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

crazy_cat_lady

Bob I am so pleased that you're breaking new barriers with the bookings. Yay! I know it's no fun being too busy but busy enough is good

kirtsypoos

You really are on a roll Bob!! long may it continue

wantabetterlife

You should be so proud of yourself bob...your determination is amazing!!!

mummytogirls

Bob do you have a page on insta? I follow some London people on Insta and one of them was at a place that looked on the photos just how you describe your venue! It if is you it looks fab!! xx

Bobarella

Deleted_User wrote: »

Morning,

Glad you had fun at the swimming gala.

Fourth booking that's fantastic xx

Thank you PM02

crazy_cat_lady wrote: »

Bob I am so pleased that you're breaking new barriers with the bookings. Yay! I know it's no fun being too busy but busy enough is good

Thanks Cat, Im hoping for a more leisurely pace this week, last week I thought I was going to meet myself coming backwards.

kirtsypoos wrote: »

You really are on a roll Bob!! long may it continue

Thanks Kirsty!:T

Bobarella

wantabetterlife wrote: »

You should be so proud of yourself bob...your determination is amazing!!!

Thanks very much thats such a kind thing to say.:)

mummytogirls wrote: »

Bob do you have a page on insta? I follow some London people on Insta and one of them was at a place that looked on the photos just how you describe your venue! It if is you it looks fab!! xx

Yes we do have a page, its been a fantastic marketing tool actually. Im just starting to understand it a bit more. I love that you are thinking of me. So nice. There are rather a lot of nice venues in London though have to say, ha:rotfl:

Bobarella

Hi Everyone

As suspected I didnt get chance to update over the weekend. Both days were super busy (12/14 hour batten down the hatches days) In fact the whole of last week was a blur. Today has been a pause day. But, only because my son came down ill over the weekend (DH looked after him) & he still wasnt better today. So I have been home all day with both the children, and doing bits of admin.

So where are we at the moment. Well first of all the :beer::j news

- I had a call today from my energy provider. They have agreed to refund the £40 late fee. Were very civilized about the small outstanding balance, and have agreed a payment plan. Which to be honest is only going to take 1 month to sort out now the cold spell is over. I owe them £250 at the moment, £50 of it was from last months usage. They want me to pay £224 per month to clear the backlog and the new usage. But I think I'll be clear by the end of the month. I don't have to pay till 1st June which is such a breather.

- The one we've all been waiting for, the rates bill. I still haven't had official confirmation from the council but I went into their website today and saw that it had been recalculated. My new monthly payment is now just £89 more than it used to be. Which is amazing. This means that they have reduced it by £110 from what my official bill was for 2017. To say Im delighted is an understatement.

- Last week, of the 7 days there were, only 2 of them (bank holiday monday) and Sunday, did I not do viewings. I ended the week on 6 bookings. More on that in a moment however....

- The great news for me is that enquiries are coming from lots of places. Because if it was all through one and that dried up that would be terrible. If I look at last weeks bookings they came as follows
- One a local person who had a specific need for the place, came in and viewed, and booked on the day

- Someone from another part of London who, amazingly was referred to me via someone who had seen my social media, never met me or anything, and she came down and viewed, and booked!

- One person who lives in a slightly different part of the area (more local than the above) who saw us on a platform we advertise with. And booked a short notice hire.

- One local who saw us on a different platform, but then also came direct, did a viewing, and booked.

- Someone local who came via our social media and has been keeping in touch for a while, viewed at the weekend and now wants to book for a quite distant date.

- I have started this week with a booking from a good contact from before, which Im really pleased about, and 2 enquries from a platform, plus 1 interested party which I found wandering round on a local forum looking for my exact function. So that person is coming for a view at the weekend.

There are things that are not so :beer::j but they also arent :eek:terrible

- Lost a paid booking, quite odd circumstances really. Basically they paid, then I repaid them.

- Had someone cancel on a date they'd paid a deposit for, but its all a bit delicate so I cant recoop the costs. Again a learning experience.

- I am still 'living' hand to mouth with the business, paying this months bills with this months bookings. Which is far from ideal. Because its stressful, and I dont know whats coming in to pay fixed overheads. But as this is only the second month since I lost a big chunk of guaranteed revenue, and I am already on track to have that covered going forward through 2 different long term clients, Im pleased with that. The likelihood of loosing 2 clients is far less than 1.

- We are still a bit behind in our monthly living budget from getting behind last month. No bills in arrears but we'll have to live very frugally for a while till we 'repay ourselves from my earnings.

- I STILL havent done anything about selling my infernal big machine. I really need to sort this out. Its very poor how long I've let this drag on. Especially as I've given my friend money to buy a new machine, which if I had right now I'd be sorted in our living expenses account. So slapped wrist. But seriously the pace has outpaced even me recently.

Anyway, I have viewing to go and do now, I will leave you with this line from a client who left me a rather odd rambling voice mail that I could hear about every third word of and had to listen to 5 times to make sense of. when I rang him, he said and I quote 'Oh you know when your really drunk and stoned and you leave people a message....';)

Bye for now:rotfl:

Bob

sashybo

Hi Bob, you've been busy! :eek::D

Great news on the bookings & viewings and especially on the drop on your rates bill. :j:j:j:T:T

Must be a good feeling to see all your hard work coming to fruition, long may it continue.

Bobarella

sashybo wrote: »

Hi Bob, you've been busy! :eek::D

Great news on the bookings & viewings and especially on the drop on your rates bill. :j:j:j:T:T

Must be a good feeling to see all your hard work coming to fruition, long may it continue.

Yes it really is a huge relief. Hope you are well:)

TalesfromtheAvenue

Great news all round Bob, sounds like things are looking up! x