A very quick catch up!!

Well after being badgered by my daughter and receiving phone calls and emails from my real life friends over the last couple of weeks ... I figured I had really better spend some time sitting down catching up on everything here!

It hasn't been brilliant ... but I guess that much is obvious or I would have posted about anything fabulous eh! The business is still ticking over and I have got an accountant on board now who already has my first batch of paperwork. To make it easy to explain the paperwork is broken down into four bits. The first three bits are the absolutely MUST have filed asap for the tax man. I've done two out of three of those and am working on the last third. The final fourth bit will bring me absolutely up to date as far as being current goes - so that is really where I want to be, but all in good time.

I'll admit I have been deeply buried in paperwork recently, especially during the day. I am trying to split my time so that during the day I am home and around with the children because I HATE dragging them into work with me and they hate being there! I've been doing the numbers, designing flyers, working on the website ... ohh and cleaning the house during the day, and then as soon as hub is through the door at 6pm I'm off out into the workshop!

The earliest I am generally home is 8.30-9pm and it's often later than that in the evening, so to be truthful, the last thing I've felt like doing when I sit down and relax after work late at night is getting on here and moaning & complaining about how stressed out I am!! Who'd want to read about that! LOL

So anyway! I have so many things to update on, but only about ten minutes I can justify sitting here before hub will be home and I'll need to go into the workshop!!

Wednesday Market

Well .... the market stall is covering costs and that is about it! This is a pic from a couple of weeks ago and each week the stall looks better and better. All of the scented votives are in the middle section, and at both ends I have smaller displays with incense and floating candles. It's a VERY long day to be up at 5am, out of the house by 6.15am and then not home until usually around 7.30pm by the time I've unpacked everything back at the workshop.

It's very disheartening to know that I have such great products - not blowing my own trumpet, but I DO ... yet people just aren't buying. It's the same whoever you talk to and whatever business they are in ... it's slow everywhere. I stand there ALL day and just about cover the cost of the pitch and the cost of the stock that I had to sell to cover the cost of the pitch (if you read that properly and say it out loud it does make sense!) I get nowhere near covering the cost of my time standing there all day when I actually could have spent that day filling orders.

Why do I do it? Because the summer is always slow and because once I've got my pitch established and people start to see me as a familiar face on the market ... we'll be just about ready for silly season and the early Christmas shoppers will be all over me like a rash!!

Well that is the plan anyway!!

Right, hi ho, hi ho it's off to work I go! With a bucket and spade and a hang grenade hi ho, hi ho!

Anyone got a huge band-aid?

Cus I'm going to need one to plug up the holes I have been discovering in my business ... and some of these holes are YEARS old - yet I hadn't realised them at the time.

I am NEVER going to fall behind on my paperwork again! OMG the things I have learned have been incredible ... and that, I guess is the saving grace! At least having to go through this has really focussed my mind on exactly what I need to do for going forward and I am damned well going to do it. I was so engrossed in the paperwork today that when I realised I was missing a bank statement, I bundled the kids into the car (without their socks and shoes - I was in a hurry!!) and drove down to the branch to get a printed copy so I didn't have to stop work!!

I've spoken to a few accountants via email today and the plan is that once I've got my lil ducks in a row, to email the spreadsheets to a "proper" accountant for them to check over my numbers and submit the tax returns for me.

So today has been a day spent at home with the kids on half term doing housework and paperwork! I was going to take them to the park for some quality time and fresh air but it has been hammering down with rain all day... so we all spent the day cooped up in the house! I did manage to get all the laundry washed and through the tumble dryer too ... damn I can be such a housewife! LOL

I'm getting good at this not procrastinating lark!!

I've had such a fucking good day!! A seriously really good day!

Okay so my brand spanking new accountant turned up at 3pm today for a first initial consultation and I liked him the minute I saw him. He wasn't at all put off by how far behind I am and we talked through exactly what I need to do and get prepared so that he can then get started. I have a list of things to do and things to put together and he's coming back next week for an action plan!

It's far from over and far from sorted, but it's a big weight off my mind.

So anyway back to my bloody good day! As the meeting with the accountant wasn't until last thing in the afternoon, I had enough time to get lots done during the day ... and I had my laptop with me, so I've been doing some bits and pieces to the website etc. I showed Louise at work and she was ooohing and ahhhing over it! She has tons of people who she says would love a photo shoot, a website designed ..... networking really is my friend!!

I just feel really motivated at the moment. It all feels achievable and do-able. I just hope I can pull it all together!!!!!

AND after not going kickboxing since before Christmas ... I stopped procrastinating on that one too! Went training tonight and it was brilliant. My combos were spot on, I did okay in sparring and stamina ... AND talk about perfect timing - it's grading this weekend!!!! Shihan said that if I train on Thursday and my fitness is up to it then I can grade ... so I could be 2nd brown by Sunday ... OMG that means just 1st kyu to go before I reach black belt! AAAAHHHH!!!! Heheheeeeee I really timed that one perfectly!!

The only thing that potentially worries me is my level of fitness and getting through the stamina rounds. It's something like 10 rounds of stamina for 2nd brown. I haven't trained in a while, but I am still fairly active in my job and as long as I pace myself I should be okay!

So yeah ... a fucking good day, a tiring evening that my muscles will hate me for tomorrow ... and now to shower, THEN bath and sleep!

A week hardly worthy of note!!!

LOL well it's true! It's been pretty much a "non week" really. I was a bit unwell at the start of this week .... not "ill" - just wasn't feeling right and had a few cold type symptoms that had me feeling under the weather. I guess it made me just kinda un-motivated and a bit crappy really! LOL

Orders at work have been slow but still coming in at the moment, and considering a recent stock market crash in the USA and talk of recession very much over the news ... I'm still fairly confident that things are going okay!

I have organised a new accountant as well. They are coming in on Tuesday next week to look things over and hopefully I can just hand over my boxes of paperwork and they will get me all nicely up to date!! That will actually then be the LAST thing off of my worry list when the tax man is off my back!

Talking of my worry list -- I have noticed that some of my stress symptoms are coming back again ... the "bubbling" in the pit of my stomach and the way it starts to rush all the way throughout my body. I CAN control it though, and I'm sure that's down to my happy pills! As soon as I feel it start, I am aware of it and I can control it until it reduces and fades away. This is a very good thing!

Today (Friday) is an inset day at school - Nathan made me laugh hysterically when he called it "insect day!" LOL .... visions of creepy crawlies and bugs! We did agree that it should forever more be called insect day though! LOL

I've taken the day off work as hub is in London and the kids are off school with "insect day" .... soooo I am in the middle of a mass house clean - Dee always feels better when she lives in a shiny sparkly world! :-)