Ok, it's been over 2 months since my last blog and I'm very sorry to have been away so long.  But this is what happens when your to-do list gets so long it falls off the edge of the table.  So be warned.  Actually it's just been very busy and quite overwhelming, there's been so much going on.  But it stops right here!  From now on I shall be a good little blogger.  Honest!

Since I last posted I've been to Las Vegas to seek out new natural pet products (someone has to), see how far ahead the Americans are in the natural pet product field, and to put all my cash on 38 black on the roulette table.  Only snag, when I got to the table I realised the numbers don't go that far up so I settled for a very well put together gin & tonic and watched everyone else.  Which is just as well because those tables swallow money like an empty 4x4 in a petrol station.

As it turns out we are not doing badly on the holistic pet front in the UK.  I came across a couple of products I liked the look of that I hope will be avaiable here shortly but other than that I think we do well here with the range of food and treats made at home.  Certainly an advantage when considering food miles.

Business wise, something I've had to look at the last couple of months is who am I selling to and what am I selling?  Take our Bio Balls for instance, a perfect example.  They biodegrade in the environment in 100 days.  Gone.  So if you lose it in the woods or you throw it in the sea and your dog looks at you with those 'sod that, I'm not going in there' eyes it won't choke the birds, which is great.  Equally, if you dog eats a bit it shouldn't cause and obstruction, just pass through the dog, thereby negating the need for costly surgery.  What a bargain.

But whereas I thought it would appeal to the same customer, what I've just described is two entirely different customers, which is actually quite a surprise for me.  Most people I meet are more concerned with the dog's health, not the seagull's, who steals their burger with menace on Brighton seafront of a Sunday.  Many of you would say 'quite right too' but that's when you realise you have to work hard to make the distinction of who your customer is compared to what you what you want them to be or what you thought they were, which will just end up costing you money.

Every day new products come on the market and every day a wholesaler tries to relieve you of your cash, swearing blind their product is flying off the shelves.  But it's not until you can answer the question above that you can make your choice.  You just have to keep your hand on your wallet while you work it out.  Reading this back though makes me realise I'm not half as green as I was 6 months ago.  Which is good!

What a fantastic bank holiday weekend we had at Tatton Park near Knutsford in Cheshire.  We used the space to launch some of our new products, Billy No Mates natural flea treatment (who wouldn't want to buy it with a name like that) and Grizzly salmon oil. 

All the products got a warm welcome, especially the salmon oil and we had sold out by the end of Sunday.  One customer sent an email today saying 'Thank God I've found you!'  Doesn't get any better than that does it?

Lots of pet owners wanted to know more about holistic food, herbal supplements and a natural approach to keeping their pets fighting fit.  So we know we're on the right track.  One lady bent my ear for a good ten minutes on the benefits of my biodegradable cat litter.  I didn't know you could talk about maize litter for that long!

One of our customers had an especially good day when he got hold of one of our hemp tug toys.  He liked it so much he wasn't letting go any time soon, as you can see from this short clip recorded on my phone. 

uploads/EditorFiles/Tug Toy Joy Blog.mov

Well, that's it for now.  I'm off to do a week's decorating!  Mortgage, mortgage, mortgage.  What're you going to do?

Sorry I have been gone for ages, it's not like I've been slacking, lounging by a pool somewhere hot, under a glorious blue sky while someone plies me with cool drinks and tweaks my sun umbrella a couple of inches every time the sun creeps round a bit.  Although my entire being aches at the very thought.

Heck no, I’ve been wading in mud, sitting in the rain, working to pay the mortgage (I wish my business grew as fast!) and adding groovy new natural products to my online store for all my lovely customers.

But I’ve got to wonder how much better off the business would be if it hadn’t rained so much this summer.



Next time you think of attending an outdoor event, wake up to see it raining and decide to stay in bed with the Sunday papers and a bacon sandwich (and who wouldn’t?) spare a thought for the poor stall holders like me who are eating a poor representation of the same, while shouting at their hard pressed helper across five feet of tent space because the rain is beating SO hard on the roof we can’t hear ourselves think!

