End of week report.

I’m splitting this into 2 parts because business plays such a major part of life these days that i want to be enjoying documenting it but also, more relevantly, writing it out and keeping a close check on how the days go is going to be really important in making sure i keep adjusting the balances.

So – to get the business bit out of the way… the 38 order day hasn’t been repeated in volume but everything is ticking along very nicely. I’m mainly working till 1-2am on things, to keep the mornings clear but it is having an impact on family life, though i’m trying to keep it to a minimum. Had a stressful day on Wednesday when a delivery didn’t materialise on time and Lucy and i ended up working till gone midnight on the backlog and putting it away. Gotta love people who’ll help like that. Max has been a star at stockman duties, tea bringing, printing orders and making up boxes to send out. He’s really buying into it and it makes it all so much so bearable really, because i feel so supported.

The kids, fortunately, find it all really exciting and are helping out loads with things. We talked more on production lines (while sticking on labels) all about strong shapes and profit margins (while discussing why i send out in boxes now) customer service (after i phoned up to complain about my collection driver) done a bit of geometry (working out how to put different shaped boxes sensibly into postal bags and why rectangles and squares fit so nicely) and the effect of lack of sleep on the brain (why mummy was grumpy after working till 2am!) We’ve also covered loads on averages (packet post means i pay an average weight per parcel rather than weighing each separately) and weights in general (why 90000g of post cost more to sen that 17000 but i don’t pay much different per parcel) and the different types of weight measures on my scales.

Lol… so much for splitting out work and education. That’s how it should be i suppose 🙂

Anyway, big news on the business front also… Lucy is now working far more from home than here and has taken over all the admin. My big thing for taking on Lucy and outsourcing this stuff was that i wanted time to work on my Google ratings and try to get BM organically on to the front page of google, as opposed to just because i pay – and yesterday it happened. Google being what it is, that will undoubtedly change a bit – and i still want to be in the top results not the bottom half – but it gives me the flexibility to start laying with my advert costs a bit. I am SO blooming chuffed about it. If i can get to a point where i knock out my adwords, i’ll be saving up to £300 a month! So looks like the Lucy decision is working out. I also got Meg, who i heartily recommend for website design, to redesign the shop a bit and make the added value content buttons more visible. I think it looks really good.

Oh yes, my whinge of the week is my blooming collection driver, 1 of 3 i get on a rolling basis, who i told clearly on Wednesday when i only gave him 8 parcels, that the day after would be extremely heavy volume as i already had 50 parcels upstairs waiting for 1 item each. I WARNED him and he muttered and walked away from me, hardly listening. So yesterday, when he arrived to find 72 parcels waiting for him, he got progressively more sour faced about it and then moaned i should have phoned for a relief collection. I pointed out that a) i had warned him but he hadn’t bothered to listen properly and b) no one had ever mentioned this option and c) i’d just put £235 worth of stamps on parcles that pay his wages and i was blessed if i wanted to be told off at my doorstep – and then phoned his line manager to complain. Bloody cheek.

And finally, for this bit, last night i summoned up all my courage and added a contribution for my site – all on my own! Jax held my hand for the database bit (thank you again) but i actually did it (and even came up with a way round an error message on my own too!) and then i replaced all the required files (having even backed them up first, which is not my normal style!) and IT WORKED!!!! I was loathed to pay to for it, because essentially it is just a back office bit of fluff, but in fact it works really well and will really help my insight into how customers are shopping.

More importantly though, i was brave enough to do something i was frightened of – hurrah for me!

Back later, do actually have interesting HE stuff to write too.