Budget Wars - A New Hope (with apologies to George Lucas)

Bobarella

mummytogirls wrote: »

Afternoon Bob,

Totally with you on the food situation. My 2 do get up a bit later now so not as bad but they used to be asking when lunchtime was from 9am :cool:

I do think you've made the right decision with the declining of the booking, it wouldn't be good to start annoying people who have already made bookings with you!

Yay to the gas bill xx

Seriously think mine is half Hobbit either that or has a tape worm

JWPopps wrote: »

I agree about the booking - it's a tough one to juggle as you say, and maybe if it was in 6 months you could be saying to other clients 'get in quick, all of October's booked up!' but with it being so quick you don't have time to organise around it!

Must be a truly tough decision to make though.

Thanks, yes maybe once things are more settled.

parsniphead wrote: »

It must be difficult to turn down business but I guess you don't want all you eggs in one basket. It would be nicer to have repeat bookings from many businesses rather than one.

Definitely don't want all my eggs in one basket. Even losing the one big chunk of business I had each month has been so difficult. Having just one client really feels very dangerous.

Bobarella

Hi All

Well. There is a real sense of a pause coming up. Inbox is slowing and everyone signing off with Have a lovely Easter break! Which is nice, but really it's only a few days. I think some people buy into the retailers dream every time it's bank holiday and believe that BEST DAYS EVER are coming....
OH managed to crank up our free lawn mower this morning (which we found) and did about a quarter of the lawn. It's so big and so overgrown that he ran out of steam. And I had to go out anyway.

Wealth

* Did a viewing this morning and they booked. So brought cash back with me for that.

* Got to the sending an invoice stage with another booking, which has been a bit shaky over the last two weeks. So that's really good.

* We were pleased to find our local coffee shop was now offering money off if you use reusable cups so we will be doing that from now on. Saves around £1.40 per round.

* Doing well on my nectar points, up to £22 saved now (that's the Turkey paid for)

* Had the letter through from the VOA instructing me my rates had been valued down by £750 a year. I don't yet know how that affects the final bill. But at face value it would take £62.50 a month off the new figure of £363. I have been paying £186 a month. The gap between £186 and £300 somehow seems a lot more bearable. But I'm hoping it will still be reduced further. I need to wait for the council to explain the small business relief properly, I've told them I know other businesses in the area are not being asked to pay as much as me. Will that do any good?

Health

* Other than tiredness we are all fine. I've been in bed by 9.30 the last two nights.

Organisation

* Well we are off on the garden front at least. That will take many more hours but it all adds up.

* Im almost through Lean In, which really is a great book. I have 3 other business books I took out at the same time. So hoping to get through a bit more of those this weekend. Have a meeting tommorow morning to coordinate with two different clients. But that's it tommorow, then one event on Sunday, so should get some reading done.

Bob

crazy_cat_lady

Wow Bob - your life is such a rollercoaster. I know I've said it before but there's no way that I could cope with that level of ups and downs. You are my hero.
Congratulations on all of the extra interest and bookings, I'm thrilled that your hard work is paying off. And congratulations (I think) on the rent/rates reduction. I'm ashamed to say it but it mostly goes over my head.
Long may the good stuff continue.

kirtsypoos

Fantastic news that your rates have been reduced. £62.50 a month is a nice reduction but hopefully it will be even less to pay

Bobarella

kirtsypoos wrote: »

Fantastic news that your rates have been reduced. £62.50 a month is a nice reduction but hopefully it will be even less to pay

Thanks Kirsty

Bobarella

crazy_cat_lady wrote: »

Wow Bob - your life is such a rollercoaster. I know I've said it before but there's no way that I could cope with that level of ups and downs. You are my hero.
Congratulations on all of the extra interest and bookings, I'm thrilled that your hard work is paying off. And congratulations (I think) on the rent/rates reduction. I'm ashamed to say it but it mostly goes over my head.
Long may the good stuff continue.

Thanks so much Cat.

hugglemonster

Bob, I'm so glad that the rates have been reduced and bookings are sorting themselves out. Sorry that things have been so stressful for you when you are obviously a hard worker.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend with your family xx

f0xh0les

Just caught up on the rollercoaster ride that is Bob's World.