To put it in perspective I estimate that my business is probably a couple of thousand pounds down on what it would’ve been had the weather been set fair this summer.  And that’s just me.  That’s damaging for any small business let alone a fledgling one, wet behind the ears.

The knock-on effect can’t be underestimated either.  My last show was flooded out.  We got to one mile away from the showground the day before, to set up then spent 7 hours getting the last mile because the ground was so waterlogged the road was being used as a car park!

We had rented space in a marquee.  It was under so much water you couldn’t see grass or the bottom of the tent.  We got a refund but let’s just add up the costs:

30 stalls cancelled at £400 each that’s £12k lost.
The B&B we stayed at lost £140 in trade because we went home.
The van hire company lost £100 because we returned the van.
The pub down the road didn’t have the pleasure of our company for dinner every night.
I couldn’t trade at all, that’s anything up to £1000 lost.
It cost me £250 to get there and back and NOT take a penny.

And that’s just little old me.

The effects of this summer’s rain have been devastating for thousands of people.  I’m incredibly lucky, I haven’t been flooded out or lost a loved one through it and I count my blessings. 

But financially, it’s the unseen, quiet losses we don’t give a second thought too as we turn over and snuggle up for a sneaky snooze while the rain hammers on the windows outside which shouldn’t be underestimated.

For anyone running their own business here's a little bit of advice I implore you to take to heart.  Every day write yourself a to-do list and get as much done as you can (including a couple of the items that you've wriggled out of twice this week already.)  Then, and this is the crucial bit, at the end of the day take every item not completed and add it to your to-do list for tomorrow.

Trust me, it's the only way to be really effective.  In business lists rule, and suck, not necessarily in that order.

Otherwise you're left thinking 'what was that really important thing I had to do for my next show/meeting?'  You'll spend hours staring at Google, checking your emails, reading the long range weather forecast and only achieve half of what you would have done if you'd just written a good long list.

Get a to-do list.  It will, undoubtedly eat your world but, equally, it's cathartic and you can sleep at night knowing that you've ticked off a load of jobs you can now forget about.  Including updating your Money Magpie blog like you promised over a week ago.

And make sure you don't let the same job flip over onto next day's list for longer than three days (my current 'job to hate'? my press release.)  Otherwise it'll just get tired and you'll want to weep every time you clap your tired eyes on it.

'nuff said.

Just had my first online order.

I am very very very happy.

I thought I was being smart.  Turns out Tesco are way cleverer (or should that be sneakier and underhand) than my humble self.

While I was waiting to see if the Co-op Bank would give me a business Visa card I thought I'd box clever and use my personal Tesco credit card to buy my initial stock, which was worth about £2000, using the 30 days free credit I had left before the next payment date.  I clear the card every month, if I use it at all so it wasn't going to get confused with any personal purchases.

As I was buying stock from several different wholesalers, purchasing equipment for my trade stand and paying for printing the charges went on over a couple of weeks.  I kept an eye on the rising costs, especially when I was within a couple of hundred quid of the limit and thought (in my big soft head) that if I reached the limit my card would be automatically declined.

Not so.  My card was declined in Argos while I was trying to buy folding tables (total bargain) so I just used my own bank card, went home and called Tesco to pay some off.  To my surprise I'd gone £150 over my limit, I cleared the excess and asked how it was possible to do that.  Tesco told me all cards have a kind of buffer limit which we can dip into if we need to and I wasn't going to be charged for it.

Well I have been!  Got my statement yesterday which comes with a natty £12 charge attached for going over my limit.  Well blow me down and call me shorty if that's not just plain old theft.

Tell me, Tesco how do you get away with it?  Where is the clause in your small print that states 'we reserve the right to not decline your purchases (because we're really bad at adding up), then charge you for the privilege?'

I'm more than a little bit hacked off and I suppose all credit card companies do it, it's not just the supermarket behemoth.  I'm off to check the small print.