savings account. Meet the newest member of the household:



(Picture taken by her foster family, I'll get the camera out this week because she's actually even prettier than that!) Meet Red We weren't planning on having another one until the autumn and we certainly weren't planning on having a 10-year-old, but we just fell in love with her and even in the two days she's been here Smokey's confidence has improved no end, so definitely worthwhile!

Caz

setmefree2

well done on the OP and well done on the new addition

cazmanian_minx

Urrrrrgh, just paid my tax bill - £1,249.20 :eek: I now have until 31st January 2010 to get the next instalment of £1,616.71 together.

Actually, I should be sensible about this, shouldn't I? Say I pay it in mid-January, 26 weeks from now, which is a reasonable assumption. That means I need to put aside £62.18-and-a-bit each week between now and then. So the simplest way to do that is to set up a standing order from my current account into the offset...

*CLICK*CLICK*CLICK*TAPPITY-TAP*CLICK*CLICK*

One standing order for £62.19 a week set up, starting next Monday Whatever did we do before online banking?? So that means I can pay myself gross from the business account and know that the correct amount will be sitting in the offset for when it's needed. Sales are down at the moment, thanks to the school holidays, but I've got more than enough transcription work to make up for it, thank goodness. I've discovered, listening to these interviews, that the project cover nine schools and two rounds of interviews (the second lot in October this year). So far I've had first round interviews from two schools and that's about 17 hours of audio, so hopefully the offset will be looking very healthy by the end of the year!

For the latest dog pictures, see my Flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22544094@N00/
- hound number two is settling in nicely (she's snoring by my chair at the moment!)

Caz

setmefree2

to tax bills