You make me tired just reading it!.. or maybe because we got woken up on the boat at 5 this morning and I have not had a nap yet...that might be it........... yawning as I type.

Bobarella

hugglemonster wrote: »

Bob, I'm so glad that the rates have been reduced and bookings are sorting themselves out. Sorry that things have been so stressful for you when you are obviously a hard worker.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend with your family xx

Thanks Huggle.

f0xh0les wrote: »

Just caught up on the rollercoaster ride that is Bob's World.

You make me tired just reading it!.. or maybe because we got woken up on the boat at 5 this morning and I have not had a nap yet...that might be it........... yawning as I type.

Oh no 5am:eek:

Bobarella

Morning All

Time is flying by this week. I just want to stop it!

Wealth

* Not good at all! It really is contrary. I have the most enquiries I've had ever coming in. It feels like momentum is there in spades. And yet my coffers are empty, on our side and the business.

* Why? I am waiting on a client who booked just before the Easter break to pay up. It's annoying to have to chase but it will be a week tommorow. My TCS and C's cover that in theory....Next week is the busiest in terms of lots of different bookings, since we started. But with that comes collecting in lots of little bits from people afterwards.

* I have had four enquiries from the big platform I'm in now. Two I had to decline immediately due to timings or length of the enquiry. Two are ongoing, I'm doing viewings between now and Monday. These are in theory big money. But I feel very dubious. I can't see how to balance a long stay booking with my overall fledgling business. I think longer than 1 month is too long. Will be discussing that at the views.

* Thought I'd found another decent chunk of work last week but they couldn't organise it within the group they were booking for.

* The Easter break has hit me hard. I didn't land a single booking in that time. People start to wind down for days before hand and take days after to get back to business again. I used to find this in my last business. Any change in the routine and it hits tiny businesses so hard. I received 4 enquiries on Tuesday. But none of them has booked yet.

* In terms of enquiries and bookings I'm already info July. Which makes me feel the year is running away with me. It sounds great but it's just the odd day here and there. As usual what I am finding is the weekends go miles ahead. But I have acres of week day time available.

* This month I got lucky managing to land enough big chunks to pay the rent but I am currently behind on my rates and energy bill. I have enough coming in to cover one, but not the other. At the moment. It could all change again. Really all I need is for a few of these enquiries to firm up and I'd be a lot less worried. It is probably just a long quiet patch. But with the next bank holiday on the horizon the affect on business already stated it's worrying.

* Have been chasing all leads as usual. Have a view today, one tommorow, two Saturday, plus an event on. It's been amazing that I've juggled it all with the kids being home so much. But OH has been off quite a bit so that's been a help.

Health

* Sleep has been an issue for all of us this holiday. My son often wakes at 5.30 and then he wakes us up. Daughter has started napping anytime between 3pm and later! Yesterday she went to sleep at 3 and was still asleep at 7! Of course she was then awake all evening till our bedtime. I'm not surprised after that nap. The last few nights my stress has triggered insomnia and I've been awake till 2 and gone, it's not nice the thoughts you have at that time. Not useful.

* Think in daughters case it's one of those times where they just go through a huge development curve. She suddenly started speaking at the start of this month, so just under 18 months. Now she is saying all sorts. Can name most of her body parts, and has hilariously​ started shouting ' no! Bad!' at us at random points. So far I am the one who is the most bad
I just don't think she can shut down to nap during the day.
So everyone is tired.

Organisation

* OH finished the lawn yesterday so we now have a nice garden (if you ignore the borders, the shed roof and hole in the fence) now it's my turn to try and find time to sort the weeds in the front and back borders.

* I need to make a doctor's appointment for next week, just check up stuff. I'm also being hounded to go in by the dentist. But I have issues with that too. I know I need work done. OH has Denplan but I'm worried it won't be covered. So I've been putting it off for 6 months.

* The cat is very overdue for his check up. But seems fine.

Lots of guilty must dos building up there

Right on that note better get going. First stop, the kettle.

Bob