If you're thinking about going into business for yourself, on a small scale with minimum investment, you're going to need a second source of income.  Make no bones about it.  Any business worth putting all that effort into is going to take you at least 18 months to go into profit and that's a WILDLY optimistic estimate.

So, unless you've got a significant other earning a packet and happy to pay the bills, or the titchiest mortgage on the planet and you don't need to eat, you're going to have carry on with the job you already have if you can.  Alternatively go freelance and work on a contract basis, or dust down those long forgotten skills and accept the fact that you won't be polishing and honing your new business everyday of the week and twice on Sundays.  It's just not feasible.  Time and mortgage repayments wait for no man, or woman.

I still do the odd TV job but my main source of income to cover my domestic bills and living expenses each month is painting and decorating, a job I packed in some 15 years ago.  I've kept it up and it's got me out of a tight spot once in a while but now I'm doing at least a job a month.  And I hate it, but not always for the right reasons. 

The cons are simple.  Decorating takes me away from the business, which is a voracious beast, consuming every bit of effort I throw at it and then some.  Decorating transports me back to a former life, to a world I was thoroughly miserable in and couldn't wait to escape from.

The prose definitely outweigh the cons.  Decorating requires zero effort in the brain department, I've been doing it so long, all the skill is physical - be clean, tidy, reliable and do a good job, it's the easiest thing in the world.  So my mind is free to wander, working away on the business while I paint.  I can stop to make notes, check my email and take phonecalls.  The money's great!  Definitely not minimum wage. 

It just took a while to be comfortable with who I am while I'm doing it (how middle class and up your own bottom is that!?), to give myself a good talking to dispel those negative thoughts: Doing another job does not mean the business is a failure.  Decorating in 2008 will not transport you back to your old life and make you miserable.  But predominantly, have you any idea how lucky you are to possess such a skill?

I could be working for the minimum wage somewhere, having to do far more hours than I do now and being all the more tired for it.

Oh, and I got a lodger.  I'd much rather have the place to myself but beggars can't be choosers and again, I am grateful for the space to do it.

So if you are thinking of going into business then a revisit to your old skills will probably be in order.  Otherwise have a look around this website, it's bursting with good ideas for earning cash doing little jobs that just fit into the nooks and crannies of your busy life.

My priority should be my new year sale.  It is January 16th after all.  I may have even missed the boat but I figure the email will be a surprise to all my subscribers, and will drop into their inbox long after all the other sale emails have been deleted or forgotten. 

But before I can do that there are about 10 jobs that need doing so that my January sale newsletter makes any sense at all.

And they're not little jobs either!

So here I am, working the usual long hours and going into rabbit in headlights mode.  Which is, frankly pretty dodgy territory to be in, because before you know it you're into distraction tactics, surfing the net catching up on YouTube videos, cracking open a beer/eating chocolate (delete as appropriate - or not!)  Because you feel so overwhelmed. 

The only thing to do is stop what you're doing and write a mini list.  A mini list could be seen as the poor relation of the mighty to-do list, but it's what you write down that you can realistically accomplish that day.  It's a good way of getting yourself back on track.  When you've finished that list and gone to bed there's a feeling of relief, a lightness about the whole day.  Instead of a good dose of beating yourself up and self loathing (and a few thousand extra calories in Grolsch and Revels).

I'm halfway through mine and it's only 7.30 at night.  Bargain!  Right, where's the bottle opener.

It's dead easy to become distracted when you work from home, especially when the to do list gets out of control (you know there's too much to do when the only thing long enough to get the list on is toilet roll).

I just added a few new products to the site today and realised how much work needs doing on it.  I've decided that websites are behemoths in their own right just hanging in cyberspace, consuming you and everything you can chuck at it.  But they're never satiated. It's all take, take, take, me, me, me.

See?  I got distracted again.

Here's my list of reasons why I shouldn't be working right now:

• The cat looks hungry (sucking in of cheeks and pleading eyes)
• It's dark and rainy outside (so relieved I don't commute any more.  I feel lucky AND smug)
• I worked last weekend (it's Wednesday get over it!)
• It's nearly 5.00pm doesn't everyone stop work now? (not in the land of the self employed, sweetie)
• My Google ratings are quite high, I can afford to take a hour off (everyone's ratings are high, it's two weeks to Christmas, idiot)
• I need to think about dinner (I'm always thinking about dinner)
• I need an early night (at 5.00pm? Have I got jetlag?)

That'll do.  I'm over it now.  Back to it.

Maybe.....

On the whole I've had a positive response to starting this pet healthstore business up and I can't tell you how fantastic friends and family have been, turning out at 3.30 AM! to drive for two hours then work all day for instance.  That brilliant.

There are though, in the pet industry mainly, a couple of people I've met who, you can see by their expression and tone of voice, think they know everything there is to know about the industry and that you'll be lucky to make it to Christmas in one piece.  You can almost see them taking bets.  And they're just so patronising it can really bring you down somedays, especially if you have to deal with them on a financial level.  I keep thinking 'why am I giving you my business, you don't deserve it.'  They feign interest then proceed to tell you just how very sucessful THEY are.  I'm surprised they don't have one very long arm for patting themselves on the back at regular intervals.

Then I think, who cares?  There will always be people like that and if you care to read the pet press every month you'll see the writing on the wall.  Natural pet care is a growing, if niche, business, but to ignore it is to turn your back on what is already worth £15m a year in the UK.  And for every crusty old geezer out there, puffing away on a cigarette and pontificating on why you'll be looking for a 'proper' job shortly there are a dozen others, ordering from my natural pet store and posting reviews on products they think are top notch which they can't get from their local pet shop.  Who's laughing now!

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?