Well, the business is taking shape and becoming flesh so to speak, and all in my absence.  Unfortunately, when you start up a business, life has an annoying habit of carrying on regardless and demanding your attention on a regular basis whether you like it or not.

A month ago my brother in law had a nasty road accident in France.  He’s all right thank God, but he had to go back last week to sort a few things out so I tagged along with my sister, for support.  Result?  Five days in rural France without hot water, a mobile signal or an internet connection.  Might as well unplug my oxygen!  Pretty sheep though and I did manage to write a 4 page to do list just before I dropped my laptop onto the hard stone floor of their house. 

The minute I came back I dashed to London to do 8 days painting and decorating work (a job I did in a former life) to earn money to pay this month’s mortgage, those pesky mortgage people will insist on having their money on time.  But at least I had my beloved mobile signal back and could check my emails once a day so I could crack on in between coats of emulsion.

And today, the only day I’m at home for the next 4 days when I could get so much done I’m turning right around again and going straight back to London to have lunch at my lovely friend Sophie’s house, because I never see her and I miss her and feel guilty that I never see any of my friends these days, except at Charlton football matches and, let’s face it, we’re going down this season so there’s not much to laugh about there! 

The best favour I did myself before I left though, and I heartily recommend it to anyone with a small business, is joined the Federation of Small Businesses.  They are on the one hand a political lobbying group for small businesses in the UK and on the other they offer massive support for business owners.  I’m opening a free business bank account with the Co-op, and the discounts, on things like public liability insurance, merchant payment accounts and courier accounts is well worth having.  Plus, if you need advice on legal, employee, or tax issues for example they are there, 24/7 for £100 a year.  Now that’s what I call value for money.

But the good news is that because I knew this was coming I did as much preparation as I could before I left.  The result was a deluge of mail when I got back home on Friday night. I now have a trade stand at All About Dogs in three weeks time (my first day of trading), the Kent County Fair, The Sussex County Fair and the New Forest Show (100,000 visitors expected) over the next few months.  Here’s to a long hot summer. 

It’s my cat’s fault. She was fat and getting fatter because she’s a comfort eating rescue cat who’ll flirt with anyone if she thinks there’s a bit of chicken in it, a cat who will happily try prizing open a hot oven door in search of something worth getting at. I’m just grateful she doesn’t have thumbs. But try as she might she wasn’t getting extra food from me and that’s when I really started taking a look at the food I was giving her. Having worked on programmes about food and the food industry it wasn’t hard read to the label and realise that I was feeding her the pet food equivalent of a Turkey Twizzler. That is, commercial, over processed, high calorie food containing (at absolute best) 14% meat. What’s in the rest of the pouch or bag? Animal and meat derivatives, sugars and cheap fillers, none of which had any great nutritional value as far as I could see.

I spent a month doing research; on the net, in the City business library and any pet shops I came across. I became a pet shop stalker, scrutinising shelves, road testing all the natural foods I could find on my two willing cats, Pearl and Dave and my sister’s picky dog, Ronnie. I talked to everyone and anyone, here and in the US, asking questions and watching my friends smiling benignly at me as I prattled on about the importance of feeding pets ‘proper’ food.    

The hardest but most worthwhile thing I had to do was to write a business plan, which I did in my local reference library (you really can start a business anywhere). I hated sitting down to do it the way most of us hate the idea of exercise, but once you’re doing it, it’s actually quite enjoyable. But it’s focussed me, I can rattle off what my business is in one sentence and my advice would be never to start a business without one. I think it’ 9 out of 10 new businesses that go under in the first year. Businesses are built on reality, not hope.  

So here I am, two months later, five weeks away from launch day, sitting in the gloom of my living room/office working through a colossal to-do list while the world outside my window thrums with the sounds of people enjoying this glorious Easter weather. In my head, everyone in the WHOLE WORLD is out in the sun and I’m stuck indoors like a grumpy A level student. I’m saying goodbye to weekends, holidays, finishing at six, seeing my friends and nights out for very long time.  

But that’s fine by me. I don’t have to travel over two hours to get to work, I just come downstairs and fire up the computer, I can eat my lunch in the garden not at my desk, and I have promised myself half an hour walking on the beach before the sun goes down, which is the half hour I would’ve spent queuing in M&S Simply Food at Victoria station not too long ago.  

I’m starting my own business and I am the most excited I can remember being about anything in a very long time.